BRWA Culvert Program Inventories


Inventories are the first step of the culvert management process and are designed to gather general information about the crossing and stream channel conditions and help determine when a site needs to be replaced. Through inventory, the Bad River Watershed Association (BRWA) finds out the condition of crossings, whether or not they pose problems with respect to sedimentation and/or fish passage.

Culverts are inventoried during no-snow seasons, wherever there is a road and stream that intersect within the Bad River Watershed. Currently there are about 1,100 crossings and, of these, approximately 740 have already been inventoried.

Inventories are carried out with the help of a combination of BRWA volunteers and Northland College student interns. The information taken by volunteers is recorded onto an inventory sheet and is then transferred to the BRWA database. In addition, a GIS map illustrates the surveyed culverts and keeps track of the location and information received about a culvert.  Examples of information gathered include: water velocity and obstructions in the culvert, the distance a fish must jump to get into the culvert, presence of vegetation along stream bank, and types of substrate in the stream.

To learn more about how you can help the BRWA inventory sites, click here .


BRWA's  inventory datasheet can be found here: datasheet2.13.08
BRWA's  definitions for inventories can be found here: culvert_term_definitions
BRWA's Safety Sheet can be found here: culvert_saftey_sheet