The Little Swan Lake/Christopherson Slough wetland complex is a mix of remnant and restored prairie, a high-quality shallow lake, a large marsh, restored wetlands, oak savanna and oak timber covering more than 2,100 acres just north of the town of Superior in eastern Dickinson County.
The centerpiece of the area is the 371-acre Little Swan Lake that is experiencing its best water quality in more than a generation due to a restoration project combined with a well-timed drought.
The project was initiated in 2015 after the old weir was failing. “While the project was initiated to fix the weir, we saw an opportunity to reach out to the private landowners and our conservation partners to explore, cooperatively, renovating the lake,” said Chris LaRue, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Work began in 2016, but several consecutive wet years limited the progress. The water level in the lake was held low and combined with the back to back drought years of 2020 and 2021, the vegetation finally got established to move the lake into a clear water state.
“We kept the water level down trying to get the aquatic plants established then Mother Nature helped out with the drought and we got it done,” LaRue said. “It was hard to envision Little Swan Lake with clear water. This is the first time in my career (1996) that you can see the lake bottom and significant water quality improvements. This is a pretty big deal.”
Little Swan Lake outlets into a marsh, then the 90-acre Christopherson Slough, then flows north into Minnesota before entering the West Fork of the Des Moines River. To maintain the water quality, it was necessary to protect the aquatic plants, so the project included a large rock fish barrier with tube system to prevent
