The Paw Paw River is located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

in the southwest portion of the

lower peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the north and south branches at in Waverly Township in the northeast of Van Buren County. It flows approximately U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed May 19, 2011 through Van Buren County and Berrien County until joining the St. Joseph River just above its mouth on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

Benton Harbor Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...

History

Native Americans named the Paw Paw River after the paw paw fruit that grew abundantly along the river's banks.

Ecology and conservation

The watershed includes rare Great Lakes marshes and floodplain forests, which serve as habitats for migratory birds such as the

prothonotary warbler The prothonotary warbler (''Protonotaria citrea'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. It is named for its plumage which resembles the yellow robes once worn by papal clerks (named prothonotaries) in the Roman Catholic church. ...

(commonly known as the golden swamp

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers Th ...

), as well as the endangered

Mitchell's satyr ''Neonympha mitchellii'' is an endangered species of Nymphalidae, nymphalid butterfly of the eastern United States. There are two known subspecies:. *''N. m. mitchellii'', the Subspecies#Nominotypical subspecies and subspecies autonyms, nominate ...

butterfly. Other rare species include the

massasauga rattlesnake The massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') is a rattlesnake species found in midwestern North America from southern Ontario to northern Mexico and parts of the United States in between. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous. Th ...

and the

spotted turtle The spotted turtle (''Clemmys guttata''), the only species of the genus ''Clemmys'', is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its ...

. In November 2003,

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

announced the purchase of 139 acres (0.6 km²) in the Paw Paw

Prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

Fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. T ...

, located in the East Branch of the river near Mattawan. The Sarett Nature Center owns 800 acres (3.2 km²) of along the river in Berrien County, just north of Benton Harbor. The Paw Paw River has 39 species of fish including

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, bass,

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

, and

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

. The mainstem is a coolwater stream as evidenced by the presence of burbot and mottled sculpin, it also contains hornyhead chub, common shiner, johnny darter, and walleye. Several riparian wetlands provide excellent habitat for northern pike. The fish community near the mouth is influenced by its proximity to Lake Michigan, and

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') are stocked there.

Potamodromous Fish migration is animal migration, mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few ...

trout and salmon have access to most of the river system, and are shore-fished in the fall upstream of

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. There are 24 registered dams within the Paw Paw River sub-watershed, but these dams are all

low head dam A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s or on small tributaries, so potamodromous trout and salmon can migrate into its headwaters at Campbell Creek.

Watershed

The watershed covers about , mostly in Van Buren County, and also drains a tiny portion of

Kalamazoo County Kalamazoo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. , the population was 261,670. The county seat is Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo County is included in the Kalamazoo– Portage, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Kalamazoo Count ...

. Tributaries of the main branch include: *Sand Creek and Blue Creek in Benton Township *Ryno Drain in Coloma *Mill Creek near Watervliet *

Paw Paw Lake __NOTOC__ Paw Paw Lake is a lake in Coloma Township and Watervliet Township in Berrien County, Michigan. The lake was the site of a tourist area in the early 20th century. This area became the census-designated place of the same name. It is t ...

and Little Paw Paw Lake (in Berrien County) near Watervliet *Pine Creek between

and Watervliet *Mud Lake Drain between Hartford and Watervliet *Hog Creek near Hartford *Brush Creek near

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

*Carter Creek between Paw Paw and Lawrence North branch tributaries include: *Brandywine Creek *Hayden Creek *Ritter Creek *Todd Drain *Campbell Creek The north branch headwaters arise in springs near the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery. South branch tributaries include: *The east branch is about 8.5 miles (14 km) long and arises from two main sources: Paw Paw Lake (in Kalamazoo County) and Mattawan Creek in the village of Mattawan. It joins the South Branch in the city of Paw Paw. *Three Mile Lake Drain, south of Paw Paw *Eagle Lake Drain, south of Paw Paw *Lawton Drain, east of Lawton The south branch headwaters arise in Decatur Township in eastern Van Buren County.

References

External links

the Nature Conservancy purchasePaw Paw River WatershedSarett Nature CenterSouthwest Michigan Planning CommissionTwo Rivers Coalition
{{Authority control Rivers of Michigan Rivers of Berrien County, Michigan Rivers of Van Buren County, Michigan Tributaries of Lake Michigan