This study assesses channel patterns over the streams entire length during the historic record by comparing stream patterns from the initial land survey taken between the 1830s and 1850s with aerial photos acquired in 1938 and 2012. The research focuses on the following questions: (1) What is the nature of changes in channel position between the three sample times? (2) What is the extent of change in channel width throughout the system from the initial survey to the present? (3) What are the key variables that may have caused channel changes? To assess these questions a combination of field and laboratory analyses were conducted. River positions at each time period were georectified in ArcGIS10 for comparative purposes. The stream was surveyed by kayak during the summer of 2013 in order to collect modern width measurements along section lines and to analyze channel changes since the initial land survey. Results indicate that numerous changes have occurred in the Muskegon River with respect to channel width and meander pattern during the historic period. Numerous migrating cutbanks and cutoff meanders were found in the upper half of the system where the channel slope is consistently low (averaging 0.3 m per km) and sinuosity is high (~1.8 – 3.2). The position of the channel in this reach changed the most between 1836 and 1938 and correlates well with Michigan’s intensive logging era. The stream appears to have narrowed in the lower part of the system since 1836, whereas it changed little in the upper part. Slowing of meander movement in the upper reaches within the past 74 years may be related to increased bank stabilization due to revegetation. I hypothesize that channel narrowing in the lower reaches is related to dam placement and/or devegetated bank slopes and tributary systems that increase sediment yields.
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