diff --git a/skimage/filter/denoise.py b/skimage/filter/denoise.py
index d62f8b27..351b2482 100644
--- a/skimage/filter/denoise.py
+++ b/skimage/filter/denoise.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import numpy as np
 from skimage import img_as_float
 from skimage._shared.utils import deprecated
-import _denoise
 
 
 def _denoise_tv_3d(im, weight=100, eps=2.e-4, n_iter_max=200):