Good Turnout for the Corps of Engineers open house discussing Kinnickinnic River Ecosystem Restoration in River Falls, Wisconsin.
It was good to see many familiar faces at last Tuesday’s Kinnickinnic River open house held at the public library. This was an informal event with a number of informational stations manned by officials from the City of River Falls and the CORP of Engineers. Many River advocates lobbied on removal of both dams. A timeline can be found here
Please take some time to give written comments. These are due by September 15th. This fillable PDF may be printed and mailed as instructed or you may email your support for the removal of both dams to Trevor Cyphers at: Trevor.W.Cyphers@usace.army.mil
This fall, the City of River Falls agreed to engage the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) for their support of a dam removal project, via their Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program. TheCOE project would involve removal of both dams and restoration of a one-mile reach of the Kinni. n November 2022, the River Falls City Council voted to proceed with the initial COE feasibility study, at an estimated cost of $800,000. The COE will assume responsibility for the first $100,000 of the study, plus one-half of the remaining $700,000, leaving the City responsible for covering a $350,000 share.
To address some budgetary concerns that the City of River Falls communicated to stakeholders, Kinni Corridor Collaborative, Inc. (KinniCC), Trout Unlimited, and other community partners pledged a contribution of $175,000 (half of the City’s $350,000 share) to help fund the COE feasibility study. To date, stakeholders working with KinniCC has raised $90,000 toward this goal, leaving a gap of $85,000 to fill by early 2023.
If you do not already know, the KinniCC is a community-led, non-profit (501(c)3) organization working with the City of River Falls and other stakeholders to implement the Kinnickinnic River Corridor Plan (KRCP), while preserving the river’s ecology and beauty.
As everyone knows, the Kinnickinnic River is a recreational treasure for our area, and we really need your help at this time to ensure the feasibility study proceeds by considering a generous donation. The KinniCC has set up a donation sight at Mighty Cause for this purpose. Thanks for your consideration.
https://www.mightycause.com/story/Coe4kinni
Sponsors, Donors, and Partners
Platinum >$20K
Babcock RI Trust
Bye, Goff & Rohde Partners
Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter (WI)
Red Bottom Boat 2.0
Twin Cities TU Chapter (MN)
Wisconsin TU State Council
Gold >$5K-20K
Flygare, Tovah
Johnson, D. Kent
KinniCC Board of Directors
Mid-Missouri TU Chapter (MO)
Morrison, Sean
R4F Film Festival Team (2022)
River Sky Drones
TU Driftless Area Restoration
Silver >$1K – 5K
Benevity Fund
Blackhawk TU Chapter (WI)
Central WI TU Chapter (WI)
Coulee Region TU Chapter (WI)
D & C Brockway Charitable Fund
Elliott Donnelly TU Chapter (IL)
Frank Hornberg TU Chapter (WI)
Hanson, Amanda
Joyful Baseflow Fund
Lee Wulf TU Chapter (IL)
Marinette TU Chapter (WI)
Most, Betty
Peterson, Christina
Southeast WI TU Chapter (WI)
Southern WI TU Chapter (WI)
Vanden Bloomen, Dennis
Welter, John “Duke”
Wild River TU Chapter (WI)Wissota Hospitality/Country Inn
Kinni Friends < $1K
Amazon Foundation (Smile)
Bob Mitchell’s Fly Shop
Brilliant Impact
Chambers, Rob
Dahm, Peter & Linda
Falls Theatre
Fischbach, Lawrence & Candy
Garry, Clarke
Goff, Steve
Horvath, Gary
Hub 70
Network for Good
Ostrow, Winston
Potts, Jack
Prin, Tom
Ritzinger, Mark & Jean
River Falls School District
Topple, Ben
WIN-CRES Chapter TU (MN)
Collaboration Partners(These partners have provided a letter of support and/or technical assistance)
American Rivers
Ecological Restoration Institute / CAFEs– UWRF
Express Pro Employment Services
Feuerhelm, Langer & Nelson, CPA
First National Bank – River Falls
Friends of the Kinni
Friends of Willow River and Kinnickinnic State Parks
Freshwater Collaborative (UW System)
Grow To Share
Hope 4 Creation
Illinois State Council TU
Inter-Fluve
Kinni Conditions Facebook Group
Kinnickinnic River Land Trust
Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission
Meyers Creative
MGI Consulting
MightyCause
North Woods & Waters of the St Croix Heritage Area
The Chapter had a booth at the Fly-Fishing Expo in St. Paul which was held after a two-year hiatus from Covid. It was great seeing familiar and new faces with and interest in our activities.
At our April meeting WI DNR Habitat Specialist, Nate Anderson gave a recap on the WDNR projects of 2021 along with project update for 2022 along with news on easements. Senior Fisheries Biologist, Kasey gave a presentation titled “2021 Large Stream Survey and Rush River Creel Survey Results.” In May we had our last chapter meeting before our summer break. The meeting was held at Rush River Brewing with Steve’s Pizza provided by the chapter. Chapter awards were presented with a lot of catching up with friends and tall fish tales.
We finished off the winter ‘brushing season’ with a couple of final workdays in April. The snow cover was totally gone but a couple of portable pumps and some garden hose, we were able to wet things down enough to negate the fire danger while continuing to burn the slash from the trees and brush we were cutting. A total of 66 volunteers assisted over the course of the season with 34 individuals attending more than one workday. At our May chapter meeting held at Rush River Brewing, 7 individuals were awarded a gift certificate for having participated in 10 or more of the brushing days. John Skelton topped the list by attending 24 workdays followed closely by Jim Tatzel with 23. The others who filled out the list were Dave Gregg, Dave Kozlovsky, Tom Anderson, Steve Cox and Trish Hannah. With the lack of snow cover and the late arrival of spring, the ground remained frozen till the first week of April when Randy Arnold was able to get out in the field and drive in fence posts to install another 44 bluebird nest boxes. Sites getting the boxes were the new restoration on Cady Creek just downstream of the Cty Rd. P bridge, Gilbert Creek downstream of the Hwy 29 bridge, the South Fork of the Kinni at the Hwy 29 easement, and at the county park on the Trimbelle just downstream of Hwy 10. A workday was held just this past Tuesday where 8 volunteers joined Randy to assist with planting trees and shrubs at the new Cady Creek restoration. Those helping were Don Fritz, Jim Tatzel, Dan Donahue, Charlie Schlatter, Michel Bevis, Steve Wardell.
Chapter volunteers Ken and Missie Hanson, Matt Janquart and family along with Dean Hansen braved a cold Earth Day April 26th in River Falls to staff our chapters booth at the event. Turnout was good considering the unfavorable weather.
The Kiap TU Wish Chapter staffed one of three stations related to stream conservation as part of Rocky Branch Elementary’s annual “Eco-Week” celebration. Eco-Week is a full week of nature appreciation, outdoor service learning, and environmental education for all their students. The 4th grade students, in collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, participated in an electroshocking of a local tributary. Students observed four species of fish as they were collected, measured, weighed, and safely returned to the water. Students from the Renaissance Charter Academy’s “Wisconsin Waterways” high school course were also able to participate in the activity. Pairs of students captured invertebrates using D nets. Other students identified insects from charts and with the help of Dean Hansen and Kiap TU Wish members Dan Wilcox, Mark Peerenboom and Tom Schnadt. KIAP helped three Trout in the Classroom programs release their trout in Willow River State Park this May. Along with the trout release, other activities included stream bug capture/identification and fly-casting lessons. A great time was had by all. Volunteers included: Dean Hansen, John Ulman, Tom Schnadt, Ken Hanson, Missie Hanson, Patrick Sexton, Mark Peerenboom, Molly Barritt, and Greg Olson
Kiap TU Wish conducted our first STREAM Girls program on May 21st. The Ellsworth Rod and Gun Club was the host and reports were fantastic. A separate story can be found in this issue of Wisconsin Trout
Trout release volunteers Ken Hanson, Missie Hanson, Pat Sexton, Dean Hansen, and Mark PereenboomThose helping with tree planting from left to right: Don Fritz. Brian Hoverson, Dan Donahoe, Dave Brockway, Charlie Schlatter, Steve Wardell, and Michel Bevis.Kiap TU Wish STREAM Girls and volunteers in action.
