Maintaining Habitat Projects

by Nate Anderson | Dec 21, 2023 | From The Field, Rip Rap

Maintaining Habitat Projects For Years Of Enjoyment.

Nate Anderson WDNR

After a trout habitat project is complete, Trout Unlimited and the DNR plant desirable native trees in select spots. Kasey Yallaly’s (WDNR) current plan is to plant larger seedling trees (over 6ft tall and at least 3 years old) along the stream every 50 feet, a distance that will allow continued maintenance after a project is completed. This spacing allows mowers enough room to get around and in between the trees and the stream. Once mature, the trees will provide some necessary shade to help maintain beneficial thermals. Kasey feels that this is a good compromise between (a) reforestation, which could result in a return to unfishable streams or (b) simply planting nothing.

We currently put each new habitat project on a 4-year rotation for mowing to keep out unwanted woody vegetation in an effort to promote native grasses. There are 2 types of mowing that take place on finished trout habitat projects, fishing access paths and mowing maintenance. Fishing access paths allow anglers to access the stream more easily during summer months when streambank vegetation is extremely high. These paths are at least ten feet wide and run along one side of the stream. We have been mowing at Cady Creek, Trimbelle River CTH W project, and Pine Creek annually. The mowing generally occurs through the width of an easement, commonly 66 feet wide and on both sides of the stream. This year’s mowing locations were located at; Gilbert Creek on Thorud’s easement, the fee title property just east of CTH Q, the Trimbelle River Holst easement and the Red Cabin site on the Kinnickinnic River. All mowing takes place in July to reduce chances of disturbing breeding birds but still get to the vegetation before it gets too high.

This year,  mowing was done by Extreme Excavating out of Knapp, WI. The total cost came in at $16,800. Cost breakdowns showed that trout stamp monies paid for $8,500,
Kiap-TU- wish contributed $1,500 from a past gift to the DNR designated for this type of work and $6,800 was paid by The DNR Parks and Recreation Department.

There are many sites along the Kinnickinnic River that have been brushed within the past several years that cannot be mowed. In order to prolong the effects of the brushing this year, the DNR hired a contractor, to chemically treat by foliar spraying 4 sites in order to control the invasive seedlings that usually sprout after brushing has been completed. The contractor hired for this project was 4-Control out of Menomonie, WI and the total cost was $3,500 paid for with Trout Stamp money.

Kasey Yallaly and I work closely with the Kiap-TU-wish- Maintenance committee each year to discuss what needs to be done. Please reach out to your chapter committee members if you have any ideas, thoughts, or comments regarding maintenance issues in your area or favorite fishing spot. 

Summary of Trout Regulation Changes

by Philip Kashain | Oct 23, 2023 | From The Field, Rip Rap

Summary of Trout Regulation Change Proposal

Philip Kashian

On October 11^th Kasey Yallaly Senior Fisheries Biologist with the DNR presented a tentative proposal for changing creel limits for trout. Kasey’s territory is Pierce, St Croix, and western Dunn Counties and is actively involved in managing habitat and fisheries research for the Kinnickinnic, Rush, Trimbelle rivers, as well as other smaller streams and tributaries.  

Kasey’s presentation began with a brief history of fish populations and water quality over the past 30 plus years. The Rush river throughout the 1960’s through the early 2000’s was almost entirely a stocked fishery. Stocking ended in 2007 as a result of improved water quality resulting in enough natural reproduction to support a self-sustaining trout population. 

As the wild trout population has grown the stream regularly rates in ithe top with fish per mile for the entire Driftless region. The Kinnickinnic as well is in the top percentile in fish per stream mile. The Trimbelle, currently a class 2 stream with some support coming from stocking, may soon be moved to class 1 with a strong naturally reproducing trout population. 

This is a real success story with regard to our cold-water fisheries; however, the DNR’s concern is that due to the incredible reproductive rates we are seeing higher fish densities in the 10-12 inch range and fewer “quality” fish in the 13-17 range. For instance, in the Rush, 85% of all fish are in the 6-12 range, and that number is 75%-90% in the other Pierce County streams. The current harvest limits on the Rush, Trimbelle and others is 3 fish 12 inches or larger. The Kinni size regulations currently state 5 fish under 12 inches. Kasey’s proposal is to change these regulations to 5 fish under 12 inches, 1 over 12 inches may be kept. The intent is to increase harvest of smaller fish and protect more of the larger fish. This would apply to all streams in Pierce and St Croix counties except, Cady Creek, Pine Creek, Willow River and the upper Eau Galle River. This is an initial proposal and most likely would not occur until 2026.  

A meeting of this type is a great example of Kasey’s commitment to providing quality fishing and sound habitat management for all of us and we greatly appreciate her efforts and fish management knowledge. Additional information will be forthcoming as these proposals make their way through the WDNR regulation process. If you have additional questions regarging these proposed regulation changes, Kasey can be reached at: Kasey.Yallaly@wisconsin.gov, or by phone at, 715.977.7354.

New Kinni Monitoring Reports

by Kent Johnson | May 2, 2023 | From The Field, Rip Rap

Two new Kiap-TU-Wish monitoring reports are now available in our Coldwater Science Library

“The Thermal Impacts of Kinnickinnic River Hydropower Dams and Impoundments in River Falls, WI, and Recent Thermal Benefits of the Lake Louise Drawdown”

Author: Kent Johnson, Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter

Summary:  This report summarizes 29 years of Kinnickinnic River temperature monitoring by Kiap-TU-Wish, describing the temperature monitoring network, the thermal impacts of Kinni dams and impoundments (1994-2020), recent (2021-2022) Kinni temperature improvements after the Lake Louise drawdown in 2020, the ongoing thermal impact of the Junction Falls Dam and Lake George, and plans for future temperature monitoring, as a part of the Kinnickinnic River Monitoring Plan, created in 2021 and implemented in 2022. Kiap-TU-Wish has graciously supported this critical temperature monitoring network, as we seek to understand the thermal impacts of stormwater, dams, and long-term climate change on the Kinni in River Falls.

Kiap-TU-Wish temperature monitoring sites on the Kinnickinnic River and tributaries in River Falls, WI

“Kinnickinnic River Macroinvertebrate Monitoring: Past, Present, and Future”

Authors:  Kent Johnson, Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter, Clarke Garry, Professor Emeritus,
UW-River Falls

Summary:  In Wisconsin, the use of aquatic macroinvertebrates for evaluating stream health was initiated by Dr. William L. Hilsenhoff at UW-Madison in 1977, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has long employed macroinvertebrate monitoring to characterize stream condition. This report summarizes the results of recent (2022) macroinvertebrate monitoring conducted at 6 sites on the Kinnickinnic River (Upper, Lower, and the new Kinni through Lake Louise), with a comparison to the river-wide macroinvertebrate monitoring conducted by Dr. Clarke Garry in 2002.  After a gap of 20 years, Kinni bugs and bug-whisperers provide an update on Kinni health, then and now.  Plans for future (2023-2025) macroinvertebrate monitoring at additional Kinni sites are also described.  As with all Kiap-TU-Wish projects, volunteer support was critical for this one.  Kiap-TU-Wish, KinniCC, and UW-River Falls volunteer time was a key to success, and Kiap-TU-Wish and KinniCC provided funding for detailed bug identification (in Latin, nonetheless!).

Net-spinning Caddisfly (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae)

Illustration by Janice Nelson Johnson

Kent Johnson (L) and Reid Dawald, KinniCC Stream Team member (R) at the “new Kinni” monitoring site in the former Lake Louise (2022 photo by Dr. John Wheeler, UW-River Falls)

Stream Survey Report: 2022

by Kasey Yallaly | Oct 24, 2022 | From The Field, Rip Rap

The Baldwin DNR Fisheries crew surveyed a total of 64 trout stream sites this year on streams in Pierce, St. Croix and western Dunn counties. The surveys went well with the weather cooperating and very few large runoff events. 

Overall, trout densities in most streams are very stable compared to long term averages. Total trout densities were lower relative to last year, due in large part to the high natural reproduction in 2020 and 2021 making total trout numbers extremely high in 2021. 

In most streams, natural reproduction was low this year compared to long term averages but adult trout numbers were high in part due to the 2 large year classes of trout from the large hatches in 2020 and 2021. 

The drop in trout densities experienced this year is likely a good thing and nothing to be concerned about as trout densities in 2021 were likely higher than carrying capacity for most of these streams and competition for resources was high. With relatively lower trout densities and low natural reproduction this year, we should likely see a jump in size structure in the near future. 

Some additional trends resulting from our survey work this year were drops in brook trout densities in streams where both brook and brown trout occur. In many brook trout dominant streams, however, densities and natural reproduction are up from previous years. There is also promising news from the Cady Creek brook trout restoration project which shows brook trout densities higher than in previous years and densities that are finally higher than brown trout densities. 

The Willow River Race Branch looked better than ever with good numbers of adult brown and rainbow trout. This year seemed to be the year of large brook trout in our surveys with a few fish larger than 13 inches captured in several streams. 

We surveyed 11 trout habitat improvement projects for post-habitat evaluations and all of them look great as far as trout densities and natural reproduction with densities higher than prior to project completion in all projects. Overall, the trout populations are in great shape with many aspects to look forward to in the near future.