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
Randy and four volunteers turned out Saturday morning to begin clearing buckthorn and box elders from the area around the DNR fishing access parking lot just upstream of the Hwy 35/65 bridge on the Kinni. Pictured are Loren Haas, John Skelton, and Dave Gregg. Also helping but not sticking around for the photo op was chapter member Joe Paatalo. The clearing work being done here is to provide a service learning opportunity for the 4th grade students from Greenwood Elementary who will turn out for an afternoon later this fall to drag the brush to one or two bonfires for burning. The students currently participate in Trout in the Classroom through our chapter.
On the day of the event, students will be split into two groups with one group learning about riparian corridors and stream entomology while the others haul brush and then switching off later. We got a good stat on Saturday but, Randy could certainly use the help of a few more volunteers. Lets face it folks, the buckthorn and box elders are growing at a faster pace than we with the help of the DNR are removing them. In places, the jungle just gets thicker and thicker each year. Watch for an email midweek containing details for next weekends workday.
Contact Randy Arnold, Kiap TU Wish Habitat Volunteer Coordinator for more information at randyca999@gmail.com
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.
On August 15, we were welcomed with a perfect day to assist WDNR Fisheries Biologists with their annual stream shocking survey at trend sites on the Rush River. We started out at Stonehammer and finished up at Vino in the Valley. The largest brown trout was 21″with a handful over 15″. It’s quite a sight watching tubs of trout being measured and released. We were accompanied by local dairy farmer Tim Colbenson who jumped right in to learn what we do. A big thanks goes out to Kasey and Joe for trusting in us to help them out and witness their dedication to our cold water fisheries.
From left to right on the back row: Jaylen Pavloski (volunteer), Jeff Jackson (WDNR Baldwin), Dave Drewiske (TU volunteer), Joseph Gerbyshak (WDNR Eau Claire Fisheries Biologist), Kasey Yallaly (DNR Baldwin Fisheries Biologist), Sam Jacobson (WDNR Baldwin Fisheries Technician), Nick Kriewald (WDNR Eau Claire Fisheries Technician), Barbara Redmond (TU volunteer), Mary Lilly (TU volunteer) Left to right front row: Parker Verdon (TU intern), Andrew Mehus (Buffalo County/WDNR intern), Ben Belt (TU volunteer), Matt Andre (WDNR Eau Claire Fisheries Technician) Not pictured- Matt Simonson (WDNR Eau Claire Fisheries Technician), Tim Colbenson(Ti-Shi Dairy).
I recently had the pleasure of joining Fisheries Biologist Kasey Yallaly and her crew on a stream survey of a marvelous little Brook Trout stream in Dunn County. Kasey’s crew is made up of three college- and high-school-aged young men—Dustin, Sam, and Parker—who will be assisting her throughout the summer.
Starting out with temperatures in the low nineties and finishing with the mercury hovering around the century mark, survey conditions were clearly less than optimal. Luckily, the stream temperatures were satisfyingly below the air temperature, making conditions a bit more tolerable. Mind you, I was just an observer and perfectly happy bringing up the rear as I watched Kasey and crew swipe their magic wands back and forth beneath the stream’s surface, and under tree roots and logjams, to bring the stunned trout to the surface for capture and measuring.
Being a casual observer allowed me to see just how much work goes into surveys of this type. There is a lot of bull work involved, the hardest of which is towing a small boat loaded with a gasoline generator and a sizable washtub fill with water that serves as a temporary aquarium for the soon-to-be-measured trout.
Once all the equipment is readied, a typical survey starts out with one of the crew members setting the amount of current that will be generated by the electrical control box that sends a current into the water through the hand-held wands. The electricity briefly attracts the fish and temporarily stuns them so they can be easily captured. After additional safety checks are made and the wands are activated, the crew members hook themselves up to the boat in a fashion that reminded me of a team of horses pulling a hay wagon. Each member is armed with a net and a wand as they progress upstream in a well- choreographed display of quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination. The fish dizzyingly come to the surface and are quickly scooped up and transferred to the holding tank. It was quite amazing to observe the number of trout that could be netted from a deeper pool or deep pockets along the shore, often with a tree root thrown in for good measure.
At a predetermined stopping point, the net results (pun intended) are examined for disease and measured for length, then quickly released. I particularly enjoyed this part of the survey—not only seeing these beautifully colored trout up close, but watching Kasey’s quick-handed aides pull each specimen out of the tank to try to get the wiggly creature to hold still long enough to be measured.
Fish surveys of this type are essential for building successful management programs. Each survey provides biologists with insight into how fish populations are responding to current management plans and environmental changes. Collected data enhance knowledge of water quality, riparian habitat, and stream degradation, allowing biologists to craft unique management techniques for each system and to achieve sustainable fisheries now and into the future. Climate change will necessitate continued vigilance and well-conceived planning in order to sustain our quality fisheries. From my perspective, our streams are in very good hands, and we are fortunate to have an abundance of well-managed streams from which to choose when we decide to wet a line.
On June 22nd, Kiap-Tu-Wish provided volunteer support for the Trimbelle Nature Day organized by Ellsworth Public Library. The event included engaging activities for all ages: a storywalk for the littles; printing making with fossilized fish; water cycle and erosion lessons with St Croix County EE Coordinator, Aleisha Miller; and macroinvertebrate exploration with Dr. Dean Hanson. Attendees also had the rare opportunity to observe Kasey Yallaly and the DNR Fisheries team conduct a trout count. The kids had many great questions about electroshocking and the fish that they met. And anglers gained insights on local trout and the restoration and management developments along this stretch of the Trimbelle. Kasey stated that the number and size of brown trout uncovered by the fish count in this restored section of stream was encouraging.
Thanks to Ellsworth Library Programming Coordinator, Caroline Herfindahl, for imagining and organizing this event that brought families together to love and learn about our streams.