Our chapter’s monitoring efforts continue, even during a global pandemic! The Willow River is one of the several local rivers and streams that we monitor for water temperature and other variables. In April of 2016, temperature loggers were installed at three locations. One is located at the USGS water-flow monitoring site roughly a quarter mile downstream from Little Falls Dam. The other two are located roughly a quarter mile upstream from the Trout Brook Road bridge, one in the Main Branch and one in the Race.

The 2018 / 2019 data retrieved from the logger in the Race showed a minimum water temperature, in January 2018, of 32.04 degrees Fahrenheit (about as close to freezing as you can get!) to a maximum water temperature, in July 2019, of 76.0 degrees Fahrenheit. From what I’ve learned, this large temperature variance doesn’t bode well for trout populations. The water is too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer. An important thing to note is that this data was collected after the Little Falls Dam was removed.

In 2014 it was determined that the Little Falls Dam needed to be replaced. By the fall of 2015, the draw-down of Little Falls Lake was complete, and the dam was removed. This allowed the river to flow freely until early 2020 when a new dam was constructed, and Little Falls Lake began to fill in. As of today, the lake is nearly 100% full. As our monitoring continues, it will be interesting to see if the dam, and the impoundment behind it, will affect the water temperatures going forward.

—John Kaplan & Kent Johnson

Reconnaissance

Loren Haas, Tom Schnadt, Dustin Wing and I recently looked at some new easement parcels on the Trimbelle with the intent of evaluating their potential as future habitat restoration projects. We hope to weigh the pluses and minuses of these easements in order to make a decision on where to direct our future restoration efforts.

We met at the corner of Highway 10 and County Road O and proceeded downstream to the two Halvorson easements. This is some really nice water that is fishable right now but could benefit from some bank work and tree removal in some spots. An active bald eagle nest near the upstream end of the easement would prohibit any work being done there.

From there we went upriver to the Thompson easement which is just downstream of the bridge at County Road O near the Gaslight. Though this stretch of river is in bad shape, the easement covers only one bank which would make project work not a viable option at this time.

Next up was the Thom easement off of 650th Avenue—a long stretch of water with the easement covering both banks. The lower end is fairly open and fishable at this point but, the upstream portion is a box elder jungle with trees toppled into the wide, sandy bottom channel.

Next up were three new easements on the Harsdorf property just a little downstream of the Highway 65 bridge. The upper two portions of the easement do not currently have any means of legal access short of wading upstream or downstream from the nearest bridge. The lowermost section of easement is currently accessible and showed signs of angler activity (numerous beer cans and bottles near the bridge parking spot). There is currently an active beaver dam halfway up the easement with the water backed up and pooling behind it.

Last but not least, we looked at an easement near Beldenville on Goose Creek, a Trimbelle tributary. It was another box elder jungle with toppled trees and a wide, shallow, sand bottom with few places for trout to hide. A three-foot high beaver dam at the lower end of this easement backed up water for several hundred yards.

Winter Brushing
We finished up our winter brushing work in March with a series of four workdays on the Valentine and Krueger easements just upstream of the County Road J bridge on the Kinni. Unfortunately, our work left the Valentines less than delighted with the outcome. We had delayed starting the work for one week because the landowner wished to be present while the work was being done. During the first workday, following a conversation with the landowner, both Loren Haas and I had the impression that we’d been given the green light to cut any and all box elder and buckthorn in the stream corridor, even outside the boundaries of the easement. The landowner was under the mistaken impression that the easement was 28-feet wide while in fact it was 66- feet wide. The landowner took issue with some tag alders that were unfortunately cut with stumps left behind at a higherthan- anticipated height. A subsequent workday was held to re-cut the stumps to near-ground level and to retreat them with herbicide. The outcome from all of this is that more planning will be undertaken for future brushing days with both Kasey Yallaly and myself conducting a site visit to meet with landowners prior to work being done. An effort will also be made to mark trees which are not to be cut as an aid to some of the chainsaw operators who have difficulty
distinguishing between species.

Seeding/Mulching
Nate Anderson will be working at Plum Creek this summer and we can probably expect to have one or more seeding/ mulching days, provided that they will be allowed under the current restrictions. Get out there and do some fishing. While you are out, let me know if you have a favorite fishing spot where an easement is currently in place but which could use some maintenance work on the bank in order to make it more accessible to fishermen.
—Randy Arnold