Chapter News Sep 2020

by Ken Hanson | Nov 10, 2020 | Message from the President

The following report also appeared in the Sep Issue of WI Trout

In administrative news Chapter Board member Pete Kilibarda stepped down from his position and we are looking diligently for a replacement. Thanks to Pete for his time served. Rip Rap Editor Ed Constantini put out his first issue and it was dynamite. The Chapter continues its string of luck in finding talented people for our newsletter. Unfortunately, Covid eliminated our ability to get Rip Rap printed free of charge so we have been forced to put it out electronically. Kiap TU Wish is sending it out via email, so members are encouraged to contact TU National to update their profile with a current email address. The newsletter can also be found on our website at kiaptuwish.org. The Chapter Board cancelled our Spring Appeal to our members due to Covid-19 impacts. Additionally, the Board cancelled plans for our annual holiday banquet usually held in December. Both events are our primary fundraising tools. At the time of this writing a special appeal was sent out, and we are hoping that members in a position to donate will continue their support of our work. The Chapter also is pleased to report that we were awarded and Embrace A Stream grant of $5500 for “Monitoring to Assess the Ecological Benefits of Kinnickinnic River Dam Removal and River Restoration in River Falls, Wisconsin”. Look for more news on this in later issues of Wisconsin Trout.

It was a busy summer for the Kiap-TU-Wish monitoring team. Chapter members deployed 30 temperature loggers in five local rivers, to evaluate the impacts of stormwater runoff, hydropower facilities, and climate change, and to assess the ability of our stream restoration projects to improve temperature regimes. Water samples were collected and analyzed on several streams (see photo), to better understand watershed impacts on water quality. To complement stream temperature and water chemistry data, two weather stations were operated, providing data on air temperature, relative humidity, dew point, and rainfall amounts. Kiap-TU-Wish also continued to provide financial and volunteer monitoring support for USGS operation and maintenance of their Kinnickinnic River and Willow River flow gaging stations.

National Trout Unlimited is placing a high priority on Community Science and the benefits it provides for angler education and coldwater resource management. Trout Unlimited’s national science team partnered with MobileH2O, LLC to develop a customized mobile application (WiseH2O App) that can be used by anglers to monitor water quality and habitat conditions in Driftless Area trout streams. In 2019, Kiap-TU-Wish anglers participated in a successful WiseH2O App pilot project, testing the App on 10 local streams and rivers, making 83 observations, and providing feedback to the developers on App improvements. The Mobile H2O website: https://www.mobileh2o.com/anglerscience provides access to the Kiap-TU-Wish monitoring plan, the 2019 pilot project report, and an interactive map that enables viewing of all 2019 Kiap-TU-Wish WiseH2O App observations. COVID-19 and development of the iPhone version of the WiseH2O App delayed the start of the 2020 monitoring season until early August. Although the 2020 monitoring season will be short, we are pleased to report that the iPhone version of the App is available, and the 2-in-1 test strips can be used to measure nitrite/nitrate concentrations. The App also has an updated look and educational messaging that should be more user-friendly. Given the success of the 2019 Kiap-TU-Wish pilot project, and with further App improvements in 2020, WiseH2O App monitoring expanded to the entire Driftless Area (southwestern WI, southeastern MN, northeastern IA, and northwestern IL) in early August. Besides Kiap-TU-Wish, 14 additional Trout Unlimited chapters now have an opportunity to monitor our regional coldwater resources. For more information on the Driftless Area project, please contact Kent Johnson at d.kent.johnson@gmail.com.

Despite the uncertainties due to Covid-19, 7 of our 8 classrooms are going forward with Trout in the Classroom this year and we have added an additional classroom as well. Hopefully, the kids will be able to complete the project unlike last year’s classes which had to cut things short due to Covid-19.

Our traditional role of assisting the WIDNR with seeding/mulching operations on stream restoration projects was usurped by the DNR’s Covid work rules. Work which volunteers normally would have taken on at the mile long Von Holtum easement on the Plum Creek restoration site, was instead handled by the DNR staff. Chapter members Tom Schnadt, Loren Haas, Dustin Wing, Dan Wilcox, Scott Stewart, and Randy Arnold met with DNR staff members Kasey Yallaly and Nate Anderson over the course of the summer to evaluate newly acquired easements in our area. They were joined by Pierce Co. soil and water conservation staff where they reviewed the easements restoration potential and also to evaluate solutions to the problem of sand loading on the South Fork of the Kinnickinnic River. The group developed a preliminary plan to begin tree clearing this coming winter on three new connected easements on Cady Creek just outside of Elmwood. Chapter volunteer coordinator Randy Arnold met separately with Area Fish Manager Kasey Yallaly in late July to visit several sites on the Upper Kinnickinnic which are in serious need of maintenance brushing and tree removal to keep them from returning to an unfishable jungle. Chapter members are looking forward to gearing up for our fall and winter workdays. We are hoping that chapter members will turn out and help with our tree removal and brushing operations while practicing social distancing.

With partial funding provided by the chapter, the DNR did hire an outside contractor to perform maintenance mowing on previously restored sites in both the Kiap TU Wish and Clear Waters Chapter areas. In our case, the contractor mowed much of the area comprised of the connected easements on the Trimbelle from the County Rd. W bridge downstream to the Hwy 65 bridge. Chapter member Jim Tatzel joined Randy Arnold several days after the mowing where they went through and sprayed herbicide on the stumps of small saplings left behind as well as cutting and treating stumps which were missed by the mower. Chapter member Loren Haas has continued to work with Nate Anderson of the DNR on the design, installation, and performance evaluation of Elevated Riparian Optimization (ERO) Structures which Loren has designed to incorporate into stream restorations. The hope is that these structures will optimize the power of high-water events to provide deep water habitat for trout and efficiently move sand loads downstream. The first deployment of ERO Structures on a larger stream took place on Plum Creek where work recently wrapped up on the Van Holtum Farm easement. This easement consists of two separate parcels with over 19,000 feet of Frontage on Plum Creek and almost a mile of Frontage on Brunner Valley Creek. The work here is not the classic Driftless project with LUNKER structures and significant narrowing. This is a mixed fishery with Brown and Brook trout and classic Driftless restoration favors Brown Trout as we unfortunately learned on Pine Creek. This project contains a lot of wood and the narrowing is not so drastic. The goal is to enhance the Brook Trout habitat. As a result, anglers used to classic Driftless restoration projects may find the angling difficult and frustrating.

The Drift – May 2020

by Scott Wagner | Apr 30, 2020 | Message from the President

Robins, pussy willows, bloodroot, blooming round-lobed hepatica, drumming yellowbellied sapsuckers, fresh-cut alfalfa, dandelions, screaming—oweeEEEK!—wood ducks , busy chipmunks and gobbling turkeys. All sights, sounds and a few familiar smells of spring, and all signs of hope in the world after a long, grey winter and what seems like years of dealing with coronavirus. Spring is here and happening in our very midst! But first, here are a few important items since our last in-person chapter meeting.

Board Elections: Since we had to cancel our April Chapter Meeting (which serves as our annual business meeting) we weren’t able to have board elections. This year, we had two board members (Perry Palin and Maria Manion) who completed their board terms and two chapter members (Dustin Wing and Scot Stewart) who were nominated for three-year terms. Our chapter bylaws allow the board to appoint new board members to fill spots that are vacated between annual business meetings, and given these circumstances, the Kiap-TU-Wish board elected Dustin Wing and Scot Stewart to serve one-year terms. This will fill the vacant board seats for now and give chapter members the opportunity to vote on extending the terms for these candidates at the first available opportunity, which will be next year’s Annual Business Meeting. Welcome to the Board, Dustin and Scot!

Departing Board Members: New board members joining also means prior board members leaving. This is always a bittersweet occurrence for me after having worked, played and gotten to know departing board members over the previous three to six years. We’re a pretty close board. We meet every month and members communicate frequently between board meetings. Sure, we don’t agree about everything and occasionally have long, spirited discussions, but we all share a common love for our coldwater resources and normally, with the support of and input from chapter members like yourself, we come to a consensus on most things. Departing board members this year are Maria Manion (who was RipRap’s editor and wrote grants for the Kinni’s Red Cabin project) and Perry Palin (who served as our Polk County outreach coordinator and seat of wit and wisdom). Maria is a design professional, a dedicated volunteer, an ardent fly fisher, and a good person who is simply a pleasure to work with. As editor of RipRap for the past six years, Maria’s finished product each month IS Kiap-TUWish for 70% of our nearly 400 members who can’t attend chapter meetings or other chapter activities. And what does one say about Perry? In addition to being a tireless advocate for his beloved Trout Free Zone, or TFZ as Perry refers to it, he is probably one of the most experienced and talented fly fishers and fly tiers in the chapter, if not in the state. For at least 10-12 years, Perry has tied boxes of flies that are given out as door prizes in honor of his friend, Dry-Fly Dick Frantes. Perry has also made use of his career in human resources and labor negotiations to give the board the long view on dealing with issues we face from time to time. Perry helped organize our annual chapter meetings in Polk County for our “northern” members, and even helped teach a few of us how to fish. But most of all, we will miss Perry’s dry wit, his gift for story-telling and his dogged insistence that there aren’t any trout north of Highway 8, in his beloved TFZ! Thank you Maria and Perry for your service. Our chapter is better because of it.

Spring Appeal: By now you’ve probably noticed that you didn’t receive your annual Spring Appeal donation request. The Spring Appeal Committee had everything ready to go when the coronavirus stay-at-home orders hit. The committee recommended, and the board agreed, that it just wasn’t appropriate for us to be asking for money when some members were without work, others were watching their retirement savings plummet and still others might have been sick. You’ve all been very generous with your donations in the past and will be again in the future. So for right now we’re going to rely on your past generosity to carry forward our shared coldwater conservation mission.

May Chapter Meeting with WIDNR via ZOOM: Last but not least is our May chapter meeting with the WIDNR. This is normally the best-attended chapter meeting of the year, because Nate Anderson talks about past and future habitat projects AND Kasey Yallaly shares her trout survey data from the past year. Nothing gets our membership to chapter meetings like the possibility of finding new places to fish! We just couldn’t forgo this meeting, so we’re going to have a virtual meeting via Zoom. In case you haven’t heard of it, Zoom is a free app that allows for group meetings of up to 100 participants to take place from your computer or smartphone. You can even dial in and participate in a Zoom meeting from an analog phone. It really isn’t that hard to do. Believe it or not, even I can Zoom! Social media professional and chapter member Chad Borenz will set up the meeting and make sure it is secure. He will also send us a Zoom meeting link; the first 100 people who click on the link can enter the meeting. Kasey Yallaly and Nate Anderson will present over Zoom and you will be able to see their screens on your computer or smartphone. I’m also guessing Kasey and Nate will be willing to email you their presentations after the Zoom meeting. PLEASE NOTE: In order to attend the Zoom meeting, you will need to (1) DOWNLOAD AND (2) INSTALL ZOOM BEFORE YOU (3) CLICK ON CHAD’S ZOOM MEETING LINK.

And now back to the first robin, pussy willows, spring wild flowers, noisy wood ducks and gobbling turkeys. All of these remind us that SPRING IS REALLY HERE! We really did make it through the long, grey winter and the world around us really is
springing to new life again. In some ways, the coldwater resources we’ve worked so hard on for so long are doing better than
some of us are doing this spring. My dad used to say, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast!” He would say it partly in jest, with an Irish twinkle in his eye, but he was partly serious, too. He said it to encourage us to take heart and to have some hope, when we were discouraged about something going on with friends or at school. I believe we can all take heart in the natural signs of spring happening around us right now.
And in the meantime, get out there and fish!
—Scott Wagner

The Drift – Apr 2020

by Scott Wagner | Mar 18, 2020 | Message from the President

We’ve made a lot of progress! When you think about it, we’ve made a lot of progress environmentally in the past 40-50 years. When I was a kid, I was sick with asthma and had to stay at home a lot. I was inside all day. It drove me nuts. I had to do something, so I hammered together birdfeeders and set them up all over the yard. Then I could at least watch something wild outside from inside. In the summer, I hunted butterflies unceasingly, or at least until flower and ragweed pollen sent me home sneezing and short of breath. I joined the Audubon Society so I could get Audubon Magazine and read about far-off natural places, and also to get the mimeographed paper newsletter telling about the wild things going on locally in St. Paul. One January, our local Audubon Society leaders announced that on Christmas Day, they had seen a Bald Eagle—a Bald Eagle!—flying over the Mississippi River in St. Paul. Nobody believed them. Eagles simply didn’t exist any more in the countryside surrounding the Twin Cities, or even up north for that matter. Sure, there were a few in the mountains out West and more in Alaska, but in the Twin Cities? The Audubon Society leaders should have known better than to start rumors like that. We all knew by that time that widespread usage of DDT in the U.S. to control mosquito populations after the Korean Conflict had killed off all the hawks and eagles and other raptors. We later learned that DDT, ingested into female raptors, caused them to lay soft eggs that were crushed during incubation. So, there weren’t any more Bald Eagles in St. Paul, or anywhere else within reach of a 10-year-old kid on a bike. There was about as much chance of seeing a live eagle then, as there was of seeing a live Triceratops in the lobby of St. Paul’s Science Museum.

Then there were the Canada Geese, the giant sub-species—or whatever they called them— that were also going extinct, presumably for the same reason. One cold winter morning, my parents stuffed the four then-existing Wagner children into their green Plymouth Country Squire station wagon and headed for Rochester, Minnesota. The destination was the warm water discharge of a power plant in Rochester where, supposedly, 25-30 of these big honkers were hanging out for the winter. We got there and sure enough, there they were there, 25-30 giant Canada Geese. We stood outside the car and stared at them until we got cold, then we all piled back in the station wagon and headed back home. My parents wanted us to see these giant honkers before they went extinct. They had read somewhere that even if the DDT situation got corrected, there wouldn’t be enough of the geese left to sustain a viable population. So, the big geese were as good as extinct, even though there were still a few hanging around power plants and such. And then there were other things that weren’t extinct, but were gone from our area for good, as the old timers used to say. In all our wanderings, we NEVER even heard of anyone seeing a wild Turkey, a Sandhill Crane, or a Pelican, let alone seeing completely extirpated (locally extinct) species like Trumpeter Swans and Peregrine Falcons.

Then along came Rachel Carson who wrote Silent Spring which started a grassroots movement that resulted in federal legislation banning the use of DDT. Other grass-roots movements of conservationminded individuals sprang up, and existing organizations like the Audubon Society grew in membership and influence, and teachers started teaching about conservation. The states got involved with Aldo Leopold from UW-Madison writing A Sand County Almanac and Carrol Henderson from the MNDNR Non-Game Wildlife Fund heading up programs to help restore nongame wildlife, including Trumpeter Swans and Peregrine Falcons. Ordinary citizens got involved and teamed up with federal and state conservation workers, universities, teachers, and for-profit and not-for-profit sectors to bring back the environment and wildlife that we had lost through DDT, water pollution and air pollution. Now, you can’t drive anywhere without seeing large flocks of Canada Geese. There are probably scores of grounds keepers at city parks and golf courses that would be a lot happier today if we had been a little less successful in our Canada Goose restoration efforts.

But it doesn’t end there. I regularly see half a dozen Bald Eagles on my way to work in the morning. (Sometimes I even see them flying over the Mississippi River in St. Paul!) Spring, summer and fall, I see Trumpeter Swans, Sandhill Cranes, Wild Turkey and all manner of hawks and falcons, as I drive between customers’ locations in the East Metro and Western Wisconsin. We REALLY HAVE made a lot of progress in the last 40-50 years.

But what happened to all the amphibians that used to be around? I remember so many frogs coming out on roads between swamps up north that the roads would actually get greasy from dead frogs. Gross, I know. I thought it was gross then, too. The point is that there was an abundance of frogs then.

I also remember that there was a certain night or two each summer when all the female snapping turtles somehow knew that this was the night to crawl out of their ponds to lay their eggs. How did they all seem to know what night to come out on? I remember more painted turtles being around lakes and streams, and tiger salamanders being in just about every pond, roadside ditch or anywhere else that was wet for part of the summer. Where are they all now? Sure, there are still some of the above species around, but there are not anywhere near the numbers that were around when I was a kid. Where did they go? What happened to them? Last summer, I saw a lone tiger salamander marching across our driveway. Its skin was dry and dusty and it looked completely out of place. It looked like a member of the French Foreign Legion that tried to escape by walking across the desert and got so dried out and miserable that it decided to go back to camp again.

Something is happening to our amphibians, to the butterflies I used to hunt and to the songbirds I used to watch when I was a kid. Something is happening to them, but I’m not exactly sure what. There isn’t as clear of a smoking gun today as there was back then. There aren’t tons of DDT being sprayed over our swamps and low lying areas. There isn’t nearly raw sewage, or lightly treated industrial wastes, being drained into our rivers and estuaries. Even the air seems cleaner now than it did then. I can remember seeing a brown haze hanging over the Twin Cities when we came back from up north, and that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. But if amphibians, butterflies and songbirds are all in decline, something still isn’t right.

Something still isn’t right and I believe it’s up to our generation to focus our energy, our intelligence and our cooperative spirits on determining what the root causes of these declines are, as we did 50 years ago. Then, as grass-roots organizations, as educators and concerned citizens, as local, state and national governments, we need to address those causes and correct them, making the same incredible progress in the next 50 years that we’ve made in the past 50 years. We’ve done this before and we can do it again. The why is all around us as we see certain parts of our ecosystem slowly shriveling up and dying. The time is now. The who is you and me and every one of us. The question is when will each of us begin?

In the meantime, we’ve also made an incredible amount of progress in the past 40-50 years in restoring coldwater habitat for coldwater species like TROUT! We are coming upon the best and most productive part of our trout fishing season. So, while you are all contemplating what the little and big things you can do to address the environmental concerns that are before us now, GET OUT THERE AND FISH!

Happy Fishing! —Scott Wagner