Legislative Report WITU busy with numerous issues July.pdf · “Standing in a River Waving a...

Wisconsin TroutSummer 2017

Wisconsin Council of Trout Unlimited2515 Bigler CircleVerona, WI 53593wicouncil.tu.org

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT NO. 1MADISON, WI

News and Views from Wisconsin Trout Unlimited

GLRI FUNDING SUPPORTS NEW CULVERT REPLACEMENTGreat Lakes Restoration Initiative funds have aided replacement of poorly designed culverts which act as barriers to fish movement, such as this one in northern Wisconsin.

CELEBRATING ART, LITERATURE AND CONSERVATION“At The Confluence 2017” will feature author John Gierach, author/artist Bob White, photographer Mike Dvorak and retired UWSP scientist Alan Haney.

Art, literature and conservation come together in premier event“At the Confluence 2017” in Wausau October 7, along with WITU meeting.

Do you appreciate quality outdoor writing and art?Are you concerned about our environmental legacy?Did you ever consider that conservation science and the arts are intercon-

nected?Did you ever want to meet and experience some of the finest outdoor

writers, artists and environmental scientists working today?Then join us for “At the Confluence 2017” at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson

Art Museum in Wausau, which will be held in conjunction with the world fa-mous annual “Birds in Art” exhibition.

This free, multi-day event where streams of art, literature, and conserva-tion flow together into a celebration of the outdoor world takes place fromThursday, October 5 through Sunday, October 8.

The featured writer will be John Gierach, a freelance writer and author oftwenty-one books including “Trout Bum,” “Sex, Death and Flyfishing,”“Standing in a River Waving a Stick” and “A Fly Rod of Your Own,”some ofwhich have also been published in Norway, Japan and France. He haspenned numerous magazine articles, essays and columns.

He is a regular columnist for The Redstone Review in Lyons, Coloradoand was the outdoor correspondent for the Longmont Daily Times-Callnewspaper in Longmont, Colorado for 28 years and a columnist for Fly Rod& Reel magazine for 25 years.

See CONFLUENCE, page 17

Legislative Report

WITU busy with numerous issuesMembers encouraged to contact their state and federal representatives.

By Henry Koltz, WITU Legislative Committee and TU National Trustee

As always, Wisconsin Trout Un-limited has remained busy address-ing numerous legislative issues.

Oppose threat to stewardship program

Wisconsin TU has come out inopposition to Senate Bill 270 andAssembly Bill 338. These bills wouldrequire the Wisconsin Departmentof Natural Resources (DNR) tospend up to $50 million during thenext 10 years to buy land which is al-ready owned by another state agen-cy, the Board of Commissioners ofPublic Lands.

As a part of this bill, theKnowles-Nelson Stewardship Pro-gram budget (which funds theStreambank Protection Programused to acquire stream fishing ac-cess easements) would be cut from$9 million to $2 million. That reduc-tion would clearly impact the state’sability to acquire more hunting andfishing land, and access easements,for the benefit of the public.

As has been reported here onnumerous occasions, the AmericanSportfishing Association has foundthat Wisconsin is the third-highest-ranked fishing destination in thecountry, with more than 335,000 vis-

itors spending more than $445 mil-lion each year, and total retail salesby all anglers exceeds $1.4 billion. Intotal, Wisconsin fishing accounts formore than $2 billion in annual eco-nomic impact, supporting morethan 21,000 jobs creating more than$665 million in salaries and wages,and resulting in more than $148 mil-lion in local and state tax revenue.

More recently, a recently re-leased study of trout angling in theDriftless Area, which includes partsof Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa andIllinois, revealed that anglers have atotal annual economic impact of$1.6 billion in the region. The studyalso found that more than 55 per-cent of anglers cited “easy streamand river access” as a factor in theirdecision to trout fish in the DriftlessArea.

Quite simply, healthy waters andthe healthy economic benefits thatthey create rely upon access. Fund-ing access to fishing and huntinggrounds is good for Wisconsin’s out-doors, and good for its economy andjobs, and the value return on suchexpenditures is significant. Wiscon-sin TU has issued a press release re-garding its position on these bills,and asks its members contact theirlegislators and urge them to opposeSB 270 and AB 338.

Dredging permit changesIn March of this year, the DNR

issued a draft proposal to changethe way that permits are issued forthe dredging of up to 25 cubic yardsof sediment from lakes and streams.Under old rules, DNR requiredthat such dredging be done under“individual permits,” often re-ferred to as an I.P. Under the newrule, dredging would be allowed un-der “general permits,” often re-ferred to as a G.P. This changeechoes components of what hadbeen defeated in a bills in last year’slegislature.

Individual permits often requiregreater scrutiny than general per-mits. For instance, individual per-mits traditionally contain a publicnotice provision to give notice of anactivity to concerned individuals,and a site visit from a DNR agent.Under individual permits, activitiesmay be governed or tailored to ad-

dress specific site conditions. Suchrequirements do not exist undergeneral permits.

Under general permits, the pro-cess is more rote, and permit seek-ers are required only to assert thatthey meet specific criteria (such aswhere dredging will occur, howmuch sediment will be removed,etc.) in order to be granted a per-mit. No notice is required, no siteinspection occurs, and there is gen-erally no ability to tailor permits tosite conditions.

Dredging occurs within waterbodies’ littoral zone, that area ofwater bodies closest to shore. Thelittoral zone is critical to marineplant life, and serves as critical wild-life habitat for both game and non-game aquatic and non-aquaticspecies. For fish, in many instancesthe littoral zone serves as spawningground.See LEGISLATION, page 25

Summer 2017Page 2 July 2006

WISCONSIN TROUTVol. 29, No. 3— Summer 2017

Wisconsin Trout is the official publication of the Wisconsin Council of Trout Unlimited and is distributed to the members of Wisconsin’s 21 TU chapters. Non-member subscriptions are $12.50/year. Publication dates are the first weeks of January, April, July and October. Dead-lines for articles and advertisements are the 10th of December, March, June and September. For a current advertising rate sheet, contact the editor.

Photo/article contributions, letters to the editor and advertisements are welcomed. Submit to:

Todd Franklin, Editor2515 Bigler CircleVerona, WI 53593(608) [email protected]

Wisconsin TU Chapters, Presidents, and Websites

Are you getting emails from TU? If you are currently not receiving news and event-related email messages from your chapter, the state council and TU National, then you are truly missing out on what’s happening at all three lev-els. TU National manages the mailing list for the council and chap-ters, so update your address by going to www.tu.org, log in, then go to “Email Preferences.” You can also call 1-800-834-2419 to make these changes, or to ask questions about making the changes via the web site.

Visit WITU online at:wicouncil.tu.org

Aldo Leopold (#375): Mike Stapleton, W8002 Whitetail Drive, Pard-eeville, WI 53954; (608) 742-3665; [email protected]; aldoleopold.tu.org

Antigo (#313): Scott Henricks, 213 Mary St., Antigo, WI 54409-2536 (715) 623-3867; [email protected]

Blackhawk (#390): Terry Vaughn; 4710 E. Creek Road, Beloit, WI 53511; (608) 362-4295; [email protected]; www.BlackhawkTU.org

Central Wisconsin (#117): Laura Tucker; N5424 Sunny Hill Rd, Sax-eville, 54976 (920) 622-5401; [email protected]; cwtu.org,

Coulee Region (#278): Curt Rees; W5190 Birchwood Lane, La-Crosse, WI 54601; [email protected]

Fox Valley (#193): Nate Ratliff, 199 Taylor Street, Little Chute, 54140 (920) 851-0502; [email protected];www.foxvalleytu.org

Frank Hornberg (#624): Matt Salchert, 1800 Minnesota Ave., Ste-vens Point, WI 54481 (715) 321-1394; [email protected];www.Hornberg-TU.org

Green Bay (#083): Staush Gruszynski, 1715 Deckner Ave., Green Bay, 54302 (920) 216-3793; [email protected];greenbaytu.org

Harry & Laura Nohr (#257): Tim Fraley, 2 Pagham Court, Madison, WI 53719; hm:(608) 271-1733; c:(608)220-0762; [email protected]; www.NohrTU.org

Kiap-TU-Wish (#168): Tom Schnadt, 2174 Commonwealth Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108; 651-245-5163; [email protected];www.kiaptuwish.org

Lakeshore (#423): Gordy Martin, N7601 Royal and Ancient Dr., Elkhart Lake, WI 53020; [email protected];www.WisconsinTU.org/Lakeshore

Marinette (#422): Dale Lange, N2095 CTH BB, Marinette, WI; 715-582-1135; [email protected], marinettecounty.tu.org.

Northwoods (#256): Jay N. Joppa; 8570 Oak Park Circle, Minocqua, WI 54548; (715) 499-1022; [email protected]; northwoods.tu.org

Oconto River (#385): Tom Klatt; 1677 Forest Glen Drive Green Bay, WI 54304 (920) 621-9266; [email protected]; ocontorivertu.com

Shaw-Paca (#381): Nate Sipple, 931 E. Fifth St., Shawano, WI 54166; (715) 304-7581; [email protected]; Wisconsin-TU.org/ShawPaca; www.facebook.com/shawpacatu

Southeastern Wisconsin (#078): Todd Durian; 4724 W. Blue Mound Road, Milwaukee, 53186; [email protected]; 414-403-5670; SEWTU.org; facebook.com/southeastwisconsintroutunlimited

Southern Wisconsin (#061): Matt Sment; 608-218-4133; [email protected]; P.O. Box 45555, Madison, WI 53744-5555; www.swtu.org

Wild Rivers (#415): Bob Rice 74355 Kaukamo Road, Iron River, WI 54847; (715) 292-1143; [email protected]/wildrivers

Wisconsin Clear Waters (#255): Joe Knight 5555 Northwoods Ct Eau Claire, WI 54703 (715) 832-8358 [email protected]; www.WisconsinTU.org/ClearWaters

Wisconsin River Valley (#395): Doug Brown, R4800 Timber Lane, Ringle, WI 54471; [email protected]; 715-899-0024; www.wrvtu.org

Wolf River (#050): Andy Killoren, N1493 Hwy 45, Fremont, WI 54940; (920) 667-5385; [email protected]; WolfriverTU.org

Linn Beck, Chair

Tom Lager, Secretary

Mike Kuhr, Vice Chair

Gary Stoychoff, Treasurer

Douglas Bayfield

Ashland

Iron

Vilas

Forest

Florence

Marinette

Oconto

Langlade

Shawano

Lincoln

Marathon

Taylor

PriceSawyer

Rusk

WashburnBurnett

Polk

Barron

St. Croix

Dunn

Chippewa

Wood

Portage

Waupaca

Outagamie

Waushara WinnebagoCalumet

Manitowoc

Kewaunee

Door

Fond du Lac

Sheboygan

Ozaukee

Washington

Dodge

MilwaukeeWaukeshaJefferson

Racine

Kenosha

WalworthRockGreenLafayette

Grant

Iowa

Dane

ColumbiaSauk

Green

Lake

Marquette

Adams

Juneau

Richland

Crawford

Vernon

MonroeLa Crosse

Jackson

Trempealeau

Buffalo

Pepin

Clark

Eau ClairePierce

Oneida

Brown

Menominee

WILD RIVERS

NORTHWOODS

FOXVALLEY

LAKESHORE

FRANK HORNBERG

WISCONSINRIVER VALLEY

SHAW-PACA

MARINETTE

GREEN BAYANTIGO

OCONTORIVER

SOUTHEASTERNWISCONSIN

BLACKHAWK

SOUTHERN WISCONSIN

HARRY &LAURA NOHR

COULEEREGION

CENTRALWISCONSIN

ALDO LEOPOLD

WI CLEARWATERS

KIAP-TU-WISH

WOLFRIVER

Wisconsin Trout

State Council LeadershipState Chair: Linn Beck, 160 W. 19th Ave., Oshkosh, WI 54902 (920) 216-7408;[email protected] Chair: Mike Kuhr, 6103 Queensway, Monona, WI 53716; (414) 588-4281;[email protected]: Tom Lager, 1700 Spring Hill Ct., Neenah, WI 54956; (920) 540-9194;[email protected]: Gary Stoychoff, 1326 14th Ave., Green Bay, WI 54304 [email protected] Trustee: Henry Koltz, 2300 N. Mayfair Rd., Ste. 1175, Milwaukee, WI 53226 (414) 331-5679 (H); [email protected] Chair, Central Region:Tom Lager, see aboveVice Chair, Northeast Region:Doug Erdmann, 2418 Woodview Lane, Marinette, WI 54143; 715-735-7407; [email protected] Chair, Southern Region: Jim Wierzba, 2817 Country Club Drive, Mequon, WI 53092 (262) 238-0282; [email protected] Chair, Western Region: Gary Horvath, 623 W. Pine Street, River Falls, WI 54806 (715)425-8489; [email protected]: Bill Heart, 29450 Verners Road, Ashland, WI 54806; (715) 209-0431;[email protected]: Open

Education: Bob Haase, W7949 Treptow Ln., Eldorado, WI 54932 (920) 922-8003 (H);[email protected] of WITU and Watershed Access Fund: Doug Brown, R4800 Timber Ln., Ringle, WI 54471 (715) 899-0024; [email protected] Counsel: OpenLegislative Chair: Henry Koltz Membership: Chair Paul Kruse, 500 Saint Jude St., Green Bay, WI 54303 (920) 494-4220); [email protected]; National Leadership Council Representative: Kim McCarthy, 736 Meadowbrook Ct., Green Bay, WI 54313 (920) 434-3659;[email protected] In the Classroom Coordina-tor: Greg Olson, 16370 Division St., Lakeland MN, 55043; [email protected] Services Partnership Co-ordinator: Mike KuhrWater Resources: Bob Obma, 12870 West Shore Drive, Moun-tain, WI 54149 (715) 276-1170 (H)[email protected]: Brandon Schmalz, 1229 Goss Ave., Menasha, WI 54952; 920-851-8129; [email protected]’s Initiatives: Heidi Oberstadt, 456 Wadleigh St., Stevens Point, WI 54481; 715-573-5104; [email protected]

State Council OfficersExecutive Committee includes officers and vice chairs

Summer 2017 Wisconsin Trout

Chairman’s Column

Volunteer opportunities abound with TU

With the start of my second termas State Council chair, it is wonder-ful to see so many of our membersstepping up and helping at the chap-ter and state level. It seems like ev-ery time we turn around there isanother opportunity to become in-volved. Thank you all so much forstepping up for TU.

Our chapters and the Councilcontinue to become more active,and they’re developing more pro-grams. That means there’s a grow-ing variety of volunteer opp-ortunities to suit the tastes of ourmembers.

This is an exciting time for theCouncil, and we have lots of roomfor development and volunteerismin our youth programs, veteransprograms and diversity programs.

Many of our chapters now haveyouth education coordinators, andas they settle into their new posi-tions, and youth programs becomemore defined, there are no bound-aries that should hold them back.As we have found out with the WI-TU Youth Fishing Camp, our youngpeople are excited and eager to helpwith the chapters any way they can.So, imagine if we can generate thattype of energy from all the otheryouth Headwaters programs avail-

able, such as TIC, Stream Explorersand the Costa 5 Rivers program.What a great foundation for ourchapters. I am the Council’s youtheducation coordinator, so if youwould like to join the rest of us as ayouth education coordinator foryour chapter, just let me know.

Our veterans programs have a lotof room for growth. There are op-portunities available to start somenew Project Healing Waters pro-grams in various cities, but we’llneed volunteers to do this. Pleasecontact Mike Kuhr if you are inter-ested in getting involved or wouldlike more information on our veter-ans programs.

And finally, I would like to talkabout our Diversity Program (for-merly known as the Women’s Initia-tive). In the short time the programhas been around, it is really startingto gain ground. Heidi Oberstadt hasbeen setting up outings and we havebeen running a women’s clinic dur-ing our annual meeting in Oshkosh.They have been fortunate to fill it tocapacity and always could use somemore help. If you are interested inhelping or know someone you thinkwould like to join any of the pro-grams, please contact Heidi Ober-stadt.

These programs would not bewhere they are now, and in the posi-tion to grow, without our volun-teers. So again, thank you for all youdo for Wisconsin Trout Unlimited.

And be sure to take the time to

take someone fishing. As much aswe need to get out and enjoy the wa-ter, there is always someone elsewho needs it more.

Tight Lines.Linn

STATE COUNCIL CHAIR LINN BECK

By Wayne Parmley, Youth Camp Coordinator

This year’s Wisconsin TU YouthFishing Camp will be held July 20-23at the Pine Lake Bible Camp nearWild Rose, Wisconsin.

There are still a few spots open,so get in touch with your local chap-ter if you know of a child betweenthe ages of 12-16 who would be in-terested in attending. Each student’ssponsoring TU chapter will pay the$250 fee per youth.

It is the responsibility of the par-ents or the sponsoring chapter (withparental approval) to provide trans-portation to and from camp. All oth-er expenses are covered by WITU,as well as meals and lodging for vol-unteers.

We hope and encourage that thesponsoring TU chapters stay intouch with their sponsored studentslong after the camp experience tofurther their involvement and activi-

ty in fishing, attending events, con-servation projects and maybefinding a mentorwithin the chap-ter.

We will contin-ue to follow thesame general for-mat and curricu-lum as in pastyears, but with afew tweaks andimprovements.We always collectfeedback fromstudents and vol-unteers after ev-ery camp so wecan continue toimprove our offerings and try newideas. We have been fortunate thatour expert presenters do a fantasticjob, and that they keep coming backevery year.

We are also in good shape forvolunteers this year, with a nice mixof veterans who have been involvedfrom the beginning and a handful ofnew faces. In addition, we always se-lect a few students to return as ju-nior mentors. It is always great seevolunteerism happening at all ages.And a few of these junior mentorshave continued on to become fullmentors. This has been one of themost exciting outcomes of this pro-gram.

The presentations and hands-onclasses, as in past years, include:stream entomology, safety, sports-manship, invasive species, spin fish-ing, live-bait fishing, fly fishing, flyand spin casting, spinner making, flytying, an on-stream field trip withfish-shocking demo, guided fishingon warm water and trout streams,and much more.

Not all students have the wadersand gear they need, so over the pastfew years we have been collectingdonated waders and wading boots tohave available at camp. We can al-

2017 Youth Camp almost hereways use more, so consider donatingany gear you are not using anymore

for the campgear stock. Allgear will bemaintained andstored for fu-ture camps.

Another op-tion, if possi-ble, would befor the sponsor-ing chapter toloan gear totheir student.We are also al-ways lookingfor differenttypes of gear to

be donated as door prizes, such asan older fly rod or reel, fly-tyingitems, fly boxes, etc. Many of thesekids are just getting started and anypiece of gear they can get is one

more step toward getting them outon the water. To donate gear, con-tact Wayne Parmley at [email protected] or 920-540-2315.

Bob Haase is working on filling afly box for every attending student,so we are also asking for flies. Alltypes of flies are welcome, for pan-fish, trout or even bass. Whether itis a few or several dozen, we appre-ciate it and the kids love it. Pleasecontact Bob at [email protected] 920-579-3858.

Thanks again to all who havesupported this great program inthese beginning years. I see a longfuture ahead and look forward toseeing where this takes us in five or10 or 25 years.

For more information or ques-tions, please contact Linn Beck [email protected] or 920-216-7408 orWayne Parmley at [email protected] or 920-540-2315.

FLY TYING AND MOREWITU Youth Fishing Camp students like William Follet will learn about fishing, conservation and more.

ALL THESE BUGS LIVE IN STREAMS?Last year’s fishing camp students examine the bug life that is so important to the health of streams and lakes...and important to being a better angler.

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A few of these junior mentors have

continued on to become full mentors. This has been one of

the most exciting outcomes of this

program.


By Tom Lager

TU CARES (Trout Unlimited -Central Area Restoration Effort forSustainability) is making good prog-ress on its foundational project thissummer on the West Branch of theWhite River (WBWR). The projectobjective is to assess and implementimprovements to the WBWR repre-senting the possibilities achievableacross the Central Region streams.

Our first step is to assess anddocument the current condition ofthe watershed to form the basis foran effective and affordable water-shed plan. John Tucker is exploringpotential use of organizations spe-cializing in watershed planning,such as Inter-Fluve, and othermeans that are more affordable, aswell as evaluating how other water-shed projects are planned and im-plemented, such as the Upper SugarRiver Watershed.

Watershed documentation is un-der way. Mike San Dretto, with sup-port from Dennis Drazkowski,established six monitoring sitesalong the eight-mile length of theWBWR based on accessibility andbest locations to assess the charac-teristics of the watershed. Site habi-tat assessment will follow theguidelines of the Wadable StreamQualitative Fish Habitat Rating forStreams, and water monitoring willfollow the Water Action VolunteersStream Monitoring Data Record-ing methods.

Sampling will occur multipletimes throughout the summer anddata will be archived in the SurfaceWater Integrated Monitoring Sys-tem (SWIMS) database. Extensiveherpetological and macroinverte-brate surveys by Clay Parmley andTom Lager, respectively, will becompleted by fall. Under-water vid-eo documentation of rainbow trout

was completed by BrandonSchmalz. The magnitude and inten-sity of monitoring and survey workis possible because of the aforemen-tioned TU’ers as well as NateRatliff , Tamara Talsma, Al Johnsonand others conducting field work.

Outreach will include other or-ganizations and TU chapters, and isinstrumental to our efforts charac-terizing the watershed and meetingour objectives. We have great par-ticipation from various DNR staff.Bobbi Jo Fischer has been on site,and with John Tucker, is arrangingStream Crossing Inventory Trainingto enable TU CARES to conductthe stream-crossing inventory.

Shawn Sullivan’s DNR WildRose Habitat Crew continues their2017 Habitat Improvement Planand provides technical organizationfor the June 17 Habitat Day to con-struct log sills, clear brush for fish-ability and install brush-bundles toenhance WBWR channel depth, inthe mid-section of the watershed.This Habitat Day will receive sup-port from these TU chapters locat-ed outside of the TU CentralRegion: Green Bay, Wolf River,Oconto River and Marinette.

Bob Jozwowski, the CWTU rivermonitoring coordinator and long-time monitor of the WBWR, is sup-portive and continues the monitor-ing of site six. Laura and JohnTucker developed a unique associa-tion with an out-of-state TU chap-ter informing them of TU CARESand welcoming their participationand support. We are also followingup on other in-state and out-of-stateinquiries from those interested inproviding support. Please contact usto become involved. We hope tohave the first draft of the WBWRWatershed characterization and ini-tial plans for the watershed com-plete by year end.

LEARNING TO MEASURE DISSOLVED OXYGENMike San Dretto, Central Wisconsin Trout Unlimited, describes the method for measuring dissolved oxygen content of a water sample to members of the DNR Trout Habitat Unit members Jamie Rupple, Steve Devitt and Kyle Kossel.

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Central region effort making great progress

Paul Krahn of Westby joinedTUDARE as a stream restorationspecialist last month, and will beworking to develop watershed proj-ects across the Driftless Area. Hehas been doing coldwater habitatwork almost since he began workingwith Vernon County’s Land Conser-vation Depart-ment 31 years ago.For the last 13years he hasserved as VernonCounty Conserva-tionist.

ManyTUDARE proj-ects around the re-gion put dollars towork from the US-DA’s Natural Re-sources Conserva-tion Service, alongwith other fundingfrom agencies,nonprofits, foun-dations or conser-vation groups.TUDARE recentlyobtained a $2.9million grant fromNRCS to fund alarge share of localprojects. Krahn has worked withNRCS funding for years on projectsin Vernon County.

From that experience, Krahnbrings a wealth of project knowl-edge to his new position. He’s com-pleted more than 18 miles of habitatproject work in his career, all in Ver-non County so far. In the years hehas been doing that work, he said,he has seen a remarkable evolutionin the philosophy and techniques ofhabitat work. Soft-spoken and amia-ble, he will be good at building proj-ect partnerships and getting thingsdone.

He credits Jeff Hastings,

TUDARE project manager and for-mer Vernon County Conservationisthimself, as a major influence in hisown development as a project man-ager. Dave Vetrano, Former DNRfisheries biologist Dave Vetrano andretired NRCS District Conserva-tionist for Vernon County, Jim

Radtke, also men-tored him. In oneof the key county-level precursors toTUDARE, allthree worked foryears to find out-side funding forprojects in thecounty, obtaineasements andteam up with part-ners to get proj-ects done. One ofthe first TU chap-ters to supportthat work was theBlackhawk Chap-ter of TU, whichremains a majorcontributor toprojects aroundthe area.

Hastings said,“There are over 40

counties in the Driftless Area andmany of the local field offices haveconservationists/technicians that arenot trained in designing coldwaterprojects, such as bank stabilizationwith trout habitat. Paul will be work-ing with county and federal staff onprojects in those counties and at thesame time helping them improvetheir job skills to develop future res-toration projects.”

Paul and his wife, Kim, live onthe West Fork of the Kickapoo Riv-er with their two daughters.—Duke Welter

Krahn joins TUDAREFormer Vernon County Conservationist now TUDARE’s stream restoration specialist

TUDARE’S PAUL KRAHNPaul Krahn has been doing stream habitat and restoration work for decades in Vernon County.


By Amanda PerdzockRiver Alliance of Wisconsin

New Zealand mudsnail (NZMS)was first discovered in a macroin-vertebrate sample taken from BlackEarth Creek in Dane County in Oc-tober of 2013.

Since then, partner organiza-tions including Southern WisconsinTU, Badger Fly Fishers, BlackEarth Creek Watershed Associa-tion, Upper Sugar River WatershedAssociation (USRWA), the Depart-ment of Natural Resources, andRiver Alliance of Wisconsin haveworked diligently to educate riverand stream users about NZMS andprevent their spread.

Thanks to these efforts, NZMShas only been discovered on oneother stream, Badger Mill Creek inthe Upper Sugar River Watershedof Dane County, since the initialdiscovery in 2013.

This new population on BadgerMill Creek was discovered duringroutine monitoring conducted bythe Madison Metropolitan Sewer-age District in September of 2016.

Here is a rundown of what has tak-en place and what is to come in re-sponse to the most recent NZMSdiscovery:

USRWA received a grant thisyear from the DNR to educate riverusers about NZMS, install signage,build wader wash stations and trainvolunteers to monitor for NZMS

Sign posts were installed thispast fall in the Upper Sugar RiverWatershed at popular access points.Signs will be placed at these pointsto remind river users to clean gearafter leaving streams and preventthe spread of NZMS. Boot brusheswill also be secured to signs for riverusers.

In late April, volunteers gath-ered to build 30 wader wash sta-tions. USRWA is currently workingto place those stations in the UpperSugar River Watershed and on oth-er local streams. Thus far, 18 sta-tions have been placed.

USRWA is recruiting volunteersto monitor for NZMS in the UpperSugar River Watershed. Several vol-unteers have already been trainedand are now on the lookout.

Responding to New Zealand mudsnailsAn update on efforts in southern Wisconsin.

LOST BOOT CAKED WITH NEW ZEALAND MUDSNAILS IN BECThis lost boot was found caked with New Zealand mudnails on Black Earth Creek in Dane County by a DNR stream biologist in April.

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WADER WASH STATION CONSTRUCTIONVolunteers worked diligently to build 30 wader wash stations on April 29 in response to the latest NZMS finding.

Water Action Volunteers (WAV),a statewide UW-Extension volun-teer stream monitoring program, iscurrently working on an addendumto their monitoring protocols to en-sure that their volunteers aretrained in spotting and slowing thespread of NZMS.

The summer field season hasstarted for DNR stream biologists,who are keeping an eye out forNZMS during their usual streammonitoring efforts as well.

Along with all these efforts,USRWA is also working with localschools to provide adult and youtheducation programs about the im-pacts of NZMS and how local citi-zens can prevent their spread.According to USRWA ExecutiveDirector Wade Moder, “the biggesttakeaway from all this is, New Zea-land mudsnails are so small, if

you’re cleaning your gear with thepurpose of removing these, you’realso going to prevent the spread ofany other species that might be pres-ent as well.”

Anyone interested in getting in-volved in the NZMS response inSouthern Wisconsin can contactRiver Alliance Aquatic InvasiveSpecies Program Director AmandaPerdzock at [email protected], 608-257-2424 x 111, orUSRWA Executive Director WadeModer at [email protected], 609-437-7707.

If you’d like to monitor forNZMS and other water quality pa-rameters elsewhere in the state, con-tact DNR WAV Stream MonitoringCoordinator Ilana Haimes [email protected], 608-266-3599.

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By Matt KruegerRiver Alliance of Wisconsin

Opposition continues to grow against the “Back FortyMine,” a proposed open-pit sulfide mine a mere 150 feetfrom the Menominee River, the border river betweenWisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Local and county resolutionsagainst the mine are being debatedin Brown County, Wisconsin, Mari-nette, Wisconsin and Menominee,Michigan. Resolutions have passedin Marinette County and the Cityof Peshtigo, as its substantial envi-ronmental risks become better un-derstood.

Aquila Resources has receivedthree of the necessary four permitsit needs to operate from the Michi-gan Department of EnvironmentalQuality. Two contested case hear-ings have been granted over the mining permit to theMenominee Tribe and a local property owner.

Sulfide mines are notorious polluters, as they pro-duce sulfuric acid, among other toxins, as a byproduct.But even among sulfide mines, the Back Forty is singu-larly dubious, for a number of reasons. Poisons such ascyanide would be dumped into the ground to extractgold. Processing of tailings (a toxic slurry of ore wastes)

would occur on-site, substantially enlarging the physicalfootprint of the mine, and the risk it carries.

The proposed pit would be more than 700 feet deep.The pit would have to be “dewatered,” which woulddraw down groundwater supply to nearby streams andwetlands.

On top of all of this, the mine would desecrate sacredsites of the Menominee Tribe, includingthe physical place of the tribe’s originstory, depress property values for near-by residents, and endanger drinking wa-ter both for adjacent local wells anddownstream Marinette, Wisconsin’smunicipal well, which draws fromGreen Bay, close to where the Menom-inee River enters the Bay.

Additionally, the mine’s engineeredinfrastructure would not withstand thecatastrophic flood events that Wiscon-sin is seeing more frequently, such asthe summer 2016 northwestern Wiscon-

sin flood flows the U.S. Forest Service called five times a500-year flood event, as the effects of climate change al-ter our rainfall patterns.

For more information about the environmental im-pacts of the proposed Back Forty Mine, visit http://www.noback40.org/HowToHelp.aspx, or view videos onthe topic at https://www.wisconsinrivers.org/noback40mine.

Back Forty Mine update

The proposed pit would be more than 700 feet deep. The pit would have to be

“dewatered,” which would draw down groundwater supply to nearby streams

and wetlands.


TM

2016 ORLANDO, FLORIDA

BEST OF SHOWACCESSORIES(UNDER $100)

WISCONSIN

The WITU executive committeerecently approved the WisconsinTrout Unlimited Strategic Plan,which will guide our efforts duringthe next five years. The plan consistsof goals that will help solidify Wis-consin Trout Unlimited for manyyears to come and serve as a basefor future strategic plans. Each goalhas been structured to help com-plete this plan, while also looking tothe future.

Here are the goals: • Put in place the tools required to

ensure State Council sustainabil-ity by increasing membership andincreasing membership diversity.

• Create a network of Trout Un-limited advocates.

• With the help of the River Alli-ance of Wisconsin, the Councilhas completed advocacy trainingfor all its regions, and we havevastly increased the number ofmembers who are willing to beadvocates for Trout Unlimited.TU National is now encouragingcouncils and chapters to name anadvocacy chairperson to serve asa “go to” person for National.When National TU wants itsmembers to act, it can contactthese chairs, who can then sharethe information with council orchapter leadership and members.

• We have started the most impor-tant part of our advocacy portionof the plan, as we have finallybeen able to set some funding

aside for a lobbyist to help ourcause in Madison. We are inneed of having someone that willkeep us on pace and informedwith what is happening with billsand can speak on our behalf.

• Increase the number and qualityof projects to protect, restoreand reconnect trout streams inWisconsin.

• We are always working on waysto make it easier for our chaptersto get more projects, and as theenvironment changes we havepeople contacting the councilwith ideas and project possibili-ties.

• Institute a program of goal-ori-ented angler science projects thataddress issues to further theState Council’s mission.

• Develop chapter uniformity foryouth membership and youth ed-ucation growth.

• This is the front that will be see-ing the most change in the nextfive years. We are encouragingeach chapter to select a youth ed-ucation coordinator, and nearlyhalf have already done so. Wehave also named a youth coordi-nator for the Council. These co-ordinators will help us grow andunify all of the youth programsavailable to us.It’s exciting that within four

months of us implementing the planwe are making great strides towardreaching our goals.—Linn Beck

Key Council goals spelled out in Strategic Plan

Kim McCarthy, Wisconsin TU’s National Leadership Council

Representative

Youth education coordinators

We have been asking chaptersfor quite some time to appoint aYouth Education Coordinator(YEC). The Wisconsin response hasbeen good with many chapters hav-ing found someone willing to takeon this important role.

Whether or not your chapter iscurrently involved in youth activi-ties, having a coordinator will en-hance the effectiveness of youryouth education efforts. Whetherit’s Trout In the Classroom, StreamGirls, a Costa 5 Rivers Club, or anyof the TU-supported programs, hav-ing a YEC on board will make youractivities easier and more effective.

5 Rivers road tripNational has selected a group of

young members who are part of dif-ferent Costa 5 Rivers clubs to travelthe west this summer in pursuit ofthe western native trout species.They will fish for the natives, look atTU’s work in protecting and restor-ing the natives, interview peopleworking hard to save native fish, anddocument it all on social media as ithappens.

I offered, but my presence as afishing chaperone was not needed.The hope here is that having youth

communicating through social me-dia will be an effective way to getthe message to a younger audience.Second set of eyes

We are also approaching fullcompliance with the National TUmandate for all chapters to have a“second set of eyes on the books.”Very shortly all of our chapters andthe council will have met the man-date. Donors and members nowhave our assurance that we handlefunds carefully and have taken pre-cautions to make sure that ourfunds are used exactly as intended.

Litigation policyNational TU is reviewing itsliti-

gation policy. There will be newscoming about what will be requiredof chapters or councils that are ei-ther directly involved in filing a liti-gation or that are being sued.

This is a situation the vast major-ity of chapters are never involvedwith, but if it does, there is moreguidance on the way. Please notethat this will have no effect on thegreat advocacy work that many ofour chapters and members are in-volved with.

Our TU Wisconsin members doa tremendous job for trout. I hopeall of you take time this season toget out and catch some fish whileappreciating what we are working sohard to preserve.

TU National Leadership Council Report


By Theresa Stabo, DNRFisheries Outreach Coordinator

Wisconsin is into its third year ofinviting a new cadre of anglers tothe water’s edge by way of the din-ner table. The goal is to increase therate of consistent license buyersnecessary to maintain financial andphilosophical support for fisheriesmanagement work and healthyaquatic habitats.

Classes are offered to adults whomay never have considered them-selves anglers but have a keen inter-est in local, sustainable food systemsand want to have a hand in harvest-ing it. Class instructors offer aglimpse at historical perspectives onWisconsin’s fisheries ecology andfishing traditions, inform beginnerson how they can prevent the spreadof aquatic invasive species and pro-vide the basics on fishing skills.

Next event July 14This July, in partnership with the

Driftless Folk School, we will be of-fering a Fishing for Dinner classthat will lead beginners to some ofthe fabled trout streams of theDriftless Area.

Our basecamp will be the idyllicfarm of Ann and Chris Mahan,which rolls along the North Fork ofthe Bad Axe River. Lodging for par-ticipants is whatever tent they bringand pitch themselves, unless theywant to commute to a nearby motel.A recreation room can serve asgroup sleeping quarters for campersif soggy conditions prevail.

The class begins Friday evening,July 14 at 5 p.m. and ends Sunday by5 p.m. Participants will learn aboutthe waters of the area from retiredDNR Fisheries Biologist Dave Ve-trano, anglers’ water rights fromWater Regulations and Zoning Spe-cialist James Brodzeller, and fishingtechniques from stream ecologistMike Miller, and shooting sportsspecialist and author of severalbooks on cooking fish and game,John Motoviloff, the WisconsinFishing Team and others.

Techniques will focus on spinninggear, but we’ll also dabble in fly fish-ing gear. All equipment (exceptwaders, which may not be neces-sary) is provided, but participantsare encouraged to bring their own ifthey have it, so that they can learn touse what they have. After fishing,we’ll cook the catch.

Drawn to fishing for different reasons

People are drawn to fishing for avariety of reasons. An individual’sattitude and philosophy toward na-ture shapes his or her experience onthe water. Some fish for the chal-lenge of out-witting a wary fish,some come seeking solitude whilesome bring their friends and makethe fishing outing a social event.Still others seek a closer relation-ship with the food they eat and wantto have a hand in harvesting theirown meat. Not everyone can raisefarm animals in their backyards, butthey can go to the nearest lake orstream and catch a fish for dinner.

Regulations provide a full rangeof fishing experiences. Trout streamclassifications and bag limits of ma-ny trout waters indicate that keep-ing an occasional fish will not have adetrimental effect on the long-termhealth of those populations. In fact,it seems that being able to eat afreshly-caught fish now and then ismore likely to broaden support toprotect water quality for trout andother living things. The more an-glers that are on the water who canmake the connections between goodhabitat, good fishing and a gooddinner, the better off we’ll all be.

DNR’s “R3” effortAll of this is part of the DNRs

Recruitment, Retention and Reacti-vation (R3) effort, whereby we en-list experienced outdoorspeople,local chefs, culinary arts instructors,and members of the sustainable andlocal foods community to encourageyoung adults to fish or hunt. We’relooping back around to catch thosepeople who missed the fishing boat

Fishing for DinnerWisconsin invites a new cadre of anglers to the water’s edge by way of the dinner table.

NEXT DNR “FISHING FOR FOOD” EVENT JULY 14 IN DRIFTLESS AREAIn partnership with the Driftless Folk School, the DNR will be offering a Fishing for Dinner class that will lead beginners to some of the fabled trout streams of the Driftless Area.

The

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as a kid or are new to Wisconsin andour fishing and hunting culture.

Starting close to our Milwaukeeand Madison offices, the Fishing forDinner program, has conductednine community education-styleclasses for 127 new anglers, or thosewith limited experience. Now it’stime to branch out from a lake ori-entation to our state’s bountiful ru-ral streams and increase the varietyof opportunities we offer.

Competition for the time and at-tention of adults, especially youngadults, to attract them to these class-es can be a challenge, so we’ve di-versified our outreach efforts. Nowwe exhibit at venues that appeal to adiverse mix of people who don’t typ-ically attend traditional sport shows.Look for us at events like Canoeco-pia, a paddlesport expo in March;the Wisconsin Local Foods NetworkSummit in January and the Midwest

Energy Fair in June. We are also establishing a grant

program and application processwith a list of criteria, to enable otherpartners (such as Trout Unlimitedchapters or members) to implementthese classes. Grant recipients willhave training to ensure that scope,content, duration and evaluation oftheir classes meet acceptable stan-dards.

Share your passionIf you have an interest in sharing

your love of fishing Wisconsin’scoldwater streams and/or lakes,please contact me with your ideas.And, please pass the word about theJuly class to beginners. Contact [email protected], 608-266-2272, or go to

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/FishingforDinner/index.html

“Trout Stream Therapy”

Whenever The world becomes

Too intrusive,I go to sit

Beside a trout stream,Knowing that:

Its restful music,Its glistening splendor,

Its eternal reassurance…Will soon calm

My every unquiet thought.

This poem was written by Dan Holland in honor of Bob Hunt


Hi, Brandon. Thanks for vol-unteering to be our State Councilwebmaster. You've done somegreat work with the Fox Valley TUwebsite and we’re excited to haveyou helping at the state level.When and why did you decide tojoin TU?

I've been an active member forabout two and a half years now. Istarted attending chapter meet-ings and work days, then becamea board member and took overmanagement of the chapter web-site.

When I first joined, I was look-ing for more information on localstreams and wanted to meet otherpeople who were as interested introut fishing as I was. I certainlydidn't expect to become this in-volved, but the more I learnedabout the challenges and issuesfacing coldwater resources, themore I wanted to do my part tohelp protect them. Along the way,I also learned a ton about localstreams and gained several newfishing buddies.

I’m a Fox Valley guy, too…born and raised in Neenah. Hopeyou don't hold that against me.Have you always lived in Wiscon-sin?

I’ve lived in Menasha mywhole life. The majority of myfamily lives in the area, so I’venever felt the need to leave. I’vebeen very fortunate to be able totravel for work and fun through-out the U.S. and the world, but Istill cannot imagine calling any-where else home.

Can you recall a moment inyour childhood when you made aspecial connection with fishing orthe outdoors?

I think I have to give credit tomy stepfather for teaching me totrout fish when I was young. I re-member catching my first trout atabout 12 years old, on a fly that Itied myself. I managed to land asmall brown on something thatresembled a hares ear nymph,while letting the fly drift down-stream, because I couldn't castwell enough to fish upstream. Iwas so shocked that my fly actual-ly worked, and that moment hasreally stuck with me over theyears.

We know volunteering for TUis very satisfying, but it doesn’texactly pay the bills. What do youfor a living?

I’m a computer programmer,mostly working with web-basedtechnologies. Sitting at a desk andstaring at a computer screen allday can be stressful and un-healthy, so getting out fishing ismy countermeasure to stay fit andsane.

But it’s also great to be able touse my professional skills as a de-veloper to help TU effectivelycommunicate via the website andhelp enable others to join andfind information.

By the time this goes to press,you and your wife will have hadyour second child. Congratula-tions! Do you think having youngchildren has changed the way you

view TU and its mission?Thanks. I think now I want to

make sure I'm setting a good ex-ample for my children, and thatthey have the same (or better) op-portunities that I have had to en-joy coldwater resources andpublic lands.

I've got a two-year-old daugh-ter and feel lucky that she likes tospend some time with me stream-side. Have you taken your olderchild out fishing at all?

I brought my three-year-olddaughter out with me earlier thisyear. We went to a stretch of riverwhere I knew we could get closeto rising fish. First we just sat andwatched the river and she wouldgiggle every time fish would rise.The splashier the rise, the funnierit was. Then I was able to landseveral fish, and she insisted onholding each one (after wettingher hands) and letting them goherself. It was a proud momentfor me. She really loves just walk-ing around in the woods and col-lecting things she finds. When wegot home, I found a stash ofacorns and wildflowers in herpockets.

I also like to bring her to Ce-dar Spring trout farm in Cascadeand let her catch us a dinner ofrainbows.

If you could go anywhere in theworld on an all-expense paid sev-en-day trip, where would you go?

That’s a tough question, but Ithink the top of my list would bean Alaska float-plane trip to fishfor steelhead, grayling and dollyvarden. I can think of other moreexotic or distant destinations, butthere is just something aboutchasing native fish in wild placesthat draws me in.

Aside from top secret fishing

spots, do you have any favoritegetaway locations closer to home?

The Pine River in WausharaCounty has always been a specialplace for me. It’s where I firstlearned to trout fish and I knowmost of the river like the back ofmy hand.

Do you have any advice forother chapter webmasters thatyou’d like to share?

I think that the first step inbuilding a site is to define what itis you are trying to accomplishwith the website. This step is of-ten skipped because the answermay seem obvious at first untilyou really stop and think about it.Then, create realistic goals for thesite and rank them in order of im-portance. Once you understandwhat your top goals are, it makesit much easier to prioritize yourtime and measure the value thesite is actually providing to yourchapter.

Thank you for spending sometime with us, Brandon. We lookforward to working with you tomake improvements to the Wis-consin TU website.

Gear up with Fontana Sports for your spring Trout and Steelhead adventures.

Get to know Brandon Schmalz, our newWisconsin TU webmasterInterview by Mike Kuhr, Council Vice Chair

For summer fishing trips close to home and far from home, we’ve got your gear. Largest fly selection in

S.W. Wisconsin. Yeti coolers are here.

PROUD FATHER AND PASSIONATE TU VOLUNTEERBrandon Schmalz is a computer programmer, mostly working with web-based technologies. He enjoys being able to use his skills to help TU effectively communicate via websites and help enable others to join and find information.


INTRODUCING MAYBELLE FOONTZ

I suppose the question was inevitable, given the attention being givento gender and sexuality issues, but no, Thurlow and I are not gay, noranything but fishing buddies. OK, I go with Thurlow to Elmer’s Hair Em-porium on alternate Saturdays while he watches hair-cuts [h is favor i te hobby next to f ish ing] andoccasionally gets one, but that’s because we’refriends and because he often has things to say thatare worth hearing. He has a running joke with Elmer inthat he always orders his haircut “to go.” Anyway, I’mmarried, and Thurlow has a girlfriend and perpetual fi-ancée, and therein lies a tale.

Her name is Maybelle Foontz, and she is the courtreporter for the county’s only and perpetual judge,The Honorable O. Felix Culpa. She and Thurlow metyears ago in his courtroom when Thurlow was up on aDNR charge of fishing with live bait on an “artificialsonly” section of a trout stream, a charge that Thurlowinsisted was factually incorrect and legally unjust.Specifically, the warden found Thurlow with a can ofNiblets corn and three kernels impaled on the shankof a #12 3XL hook attached to his tippet. The wardensaid it was the equivalent of live bait. Thurlow said it wasn’t neither, andinsisted on a trial.

Maybelle took the notes. Thurlow chose to represent himself, and ar-

gued that the Niblets were, indeed, artificial, in that (1) corn kernels donot constitute a normal part of a trout’s diet and (2) in size, shape andcolor they imitate fish eggs, which do, and are therefore artificial.Damned if the jury didn’t acquit him.

Maybelle was so impressed that she pursued him, even enduringhours at Elmer’s just gazing adoringly at Thurlow while hecritiqued fades and buzz-cuts. Thurlow finally got the mes-sage, and things developed from there. They’ve been “en-gaged” for nine years. His nickname for her is “Maybe,”which is cute and also as accurate a description of their re-lationship as possible in one word. They have a little boy,named “Skeezix,” named after a character Maybelle foundin the comic section of a very old newspaper while shewas pregnant. More about him farther downstream.

Why aren’t they married? Money, and Thurlow’s senseof ethics. Wisconsin is a “marital property state,” whichmeans that if they married, he would have an undivided in-terest in everything Maybelle brought into the family in-come. Thurlow thinks that’s unfair, as his contribution totheir mutual well-being consists more of fish and game,and occasional cash from trapping and his equally-occa-sional employment as a handyman/mechanic. This way,he says, Maybelle keeps everything she earns, and what

she contributes is a gift, not an obligation. This, he says, strengthens therelationship. I have yet to find a convincing argument otherwise.

FICTION

Palmered Windings: The Thurlow ChroniclesFishing tales from the desk of Benbow Cheseman

By Kim McCarthy

We hear a lot about various invasive species, but we don’t always see firsthand what a mess they can make in a great trout stream.

I recently took a trip to the Black Hills to attend a wedding. Not wantingto be late, I managed to arrive four days early. Having arrived early and justhappening to have all of my fishing gear with me, there was nothing to do butfish for several days. The fishing was pretty good, but the Driftless Area cancertainly spoil a person. One observation I made was that anyone buying theargument that the fish in Wisconsin are not getting enough to eat should gotake a look at the fish in the Black Hills. Much, much less bulk. But, I digressfrom the topic I want to stress.

One of the creeks I took a look at was Rapid Creek; which is one of thepremier fisheries in the “Hills”. On my first day on Rapid Creek I immedi-ately noticed a mess. I had never seen didymo, known as rock snot, in person.I think all of us have a tendancy to view invasives as something in farawaycreeks that we mostly read about. Seeing the kind of mess in person gives aperson a whole new perspective. Long stringy strands of a whitish slimy look-ing material attached to thousands of rocks on the bottom of the creek. It at-tached to flies, leaders, knots, the rod, the reel, waders and boots. Not apretty sight and far worse than I had pictured from reading reports aboutdidymo.

My suspicions about what I was looking at were confirmed later in the daywhen I encountered a graduate student from South Dakota State Universitywho confirmed that I was indeed seeing rock snot. When I questioned thestudent about how the state of South Dakota felt the invasive had arrived, hestated that it most likely had been transported from Montana on the equip-ment of traveling anglers.

That led to some serious washing of equipment before I sampled the fish-ing on other Black Hills streams and got me thinking about just how easy itwould be to infect other waters.

Another observation I made was how many of the people fishing in theHills had Wisconsin license plates on their cars. My opinion is that we arejust one car load of unsuspecting anglers away from infestations of didymo inour state. I have no intentions of being the one who drags that mess to ourhome state. Having fished the last day back on Rapid Creek and being againexposed to didymo, my gear is now being scrubbed, frozen and bleached be-fore I use it on any home waters.

What is the point of this story? It’s pretty simple, actually. I’m sure, likemyself, anyone reading this also does not want to be that person. If you are a

A rock snot story:An experience with didymo reminds us to be careful about bringing invasives to Wisconsin.

FISHING OUT WEST? DON’T BRING INVASIVES HOME.Like many trout anglers Kim McCarthy enjoys out-of-state fishing excursions, particulary in the west. But he’s careful not to bring home any unwelcome visitors, such as didymo (rock snot). When traveling out west, you’ll notice plenty of Wisconsin license plates, meaning we are only one car load of unsuspecting anglers away from an infestation of didymo.

We want you, youth coordinators

TU National is encouraging eachchapter to create a Youth Coordina-tor position. This person would helphis or her chapter make better useof the incredible information andsupport available from TU Nation-al. Much of this information is avail-able online.

This is a great opportunity to getinvolved with TU and really make adifference. If you are interested inserving as your chapter’s Youth Co-ordinator, contact your local chap-ter leaders. Chapter contactinformation is available on page twoof Wisconsin Trout.

Keep an eye out for upcoming Women’s activities

The number of women’s events and activities contin-ues to increase. To make sure you don’t miss anythingimportant, keep your eyes on wituwomen.org and ourFacebook page, Wisconsin Women of Trout Unlimited.


County Stream/spring pond Genetics Bayfield Big Brook wildColumbia Hinkson Creek wildDunn Cady Creek wildDunn North Branch Gilbert wildDunn South Fork Hay River wildGrant Big Spring Branch wildIowa Lowery Creek wildIowa Pompey Pillar Creek domesticLa Crosse Johns Coulee Creek domesticLanglade Hogelee Spring Pond No. 1 wildMarathon Big Cain Creek wildMarinette K C Creek domesticMarinette North Fork Thunder River wildMarinette Wausaukee River wildMarquette Lawrence Creek wildMonroe La Cross River, South Fork wildMonroe Rathbone Creek domesticMonroe Soper Creek wildMonroe Squaw Creek wildPierce Cave Creek wildPierce South Fork Kinnickinnic

Riverdomestic

Portage Little Plover River wildPrice Foulds Spring Pond wildRichland Ash Creek domesticRichland Fancy Creek domesticRichland Grinsell Branch wildRichland Melancthon Creek wildRichland West Branch Mill Creek domesticSauk Little Baraboo River domesticSauk Manley Creek domesticSauk Parfrey's Glen Creek domesticShawano West Branch Shiocton River wildTrempealeau Elk Creek domesticTrempealeau Joe Coulee Creek wildTrempealeau King Creek domesticTrempealeau Pine Creek wildVernon North Chipmunk Coulee

Creekdomestic

Understanding the populationgenetics of trout is critical for the ef-fective conservation of wild troutpopulations. Population geneticsconcerns the genetic variation with-in and among trout populations andhow such variation relates to adap-tation to the environment.

“Wild” versus “Domestic”A trout population can be de-

fined as “wild” if the population issustained by natural reproduction,the population has not been supple-mented by the stocking of domesticor hatchery-reared trout in the pastor present, and the population issubject to and defined by natural se-lective pressures.

“Domestic” trout reared inhatcheries over multiple genera-tions have not benefited from natu-ral selective pressures, whether inmate selection or survival throughdifferent life stages. As a conse-quence, domestic trout often exhibitpoor survival when stocked instreams.

Wild trout have higher geneticdiversity compared to domestictrout, which renders domestic troutpopulations less adaptable or resil-ient to changes in environmentalconditions. The Wisconsin DNR’s“wild” trout stocking program is anattempt to limit the effects of do-mestication by obtaining fertilizedtrout eggs from wild broodstock.When producing trout to stock anddeciding on where to stock them,genetics matters.

Early study observes distinction between them

An early study on brook trout ge-netics in Wisconsin was conductedin 1979 by Charles Krueger andBruce Menzel of Iowa State Univer-sity. They investigated the long-term

genetic effects of stocking brooktrout from the Osceola State TroutHatchery on wild brook trout popu-lations in the Wolf and Fox Riverdrainages.

They observed that the domestichatchery stock was genetically dis-tinct from most wild populations intheir study and that wild variantforms of genes decreased in fre-quency as stocking intensity in-creased.

DNR studies began in 1993

In 1993, theWisconsinDNR beganan initiative tostudy the ge-netics ofbrook, brown,and rainbowtrout across the state. Robert Fieldsfrom the Illinois Natural HistorySurvey was contracted to analyzethe genetics of 17 brook trout popu-lations and 1 hatchery strain ofbrook trout in Wisconsin.

Fields and coauthor D. Phillipaddressed the following objectives:determine the best genetic tech-niques to assess genetic differentia-tion among populations, definegenetic differences between hatch-ery strains and wild populations, ex-amine the genetic variability amongthe wild populations, determinewhich geographic areas and popula-tions are most closely genetically re-lated to the wild brook trout strains,and identify wild populations forpreservation and management.

They divided the state into sevenzones based on genetic similaritieswithin zones and differences amongzones, and they recommended that

genetically-distinct populations inone zone be managed separatelyfrom populations in other zones.(For example, do not introduce ge-netics from one zone into anotherzone.)

Populations were also identifiedthat may be used for reintroducingbrook trout to certain streams. Theyobserved low genetic variabilitywithin some of the smaller wild pop-

ulations, and theydid not find evi-dence that stock-ing influenced thegenetics of brooktrout in sampledstreams.

The studystreams were notstocked with the St.Croix strain brooktrout in use at thattime but werethought to havepossibly been

stocked with Osceola strain brooktrout. No Osceola strain fish wereavailable for genetic identification,and genetic differences among sam-pled populations could not identifypast stocking of Osceola strain fish.

Could Ash Creek brook trout serve as broodstock?

In 2007, Michael Hughes com-pleted a master’s thesis at UW-Ste-vens Point (UWSP) with BrianSloss, in which one objective was touse genetics to determine the suit-ability of brook trout from Ash

Creek as a broodstock source forWisconsin’s wild trout stocking pro-gram in the Driftless Area.

They compared the genetic di-versity of Ash Creek brook troutwith 13 other populations acrosssouthwestern Wisconsin. Therewere high levels of genetic diver-gence among populations (that is,the accumulation of independentgenetic changes through time attrib-utable to reproductive isolation),but the majority of divergence wasnot related to the geographic prox-imity of one population to another.

These results suggested that thestudied populations were small, re-productively isolated, and influ-enced by genetic drift (the chancedisappearance of certain geneticvariants due to small population siz-es) and brook trout population ge-netics were affected by historicalstocking events that introducedgenes from domestic trout into thenative gene pools.

They concluded that it was diffi-cult to say whether or not the AshCreek population was geneticallyappropriate and regionally repre-sentative for stocking purposes.

New efforts to understand brook trout genetics

As the science of trout geneticshas advanced, we have initiated newefforts to better understand brooktrout population genetics acrossWisconsin.

See BROOK TROUT, next page

Brook trout genetics:History and Future Management in Wisconsin

Domestic” trout reared in hatcheries over multiple

generations have not benefited from natural selective pressures,

whether in mate selection or survival through different

life stages.


BROOK TROUT, from last page

In 2016, Wes Larson and his labfrom UWSP began a new effort tobetter define brook trout popula-tion genetics across Wisconsin.They analyzed newly-collected ge-netics samples from brook troutpopulations across the state andcombined genetic analyses from 37wild trout populations in Wisconsinwith similar data for brook troutpopulations in southeastern andnorthern Minnesota and Lake Su-perior and for eastern hatcherystrains.

They identified supposed do-mestic and wild populations, ex-plored spatial structuring ofpopulations, and compared diversi-ty between wild and domestic popu-lations. They found that domesticand wild populations can be differ-entiated by their evolutionary rela-tionships based on similarities anddifferences in their genetic charac-teristics. There was high genetic dif-ferentiation among populationsdespite their geographic proximity,as was previously observed byHughes and Sloss for Driftless Areapopulations. Diversity was higher inwild populations, and populationsisolated from one another by dis-tance were not necessarily geneti-cally different, which is likely aresult of pervasive stocking acrossthe state.

A result of particular interestwas that the Ash Creek brook troutpopulation showed evidence ofgenes from domestic trout, thoughour records show Ash Creek hasnot been stocked since the early1970s. What does this mean?

The Ash Creek brook trout pop-

ulation is considered “wild” in thesense that it is not supplemented bystocking (and hasn’t been for de-cades) and is sustained by naturalreproduction. But analyses of theirgenetics indicates the presence ofgenes associated with domesticbrook trout, and we therefore nowconsider Ash Creek as an unsuit-able source of fertilized brook trouteggs for stocking in other streams.

Brook trout in the South Fork ofthe Hay River, however, were iden-tified as genetically wild and arecurrently used as a source of fertil-ized brook trout eggs.

DNR fisheries staff will continueto work with UWSP to expand ourbrook trout genetics database, espe-cially in the north, northeast andcentral sands areas of Wisconsin.We hope to identify more genetical-ly wild brook trout populations andto determine whether or not theycan be considered representative ofthe native brook trout that oncepopulated trout streams across Wis-consin. We also hope that by sam-pling more streams in more areas ofthe state, we will be able to deter-mine if there are regional geneticdifferences in wild brook trout pop-ulations.

This article was contributed byDNR Fisheries Research ScientistMatthew Mitro, DNR Trout Coordi-nator Joanna Griffin, Wisconsin Co-operative Fishery Research Unit’sAssistant Leader Wes Larson andDNR Fisheries Supervisor DavidRowe.

By Dave Zueg

I am a trout fisherman. I havebeen for years, and hope I have an-other decade or two in front of me.But at this stage of the game I’ll besatisfied with whatever comesalong. Looking back, l was dealt apretty good hand in all sorts of ways.OK, I might be a little light on bigbucks, both kinds, but if you huntfor food and never got into the gam-bling thing, that can happen.

But time spent trout fishing isanother story, and in that category,I’m doing just fine. Besides, if Dad’stheory that days spent on a troutstream aren’t counted against yourallotted hours on this remarkableplanet is true — he caught the big-gest steelhead of his life on theBrule when he was in his 80’s — I’vegot some bonus time coming.

This is an admittedly question-able theory, given the sizzling tem-peratures of summer and the factthat I’d be wearing chest waders.But regardless of the swelteringtemperatures the other day, I toldmyself you’re only young once. Andthen I made sure I didn’t look in themirror before heading for a troutstream not far away.

Nothing feels better than thecold water of a trout stream wrap-ping around you on a hot summer’sday, especially after a half-mile hikedown a dwindling deer trail, swat-ting deer flies and mosquitoes. Thistwo-mile stretch of pristine troutwater with no road crossings or fish-ing pressure felt like the embrace ofan old friend when I sat on a rock acouple inches under water to cooldown.

It had been a couple years sinceI’d fished this stretch on anotherhot summer’s day. What I remem-bered most about that trip wasn’tthe fishing, which was terrific, butthe bear I found sitting armpit deepin the river as I worked upstream.Thinking back, he probably lookeda lot like I did today.

The big old boar just glared atme, not one bit interested in leavinghis cool afternoon spa. It was prettymuch a standoff with neither one ofus willing to backdown. Hewouldn’t for obvi-ous reasons relat-ed to cool waterand me becausethe high banks ofthe ravine thestream ranthrough wouldmean a long walkback downstreamto where I couldget out and goaround him. Thediscussion we had about who wasgoing to leave was a quiet, calm andreasonable one on my part. He wasmore blunt, with a few snorts, somehuffing and jaw popping, but even-tually one old boar reluctantlybacked off. You can probably figureout which one it was, just go withyour instincts.

On the hike in, I’d been thinkingabout the DNR’s report about whytrout anglers quit fishing, and thesurvey that asked those who hadn’tbought a trout stamp in the lastthree years why they gave it up. Al-though a few people mentioned itwas because of the complicated

trout fishing rules, the study actuallyshowed that only 12 percent listedthat as a reason. But I wonder ifsome didn’t use that for an excuseinstead of admitting trout fishingisn’t easy.

Another 35 percent said “timeconstraints” was a key reason forquitting. I’m guessing what theymeant was they decided to do some-thing else with their limited freetime, like maybe chasing the bassthat seem to have taken over the

state, from thepedestal seat ofa fancy boat withan oversizedmotor.

Part of mesays “good, thatmeans less com-petition.” Butthat’s not the at-titude to have orthe issue here.There are near-ly 3,000 troutstreams in Wis-

consin with more 13,000 miles oftrout water, and 41 percent of thoseare rated as class 1 streams, the bestof the best. This doesn’t include allthe trout ponds that hold fish, too.The bottom line is that those of usstill buying trout stamps don’t haveto worry about overcrowding.

It didn’t really surprise me, butanother survey showed the satisfac-tion rate for trout fishermen wasmore than 83 percent, which tellsthe story itself. Can you imaginegetting those kinds of numbers froma survey of people who buy a deerhunting license? One thing for sure,we wouldn’t have had to pay someguy from Texas $125,000 to tell uspretty much what we already know.

It was interesting to read in thesurvey that most former trout fisher-men started trout fishing when theywere 21, quite a bit older than theage of others at the starting gate ofoutdoor activities. Most trout an-glers say fishing with their fatherwas a key factor in taking up troutangling, which was the case with me.I don’t remember exactly how old Iwas when I caught my first trout, butI know I wasn’t big enough to wearwaders or even hip boots yet. Daddropped me on a hole near the top

of the Horseshoe, a big bend on theBrule River, before heading down-stream to work another run.

I remember being more interest-ed in catching the frogs soaking upthe October sun than fishing, buteventually picked up the old spin-cast rod and reel he left me with andtossed a spinner into the head ofthat pool.

The steelhead hit like a freighttrain, and then cartwheeled into theair before falling back into the river.I’m sure this story would have a dif-ferent ending if it weren’t for my un-cle Neil, who was working thebottom of that pool. He gave me theencouragement and assistance Ineeded, especially after that old reelmelted down like jilted teenager,courtesy of that chromer. Togetherwe eventually landed that fish, pull-ing it in hand over hand like ice fish-ermen, then we both began to yellfor Dad. I can still see him comingdown that trail with a grin a milewide. And you wonder why I stillbuy a trout stamp?

Back on the river, I got off mysubmerged rock in this gem of atrout stream and started fishing. Ihave no idea when the last time any-one fished here, but it might havebeen me a few years ago. One thingwas clear, though; the trout werestill here, eager, uneducated andwilling, kind of like a young boy allthose years ago on the Brule.

The encouraging part of thatDNR survey was that the majorityof the anglers who hadn’t purchaseda trout stamp in the last three yearsindicted a willingness to try it againwhen they have more free time. Iknow it’s tough to carve out time forour pursuits and passions thesedays, with so many distractions andresponsibilities. But I can’t ever re-member our trout fishery beingmore vibrant.

So if you decide to go, maybe I’llsee you on the river. And don’t wor-ry, this old boar will be happy tomove over for you.

Dave Zueg is a retired DNR war-den and long-time outdoor writer.This article first appeared in the Wis-consin Outdoor News, and we thankthem for permission to reprint it.

I am a trout fishermanWhy we fish for trout, and the real reason why some folks don’t make time to enjoy it.

One thing was clear, though; the trout were

still here, eager, uneducated and

willing, kind of like a young boy all those

years ago on the Brule.

Are you getting emails from TU? Did you receive an email recently announcing the State Coun-cil upcoming banquet in Oshkosh?Did you receive any email announcements from your chapter this past year regarding work days, banquets and other impor-tant chapter events?Did you receive any email announcements recently from TU National regarding important environmental issues affecting TU members?If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then you are truly missing out on much of the activity of TU. TU National manages the mailing list for Wisconsin TU and the chapters, so if you want to receive emails, you need to make sure that TU National has your current email address.Go to tu.org and log in, then go to email preferences and make sure they have your current email and mailing address. If you have questions about this process call 1-800-834-2419.


By Tom Lager

In my experience, mayflies arelike “friends on the journey.” Attimes they are the destination, thecenter pin of the journey aroundwhich success pivots, such as the in-tense hex hatch. Sometimes may-flies are the ever-present attendantof the stream, facilitating success byfilling in the gaps when catchingslows, such as the enduring blue-winged olive larvae.

Other times, mayflies are justthere, being part of the scenery, giv-ing testament tothe functionalityof the watershed,such as a sparse,leisurely light ca-hill emergence.

And thenthere are occa-sions when may-flies are thehidden jewel, theunexpected thatdelights the tripwith beauty,causing events topause, at least for a short time. Suchwas the case on recent smallmouthbass fishing trip to Door Countywith my good friend Don Clouthier.

While stowing gear at the closeof our first trip, a spinner-stagemale mayfly landed for an instanton my hand, brightly illuminated inlate afternoon sun. Then he wasgone just as quicklyl. There was noevidence of its presence left, and noother mayflies on the wing; howev-er, the vividness of its image re-mained.

The distinctiveness of wing-col-or pattern, the contrast of cello-

phane-clear versus the dark brownapex of the wing and the blackbrown body with exceedingly longgraceful tails was evidence that Ihad not before seen this mayfly.

Certainly the abrupt appearanceand sunlight enhanced contrasts ofits form served to enlarge this expe-rience in my mind and kept me busyfor several days reviewing literatureand internet sources in a failed at-tempt to identify this mayfly frommy mental images.

The culmination of this experi-ence was realized the following

week during oursecond journeyto Door County.We arrived atthe parking areain time to ob-serve the malemayflies, inbright sun-struckcontrasts of col-or, dancing inundulatingswarming move-ments of rapidwing-beating as-

cents, followed by still-wingeddownward glides.

The scene was further enhancedby the fact that it was all occurringon and above a bright red sports carsitting in the parking area. The darktinted windows and bright shiny redsurface of the car attracted thissmall troupe of dancers to alightmomentarily on its surface and thenlaunch into their dancing flight, onsun-glinted cellophane wings, risingseveral meters in the air.

What a picture of contrasts: deli-cate natural beauty attracted tomodern technology sleek in design

Todd

Fra

nklin

A Summer Mayfly

and shiny-bright in color. This inter-lude remained with me throughoutthe day, as callibaetis mayflies spo-radically emerged from wave-washed shoals adjacent to the bay.

Later, with hard evidence inhand, identification revealed thesemayflies to be Leptophlebia nebulo-sa, a species within the genus ofmayflies referred to as black quillsby some anglers.

This species was first describedin 1853 by Francis Walker, an ento-mologist with the British Museum;the description remains valid to thisday, documented in now-classic en-tomology texts of the early 19th cen-tury.

The black quill has an unusualgeographic distribution in that it oc-curs coast to coast across the north-ern tier of U.S. states and Canadianprovinces and as far north as theYukon. Within this range it is rela-tively uncommon, but can be foundin considerable numbers.

I believe the patchiness of the L.nebulosa population distribution ex-plains why few patterns such asBorcher’s drake have been generat-ed over the years.

The larvae commonly inhabitponds, as well as eddies in streams,and the banks and shallow littoralregions of lakes. Prior to emerging,larvae often migrate upstream invery large numbers in small tributar-ies to marshes. In May and Junethey clamber to shore to emergeabove the water line. The combinedeffect of large numbers and largelarvae size (1 cm) contribute signifi-cantly to the food energy availableto trout and other fishes in nearbywatersheds.

While this species has limited po-tential to play a significant role inyour catching success, it can en-hance your fishing experience.When observed, this mayfly mayserve to connect you to other expe-riences along the journey. For me,as an eleven-year-old boy, I ob-served what I was to later under-stand to be a leptophlebid larvaemigration up a stream that flowedthrough our family farm in North-ern Minnesota. I recall scooping thesmall wiggly critters from the streamto see them up close. They remainimages vivid in my mind.

Can I fish streams that flow through private lands?Yes, all trout streams are considered “navigable” and, therefore, are

public property. Streams are public even though the land on both sides ofthem may be private. Without permission, you may not cross private landsto enter or leave a stream. Enter the water at bridge crossings, public lands,or private lands under public easement.

Do I have to stay in the water?Yes, but there is one exception. Wisconsin law was amended in 2001 to

say you may exit the water “to bypass an obstruction.” Re-enter the waterafter the obstruction has been passed.

What counts as an obstruction?According to the DNR, “Obstructions could consist of trees or rocks,

shallow water for boaters, or deep water for wading trout fishers. Thebypass can involve areas up to the ordinary high water mark and should beby the shortest route possible.”

Can I walk on the exposed shoreline up to the “ordinary high water mark”?

No, that provision in the statutes was only in effect for two years.Anglers must now follow the previous “keep your feet wet” rule. But youmay still leave the water legally to bypass obstructions.

What if I come upon a fence across a stream?Landowners may not obstruct navigable waters in a way that “impairs

the free navigation thereof.” If you can pass under or over a single strandof barbed wire, the stream remains navigable. However, if several strandsof wire or some other intentional obstruction prevents passage, the landowner is in violation of the law. Do not cut the wire. Instead, contact theDNR to investigate the illegal obstruction.

How does the “no interference” with hunting, fishing, or trapping statute apply to my fishing?

Animal right activists have generally preferred to harass hunters andtrappers instead of anglers. Nevertheless, fishing is included in a 1989 Wis-consin statute that makes it illegal for someone to “interfere or attempt tointerfere with lawful hunting, fishing or trapping with the intent to preventthe taking of a wild animal....”

This statute not only protects you from physical interference, but it pro-tects the animals as well — someone cannot interfere with your fishing by“harassing a wild animal.” For fishers, this may be interpreted to mean thatsomeone cannot interfere with your fishing by throwing rocks into wateryou are about to fish. Land owners blocking your legal access or preventingyou from navigating around obstructions may also be violating this statute.

Wisconsin State Council of Trout UnlimitedStream Access Wallet CardYour rights and responsibilities when accessing public waters that flow through private property.

Wisconsin stream access laws summarized in wallet cardHaving trouble remembering what Wisconsin law says about stream ac-

cess? Stream access laws have changed twice since 2001, so WITU has creat-ed the wallet card below to summarize your rights.

The card below gives a concise summary of your current rights and re-sponsibilities regarding stream access.The WITU State Council hopes thiscard will come in handy to settle any disputes you may have with landownerswho believe you are trespassing. Confusing change

Anglers and other stream users may remember that Wisconsin law waschanged in 2001 to allow people to walk the exposed banks of rivers up to the

“normal high-water mark.” However, that expansion of rights was reversed just two years later, and an-

glers have ever since been required to follow the old “keep your feet wet”rule while fishing.

Of note in the current law is that anglers can legally walk on private prop-erty whenever they encounter an “obstruction.” The DNR has interpreted anobstruction to not only include such things as fallen trees, but also “deep wa-ter.” This obstruction provision is not yet widely known, so this wallet cardwill help fishers and landowners better understand the current law.

For me, as an eleven-year-old boy, I observed what I was to later understand to be a leptophlebid larvae

migration up a stream that flowed through our family

farm in Northern Minnesota.


Despite this cool spring, I wasonce again caught off guard by thevivacious arrival of summer. It’s acrazy time of year as we scurry tosurvey future project sites, prep forthe upcoming construction seasonand wrap up Trout In the Classroomactivities. Meanwhile we’re crank-ing away at the usual mundane tasksbehind the desk. By June, I felt as ifI was trapped in a time-lapse video,the alder leaves unfurling and thefawns growing before my eyes.

Yet amidst the chaos these pastfew months, I did manage to catch afew fleeting moments of stillness, asI once again became witness to themagnificent complexity and beautyof our riverine ecosystems.

Prior to accepting this position,the majority of my time on troutstreams was spent wielding mytrusty, old Orvis T3, staring at thewater’s surface. While fishing, Itend to approach a trout streamwith similar vigor as the onset ofsummer. Crashing through the for-est, I make a beeline to the streamto set my sights on casting lanes andpocket water, often oblivious to theother seemingly useless parts. Nodoubt, I would be a better angler if Icould just slow down, but I admitthat this has never been my strongsuit.

While conducting field work thisspring, I traded in that old Orvis fora heavy, unwieldy fiberglass surveyrod. I had to extinguish the adrena-line of the hunt to practice the art of

observation. This pace, for which Iam not accustomed to, has helpedme zoom out a bit and appreciatethe larger picture.

Last week, while wading to de-ploy temperature loggers, I pausedmid-stream to watch the water boilwith horny headchubs as theyspawned, withthe large malesarmed with theirtubercles forbattle and thesmaller femalesdarting in andout of nests. Itwas a beautifulshow for which Icould have takenfor granted if Iwas simply stalk-ing brookies.

Further-more, keepingmy eye on thehorizon beforeleaf out thisspring (insteadof on eddy lines and undercutbanks) I have observed otter, fox,fisher, porcupine, bobcat, coyote,water snakes, eagles, osprey, ori-oles, cedar waxwings and numerousother songbirds which I cannotidentify. Meanwhile, while lookingdown, I have enjoyed the woodfrogs, jack-in-the-pulpit, marshmarigolds, trout lilies and muchmore.

The list grows with each week inthe field. On one particular day, Icrossed paths with five separatebear, coming too close for comfortto a pair of cubs and a sow. The sowloudly protested my presence as shereared up on her hind quarters a

mere 20 yards away.No doubt, these arethe moments that Iwill reflect upon inthe darkness of nextwinter and for ma-ny years to come,while the visions ofindividual brooktrout in hand fade.

Granted, I prob-ably would have no-ticed the sow andcubs even if I wasjust fishing. Howev-er, there is a greatdeal that I wouldhave missed or atleast undervalued.Cold or cool waterstreams, which wecommonly, over-

simplistically refer to as “troutstreams,” as well as their flood-plains, are just teeming with life.Some may be perceived as less de-sirable species, such as the creekchub or longnose dace. However,they are nonetheless a piece of thelarger puzzle.

“Trout streams” are complex sys-tems comprised of physical, chemi-cal and biological processes that we

can only pretend to begin to under-stand. And as Aldo Leopold oncesaid, “If the biota, in the course ofeons, has built something we likebut do not understand, then whobut a fool would discard seeminglyuseless parts? To keep every cog andwheel is the first precaution of intel-ligent tinkering.”

Incidentally, this is the rallyingcry behind the approach to culvertdesign that Trout Unlimited has ad-opted. The objective is not to sim-ply ensure that a trout can swimthrough the pipe, but that all speciesare able and that the physical andchemical processes, such as thetransport of nutrients and woodydebris downstream, can continueunimpeded. A poorly designed ormaintained culvert can act as a filterwithin a stream; inhibiting themovement of nutrients, sediment,wood and all taxa including inverte-brates, amphibians and reptiles.

In the coming months, our workfor the past year will hopefully beginto pay off as the 10 culvert replace-ments we have been assisting withwill be implemented. These projectswill reconnect more than 33 miles ofcoldwater habitat in the Chequa-megon-Nicolet National Forest tothe benefit of all species. I look for-ward to sharing the rest of the storywith you in the next issue of Wiscon-sin Trout. Meanwhile, I hope youhave a wonderful summer explor-ing our coldwater ecosystems.

News from the NorthwoodsWith Laura MacFarland, TU Great Lakes Restoration Manager

“Seemingly Useless Parts”

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

William Shakespeare

Remember TU as Part of Your Legacy

Have you considered making Trout Unlimited part of your legacy? For loyal TU members, making a bequest to TU in your will or trust is a wonderful way to continue supporting clean water and healthy trout populations. Help assure that TU is able to continue its good work now and into the future.

Should you decide that TU is worthy of a legacy bequest, be sure to specify in your will or trust if the bequest is intended to benefit National TU, the State Council or your local chapter.

Thank you for considering Trout Unlimited in your estate planning.


By Brian Smolinski

I blend a lot of dubbing. It's notbecause I think that the straight-out-of-the-pack, store-bought stuffisn’t any good. I apparently just en-joy making things harder on myself.The problem with making my owndubbing blends is that I never gotaround to recording or following arecipe. I mix something up, mix alittle more, then add a tiny pinchmore of this or that. Since I was al-ways just grabbing a little of this orthat, I would mix it by hand, so whatI would end up with was enough ofa blend for maybe half a dozen flies.The next time I went to tie that fly,it would always come out different,since I could never match the blendexactly.

So I told myself last winter that Iwas going blend up large quantitiesof my dubbing blends, creating astockpile of each blend to last a fewyears. I told myself they would allbe neatly labeled, so I knew exactlywhat blend went with which fly pat-tern, and so on.

I knew that mixing largeamounts of dubbing wouldn’t beeasy. You really can’t do it by hand.I have seen guys use two wire brush-es made for combing dog hair to

mix it up and I have used other peo-ples’ homemade coffee grinders toblend dubbing. Neither one of thosemethods really excited me, but I bitthe bullet and picked up a cheapcoffee grinder. Then I set into mak-ing a cover for the top of the grind-er. That is one of the flaws of thismethod is that if you use the lid asis, all the dubbing fibers just floatup into the empty space and don’tget down into the blades.

Anyway, I got it together andmixed up my first batch and itworked, sort of. After a few longpulses my mixture was mostlyblended. The problem I found isthat certain types of dubbing blendperfectly, while other types blendjust okay. They mix up, but in littletiny clumps which makes it difficultto use. I spent extra time while tyingseparating the fibers in able to dubthe mixture tighter to my thread.

The solution came by taking anold small fish bowl type of merchan-diser from the shop and connectingit to a can of compressed air usedfor dusting electronics. I used aplastic container that is round, Ithink a pint sized plastic food con-tainer would also be great, especial-ly the cheap deli style ones, as longas they have a tight-fitting lid.

MATERIALS LISTb smo’s Pink Princess

Hook: TMC 2457 or Daiichi 1120; size 14Bead: Tungsten 7/64” black nickel. Thread: UTC 70 denierflourescent pinkRib and tail: Veevus iridescent pink threadBody: Blend of Ice Dub Pea-cock & Hare’s Ear Plus Dubbin dark oliveThorax: Blend of Hareline Dubbin flourescent pink & Ice Dub UV flourescent hot pink.small Ultra WireWing: white goose biots

Fly tying tips

Blending dubbing?Try these tricks and techniques

COMPRESSED AIR MAKES AWESOME DUBBING BLENDSThe force of the air moving around the container perfectly blends the mixture. Even better is the dubbing is super light and fluffy, making it the easiest dubbing to apply since none of the fibers are clumped and matted together.

Start by putting the lid on thecontainer. Pop a whole mess ofholes in the lid with a needle or bod-kin, the smaller the better. You needa way for air to escape the contain-er, but not large enough for dubbingfibers to get stuck in. Then enlargeone of the holes just big enough tofit the extension straw though thatconnects to the compressed air can.

Fill container with dubbing and

pull the trigger on the air can, theforce of the air moving around thecontainer perfectly blends the mix-ture. Even better is the dubbing issuper light and fluffy, making it theeasiest dubbing to apply since noneof the fibers are clumped and mat-ted together.

Brian J. Smolinski operatesLund’s Fly Shop in River Falls.

4,500That’s how many trout enthusiasts receive a copy of Wisconsin Trout.

Plus, copies are distributed at various TU events, fly shops, sporting goods stores and beyond.

Advertise in Wisconsin TroutFour issues a year.

1/8-page ad for an entire year, as little as $180.1/4-page ad for an entire year, as little as $3601/2-page ad for an entire year, as little as $633.50Full-page ad for an entire year, as little as $1,188

Contact Todd Franklin at [email protected].

By Brian Smolinski

This fly was a custom order I got at the shop. This unnamed customer/friend asked me to come up with a fly that would be a combination of twovery popular patterns: The prince nymph and the hot pink squirrel.

I decided that a dubbed body would be easier to create the desired pro-file, similar to the Lund's Pink Squirrels. I love the peacock color of ice dub,but prefer to mix some rabbit hair in with all my ice dub to get a dubbing tex-ture I like.

Once I had the design down, I tiedup a few and we took them out duringthis past early season for a little prod-uct testing. They seemed to work wellon rainbows somewhere northeast ofHudson.

Instructions1 – Apply a thread base.

2 – Tie in rib/tail material by cap-turing it under your thread with oneend being about a half-inch long andthe other long enough to counterwrap a rib. Then pull both ends downand wrap over with your thread.

3 – Dub a tapered body with thepeacock mixture.

4 – Wind ribbing material overbody and then wrap hook shank un-der the thorax to add some rigid bulk.

5 – Tie off ribbing material and trim, then dub over it to make the hotpink thorax slightly smaller than the size you desire, which step 6 will explain.

6 – Create a wing with two pieces of white goose biot. After lashing downbiots, apply a small amount of the pink dubbing mixture again to coverthread wraps and create your desired thorax size.

7 – Finish and apply head cement.

Favorite fly patterns

b smo’s Pink PrincessThis hybrid of prince nymph and hot pink squirrel has proven to be a successful pattern for Lund’s Fly Shop.


Bob’s Tying TipsAdvice fromthe bench ofBob Haase

Part of the fun in tying flies iscoming up with new fly patterns ormodifying existing patterns. By tyingyour own flies, you can change howthey are tied and come up with pat-terns that work even better than theoriginals. You will end up with pat-terns that you can’t find in fly shopsand something the fish have neverseen before.

The statement “matching thehatch” does not always apply. Ithink it is important to learn aboutthe aquatic insects that the fish feedon, their life cycles, and how to tieflies that represent them. That is thebasis of tying flies. We need to knowthe basics before we can start break-ing some of the rules. Some of theflies that fish well for me are thosethat don’t represent any insect I’veseen. Maybe the fly might look likean insect that the fish would befeeding on based on size or profile,but the color is much different.That’s the case with my FlashabouNymph.

What are some of the things thatcause a fish to refuse a fly? Some-times it can be because it doesn’tlook like the real thing. Maybe it istoo large or small for the hatch thatis occurring. Maybe it is the wrongcolor. Maybe it is because it lookslike the real thing and the fish havebecome conditioned not to take it.

A number of years ago I spenttime learning about and tying themost realistic hopper patterns that Icould. I had a trip planned that fallfor hopper fishing on the BighornRiver in Montana. I couldn’t wait tosee how well they worked. Theydidn’t. The fish refused them butreadily took a fly that was made outof foam and rubber legs called theMorrish Hopper. They were so con-ditioned that they would even re-fuse a real hopper tossed into thestream. Maybe that is why the fishtook the Morrish Hopper. It lookeddifferent than the traditional hop-per imitations and the real thing.

If you tie, you can slightly alter apattern to make it just a little differ-ent. Maybe just different enough sothat the fish might accept it better

than what it is used to seeing. Onceyou understand the characteristicsof various tying materials, it be-comes easier to determine what ma-terials to use for modifying the fly.However, sometimes just a minoralteration will make a fly fish differ-ently, which can be both good andbad. If you make too dramatic of achange, it may affect the fly so muchthat the fish will not want it at all.Just changing the color or size of abead, tying it on a different hookstyle, or substituting a material thatis more or less buoyant can make alot of difference.

My casting is not my strongpoint. Presentation is just as impor-tant as the fly being used, and Istrive to cast and present the fly tothe best of my ability. My crutch isthe ability to modify flies and createpatterns the fish seem to like.

If you tie, you have an advantageover those who don’t tie. You canmake little modifications that mightbe just what is needed to entice thefish to take. If you don’t tie, youmight want to consider learninghow to tie. It is fun, and it’s very re-warding when you catch fish on yourown flies.

Rather than provide a patternfor this issue, I am showing a fewflies and describing how I modifiedthem to be just a little different.Please look at them and then lookthrough your fly box and pick outthe 10 patterns you fish the most.Try to figure out what you like bestabout the flies and why you thinkthey work so well. Then think aboutways you might slightly change themsuch as using a different style hook,a different size hook, different ma-terials or different colors. Fromthese flies, pick out two or threethat you might want to changeslightly and tie a couple up withthose changes.

Now take these new flies fishingand see how they work. With anygood experiment you need to repeatthe process to verify the results.This means you might have to fishthem a few more times to see whichpatterns really do work the best.

RAINBOW BEAD ZEBRA MIDGEI modify the standard zebra midge with a multi-hued rainbow bead and fluorescent pink or chartreuse wire. The body is also coated with a UV Set Polymer to give depth to the body. These are small differences, but it out-fishes the same fly with a gold bead and no polymer.

FLOATING MOP FLYI tie the popular mop fly with permanent waterproofing such as Watershed to make it float better, and I hackle the front. Clip the hackle on bottom so capillary action doesn’t draw the hackle below the surface. Most mop flies sink, so this allows you to fish a mop fly on the surface for bluegills.

LADY HORNBERGModified by using pink squirrel tail between the mallard flank feathers instead of natural or yellow. Also, I used pink hackle for the collar, instead of brown. Brook trout love pink and white, and this small change seems to work better on brook trout. This is my go-to fly for fishing brook trout and also a great fly for browns and rainbows. Think about how the pink collar helped make the pink squirrel so effective.

KEN’S KRAZY ANT MODIFIEDUse a CDC puff instead of hackle. You can see it better in the water and it floats better. The tips of CDC also make more movement, creating an illusion of motion.

KEN’S KRAZY ANT ORIGINALUsing hackle between body segments. A great fly pattern made out of shelf liner foam pulled apart to form the ant body. Anybody can tie this fly and the fish love it.

Modifying fly patterns to make them fish better

By Paul CunninghamSB Outreach and Policy, DNR

Our deadline for the current fiscal year was June 15,and we were busy trying to secure signed option con-tracts before that date. About 23 offers are sitting outthere with landowners, and we are waiting for them toreply with either a signed option contract or a rejection.

We are still struggling with biologist vacancies, as bi-ologists are key to our SBP work. These include theBaldwin, Plymouth and Dodgeville offices. We are alsodealing with numerous technician vacancies.

We are considering different outreach approachesand more involvement of TU chapters in hosting troutstream landowner events. One idea is streamside cook-

outs with experts on the Streambank Protection programand trout stream habitat work, as well as testimonialsfrom landowners who have sold easements.

If we have a Knowles/Nelson Stewardship appropria-tion, we will continue to implement the Streambank Pro-tection program to the best of our abilities. While we arebehind our goal,we still aim tofinish the 100miles of SBP inthe 2017-2019 bi-ennium. We'vegot about 50miles to go!

Streambank Protection program updateDNR working hard to attain 100-mile goal, as directed by the Natural Resources Board.

Bob’s Fly Tying Tips& Techniques Book

Over 125 tips and information tohelp make your fly tying easier

and more fun!

$25 plus $5 Shipping & Handling

(Sales Tax Included in the Price)

Please send check in the amountof $30 with your name andaddress to: Robert Haase,

W7949 Treptow Ln.Eldorado, WI 54932

Split Bamboo Rods New, repairs, restoration, appraisals Rodmaking Tools and Advice

Call or email Scott for details at

920/687-0987 or [email protected]

Scott W. Grady Rodmaker

Check out our Facebook pagesWe’re getting social. The Council now has an official

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited Facebook page at face-book.com/WisconsinTU. So go ahead and give us a“Like!” We’ve also set up a Wisconsin Trout UnlimitedState Council “group” on Facebook for people to shareupcoming event info and conservation-related news.


2016 ContributorsLouis Arata Whitefish Bay WIHenry Barkhausen Winnetka ILEd Barnes Middleton WICharles Barnhill Madison WIJim Bayorgeon Appleton WIMichael Benish Oregon WIRon & Jolene Berg Chippewa Falls WIMark Berggren Madison WIBlaine Biedermann Madison WI

Richard Boda Boyceville WIStephen Born Madison WI

Edward Brockner Beaver Dam WIRussell Ciscon Phillips WIWilliam Creasey Muscatine IATerry Cummings Rhinelander WIDavid Darling River Falls WIBruce Davidson Wauwatosa WISteve Deery Coloma WIRichard Diedrich Grafton WIRichard Duplessie Eau Claire WIMike Duren Mazomanie WIJack Ellingboe Prescott WIHarley Erbs Rhinelander WI

MAIL TO: TU Watershed Access FundAttn: Doug BrownR4800 Timber Ln.

Ringle, WI 54471

Name

Address

City, State, Zip

Phone

Paul Feldhake Port Washington WIJoel Fisher Birnamwood WIWilliam Flader, M.D. Madison WIRichard Galling Hartland WIDaniel Geddes Appleton WIDon Glanzer Loganville WIJames J. Goodwin Sturgeon Bay WIColleen Grant Eden Prairie MNDan Grauer Wausau WIJohn Gribb Mt. Horeb WIJack Halbrehder Sparta WIStephen Hawk Madison WIAshton Hawk Madison WIJohn Hawk New Holstein WIDonald Heinzen Verona WIWalter Hellyer Egg Harber WIJerone Herro Kimberly WICline Hickok HudsonNancy and Dan Hill Spencer WIJohn Hoar Ashland WICharles Hodulik Madison WIHarold Hoffman West SalemWIScott Homann Roscoe ILPhyllis Hunt Waupaca WIJohn & Judith Hutchinson Sun Prairie WIWilliam Johnson Hudson WICliff Kremmer Sparta WILarissa Lyon Janesville WIThomas Lyon Fontana WIBrian Madsen Ellsworth WIKevin Mahaney Middleton WICharles Martinson Mt. Horeb WIPeter Meronek Stevens Point WIFred Mikolajewski West Allis WIRobert Moser Milwaukee WI

Dr. C. Emil Mueller Boscobel WIKeith Nelson Waunakee WIEric Nelson Chili WIHerb Oechler Wauwatosa WIWinston Ostrow De Pere WIScott Quandt DDS Green Bay WICarl Rasmussen Neenah WIBob Retko Cedarburg WIJames Ruether Mosinee WIMichael San Dretto Neenah WIJeff Schmoeger Cottage Grove WIGlen Schnadt Richland Center WIP.R. Schumann Hartford WIFrederick W. Seybold Madison WIEdwin Shultz Prairie du Sac WIMichael Staggs Poynette WIWayne Stockman Spring Valley WIThomas Towne Rosendale WIDennis Vandenbloomen Eau Claire WICarol Vendt Oconto WIJohn Voorhees Hazelhurst WIDick Wachoski Eau Claire WIDon Wagner Gillett WIJanis Watson Thiensville WIDonald Wellhouse Kaukana WIPaul Wiemerslage Hudson WIStephen Wilke Marinette WIDan Wisniewski MiddletonWIDon Wolf Madison WIJared Wunderlich DePere WIWendy & Fred Young Roscoe IL

Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter of TUWisconsin Clearwaters Chapter of TUMarinette County Chapter of TU

Summer 2017 updateThe 2017 Watershed Access Fund campaign is in full swing and the

response has been incredible so far. Thank you for your support.Last year this fund helped secure an important easement link in the

“Horseshoe” section on the North Fork of the Bad Axe River in Ver-non County. Without your continued support of this program, this op-portunity to obtain a public fishing easement here.

Chapters seeking to secure public access with the support of Water-shed Access Fun grants can request up to $7,500. Two chapters can pairup and each request a grant for a single acquisition, providing up to$15,000 to secure an important easement.

Please consider making a generous contribution to the WatershedAccess Fund this year. The ability to secure easements that may only beavailable for a short time is critical. Generations to come will thank usfor securing places to enjoy the passion of fishing. Additionally, publicfishing easements allow TU to support stream restoration efforts onthose waters.

I wish you all a great 2017 fishing season!

Thank you,

Doug Brown, Wisconsin TU Watershed Access Fund Chair

Here is my contribution of $100 or more to the Wisconsin TU Watershed Access FundMake your check payable to Wisconsin Trout Unlimited

By Bob HaaseWITU Education Chair

So often we determine successby numbers. In sports, it is the teamwith the highest score or number ofwins. In fishing, it’s the person whocatches the most or largest fish. Ifwe look at the numbers, the 2017Wisconsin Outdoor Heritage Expowas a great success. We had 914kids tie a fly, whichwas 164 more thanlast year. We alsohad five more TUvolunteer tiersthan last year.When you have914 kids tie a fly intwo days, that is agreat success.

Just as impor-tant are all the oth-er outcomes of anevent like this. Wehad the kids tie a panfish fly thatthey could use to catch bluegills. Inaddition to helping them tie a fly,we described to the kids and theirchaperones how they could use aspinning float (clear bobber) to pro-vide the weight necessary to casttheir fly with a spinning rod. Illus-trated instruction sheets were pro-vided on how to rig the spinningfloat and fly and how to fish it.More kids have access to spinning

rods than fly rods, and we wantthem to catch a fish on a fly theytied themselves. We are not tryingto make them fly tiers or fly fisher-men. We just want them to get themhooked on fishing.

Who knows what this might leadto? Hopefully the children and theirparents will fish together, sharingtime together outdoors, and acquir-ing a better understanding of nature

and our envi-ronment.

Maybe oneof the kids is afuture legisla-tor or gover-nor. Couldthese experi-ences affecttheir viewsand votes?Maybe some-day they mighteven learn to

trout fish and become a member ofTU. If you think this is all “pie inthe sky” thinking, think about thefirst time you went fishing, who youwent fishing with, and how it has af-fected your life.

While our volunteer tyers areteaching the children how to tie afly, they are also talking about fish-ing and doing things outdoors. Thecommunications that take place andmaking tying their first fly fun is im-

JERRY SMET IS A MASTER OF TEACHING KIDSJerry Smet from the Central Wisconsin Chapter works with a youngster at the Midwest Outdoor Heritage Expo in May. Jerry has tied at youth tying programs including the Expo, Milwaukee Sentinel Sport Show, Montello Fish and Fun Days, Get Kids Hooked on Fishing Program in Fond du Lac, and many others all across the state. He has a special skill at teaching kids to tie.

Bob

Haa

se

Midwest Outdoor Heritage Expo a great success

portant. We have outstanding vol-unteers who work well with the kidsand provide a positive image ofTrout Unlimited to the chaperonesand everyone involved. A specialthanks to all the TU volunteers whohelped make this event successful inso many different ways: Jerry Smet,Rand VanderSchaff, Tom Connelly,Bill Millonig, Mike Sandretto, JimMurphy, Renee Sagal, Jared Sagal,Mike Stapleton, Scot Stewart, JeffTrue, John Tucker, Bob Burke, RickFrye, Bob Moss, Julie Vanenberg,Ed Kosik and Bob Haase.

We had a surprise when we ar-rived Thursday morning. Strongwinds Wednesday night blew our

tent and a few other large tentsdown. They had our tent back upand we were tying by around 10 a.m.

Everyone at the Expo worked sowell together, making it a positiveexperience for the kids. About 3,000children from grades 4-6 and about500 chaperones attended this year’sevent. Make plans now to attendnext year on May 16-17, 2018, andmaybe add some additional activi-ties such as bug identification, knottying, displays on conservation ac-tivities, stream monitoring, etc. The2017 Expo was a great success inmany ways and next year we are go-ing to make it even better!

We have outstanding volunteers who work well

with the kids and provide a positive image of Trout

Unlimited to the chaperones and everyone

involved.


CONFLUENCE, from page 1

Gierach is the recipient of theArnold Gingrich Angling HeritageAward from the Theodore GordonFlyfishers of New York, the Federa-tion of Fly Fishers Roderick Haig-Brown Award, and the PEN NewEngland Cerulli Award for Excel-lence in Sports Writing. He wasnamed Fly Rod & Reel Magazine’sAngler of the Year in 2000 and wasinducted into the Fly-Fishing Hall ofFame at the Catskill Fly FishingCenter and Museum in 2015. He hasreceived numerous awards for hiscolumns and editorials from theColorado Press Association.

Artist Bob WhiteOur featured artists include Bob

White, an artist and author whosework expresses a misspent youth. In-stead of doing his homework, hisnose was constantly in the outdoorbooks and sporting magazines of theday.

Consequently, he has wanderedbetween Alaska and Patagonia formore than three decades as an itin-erant fishing guide, looking for gain-ful employment. He now paints andwrites for a living, which is to say,he’s still searching.

White has been influenced bysuch masters as Homer, Sargent andFournier, and by more recent artists,such as Pleissner, Jacques andSloane.

He works in watercolors, oils,pencil and ink, grasping the essenceof a scene in a brief sketch. His abil-ity to capture a fleeting momentthrough the eyes of a sportsman hasearned him international recogni-tion. His work hangs in the private

and corporate collections of sports-men on six continents.

He has guided fishing and wing-shooting clients in Southwest Alas-ka and throughout Patagonia formore than three decades. He con-tinues to host fly-fishing and wing-shooting trips to Patagonia, Alaska,Kamchatka and other destinations.The photographs that he takes of hisguests in the field frequently appearin national publications and are of-ten used as reference material forfield and stream portraits.

White was inducted into theFreshwater Fishing Hall of Fame asa Legendary Artist in 2009. Hewas Fly Rod & Reel magazine’sGuide of the Year in 1988. As the1994 Artist of the Year for the Alas-ka State Parks Foundation, he pro-duced and donated the artwork forthe first Alaska State Parks Founda-tion print. His work has been pre-sented twice in Fly Rod &Reel magazine’s “Gallery." He hasbeen featured as a guide and artiston ESPN’s “Fly Fishing the World”and “Fly Fishing America,” as wellas on Ron Schara’s “MinnesotaBound.” He illustrated John Gier-ach’s closing columns in Fly Rod &Reel magazine for nearly three de-cades. As an artist and columnist, hehas been on the mastheads of FlyRod & Reel, Ducks Unlimited,Midwest Fly Fishing, TravelingSportsman, and regularly contrib-utes to many other sporting publica-tions in the United States andabroad.

Bob lives in Marine on St. Croix,Minnesota with his wife, Lisa, theirdaughter Tommy, and their awe-some retriever, Frisbee.

Photographer Mike DvorakAlso featured is photographer

Mike Dvorak of Robbinsdale, Min-nesota. He is an award-winning pho-tographer who has pursueddocumentary and editorial projectsacross the United States and aroundthe world. Clients have includedThe New York Times, The UtneReader, Universal Records (Parisand London), Fly Rod and Reel,Women’s Sports and Fitness, Jazziz,High Note Records, The Sun, andthe Minnesota Conservation Volun-teer, among many others. He re-ceived his BFA in photography fromthe Minneapolis College of Art andDesign in 1996. His personal work isnow in the permanent collection atthe Weisman Art Museum at theUniversity of Minnesota.

Retired Dean Alan HaneyOur featured conservation scien-

tist is Alan Haney, retired dean ofthe College of Natural Resources atthe University of Wisconsin—Ste-vens Point

Alan Haney retired from theUniversity of Wisconsin-StevensPoint in 2007 after 40 years of col-lege teaching, primarily ecology andrelated courses. His 12 publishedbooks are mostly of a technical na-ture, but “Laughing in the Wilder-ness,” “Jewels of Nature” and“Following Old Trails,” his threemost recent, are written for generalaudiences. They draw heavily on theyears he spent immersed in nature,often far from the beaten track, pur-suing his research and love of wil-derness.

“Laughing in the Wilderness” isa collection of short, mostly humor-ous stories about actual events thathappened during preparation andadventures in wild places. “Jewels ofNature” looks into nature, using thelives of 92 species of birds commonto the Midwest as the window. “Fol-lowing Old Trails” is a study of thenatural history of the Canadianshield as witnessed during an epiccanoe trip from Lake Superior toHudson Bay, following old fur-traderoutes.

Haney continues to write, traveland lecture on a wide range of envi-ronmental and natural history top-

ics. He has been described by thosefamiliar with his work as warm, wiseand insightful, with an ability to takethe reader with him into the naturalworld.

Activities galoreThe event will consist of public

displays of art and writing, presenta-tions, panel discussions, forums,book signings, book readings,hands-on art and creative writing ac-tivities and a Saturday night recep-tion, all with the purpose ofexperiencing and appreciating theinterrelatedness of creative writing,art and conservation. A finalizedschedule with details of the eventswill be published in early July.

This may truly be a once in a life-time opportunity, so mark your cal-endars and make plans to attend.This event is being made possible inpart by a very generous donation bythe Wisconsin State Council ofTrout Unlimited. In fact, the Coun-cil decided to schedule its fall meet-ing in Wausau that same weekend soTU members can enjoy the eventand attend our meeting on a singleweekend.

For more information go to wrv-tu.org/confluence or contact JohnMeachen at [email protected] or715-571-5386.

JOHN GIERACH

BOB WHITE

MIKE DVORAK

ALAN HANEY

Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

ALTU WRAPS UP TIC PROGRAMTrout In the Classroom concluded May 19 at Dell Creek. DNR Biologist Nate Nye provided the students with an excellent learning experience about stream ecology.

Aldo Leopold Chapter

Our Trout In the Classroomproject with the fifth graders at Pin-eview Elementary School conclud-ed this spring when young rainbowtrout were released in Dell Creekunder the supervision of FisheriesManager Nate Nye.

At our April board meeting, theannual election resulted in MikeStapleton taking the reins as presi-dent, with Scott Allen staying on asvice president. Dan Endres hasjoined the board as our newestmember, filling the position previ-ously held by Tim Hood.

Also at the April meeting we ap-proved a $500 contribution towarda new habitat restoration project onLittle Willow Creek in RichlandCounty. Located upstream of thesection worked on in 2016, this newproject is a spawning area for thebrook trout inhabiting this stream.Partnering with us will be the Black-hawk, Coulee and SE Wisconsinchapters.

A number of chapter memberswere able to partner up with theCoulee and SE Wisconsin chaptersJune 10 on Tainter Creek in VernonCounty for removal of young willowsprouts. ALCTU supplied thesprayers and herbicide to help mini-mize resprouting.

Our annual fundraising picnicwas June 13 at Habermann Park inLodi. Approximately 30 memberscame out in the heat and humidityto swap stories, down a few bratsand do their best to take homesome more fishing gear. As for ourtwo grand prizes, Jim Schaumer wasthe winner of an original troutstamp painting by Virgil Beck andTim Hood took home a Sage ONErod with a Vosseler reel as the rest

of us jealously looked on.Wisconsin author Bill Stokes

joined us that evening, entertainingus with anecdotes of his fishing andwriting experiences and with select-ed readings from his recently re-leased book “Trout Friends andOther Riff-Raff.” Bill sold and au-tographed copies of his book after-ward, then donated the proceeds tothe chapter. He also won a box offlies to take home which, much tohis relief, were large enough that hethought he would stand a fairchance of being able to tie one tothe end of a leader.

ALCTU is proud to be named arecipient of an Orvis ConservationGrant in the amount of $2,000which is to be applied to construc-tion of a boardwalk and educationalviewing platform on the banks ofManley Creek, on land owned bythe Riverland Conservancy in SaukCounty. Construction will be com-pleted in late fall 2017.

Carl Wegner, a Boy Scout fromPortage who is working toward hisEagle Scout award, is planning awork day at Bear Creek to takeplace in September. Carl will de-sign, procure materials and overseeconstruction of a new signage kioskto be located at the parking pull-offin Highway 130. He will do thesame for an access stile at the legaleasement just north of the parkingarea and also organize brush re-moval along a short stretch of BearCreek in the same vicinity. Most ofthe labor will be provided by theBoy Scouts with assistance from ourchapter. The date is yet to be deter-mined.—Mike Stapleton

Blackhawk Chapter

At our March meeting, IsraelDunn came down from Madisonand got our fishing juices flowingwith his illustrated fishing program,including not only trout, butmuskies and carp. In April, ScotStewart, formerly with the DNR,presented lots of population datafor the trout streams in southernWisconsin, which included changesfor brook trout and brown troutpopulations during the past severalyears.

We had a successful AnnualSpring Banquet on April 24, withmore than 120 people in atten-dance. The proceeds will allow us tocontinue supporting several streamimprovement projects this year.

We’ve already had our firstworkday for the year, on May 16.TU members Dave Patrick, JohnLusk, Tom Kautz, Rob Patrick andTerry Vaughn helped 20 Shabazzstudents build eight LUNKERstructures, the majority to be in-

stalled as part of the Weister Creekproject. Those “kids” really like toshow their enthusiasm.

At our May meeting we approvedsending $2,000 each for projects on

the West Fork at Avalanche and forWarner Creek on the McCoy prop-erty.—Dave Hinde

Central Wisconsin Chapter

The “Bob Hunt Commemora-tive” program in May 2017 was wellattended. This program honors aperson who has worked to enhancetrout habitat. This year’s speakerwas Ray J. White, who lectured on“Restoring Trout Habitat in Wiscon-sin Streams, 1950-2015 - History andScience.”

The River Keeper training semi-nar was held in May on the WaupacaRiver. Peggy Compton from UW-Extension and Dave Bolha from theOshkosh office of the DNR, alongwith CWTU Riverkeeper Coordina-tor Bob Jozwowski, presented an in-formational day for new riverkeep-ers. Participants learned to measurethe velocity of the water, measurethe width and the depth of the river,determine turbidity of the water,check the river temperature and ox-ygen content. Students had hands-on experience learning Entomolo-gy. What a lovely day.

Three new teams have been add-ed, for a total of 32 teams, with morethan 70 members. Bob Jozwowskidoes an excellent job of organizingthe teams, verifies the informationand continues to educate the volun-teers to make the program a success.

The volunteers collect river datamonthly from May through Septem-ber and submit it to the DNR so thatstream health can be assessed. RiverKeepers are advocates for areastreams, they are watchdogs for in-vasive species and environmentalproblems, and they are organized in-to small teams. The program hasbeen in existence for more than 10years and it has been conducted withthe support of the UW-Extensionand the DNR.

The river monitoring experienceis fun and rewarding. It is a greatway to meet new people and dosomething meaningful for futuregenerations. CWTU is greatful toBob Jozwowski, program coordina-tor. If you are interested in partici-

pating, you can contact Bob at 920-765-1887 or email him at [email protected].

CWTU’s first workday of the2017 season was held on May 20 onthe White River, about two milessouth of Wautoma. CWTU, FVTUand the Elliott Donnelley chapterswere well represented. The ElliottDonnelley Chapter gave CWTU anice donation for future stream im-provement. TU assisted the DNR inbuilding access trails, dredging, and500 feet of log work. It was a greatwork day and was again well execut-ed by Dennis Drazkowski, CWTUwork day coordinator. Thank you toElliott Donnelley TU and to allthose who made the day a success.

The 40th Annual CWTU FlyFishing School was in June at theRiverside Bible Camp in Amherst,under the direction of Dan HarmonIII. The school is designed to makethe student a better fly fisher. Class-es and individual instruction in sub-jects as fly casting, reading thewater, understanding fly hatches, se-lecting fly patterns, tackle selection,knot tying, fly tying demonstrationsand much more.

The weather was warm and sun-ny. Each student had one-on-one flyfishing, stream–side instruction byan experienced fly fisherman and awrap-up lunch for all.

The Casting Clinic and picnicwere June 13 at Marble Park. Begin-ner and advanced casting lessonswere taught. Rigging demonstra-tions were also presented. Jeff Treuorganized casting instructors andworked with Bob Haase, who coor-dinated the rigging demonstrationprogram. The public was welcome atno charge.

We have many more great andfun events coming up. See us on ourwebsite at CWTU.org.—Laura Tucker

CWTU’S RIVERKEEPERS KEEPS GROWINGCWTU’s Riverkeeper volunteers collect river data and submit it to the DNR to assess stream health. The program has been in existence for more than 10 years and it has been conducted with the support of the UW-Extension and the DNR. They now have 32 teams made up from 70 volunteers.

Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

Coulee Region Chapter

Put March 24 of 2018 on yourcalendar for the 4th annual Cozad’sDriftless 1Fly event. This successfulevent showcases the excellent springfishing in the Driftless as we raisemoney for youth outdoor activities.Last March, 15 teams put nearly 800fish in the net (and released, ofcourse) and the winning team wasFamily Fly Fishers (Jacob Khang,Mitchell Khang, Choua Khang andSara Ennen).

In early June, members ofCRTU, ALTU and SEWTU met onTainter Creek for willow brushing,camaraderie and lunch. Thanks toJason Freund for leading the chargeand for the SEWTU crew for bring-ing all the equipment. It was a veryhot day, but thankfully the wind wasblowing to cool us off and keepsome of the bugs away.

Curt Rees, Gavin Rees and MarkKowaliw taught fly casting to stu-dents from La Crosse Central High

School on June 20 during their sum-mer school PE class. Rick Kyte led agroup of Desoto students in learn-ing how to tie flies during their sum-mer school program. CRTU paidfor the stocking of a few hundredfish in Coon Creek for a ProjectHealing Waters group from GreenBay on June 24.

CRTU members will demon-strate fly tying and casting duringthe July 8 Youth Outdoor Fest, acity event that brings in more than1,000 kids and their families to learnabout outdoor activities in our area.

Coon Valley’s Trout Fest will beheld on Coon Creek on July 22.CRTU will again coordinate thekids fishing event to provide kidsand their families an opportunity tohave fun and catch fish. The kidsfishing fun goes from 10 a.m. to 1p.m.—Curt Rees

Fox Valley Chapter

Fox Valley TU has been verybusy planning, organizing and carry-ing out a very interesting and ambi-tious spring and summer schedulefor 2017.

Our March chapter meeting in-cluded election of officers and twonew board members. Nate Ratliffwas elected as the new chapter pres-ident, Dick Stielow and Al Johnsoncontinue on in the roles of secretaryand treasurer. There were also twonew board members elected at theMarch meeting and those individu-als are Graeme Hodson and JeffMoureau. Several members of theexecutive committee have been re-viewing and updating the chapterby-laws and those changes were alsoapproved at the chapter meeting.

Our April membership meetingwas the third annual Angling Ad-venture based in the Driftless Areain Avalanche the weekend of April20-23. There were a number ofchapter members who spent a fewadditional days earlier in the week“scouting out” the area so theycould provide useful tips to week-end fishers. Chapter members Rog-er Genske and Dan Geddesorganized the event, which includedabout three dozen chapter mem-bers, some of the crew from theWild Rose Habitat crew, TU folksfrom other chapters, and friends ofchapter members.

Tony Garvey was the Chief Chefthis year as Bob Kinderman had adate with a turkey that weekend.

CWTU JOINED BY TWO OTHER CHAPTERS FOR WORK DAYCWTU’s first workday of the 2017 season was held on May 20 on the White River about two miles south of Wautoma. CWTU, FVTU and the Elliott Donnelley chapters were well represented.

FVTU’S 39TH ANNUAL FISHING DAY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIESTim Fries pulls in a rainbow trout with Jerome Herro assisting. More than 60 people attended. Fox Valley TU is now planning the 40th annual event.

COULEE JOINED BY ALTU AND SEWTU AT TAINTER CREEKThe Coulee Chapter teamed up with the Southeast and Aldo Leopold chapters to knock down more willows along a stretch of upper Tainter Creek in Vernon County. Big thanks to SEWTU for the workers, the food and the tool trailer.

The fishing, camaraderie and learn-ing/teaching experiences helped tocreate a great time for all. Chapterleaders hope we can continue togrow this event to include more in-dividuals in 2018 and beyond. Pleasecheck our website for more aboutthe weekend.

Our first Habitat Day was whathas become the traditional openerfor the year. On April 29 we met atthe Davies Creek site. Elward Englewas not able to join us this year ashe has in the past. We have learneda great deal about that project andthe habitat of the area from El-ward’s informative walks along thestream and in the forested areaalong Davies Creek. That site wasone of the very first stream improve-ment projects that our chapter wasinvolved with many years ago. Wespent the morning cleaning up somedeadfalls, removing buckthorn, andjust general cleanup of the area.The noon lunch cook, Jim Hlaban,provided a great meal to finish theday.

The Davies Creek cleanup andbrushing project will continue with agroup of young men from the Raw-hide Boys Ranch throughout thesummer. The Habitat Days with theRawhide young men will be held onTuesdays once a month throughoutthe summer. If you are interested injoining in with some of the chaptermembers who also help out, pleasecontact Joe Bach and check ourwebsite for specific dates.

May 20 was the 39th AnnualFishing Day for People with Disabil-ities. The event was again held atCamp Shioc/Appleton YMCA DayCamp Pond and Facilities. Thecampgrounds were in excellent con-dition and the pond had more than

100 rainbow trout that were provid-ed by The Silver Moon SpringsTrout Farm. Everyone caught fish,enjoyed the noon meal, and all hada chance to share stories of pastfishing days. The rain held off untilafter the picnic lunch and cleanup ofthe grounds were completed. Morethan 60 people attended, includingfishers, family members, caregiversand chapter members. We wouldlike to thank Kim Norton and theAppleton YMCA for partneringwith us and we are now planning forthe 40th annual fishing event in2018.

The current chapter memberswish to thank Del Schwaller and ac-knowledge the late Don Killorenand John Spalding for organizingand laying the groundwork for thisvery worthwhile event.

The chapter’s other event onMay 20th was a Habitat Day whichunited Central Wisconsin TU withFox Valley TU on the White River.The chapter will be partnering withCentral Wisconsin TU on a numberof Habitat Days throughout thesummer months, on the third Satur-day of the month, through Septem-ber. Again, please check our websitefor additional information.

There will be a number of chap-ter members involved with the Wis-consin Trout Unlimited YouthFishing Camp later this month. Thechapter has been very lucky to havea number of younger people joinour ranks and they have provided anew level of enthusiasm that isgreatly appreciated by everyone.

Nate Ratliff is the new chapterpresident. Brandon Schmalz hasbeen doing a fantastic job with ourwebsite: foxvalleytu.org. Jen Erick-son and Brandon have been keeping

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Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

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our Facebook page up to date.We have been busy, but we must

remember that our efforts at the lo-cal level are to continue to protectour natural resources and preserveour important green spaces and thelife in it. Continue to follow thestate legislative happenings and con-tact your legislators to make surethat your voice is heard concerningWisconsin’s wildlife, water resources

and the total environment.Our Bug Guy, Tom Lager, always

reminds us to enjoy His creation. Itis that time of year that we all lookforward to enjoying time on thestreams, rivers, ponds and lakes ofWisconsin. From FVTU: have agreat and safe summer.—Rich Erickson

Frank Hornberg Chapter

On Saturday, April 29, membersof the Hornberg Chapter joinedforces with the Bill Cook Chapter ofthe Izaak Walton League to improvetwo sections of the Tomorrow Riverand Poncho Creek. Working wherethe two streams meet, near what lo-cals know as the Hot Shot Club, theycleared the banks of tag alder. Com-mitted Ikes and Hornbergers wereundeterred by the cold and windyweather conditions.

This year our chapter modifiedthe format for our fly-fishing school.We invited students from previousyears to return on Saturday, May 20,for advanced one-on-one instructionon local streams. Weather condi-tions were less than ideal; partici-pants were met with periods of coldrain and wind. Ken Pierce and Bren-da Gingles saved the day by gra-ciously inviting all of the students to

their house for a hot lunch.Our River Keepers stream moni-

toring team was on the water onMonday, May 22. We are checkingconditions at the same location asprior years, on the Tomorrow Riverdownstream from the bridge in Nel-sonville. Continuing members of theteam (Ken Pierce, Rick Foris, MaryJo Pfankuch, Jean Klein, BrendaGingles and John Vollrath) arejoined this year by Jim Zack. For-mer members Ted and Cathy Car-apezza have moved out of state.Steve and Cindy Roehrs, visitorsfrom Washington State, were pres-ent for this first session.

June 24 is the tentative date forour next river work day. Membersshould stay tuned for final details onthe place and time.—John Vollrath

CHECKING FOR DISOLVED OXYGEN IN THE TOMORROWStream monitor Ken Pierce (right) tests for dissolved oxygen in the Tomorrow River on May 22, observed by John Vollrath.

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Green Bay Chapter

Green Bay Trout Unlimited,along with many other conservationand local groups, including the Na-varino Nature Center, conducted afly-tying demo and clinic as part ofNavarino’s overall Earth Day eventson April 22. About 150-200 attend-ed the event and Mike Renish, DaveOstanek and Way Czypinski werekept busy the entire time.

In April several GBTU mem-bers, along with other local TUchapter members, attended a certi-fied chainsaw training workshopwith the DNR in Wild Rose. In-structor Lee Schauman from Chain-saw Safety Specialists, LLC, was ourlead for day. Lee comes to us withmore than 30 years of knowledge inthe field. Trout Habitat Team Super-

visor Shawn Sullivan put this train-ing together and we owe him a hugethanks for presenting us with thisunique opportunity.

In early May GBTU also partici-pated in our annual Trout Stockingof Haller’s Creek, in partnershipwith the DNR. More than 270brown trout were stocked in thecreek and seven GBTU volunteershelped walk the fish in buckets totheir new habitat. On June 1 GBTUheld its annual summer picnic atNEW Zoo Pine Forest Pavillion,close to the creek that we stocked inMay. Fun was had by all, with a pot-luck and yard games around the pa-vilion and about 30 members andfamily in attendance.—Staush Gruszynski

Harry & Laura Nohr Chapter

The Trout In the Classroom pro-gram that Kurt lined up for NorthCrawford school district was an ab-breviated version of the learning ex-perience that was planned. Waterchemistry problems were a good

way to show kids how sensitive troutare to water quality.

We had a gathering with DriftlessConservancy members to get famil-iar with each other’s organization. Itwas brats and beer on the Blue Riv-

CHARLIE IMHOFF RECEIVES AWARD FROM NOHR CHAPTERTim Fraley presents Charlie Imhoff with the “Friend of the Chapter” award at the Harry & Laura Nohr Chapter’s annual banquet at the Castle Rock Inn.

er at Snowbottom Road. Unfortu-nately not many of the DC peoplecould attend, so we shared brats andbeer with passing anglers. We mayhave gotten a new member or twofor TU.

We had our Annual Banquet inMay at the Castle Rock Inn. Wemade more than $6,000. Thank youto all who helped prepare, made do-nations and attended. Notably wehad attending six college studentsfrom our UW-Platteville group anda nice couple from Alaska that wemet on Snowbottom Road whilemeeting with Driftless Conservancy

members.We awarded school grant pro-

gram funding for four proposals, fora total of $2,038. All of the projectsinclude field work, and a total of370 students will participate inHighland, Iowa-Grant, Boscobeland Belmont. Our LandownerAward went to the Wideroe proper-ty heirs. Our Friend of Chapteraward went to Charlie Imhoff, whogave a wonderful speech on thelandowner’s perspective. The Gold-en Net Award went to Past Presi-dent Todd Templen.—Brian Larson

Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter

Spring has been a busy time forKiap-TU-Wish. Chapter volunteershelped out at youth education pro-grams, built LUNKER structures,obtained bids for a culvert replace-ment and mentored at a fly-fishingclinic. The chapter also continues totrack the progress of the Kinnickin-nic River corridor planning study inRiver Falls.

On May 1 the DNR started workon the Trimbelle River/Holst ease-ment project. It’s estimated thatmore than 160 dump trucks of rockwill be used along the stream. Fair-mount Santrol volunteers, underthe leadership of Randy Arnold,

built LUNKER structures for laterplacement. Funding for the projectis a mix of Trout Stamp funds andNRCS grant monies.

In May, bids were opened up forthe Parker Creek culvert project. APolk County representative super-vised the opening. The low bid wasslightly higher than the original costestimate, but Kiap is optimistic thatit will find a way to fund the bal-ance. Replacement of the culvert isexpected to occur this summer.Thanks to John Carlson and GaryHorvath for their efforts in securingproject funds and local support forthis unique project.

LEARNING ABOUT AQUATIC INSECTSThe Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter’s TIC program teaches Rivercrest fifth-grade students about the aquatic insects that are important to fish.

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Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

All five Kiap-TU-Wish-spon-sored TIC programs in Hudson,River Falls and Amery successfullyraised and released their browntrout into the Willow River.

The release parties were festiveaffairs including insect collection/identification and flycasting instruc-tion. Prior to the release, the kidsattended Dean Hansen’s Bugs inthe Classroom programs. Deandoes an awesome job, and the kidsand teachers appreciate his hands-on teaching with real bugs.

In addition to TIC, Kiap-TU-Wish participated in environmentaleducation programs with MeyerMiddle School in River Falls andhelped host the Ellsworth 8th gradefield day with Fairmount Santrol atPine Creek.

In total, Kiap provided educa-tional programing to more than 400students this spring.

The chapter’s newly reconfig-ured Fly Fishing for Trout Clinicwas held in Glen Park in early June.Students were given casting lessonsfor more than two hours, accompa-nied by lessons in stream strategies,wading safety and knot tying.

Joe Gathman from UW-RiverFalls gave a lesson in aquatic ento-mology using live samples from thelower Kinnickinnic River. After thechapter fed everyone a hearty sup-

per, students retired to the river forfishing, leaving only after it gotdark.

The City of River Falls continuesits series of technical talks on topicsrelated to their Kinnickinnic Rivercorridor planning process.

Recent talks included formerDuluth Mayor Don Ness speakingon economic and neighborhood de-velopment, and Hydro Facilities andRelicensing.

These “Tech Talks” are part ofthe educational effort for the com-munity as they wrestle with the deci-sion that will determine the fate ofthe two dams on the KinnickinnicRiver. Planning is underway for thenext “Tech Talk,” Dam Removal Al-ternatives, in July.

Our chapter is happy to reportthat the 2017 Hap Lutter MemorialSpring Appeal was a great success.We raised more than $11,000 whichwill be used to continue streamproject, education and advocacy ef-forts. The chapter relies on the fi-nancial and volunteer support ofdedicated members to support cold-water conservation in our area.Thank you all.—Tom Schnadt, Mike Alwin, GregOlson, Gary Horvath and MariaManion.

Marinette County Chapter

In April we had a highly suc-cessful banquet, which is our pri-mary fundraiser for the year. Weprovided funds for the tempera-ture monitors on the Oconto andPeshtigo Rivers.

On June 3 members participat-ed in the Family Fun Day at theMarina in Menominee, Michigan,doing fly-casting and fly-tyingdemonstrations.

On June 10 the chapter teamedup with other local groups like thePeshtigo Lions, Peshtigo Recre-ation Department and Strike Kinglures to have a kids fishing day onthe Peshtigo River.

We also work with the Cole-man/Pound area to hold a kidsfishing day the last weekend inMay.

On June 23 the Marinette City

Recreation Department and TroutUnlimited will hold the kids fish-ing day at Stephenson Island onthe Menominee River. This yearwe hope to have more than 125participants in our youth fishingdays.

Other activities that the chap-ter is involved with are the sum-mer work days in conjunction withother local chapters like GreenBay TU and Oconto River TU.

This summer our chapter willalso be brushing out some accesstrails to some of the trout streamsin northeast Wisconsin. We foundold access trails that are gettingovergrown and almost unpassable.—Dale Lange

KIAP’S FLY-FISHING CLINIC A HUGE SUCCESS!Kiap fly-fishing clinic participant Corie Hildebrandt shows off her first-ever trout. The chapter’s newly reconfigured Fly Fishing for Trout Clinic was held in Glen Park in early June. Students were given casting lessons and learned about stream strategies, wading safety and knot tying.

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Northwoods Chapter

In April U.S. Fish and WildlifeService fisheries biologist HenryQuinlan gave a great presentationon coaster brook trout. There wassignificant interest in this presenta-tion within and outside our chapter,and we recorded it. The YouTubevideo can be found on our web site.

In May Dick Oehler spoke to thechapter about the UW-Extension/DNR Water Action Volunteer citi-zen monitoring program. The Maymeeting also included our annualelection. The following positionshave been filled: president, Jay Jop-pa; vice president, Bill Sherer; sec-retary, John Zatopa; treasurer,Terry Cummings; board members,Mick Mlinar, Dave Tipple and JackLoomis.

In June Terry Cummings assist-ed Bob Haase from the Central Wis-consin Chapter with a Fathers’s Day

tying clinic at the Presque Isle Li-brary. Bob has graciously identifiedthe clinic as a Northwoods Chapterevent.

Also in June, Terry Cummingstaught a fly-tying clinic at the LakeTomahawk Park District’s annualkids fishing day.

Chapter Workdays with the U.S.Forest Service have been scheduledfor July 17 through July 20.

Chapter volunteers will again beassisting Laura MacFarland with herwork inventorying culverts in theChequamegon Nicolet NationalForest.

The chapter will be sponsoring acamper at this year’s WITU YouthFishing Camp held at the Pine LakeBible Camp outside of Wild Rose.Terry Cummings will be an instruc-tor/mentor at the camp.—Terry Cummings

Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter

SEWTU has been very busy thisspring providing outreach and edu-cational opportunities, holdingchapter meetings and kicking offour busy workday season.

We’ve been particularly busywith our education and outreachprograms. SEWTU member Jay Za-werschnik organized our chapter’sinvolvement at the Cabela’s FishingClassic last April in Richfield. Thiswas a great opportunity to helpteach a wider audience about ourmission and encourage interestedpeople to join TU. SEWTU mem-bers also assisted with the organiza-tion and helped judge the fly-tyingcontest held at the Cabela’s FishingClassic.

Also in April, Education Com-mittee Chair Rick Frye did a greatjob organizing the West Bend Kid’sFishing Clinic at Regner CountyPark. SEWTU members volun-teered at this event by teaching chil-dren about fishing equipment,providing casting instruction, andencouraging kids to try out somefishing tactics. SEWTU members al-so demonstrated fly tying and luremaking for the kids.

Jim Wierzba of SEWTU and Er-ik Helm from the Orvis store in Bay-shore Mall continued to build ourSEWTU/Orvis partnership at theOrvis Fly Fishing 101 classes thisspring. These classes met on Satur-days from April through June. Erik,

a strong supporter of SEWTU,leads the courses that include cast-ing lessons, descriptions of tackle/tools, and knot tying. SEWTUmembers assist Erik during theclasses. These classes are great op-portunities for introducing peopleto the mission and goals of TroutUnlimited.

SEWTU members continuedproviding fly-tying opportunities. InMay were the last two Oak CreekCommunity Center fly tying sessionsfor this season. Thanks to GregSchick for organizing this. In addi-tion, George Batcha organized andled weekly fly-tying classes for veter-ans. George has been running thisprogram for years and has built agreat program. Al Dalphonso andRon Wojack have been leading fly-tying sessions at the Spinal CordUnit of Milwaukee VA Hospital.

Now that summer is here, SEW-TU is entering its busy workday sea-son. In April our first workday of2017 was a cooperative effort withseveral local environmental organi-zations including the MilwaukeeRiverkeeper group. Andy Avgou-las, co-chair of the SEWTU HabitatCommittee, helped organize thisevent. The workday took place onthe Menominee River near MillerPark and continued our efforts inrecent years to improve this accessi-ble river corridor for lake-run salm-on, steelhead and trout.

SEWTU AND ORVIS FLY FISHING 101This is a photo of Eric Helm from Orvis, providing casting instruction at the Bayshore Orvis for a Fly Fishing 101 class

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Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

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In May our chapter assisted theLakeshore TU Chapter with a work-day on the Onion River. The volun-teers repaired structures andcleared brush. This workday wasvery successful, with large numbersof volunteers from both chapters.Much of our work involved cuttingback tag alder that was growing overthe stream, and replacing some ofthe cobbles and boulders that hadrolled off LUNKER structures. JimWierzba deserves recognition forworking closely with the LakeshoreChapter to organize this day.

In June we returned to TainterCreek in Vernon County for a work-day with the Aldo Leopold Chapterand the Coulee Region Chapter.This was our third year working onTainter and our work focused on re-moving willow saplings from alongthe stream. In addition to discourag-ing beavers from building dams, thiswork will also improve access to thestream. Thanks to Jason Freund, ofSEWTU, Scott Allen from AldoLeopold TU and Curt Rees fromCoulee Region TU for organizingthis workday. Ray Weiss deserves abig “thank you” for equipping andhauling the SEWTU trailer to thesite, and Rick Larkin for cookingbrats for our lunch. The June Taint-er Creek workday coincided withthe annual SEWTU Chapter Fish-ing Trip. We camped at the WestFork Sports Club near Avalancheduring the weekend, and membersfished after the workday.

In July SEWTU is planning onworking with the SWTU chapter foranother cooperative project at Sug-ar Creek in Dane County, buildingLUNKER structures. The 2018workday will continue this work.Last year there was a great turnoutfrom both chapters and we are ex-pecting the same this year.

Our chapter meetings have beenwell attended and we’ve had somegreat, informative speakers, andwe’ve also tried some new formats.In March, Kyle Zemple from BlackEarth Angling Company, spoke toour chapter about smallmouth bassfishing on the Lower Wisconsin Riv-er. Kyle used videos, photos, andsome great stories to teach ourmembers about techniques and

equipment needed to take advan-tage of this great fishing opportunityin our back yard. Many of membersin attendance were looking forwardto contacting Kyle this summer tolearn more about fishing “TheCrash”!

We tried something new duringour April chapter meeting and heldour first SEWTU Donation Night.Many of our members have been ac-quiring and collecting fishing tackleand equipment for many years andoften they have gear they no longeruse. We invited youth and new chap-ter members to our meeting whomay need more gear. We then heldan informal donation event wheremembers were able to give an itemto a youth or new member. It wasgreat to see veteran SEWTU mem-bers donate a rod or reel to a youthwhile explaining how the item wasacquired or how to best use it.

Our April chapter meeting alsofeatured the drawing for our SpringRaffle that Jim Folda organized. Inaddition, we held our chapter elec-tions. Officers elected were: ToddDurian, president; Stan Strelka, vicepresident; Ivan Nohavica, treasurer;and Jim Folda, secretary.

Geri Meyer, co-owner and man-ager of The Driftless Angler in Viro-qua, was our May speaker. Gerigave a great presentation on howimportant women are to Trout Un-limited and the fishing industry. Shespoke about how our chapter canencourage more women to becomeinvolved in our sport and our mis-sion. Geri also discussed Women’sFly Fishing Clinics and why TUchapters should recruit more wom-en to become involved with our hab-itat, outreach and educationalevents. Geri’s presentation was in-formative and engaging, and we arelooking forward to putting her sug-gestions into action!

Now that summer is here, we willbe taking a break from our monthlychapter meetings. We’ll be busy atworkdays, fishing and vacationingwith family and friends. Our month-ly meetings will resume in Septem-ber. I hope everyone has a greatsummer, and many fishing opportu-nities this summer.—Boyd Roessler

Southern Wisconsin Chapter

Have you checked out the all-new swtu.org? We’re excited aboutour new and modern website thatwill work as well on a phone as itdoes on a computer. A lot of timewent into winnowing and organiz-ing the information to make thingseasy and intuitive to find. Photogra-phy was a big focus as we alwayshave excellent photos followingevents, but the old website didn’t of-fer a good way to feature them.

You can learn about activities,initiatives, opportunities and even afly pattern. We’re just getting startedwith it and excited to see where thenew technology takes us in the fu-ture. A huge thanks to KevinGraeme for lending his considerableexpertise to this important outreachand engagement initiative.

Our annual Riversmith CastingClinic did not bring out the best inMother Nature, with damp, coldconditions, but it did bring out thebest of TU. Despite the weather,people of all ages showed up tolearn about casting, bugs, streamecology, gear and more. Manythanks to our volunteer memberswho gave their time to introduce

people to the wonders of trout.Our Stream Team has been busy

making improvements along ourcold waterways, including some thatjust received permanent easements.Considerable piles of brush havebeen created and then burned tomake way for the sun and new na-tive plantings. There is one finalworkday planned for Saturday, July15, after which our crews will getsome rest before starting up againthis fall. Watch our website to learnmore. We’d love to have you join us!

The Project Green Teen programat Malcom Shabazz High School inMadison is an environmental servicelearning class that addresses authen-tic environmental needs in the com-munity. Our group supports theprogram with instruction on fly cast-ing and tying, as well as sustainabili-ty efforts. The program yearculminates in a camping trip to Ava-lanche to fish and work on streamrestoration projects. Our volunteercrew provided the tips, tricks andencouragement to help the studentsexperience the joy of catching atrout on the fly. These were memo-rable moments for sure.

Many thanks, as well, to FontanaSports Specialties and Patagonia fortheir generosity in offering a$15,000 Environmental Grant Chal-lenge for a variety of worthy charita-ble organizations. Through thisopportunity, SWTU raised $2,276and won a $1,000 grant! We appreci-ate our members and their donation

that help strengthen our efforts toconserve coldwater resources in ourcommunity.

Please stop by swtu.org for morenews about our chapter and tocheck out our calendar of events.You can also find us on Facebook.—Drew Kasel

Wisconsin Clear Waters

The Wisconsin Clear WatersChapter concluded its regularmonthly meetings for the spring inApril, with a talk from MenomoneeRiver guide Chris Jape. He gave ustips on fishing for smallmouth ingeneral, and fishing on theMenomonee River in particular. Heshowed us his favorite fly patternsfor smallies and demonstrated tyinga few, including an innovative foamfrog. A couple people brought theirfly-tying kits and followed along.Most took mental notes and stuck todrinking beer.

Our annual banquet at the end ofMarch was a success and shouldkeep us in the black for anotheryear.

We borrowed a page from theState Council this year and gave outsome awards to conservation heroesin our corner of the world. Our re-cipients were:

* Conservation Educator: NateMcMahon, a science teacher atMenomonie Senior High School,who overcame some obstacles to geta Trout In the Classroom programgoing. Early setbacks included fun-gus attacking the trout eggs and nothaving quite the right ph in the wa-ter, but it has been part of the learn-ing process. The chapter andFairmont Minerals helped fund thisproject.

* Educator, Lifetime Achieve-ment: Dave Reidt, a guidance coun-selor at Eau Claire North HighSchool, started a fishing club in 2005which has grown to an average of 60students per year, including about25 percent minorities and 15 per-

cent girls. Their activities include icefishing, trout fishing and fishing on afloat on the Mississippi River. In-door programs include lure making,fly tying, and presentations on fish-ing-related topics.

* Stream volunteer: Dunn Coun-ty resident Ted Ludwig spent 20years with the U.S. Marines, fol-lowed by 20 years with the U.S.Postal Service. Since retiring, he hasmade stream and lake monitoringand teaching stream monitoring anearly fulltime job. Most of thestreams he monitors are in DunnCounty. Not all are trout streams,but many are.

* Conservation landowner: RickAllemann operates a four-genera-tion, 250-acre dairy farm in BuffaloCounty. In 2016, with some assis-tance from the Waumandee Rodand Gun Club (also help from TUDARE and the federal farm bill), hedid erosion control and habitat workon 2,000 feet of Danuser Creek, abrook trout stream. When severefloods hit last August, his stretch ofDanuser Creek held up well, whilemany neighboring creeks and cul-verts were trashed. It was a real-world demonstration of the value ofstream conservation. Rick plans towork on Waumandee Creek in 2017and 2018. The Country Today, afarm/rural weekly newspaper thatcirculates statewide, picked up anews release we sent out on the Al-lemann farm and developed it into afeature story. The story is now onthe “blogs” section of the WisconsinClear Waters web page at WCW-TU.com.

SWTU HOLDS ITS ANNUAL RIVERSMITH CASTING CLINICSWTU’s annual Riversmith Casting Clinic was made possible by a dedicated crew of SWTU volunteers that provided individualized instruction on equipment, reading the water, casting, Tenkara and (as pictured) entomology.

Summer 2017

Chapter News

Wisconsin Trout

The chapter allocated $7,000 forstream work, distributed to sevenprojects at the northern end of theDriftless Area, including one DNRproject on Fall Creek in PepinCounty, with the rest in Buffalo andTrempealeau counties. These in-clude the North Branch of Elk, atributary to Elk, two projects onSwinns Valley and two projects onWaumandee Creek.

The chapter has also allocated$2,500 for Sand Creek in DunnCounty and Xcel Energy is contrib-uting $2,500. The DNR had hopedto be working on Sand Creek thissummer, but didn’t get rock hauledbefore the spring thaw. We’re wait-ing for next year. Chippewa Out-door Resource Alliance, an allianceof sportsmen’s clubs, mostly inChippewa County, are also contrib-uting $3,900 for the work. SandCreek is a small- to medium-sizedcreek that grows big trout.

It was during a winter session oftying big ugly flies for warm waterfish that high school teacher andfishing guide Steve Wisner came upwith the idea of a one-fly contest forwestern Wisconsin. The Eau ClaireOne Fly Contest, which will bebased out of the Oxbow Hotel inEau Claire, will be August 11-12.

The contest is roughly patternedafter the One Fly Contest on theSnake River, but with a multi-spe-cies focus. Warm water species areallowed. Teams of three anglerseach will fish within a 50-mile radiusof Eau Claire.

Wisner decided that, like the bigevent in Jackson Hole, the EauClaire One Fly Contest should be afundraiser for a worthy cause, andhe decided the cause would be theWisconsin Clear Waters Chapter, sowe are helping him out. Steve wasalso the emcee for our annual ban-quet.

It is a catch-and-release contest,with the five longest fish for eachteam being registered.

For more information check outour website at wcwtu.com or go to

econefly.com.The chapter held a fishing outing

to the Viroqua area in May. Somestayed in motels, some camped de-spite chilly weather. According tosome accounts, trout were caughton nymphs and streamers.

A few chapter members joinedBoy Scouts and some damp scoutparents on a rainy April evening toplant trees along Hay Creek inChippewa County. The Boy Scoutmoms were particularly tough.

Dennis VandenBloomen hasmostly retired from UW-Stout afterteaching international business, butcontinues to teach their fly-fishingclass, with a little help from otherchapter members. The springweather didn’t always cooperate,but the group got at least the funda-mentals of fly fishing and some on-the-water experience.

Eight chapter members and 24young anglers spent the morning ofJune 3 fishing on Knapp Pond onfree fishing day. Most anglers usedspin rods provided by the chapter.Some of the older anglers tried flyrods. The weather and fish cooper-ated.

Trout Celebration 2017 was June10 on a restored section of EagleCreek in Buffalo County. The eventincluded youth fishing, a discussionof stream restoration and a streamshocking demonstration by theDNR. A number of clubs were in-volved, as well as TU DARE andWisconsin Clear Waters TU. We do-nated a couple rod kits and volun-teers.

Reel Recovery, a nonprofit orga-nization that arranges fly-fishingoutings for men with cancer, willhold a fly-tying session June 22 atthe Lazy Monk in Eau Claire. GuideSteve Wisner will demonstrate howto tie one of his favorite smallmouthpatterns, and other chapter mem-bers are invited to help with the flytying.—Joe Knight

Wisconsin River Valley Chapter

Greetings from the WisconsinRiver Valley Chapter. I hope every-one is getting the opportunity tocast a line and view some beautifulscenery…hopefully with a river run-ning through it. We did have plansin place to do some brush cutting onSpring Creek North of Merrill withthe DNR fisheries crew in May, buta bout of heavy rain and unusuallyhigh current forced us to cancel. Weplan to reschedule this event forSaturday, August 5.

In May, Bob Pils and HenryKanemoto were demonstratingtheir fly tying skills as JohnMeachan and Linda Lehman werehelping with fly casting to eager fifthgraders from the area at the TaylorCounty Sportsman’s Youth Expo.

In early June Linda Lehman wasin Wisconsin Rapids at the KiwanisKids day, helping all ages of kids tietheir very first Woolly Bugger. Theweather for the day was forecastedto be a possible washout with thethreat of rain, but the rain held offuntil the event was over and we hada flood of families that came out inthe afternoon to participate.

In early June Henry Kanemotowas on hand to give expert castingtips at The Water’s Edge Event atMinnow Ponds Park in Edgar, Wis-consin. The Event was hosted byKris Tiles from the UW-Extensionand Lauren Nichols from the Mara-thon County Conservation, Plan-ning and Zoning Department.Several demonstration stations were

present including fishing, kayaking,aquatic life and more. I was thrilledto sneak away for a few minutes totry out a paddle board. I did manageto fall in but got back on and eventried casting a fly rod from it. As Iwas figuring how to balance and cast

I was answering questions from asmall group of kids that were curi-ous about my weird looking fishingpole. It was a beautiful day and lotsof fun.—Linda Lehman

Wolf River Chapter

Our May Meet and Greet andworkday scheduled with Green BayTU had to be cancelled because ofhigh water. Hopefully we will be re-scheduling the work day.

All the rain has been great forthe Wolf River fish, not so much forthe fisherman, although we havehad some good reports from peoplewho have braved the high water. By

late May the river returned to some-what normal levels and I have first-hand experience of mayflieshatching, including gray drakes rightnow, with sulphurs starting. Thebrown drakes won’t be too far be-hind. Good luck and be careful outon the water.—Andy Killoren

Oak Brook Chapter

The Oak Brook TU Chapterpartnered with the Orvis Lombardstore in Chicago’s western suburb toobtain a 2017 $2,500 Orvis corpo-rate grant for stream restorationwork on Weister Creek. The OakBrook TU chapter provided finan-cial support to the Weister Creekmulti-phase project in 2016.

More than $95,000 was fundedfor Phase 1 and Phase 2 workthrough 2016, with major contribu-tions including about $28,000 fromTrout Unlimited chapters in Illinois(Oak Brook, Lee Wulff and ElliottDonnelly chapters) and Wisconsin(Blackhawk and Coulee Regionchapters). Phase 3 constructionshould be completed by July 1, 2017.At that time the project will cover7,540 feet of stream length, out of aplanned project total of 13,000 lin-eal feet.

“The Weister Creek Project isnow in its third phase of restoring aClass 1 trout stream to excellentconditions,” said Dave Carlson,Conservation Committee Chair.“This grant will help with the pri-vate matching funds needed to keepthis project progressing throughPhase 4.”

Oak Brook TU members will re-turn to Sparta for a Beaver Creekstream restoration work day sched-uled for Saturday, July 29, from 9a.m. to 2 p.m. The work day will befocused on building LUNKERstructures for installation in nearbyBeaver Creek by contractors. Thechapter has been involved in streamrestoration work in Sparta since2014.—Jim Schmiedeskamp

ORVIS YORKTOWN DONATES TO OBTUOrvis Yorktown store manager Glenn Martenson and fishing department manager Zeph Michael (left) present $2,500 check to OBTU’s Dave Moore and Dave Lunardini.

If you are a TU member and have investmentswith Thrivent Lutheran Financial, you may havethe ability to make charitable donations to groupsof your choosing through Thrivent Financial’sThrivent Choice program.

The Wisconsin Council of Trout Unlimited isnow a listed entity within the Thrivent Choice pro-

gram.If you are a Thrivent member and have the abil-

ity to make Thrivent Choice donations, we wouldbe honored if you’d consider including the Wis-consin Council of TU within your charitable plan-ning, and making a donation to our cause.

Donate to Wisconsin TU via Thrivent


RESTORING STREAMS.WORKING WITH KIDS.WORKING WITH VETERANS.

That’s what we do, and your purchase of a Wisconsin TU license plate supports our efforts. Support Wisconsin TU and get your Wisconsin TU license plate now. Go to www.dot.state.wi.us/drivers/vehicles/personal/special/trout.htm

Support Wisconsin TU and show it off!Your TU license plate supports Wisconsin TU. Personalizing it just makes it interesting. You’ve got six characters to play with, so come up with a good one and send us a photo.


LEGISLATION, from page 1

Dredging under general permitssimply provides less protection forthis critical area, and may also in-crease the risk of releasing previous-ly impounded polluted sediment orallowing invasive species to spread.

For such reasons, WisconsinTrout Unlimited submitted com-ments to the DNR in opposition toallowing general permit dredging,and in favor of retaining individualpermit dredging requirements.

High-capacity well billsThis bill is nearly identical to SB

239 and AB 874 from last year’s leg-islative session. Last year, a versionof this bill passed through bothhouses, but the versions were differ-ent and the two houses could notreconcile the differences, so the billwas not signed into law.

This year, the same bill wasmoved through both houses. Thesebills allow high-capacity well permitholders to move, rebuild, repair andtransfer high-capacity wells withoutfurther DNR review. In effect, thesebills would provide permit holderswith perpetual permits, not subjectto further review, regardless ofchanging circumstances, science orwater levels.

Wisconsin TU engaged signifi-cantly in opposition to these billsagain. Quite sim-ply, WisconsinTU believes thatall high-capacitywell permitsshould be period-ically reviewed(for example, ev-ery 10 years). Thesimple fact is thatour science pro-gresses. Permitsissued 20 yearsago are based onantiquated sci-ence, just as per-mits issued today will be based onscience which is outmoded in anoth-er 20 years. It makes sense to usethe best available science to under-stand how high-capacity wells areinteracting with one another, andhow they impact ground and surfacewater. That can only be accom-plished through periodic review.

Likewise, having periodic reviewof high-capacity well permits willensure that all users, from the agri-culture industry to lake propertyowners to businesses to municipalwater supplies to outdoor enthusi-asts, will have certainty. These vari-ous entities support economies thatbenefit our state, its jobs and itspeople.

To that end, Wisconsin TU mem-bers were incredibly active contact-ing legislators, testifying at hearingsand sending emails in opposition tothese bills. Unfortunately, these newbills did pass in both the Assemblyand in the Senate and are currentlywith the governor’s office for signa-ture.

Part of the bills require that stud-ies be performed in the CentralSands region to accurately deter-mine the impact that water usage ishaving on the region’s lakes,streams and water supply. Wiscon-sin Trout Unlimited believes andsupports this modeling study, as it isa common-sense addition whichclearly sets forth the areas whichwill be studied, and which is intend-ed to help all water users in the re-gion understand where and howgroundwater exists, and what factorsare impacting it.

By understanding water in theCentral Sands, all user groups, fromindustry to municipalities to private

property owners to agriculture tosportsmen, will have certainty, andall user groups will be able to act ac-cordingly. In short, Wisconsin TroutUnlimited believes that the studycomponent of SB75/AB105 is acommon-sense effort which willhopefully result in meaningful coop-eration between all user groups inthe future.

A recent movement has com-menced, however, to remove fund-ing from the biennial budget whichwould fund the modeling study dis-cussed above via use of a line-itemveto. As such, Wisconsin Trout Un-limited has remain engaged despitethese bills being passed, and hasdrafted and sent a position to thegovernor’s office urging that ade-quate funding be left in the budgetto fully pay for the modeling studycomponent of SB 76 and AB 105.

CAFOsWisconsin Trout Unlimited has

previously taken a written positionin opposition to concentrated ani-mal feeding operations (CAFOs)which cannot be shown to be guar-anteed to prevent pollution toground or surface waters. The sim-ple fact is that highly-concentratedanimal operations indisputably re-sults in a significant amount of ani-mal effluent. In many parts ofWisconsin the substrate beneathsuch operations is fractured bed-

rock. Many oth-er parts ofWisconsin fea-ture karst topog-raphy made upof soluble rocksuch as lime-stone and dolo-mite, whichleads to under-ground passag-es, sinkholesand caves.When effluent,particularly liq-uid manure, is

spread over such a substrate, itseeps in and downward, making itsway into water tables.

Such pollution is a significant is-sue statewide, and notably in theKewaukee County area, where a re-cent study paid for in part by theDNR revealed that up to 60 percentof sampled wells contained fecal mi-crobes from both bovine and humanwaste. One researcher from the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Re-search Service noted that in his pro-fessional opinion if a second roundsof studies was performed, the num-ber of contaminated wells wouldjump to 90 percent. Researchers es-timated that such contaminationleads to the infection of 140 of thecounty’s 20,000 residents each year.

In keeping with its previous posi-tion, and aware of the facts above,Wisconsin Trout Unlimited recentlysigned on to a resolution in supportof a Statewide Moratorium on theConstruction and Expansion of In-dustrial-Sized Concentrated Ani-mal Feeding Operations inWisconsin. It goes without sayingthat Wisconsin Trout Unlimitedstrongly supports cold, clean fish-able water. We therefore supportcold, clean drinkable water.

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited urgesits members to reach out to theirlegislators and ask them to supporta moratorium on industrial-scaleconcentrated animal feeding opera-tions in Wisconsin.

Trout stamp fee increaseAs most know, when trout an-

glers purchase trout stamps, the feeis placed into a segregated fund.That segregated fund must, by law,

be used for improving and maintain-ing inland trout habitat, or to con-duct trout surveys. To be clear, troutstamp revenues are segregatedfunds and cannot be diverted forother purposes.

Trout stamps currently cost $10,and have been at level since 2006.As the value of a dollar has de-creased over the past 10 years, bud-getary constraints on the DNR haveincreased. Quite simply, trout stampfees don’t go as far as they used to,and lessstream habitatwork is able tobe accom-plished.

As a result,a new multi-group effortinvolving ev-ery huntingand anglinggroup associat-ed with stampswas created to seek an increase inthe various stamp fees. For an in-land trout stamp, we’re hoping to in-crease the fee to $15.

WITU’s chapters voted unani-mously in favor of a fee increase, al-though some chapters differed onthe amount of the increase, andwhen it should commence. Wiscon-sin Trout Unlimited recognizes thatadditional segregated funding fortrout streams helps increase theeconomic impacts of trout angling,helps to bring youth in to the sport,helps support different methods ofangling (fly, spin and bait) and helpsto provide a benefit to all types ofanglers across the state.

Given current DNR budget con-straints, WITU believes an increasewill help ensure that Wisconsin’s in-credible trout fishing opportunitiescontinue to exist, and continue toprovide quality recreational oppor-tunities for Wisconsin residents andguests. Finally, WITU believes thateven with the fee increase, Wiscon-sin’s trout stamp will still be signifi-cantly undervalued in overall cost,and stream miles accessible fortrout angling, versus our neighbor-ing states.

As a result, WITU has and willcontinue to support this increase. Tothat end, WITU and its chaptersurged members and the public tovote in favor of this increase at thisyear’s Conservation Congress hear-ings. The vote statewide was over-whelmingly infavor. WITUmembers have al-so been active atthe Capitol lobby-ing in support ofthis increase, andin contacting mem-bers of the JointCommittee on Fi-nance seeking tohave this item in-serted as part ofthe ongoing bud-get process.

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited urgesits members to contact their legisla-tors, notably those on the JointCommittee on Finance, and askthem to support a $5 trout stamp feeincrease.

GLRI fundingAs previously reported, political

regime change brings policy change.Such is the case at the federal politi-cal level, where the recent presiden-tial election resulted in a proposedcomplete evisceration of GreatLakes Restoration Initiative (GL-RI) funding.

GLRI was commenced in 2010and provides funding to “protectand restore the largest system of

fresh surface water in the world –the Great Lakes.” GLRI’s ActionPlan calls for funds to be distributedto remediate Great Lakes areas ofconcern, prevent and control thespread of invasive species, reducenutrient runoff and associated al-gae blooms, and to restore habitatin order to benefit native GreatLakes species. These objectivesclearly fall within Trout Unlimited’smission, and the funds that GLRIprovides have directly aided the re-

tention of staff innorthern Wiscon-sin working onstream crossingand connectivity is-sues, and in fishpassage efforts onthe MenomoneeRiver near MillerPark in Milwaukee,which reopenedmore than 25 milesof river to anadro-

mous fish passage.GLRI funds have also resulted in

numerous toxin removals, such ason the Sheboygan River, as well asinvasive species control, notably re-garding Asian carp. It also supportsnearshore health, wetland and habi-tat restoration and other projectsright here in Wisconsin.

Expenditures in support of theseobjectives is a sound investment, asthe value of the Great Lakes fisheryhas been estimated at $7 billion an-nually. These projects put local citi-zens to work, and bring funds tolocal economies. In addition tohelping local economies, GLRIfunds also reduce local financialburdens. In Wisconsin’s north-woods, for example, GLRI fundsare used and support national TUstaff in efforts to rebuild streamroad crossings using best availablescientific techniques, engineered tooutlast “ordinary” crossings, suchthat local governments will have re-duced future repair and replace-ment costs.

WITU, as well as TU’s nationaloffice, via its Great Lakes advocacyorganizer, lobbied Wisconsin’s fed-eral delegation in Washington, D.C.and Wisconsin regarding this issue.Historically, GLRI funding has en-joyed a good deal of bipartisan sup-port across the Great Lakes region,and when it was proposed for com-plete elimination in this budget ses-sion, the vast majority of

Wisconsin’sfederal dele-gates took ac-tion.

In a Febru-ary, 2017 let-ter, nearly allof Wisconsin’sCongressionalmemberssigned a letterin support ofGLRI fund-ing, includingRepresenta-

tives Sean Duffy, Mike Gallagher,Glenn Grothman, Ron Kind, GwenMoore, Mark Pocan, and F. JamesSensenbrenner.

A continuing resolution was thenpassed as part of a budget deal toavoid having a government shut-down. That resolution fully fundedGLRI at $300 million, its previouslevel, for the next budgetary cycle.

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited sug-gests that its members contact thelegislators cited above and thankthem for their activity in support ofGLRI funding.

See LEGISLATION, page 26

Having periodic review of high-capacity well permits will ensure that all users,

from the agriculture industry to lake property owners to businesses to municipal water supplies

to outdoor enthusiasts, will have certainty.

WITU and Trout Unlimited in general have also been

active in supporting a federal bill which would

prohibit net-pen aquaculture within the

Great Lakes.

A new multi-group effort involving every hunting and angling group associated with stamps was created to seek an increase in the

various stamp fees.


LEGISLATION, from page 25

Inland aquacultureIn the last legislative session, a

bill was introduced aimed at makingsignificant changes to regulationsregarding aquaculture facilities inWisconsin. WITU actively engagedelected officials regarding this bill,and was able to work with the bill’ssponsors and authors to have sever-al amendments made to the bill.Those amendments addressed sev-eral concerns of Wisconsin TU withthe bill.

First, the amendments ensurethat changes made regarding waterdiversions applied only to existingfacilities and existing diversions,such that the changes were not pro-spective, but only for already-li-censed facilities. Second, theamendments ensured that a portionof the bill which would have rede-fined aquaculture as agriculture,such that aquaculture facilitieswould have been available to re-ceive state-paid cost sharing on bestmanagement mitigation practices,was removed. Third, the amend-ments made clear that grading alongstream banks would only be allowedwhen necessary to maintain existing,already-permitted aquaculture facil-ities.

Ultimately, last year’s bill did notpass through the session.

Similar bills were brought backin this session (SB 95 and AB 160),and it was anticipated that the billswould have ample votes to pass.Such did occur, and both billspassed through their respectivecommittees and houses, and the billis now available for signature.

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited againworked during these bills processes

to ensure that the same amend-ments it had garnered last sessionremained in place, and found thatan even more narrow definition wasinserted regarding the geographicareas where water diversions mayoccur. This session other conserva-tion organizations similarly workedwith the bills’ authors to securechanges and amendments to its lan-guage. Wisconsin Trout Unlimitedthanks the legislature for hearingour concerns and working to ad-dress some of them within the bill.

Great Lakes aquacultureWITU and Trout Unlimited in

general have also been active in sup-porting a federal bill which wouldprohibit net-pen aquaculture withinthe Great Lakes. Representatives ofWITU and the TU national officehave lobbied insupport of thisbill to providefor the protec-tion of the GreatLakes, and thehuge fishingeconomy ($7 bil-lion annually, bysome estimates)that they pro-vide, notably athome here inWisconsin.

We will con-tinue to keepour membersupdated regarding this matter as thebill moves through the federal legis-lature.

Zoning ordinance trainingIn many parts of Wisconsin there

is a lack of zoning ordinances. Thislack of ordinances may lead to de-

velopment which is both undesir-able to local residents andcommunities, as well as allow theconstruction of facilities which areharmful to coldwater resources andthe economic engine that they pro-vide for Wisconsin’s citizens andbusinesses.

Getting out ahead of such issueswith solid, sound and fair ordinanc-es is the best course of action. Beingproactive avoids damage being al-lowing to occur, and having to dealwith its aftermath.

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited is ac-tively seeking volunteers to helplead efforts to educate local munici-palities regarding drafting and en-acting ordinances aimed atprotecting coldwater resources. Ifyou are capable of aiding such ef-forts, or would be willing to donatefunding to support such training,

please contactme [email protected].

Federal public land

The TrumpAdministration'sbudget also takesaim at key pro-grams that areused to create,protect andmaintain publicland for anglers

and outdoor enthusiasts. For exam-ple, the budget looks to make cutsto the Land and Water Conserva-tion Fund, which has invested ap-proximately $171 million over thelast four decades in Wisconsin forprotecting places such as theChequamegon-Nicolet National

Forest, the Ice Age Trail and theLower St. Croix National ScenicRiverway.

Public land and the Great Lakesare, and should continue to be, con-sidered a national priority. Just lookat the 30 million people that dependon the Great Lakes for clean drink-ing water or businesses, both largeand small, that are a part of a $7 bil-lion fishery and $16 billion touristindustry. The Great Lakes Restora-tion Initiative and open spaces arecrucial for clean water, our jobs andour way of life. We cannot afford tosquander these valuable resources.

ConclusionWisconsin Trout Unlimited and

its Legislative Committee are deal-ing with a considerable amount ofadministrative and legislative issuesat both the federal and state levels.To that end, we often ask our mem-bers to engage more often now thanever before, and our members con-tinue to answer our call. We sincere-ly appreciate your efforts, even ifthey sometimes feel fruitless. Weurge you to keep the course in yourefforts and to remain engaged.

As always, members are urged tobe polite, to thank their representa-tives for their service to the State ofWisconsin, and to respectfully re-quest their support plainly and suc-cinctly.

WITU thanks all of its membersfor their activity in support of ourcauses, and for their continued vo-cal efforts to protect our coldwaterresources, and their fisheries. Thework that our members perform isgood not only for our trout streams,but for our state and its people.

Driftless Area cabin for saleSet on 2.7 acres atop the bluffs near the Vernon/Crawford

county line, with a view of the Mississippi River, this cabin iscompletely finished and includes some furnishings.

Drive any direction and you’ll soon be crossing DriftlessArea trout streams. And, since this cabin is 10 minutes fromthe only bridge across the Mississippi River between Prairiedu Chien and LaCrosse, you can reach Iowa trout streams inas little as 30 minutes. That means year-round trout fishingopportunities.

The Mississippi River National Wildlife Area offers fishing,hunting, bird-watching, canoeing, boating and much more.Also, plenty of nearby DNR land for hunting, mushroomingand hiking in the hill country.

The cabin is approximately 16x28 and features a kitchenarea and living room area on the main floor and a double-loftabove to serve as bedrooms. This cabin is fully insulated,and features quality double-hung windows that tilt in foreasy cleaning. During the colder months you can simplyturn up the thermostat on a 200-amp wall-mounted heater orfire up the Breckwell wood pellet stove. Covered porch/deckoverlooks the wooded property and Mississippi River.

The cabin includes a well share, valued at $6,000-$8,000,but is not currently plumbed.

Asking $57,000. For more information contact Jenn Swig-gum at 608-386-8026 or [email protected].

Wisconsin Trout Unlimited is actively seeking

volunteers to help lead efforts to educate local municipalities regarding

drafting and enacting ordinances aimed at protecting coldwater

resources.

FLY SHOP AUTO REPAIR

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The WITU Youth Fishing Camp is in need of some items to help complete our inventory.The camp needs waders and wading boots of all sizes, not just youth sizes. We have had some larger kids so we are in need of adult waders and boots. These items don’t need to be new. If your donated waders leak, just let us know so we can repair them. They only need enough life in them to be used a couple of times a year.We will also accept any donations that can be used as prizes for contests, such as rods, reels, flies, lures, nets, and other small items that can be given away.Lastly, I know everyone gives so much to Trout Unlimited anyways, but any cash donation would be greatly appreciated. You can mail any items or donations to me, Linn Beck at 160 W. 19th Ave., Oshkosh, WI 54902. Thank you for considering this and thank you in advance for your donations.—Linn Beck

Items needed for Youth Camp


Driftless RamblerWith Duke WelterTUDARE Outreach Coordinator

Gadfly gets his day in new book

A gadfly gets his day in a newbook, “Lost in the Driftless: TroutFishing on the Cultural Divide,” buthe doesn’t fare well.

Tim Traver, a writer from Ver-mont with good conservation cre-dentials, happened upon acharacter familiar to many in Wis-consin trout circles, Roger Kerr,and made him a central figure in hisbook. Traver wasn’t familiar withMidwestern trout, or trout manage-ment, and initially relied on Kerr’sview of the world to inform him.Over several years, several visits,and numerous letters and phonecalls, Traver heard that world viewtime and again.

Chances are, if you have been in-volved with TU, DNR or a conser-vation group or some medium,you’ve received a pile of Kerr’shand-written letters over the years.My own file, a couple of inchesthick, is full of his claims and poor-ly-supported statements. It even in-cludes a letter he admitted he wroteon DNR stationery to which hesigned the nameof a DNR fisher-ies biologist. Alsoincluded are plen-ty of letters he’swritten andsigned with thenames of otherpeople.

While he wasonce, decadesago, a DNR fish-eries biologist,Kerr was trans-ferred to real es-tate as a landbuyer. Still, he of-ten signs his let-ters to editors as a“retired DNRfisheries biolo-gist.”

Quixotic is one word that comesto mind for describing Kerr. He be-gan with umbrage arising from per-sonal differences with anotherDNR employee, and shifted it to anattack on trout regulations institut-ed by later fisheries biologists in theDNR. Notably, he thinks trout reg-ulations should be simple and easilyunderstandable and uniform, andhates the tiered system begun in1991 to offer a diverse range of reg-ulations on widely differing streams.Regularly, he and a small group ofacolytes show up at meetings suchas the Natural Resources Board,holding signs and playing a littleguerrilla theater.

Kerr likes to take on TU, too,branding all its members as catch-and-release elitists who would nev-er, ever think about keeping a trout.It’s hogwash, but it doesn’t stop himfrom repeating it to benefit hisaims. He’s said that about me foryears, a flat-out falsehood, but I bethe now has clipped out my favoritetrout recipes from this newspaperand I hope he occasionally takes atrout so he can use them.

Traver’s inquiry springs fromKerr’s criticism that despite havingoutstanding trout resources around

this region, Kerr thinks they arewoefully mismanaged by DNR andTU is pulling the department’sstrings. Kerr claims trout anglernumbers have fallen off—thoughthey’ve been generally stable formore than 25 years—and it’s be-cause many, many streams have re-stricted harvest or tacklerestrictions. The conclusion isn’twarranted and the evidence doesn’tsupport it, but that doesn’t stopKerr from attacking all his favoritetargets.

Traver spends significant effortexploring changes in the culture oftrout fishing over the last century,with some emphasis on catch-and-release fishing nationally. There,TU’s historic advocacy of catch-and-release and the development ofmany protective regulations hasevolved, and nowhere is that evolu-tion more evident than in the Drift-less Area.

With its numerous restored wa-ters and healthy wild trout popula-tions, we often hear from biologists

that these streamscould bear signifi-cantly more har-vest thanregulations allow.As an angler, I of-ten agree. Wehave enough 11 to13-inch browntrout that crop-ping some offwould help theoverall size struc-ture.

However, manybiologists agreethat once regula-tions are loosenedto encouragemore harvest, itseems the largest,highest-quality

trout are the first ones to go homein creels and coolers. Should weprotect those fish with a harvestableslot such as 10-15 inches? I’m notgonna get into that fight; there’smore productive work to be doneout here.

The inquiry benefits from theauthor’s wander through fisheriesmanagement literature, especiallyon the purposes and efficacy of spe-cial regulations in trout manage-ment. He pulls information fromthe long history of papers from theWild Trout Symposium and a vari-ety of other authoritative sources.Are special regulations justified introut management? The author, af-ter a review of the literature, saysthe answer among biologists is gen-erally yes, and often results in an-glers either flocking to them orleaving those streams.

In light of the fact that only asmall percentage of Wisconsin’strout streams are covered by specialregulations, somewhere between 5percent and 10 percent, it’s hard tobelieve Kerr’s attacks on those reg-ulations are justified.

TU comes in for some thought-ful scrutiny from Traver, includingsome time spent at the 2013 Nation-

al Meeting and National Conserva-tion tour based out of Madison.That tour took two charter busloadsof people out to see notable resto-ration work on Big Spring in IowaCounty, Bear Creek in Sauk Coun-ty, and Black Earth Creek in DaneCounty.

He mentions the “self-congratu-latory” tone of the tour, which im-plies that the restorers didn’tdeserve to take some time to cele-brate the work they did on massive-ly degraded waters to bring themback to comparative health, withstrong fisheries, habitat for a widerange of species and abundant pub-lic access. And, he suggests, just be-cause TUers were among thehardest workers on projects doesn’tmean they should be able to imposerestrictive regulations on thosestreams.

Excuse me? Over the last 20years, I don’t know of one singleproject site in the Driftless Areawhere TU has pushed for catch-and-release or tackle-restricted reg-ulations. Sometimes, for a periodafter a project, some harvest limitshave been in ef-fect to help es-tablish a wildpopulation. Oc-casionally,brown trout har-vest is encour-aged to help abrook trout pop-ulation get afoothold. Butthe only personsuggesting TUties its projectsto restrictedfishing would seem to be the quixot-ic Kerr, jousting at another wind-mill in his mind.

But, he suggests, TU has it rightin many ways: putting together part-nerships to get more projects done;encouraging monitoring and sci-ence to see what changes have beenwrought. While his title claimsthere’s a “cultural divide,” that’s inlarge part a misnomer. Landown-ers and anglers and conservationistswork together on these projects, un-divided by trumped-up “cultural”concerns.

He rightly suggests TU shouldbe at the forefront of encouragingmore diverse populations to learnabout and appreciate our streams,and to become willing to investtheir time in those resources. Wom-

en? Youth? People who aren’twhite? The LBGT community? It’sa work in progress, but TU is mak-ing strides in this area, with somenotable successes at the chapter,state and national levels.

One part of TU’s Driftless Areawork doesn’t get recognized very of-ten, but I think Traver was trying toencourage it. When TU works withagencies to expand resources forrestoration, we also, in the best ofprojects, are involving local commu-nities in ways new to them. TU can’twork indefinitely on every project,but works to spark a project, get itdone and move on. When a com-munity develops a stake in thatstream, its members will continue tosupport it.

School students come out andtest the waters, check for inverte-brates, and help with work. Theland trust and birders show up tohelp plant prairies and milkweed.Local conservation clubs, often im-portant social institutions in theserural areas, love to work on streamsin their neighborhoods wherethey’ll be able to fish. TU and local

partners com-bine to provide afree spinningoutfit for everykid under 15.

Cultural di-vide? There maybe bumper stick-ers for every po-litical voice andcandidate in theparking area, butthese projectsthemselves arenon-partisan and

uniting rather than dividing. We areshowing we can create environmen-tal, social and economic benefits tothese rural communities with ourcombined efforts.

My first read of Traver’s bookbrought on some heartburn andwonder that his major protagonistwould be taken more seriously thanhe deserves, but it took a re-read tounderstand that it’s not a “troutwar,” as one headline writer put it,but instead a valuable, constructivemovement out here, despite thebuzzing of a gadfly.

“Lost in the Driftless: TroutFishing on the Cultural Divide.”Tim Traver, [email protected];Taftsville, VT. $19.95.

Over the last 20 years, I don’t know of one single

project site in the Driftless Area where TU has pushed

for catch-and-release or tackle-restricted

regulations.

Support TU and get your Wisconsin TU license plate now. Go to www.dot.state.wi.us/drivers/vehicles/personal/special/trout.htm


Jason Anderson Mukwonago WIEdwin Barnes MiddletonWICharles Barnhill MadisonWIJim Bayorgeon AppletonWIJolene Berg Chippewa Falls WIJohn and Susan Bleimehl VeronaWIStephen Born MadisonWIAllon Bostwick Port Washington WIMaxwell Burgert Neenah WIRick Christopherson NorwalkWIAndrew Cook II Sister BayWIBruce Davidson WauwatosaWIMike Duren Mazomanie WIEd Eggers Genoa WIJim Flesch Fox Point, WIJerome Fox Two Rivers WID. James Fruit Jr. Hartland WIScott Geboy Fox Point WIDan Geddes Appleton WIJohn Gribb Mount Horeb WIGordon Grieshaber Mineral Point WIDean Hagness MD Custer WIAshton & Stephen Hawk Madison WIWilliam Heart Ashland WIBrian Hegge Rhinelander WIWally Heil De PereWIBob Hellyer Boulder JunctionWIWalter Hellyer Egg Harbor WICharles Hodulik Madison WIJeff Jackson Oconto FallsWICharles Jorgenson Oconomowoc WIJohn Kenealy III Waukesha WILane Kistler MilwaukeeWIRalph Klassy Phillips WIMark Kraft Madison WIBarb and Joe Kruse LaCrosse WIJoseph Kubale Dane WIThomas Lukas Manitowoc WIThomas and Larissa Lyon Janesville WIDouglas MacFarland DousmanWIBrian Madsen Ellsworth WIAnna Magnin MarshfieldWIKevin Mahaney Middleton WIKim McCarthy Green Bay WIAustin McGuan Green Bay WI

David Menke Bristol WICris Meyer Middleton WISteven Miller Sun Prairie WISteve Musser Middleton WIHerb Oechler Wauwatosa WICheryl and Winston Ostrow De PereWIDonald Persons Janesville WIRandall Rake Helena MTRon Rellatz MertonWIThomas Rogers Princeton WITom Ryan Whitefish Bay WIMichael San Dretto Neenah WILisa and Todd Scheel St. Germain WIJeff and Mary Schmoeger Cot. GroveWIJames Schommer Lodi WIJames School KaukaunaWIJim and Marie Seder New Berlin WIRobert Selk Madison WIJohn Shillinglaw MadisonWIGeorge Shinners Antigo WIBrent Sittlow HudsonWIMichael Staggs Poynette WIMike Stary New Richmond WIGary Stoychoff Green Bay WIRick Szymialis Waupaca WIJulie & Todd Templen Dubuque IADonald Thompson Cumberland WIChuck Urban Wauwatosa WIDennis, Becky Vanden Bloomen E.Claire Eric Van Vugt Milwaukee WIGreg Vodak Stoughton WI

Ken Voight Sugar Grove ILDon Wagner GillettWIDenis Wandtke Ogdensburg WIStephen Wilke MarinetteWIPaul Williams Madison WIDan Wisniewski Middleton WINancy and Roland Woodruff OshkoshWINorb Wozniak Stevens Point WIRobert Wyman Beaver Dam WIFrederic Young RoscoeIL

TROUT UNLIMITED CHAPTERSKiap-TU-Wish TU ChapterAntigo ChapterSEWTU Chapter

In Memory of Mike Rands.Donation from Tom and Nan Siebert

Special Thanks to Todd Hanson for the donation from the sale of his books.

Name

Address

City, State Zip Phone #

MAIL TO: Friends of Wisconsin TU% Doug BrownR4800 Timber Lane

Yes, I want to join the “Friends” of Wisconsin TU.

Ringle, WI 54471

Enclosed is my check, payable to Wisconsin Trout Unlimited.

Providing habitat improvement grants since 1991. The latest projects are...

$2,000 to Wis. Clearwaters Chapter for Waumandee Creek in 2015

$2,000 to Wild Rivers for White River in Ashland County in 2015

$2,000 to SEWTU for Little Willow Creek in Richland County in 2016

$2,000 to Harry & Laura Nohr Chapter for Pompey Pillar, 2016

$2,000 to the Northwoods Chapter for habitat crews in 2015

$2,000 to Marinette and $1,500 to Wolf River for NE Region work in 2015$2,000 to Wisconsin River Val-

ley for Prairie River Project in Lincoln County in 2015

Here are ourFriends of Wisconsin TU

The Friends of Wisconsin TU is celebrating its27th campaign! Since the program's inception in1991, we have raised more than $275,000, all of whichhas gone right back into your streams. At the Febru-ary State Council meeting held in Oshkosh, severalgrants totaling $10,200 were awarded, including:

* Wisconsin Clearwaters Chapter, for mainte-nance of prior stream improvement projects

* Antigo and Wolf River chapters, to supportDNR brushing crew based out of Antigo

* Central Wisconsin Chapter, to support the WildRose habitat crew

* Marinette and Wild Rivers chapters, to supportthe habitat crew for the Chequamegon/Nicolet Na-tional Forests

The demand for grants from this program is be-

ginning to exceed our donations, so it is now evenmore critical that financial support from our mem-bers continues.

This year we are asking you to find businesses inyour area that are willing to provide financial sup-port. If you find any, please direct them our way, orengage them yourself.

Please consider donating to the Friends of Wis-consin TU this year, so the habitat work on our pre-cious trout streams can continue, and so you andfuture generations can enjoy those streams. Thosewho donate $100 or more will have their names pub-lished in Wisconsin Trout.

Thank you and I hope you have had a great troutfishing season so far. Tight Lines

Doug Brown

Summer 2017 Update: Friends of Wisconsin Trout Unlimited

$2,000 to the Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter for the Upper Kinni in 2014 $2,000 to Green Bay Chapter for a

habitat crew 2015

Friends grants support DNR LTE crews like this one with Doug Weber, Kyle Siebers, DJ Loken.

Legislative Report WITU busy with numerous issues July.pdf · “Standing in a River Waving a...

Documents

Transcript of Legislative Report WITU busy with numerous issues July.pdf · “Standing in a River Waving a...