Another busy winter brushing season is coming to a close. While not quite as monumental as the prior season when volunteers turned out to clear trees and brush from sites on Wilson and Hay creeks in Dunn County before working the Gutting easement on the Trimbelle, we still managed to log close to 1,800 hours of volunteer time with our work at the Boyceville school campus on Tiffany Creek, on a good portion of the Von Holtum easement on Plum Creek, and with some maintenance work on the South Fork of the Kinni, the Red Cabin site, and more recently on Parker Creek. With the weather turning nice and the leaves getting ready to break out on the trees, I am just about ready to put away my chainsaws and break out my fly rod and say “enough.”
Volunteer opportunities will present themselves over the remainder of the spring and summer months, and I hope that you will watch for notices and help out when the chance arrives. A few things on the docket include a reseeding of some prairie flower plugs at the Holst Trimbelle easement; seeding/mulching opportunities at Boyceville, Wilson Creek, and Plum Creek; and possibly some re-seeding at the Gutting Trimbelle easement. There will be the always-popular opportunity to assist the WDNR with their annual stream shocking surveys which usually take place in late July or August. The possibility might also present itself for volunteers to assist with an NRCS-funded restoration on the Afdahl easement on Parker Creek — upstream from where we have done the maintenance brushing work these past couple of weekends. The Rush River Cleanup is scheduled for May 11 this year. Volunteers are always needed for this event.
Thank you for the support which you have shown to me and to the Chapter by answering the call to lend a hand anytime that there was work to be done to improve conditions on our coldwater streams. It is a daunting task ahead of us and our work will never be complete, but I hope that you all get the same pleasure and sense of accomplishment which I feel every time I climb back in my car for the long ride home after a successful and tiring workday. Get out there now to fish and enjoy the fruits of your labors. — Randy Arnold
Get on the list!
To be included on Randy’s workday announcements, email him at randyca999@gmail.com. You’ll get notices about upcoming workdays for brushing, seeding, mulching and the ever-popular electro-fishing days with the WDNR.
