Board Member Election

Kiap-TU-Wish will elect board members at our chapter business meeting in April. At this year’s meeting there will be two, 3-year terms open: Perry Palin and Maria Manion have decided to step down from the board. Two chapter members have been nominated for election to the open positions: Dustin Wing and Scot Stewart. See their bios below if you aren’t already familiar with Dustin and Scot. You can vote for candidates at the April 1st chapter meeting, so we hope to see you then. Background Information: Positions on the board are three-year terms elected by the general membership at the chapter business meeting and board members may be re-elected. Officer positions are one-year terms elected by the new board of directors at the first April board meeting. The only limit on officer re-election is a maximum of three years for the treasurer and president.

Dustin Wing: Dustin grew up near the Redwood River in Minnesota. He saw the impact that human activities—such as the surrounding agricultural land—had on the river and it influenced his academic pursuits.
Following high school Dustin joined the U.S. Marine Corps and became an avionics technician on Harriers. While on deployment he enrolled at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology. He was active with undergraduate research and — while assisting a PhD candidate by trying to capture wild mysis to feed trout in the lab—had a near death experience while crossing an ice heave alone on Lake Superior.
After graduating from UMD, Dustin worked as a North Pacific Groundfish Observer in the Bering Sea before going back to school at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi to study aquaculture and shrimp nutrition.
While in Corpus Christi Dustin met his wife Abbey, moved to Austin, Texas, and had their son Galen. For many reasons Dustin and his family decided to move north via a three-month road trip out West, suffering through heat waves and dodging wild fires. That experience made Dustin even more grateful to be settling in Wisconsin.

Scot Stewart: Scot was born in Michigan and raised there and in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Minnesota for his Bachelor of Science in Fisheries Biology and Ohio State University for his Masters of Science in Fisheries Management. Scot began his career with the WIDNR in Baldwin and covered St. Croix and Pierce counties as a Fisheries Manager. Scot then moved to Madison where he served as an area fisheries supervisor, then a district supervisor until his retirement in 2016. Scot served on the statewide trout and muskie committees for most of his career, led the most recent trout regulation review, and conducted extensive habitat improvement on many coldwater streams.
Scot is married to Jo and has two sons and daughters-in-law and four grandsons. He loves to fish for trout and muskie, train retrievers and hunt ducks. In his retirement, he is running an animal control business and is doing some guiding for trout and muskie. He is an active member of TU, served as a State Council Representative, and taught fly tying for TU for twentyfive years. He is a member of Muskies Inc., Ducks Unlimited, Wisconsin Trappers, and the Wisconsin Wildlife Control Operators Association.
Scot resides in Somerset, Wisconsin, on the St. Croix River with his wife Jo and Labrador retriever, Rosie.

From The Field – Mar 2020

The photo on the right, taken by chapter member David Gregg, features Randy Arnold, the Kiap-TUWish Volunteer Coordinator. Many of you know Randy and his superhuman efforts on our stream restoration projects. You also know Randy’s unrelenting battle against invasive buckthorn. Well, here he is on the Kinnickinnic River this year, facing, as David put it, the mother of all buckthorn. We’ve seen a lot of photos of Randy and the Kiap-TU-Wish volunteer work crew over the years, but this photo has the touch of the epic—our own Beowulf, diving to the depths to battle Grendel’s mother. Thank you to David for sending the photo, and thank you to the many volunteers who spend their Saturdays doing prep work for subsequent maintenance and restoration projects. Your commitment is the stuff of legends.

 

If you want to join the crew, send Randy your name and email address. He’ll add you to his notification list for upcoming workdays on stream restoration projects. volunteer@kiaptuwish.org

Below: A collective effort on the upper Kinni on February 15. Thank you volunteers! From left to right: Pete Kilibarda, Randy Arnold, Sydney Arnold, Keith Stein, Pat Sexton, Loren Carver, Phil Plumbo, Dave Kozlovsky, Ed Constantini and way in the background, John Skelton.

Chapter Meeting – Mar 2020

Dick Frantes Open Fly-Tying Night l March 4, 2020

The annual chapter fly-tying meeting is a tribute to Dry Fly Dick Frantes, who—for the first twenty years or so— coerced practitioners of the fly-tying art to display their skills. Dick liked to have themes for this annual meeting. Our theme this year? Tie one, tie all! All meeting attendees are encouraged to bring their vise and materials and tie. If you’re a beginner, there will be lots of folks who can give tips and instruction. If you’re an experienced tier, there’s always something new to learn. If you don’t want to tie, come anyway to join in the fun and frivolity. Tall tales are as much a part of tying flies as anything else, so you’re sure to be entertained.

March 4, 2020
Chapter Meeting
Junior’s Restaurant
414 South Main St.
River Falls, WI 54022
Dinner starts at 6pm (your dime).
Meeting starts at 7pm.

Chapter Meeting – Feb 2020

Heath Benike, WIDNR Fisheries Supervisor, will join us at our next chapter meeting to talk about Wisconsin’s first ever inland trout management plan.
This 10-year plan is the result of hard work, effort and comments submitted by the stakeholder team, general public and Trout Team staff. See page 3 of this newsletter to learn more.

We hope to see you at the chapter meeting when we discuss the future of our trout fishing and fisheries resources.

2019 WI Trout Management Plan

February 5, 2020
Chapter Meeting
Junior’s Restaurant
414 South Main Street
River Falls, WI 54022

Dinner starts at 6pm
(your dime).
Meeting starts at 7pm.

Chapter Meeting – Jan 2020

Erik Helm, a fly fishing guide based in Soldier’s Grove, Wisconsin, will be speaking at our next chapter meeting. Erik is a guide, writer and teacher who has spent countless hours fishing for trout in the Driftless, as well as pursuing steelhead on the west coast and the Great Lakes tributaries with traditional spey casting. Erik owns Classical Angler Fly Fishing and produces the fly fishing blog “The Classical Angler.”

Hope to see you there!

Chapter Meeting

January 8, 2020

Dinner starts at 6pm (your dime).
The meeting (movie) starts at 7pm.

Junior’s Bar & Restaurant
414 South Main Street
River Falls, WI 54022