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.
Finally a weekend with no snow in the forecast and some warmer temperatures. . . . box elder clearing will resume this Saturday at the Plum Creek site located about 3 miles south of Plum City on Cty Rd. U. I will be on site beginning at 8:00 and working till 1:00 with a lunch break sometime around the noon hour. Come by for the whole time or just an hour or two if that is what you can spare. Chainsaw operators who have completed safety training are needed as well as the usual army of worker bees to drag, stack and burn the slash from the downed trees. This past Saturday, we we able to drive right down to the worksite through an access road plowed in the field. . . .given all of the rain and warmer weather, I am not sure that option will be available to us on Saturday as it could be a real recipe for getting stuck up to your axles in mud. I will make a judgement call regarding that once I arrive at the site. If you see my car parked on the road by the bridge, if will mean that the field road is not suitable for safe navigation.
I will have the usual hot dogs and cookies/pastries for lunch. Plan on bringing along your own liquid refreshment to stay properly hydrated as temperatures are supposed to get to the mid 30’s on Saturday. I am guessing that the snow pack will still be quite deep at the site. . . bring appropriate footwear or even small snowshoes if you have them. Please email me at randyca999@gmail.com if you plan to attend the workday. Bring along your fishing gear if you want to take advantage of the warmer weather and wet a line after the work session. Remember also that the fly fishing expo is happening this weekend at Hamline University. Be sure to stop by the Kiaptuwish booth and say hello if you attend. I will be manning the booth there on Sunday morning.
Kiap-TU-Wish Volunteers clearing brush and trees in Boyceville
Tiffany Creek Work on Tiffany Creek—where it runs through the Boyceville middle/high school campus—was completed on January 9th. We spent seven workdays at that site, and I thank all of the volunteers who helped. What I had estimated to be a 3-4 day project removing box elders and other unwanted trees from the immediate stream corridor turned into a major undertaking when the Boyceville school board asked us to remove almost all of the mature maple and ash trees from the park just north of the creek. The trunks on some of those trees measured in excess of 40” and bringing some of them to the ground safely was no easy task. Fortunately a sawmill operator is taking the long straight trunk sections from many of these trees and the locals will claim much of what’s left as firewood.
Plum Creek Work has now begun on Plum Creek where there is over 4,500 feet of stream to be cleared of box elder, buckthorn, honeysuckle and some willow trees to be cleared over the course of this winter and into next year as well. Nineteen volunteers turned out for the initial workday, and I hope we can retain that level of interest as the brushing season progresses. There are almost 270 individuals who have asked to be included on the list of workday announcements via Mailchimp. Thirty to forty people have showed up for the workdays so far and I hope to see others of you yet this winter. If you’re not already getting workday announcements and would like to, please contact me at randyca999@gmail.com and I will add your name to the list. If you show up to work, you can work at your own pace and come and go as you please. I provide donuts and/or cookies for those who hang around until we take our lunch break of hotdogs roasted over one of the worksite bonfires. I generally try to schedule workdays on Saturdays but occasionally one is scheduled for a Sunday due to weather or volunteer request. In the case of Plum Creek, I expect that there will be some mid-week workdays as well to accommodate workers from Covia (fornerly Fairmount Santrol) and give them an opportunity to help with the project.
It’s a fair commute to Plum Creek and chapter member Trish Hannah has volunteered to organize a carpooling effort, pairing up volunteers who wish to ride share. —Randy Arnold
