Central Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Our 2013 Central Wisconsin River Keepers training session was held at Riverside Park in Waupaca.  Veteran River Keepers trained new members in the process of water monitoring.  CWTU River Keepers added six new teams this year.

CWTU River Keeper Coordinator Honored

On May 5 CWTU River Keepers were honored when I received the 2013 Stream Monitoring Award In The Category Of Outstanding Volunteer from the UW-Extension and The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  I accepted this award knowing that this is a shared award.  It is shared by all our volunteers who are doing such a good job of protecting and preserving our central Wisconsin waters by monitoring, watchdogging, and teaching others.

I thanked the wonderful Kris Stepenuck and her staff for making the Water Action Volunteers such a great program.  I also thanked CWTU for bankrolling our activities.  And finally, I thanked all our volunteers for their outstanding contributions.

I love being a River Keeper.  It is great fun to go to a stream once a month and gather information that will be used in the present and future to protect it.  For our Waupaca River Team, it is a nice social event too.

River Keepers is one of the great things our chapter does.  If you would like to be a River Keeper---call or email me.   920-582-7802  or  jgremmer@charter.net

John Gremmer

West Branch of the White River Team:  This new team starting this year consists of (left to right) Mike Schaefers, team leader, Abby Schaefers, Ira Giese, and Brian Schaefers.  On their first monitoring session they discovered a rich diversity of macroorganisms and crystal clear, cold water.

Fordham Creek Team:  Steve Deery, Coloma, second from left, established his CWTU River Keeper water monitoring site on Fordham Creek on June 4.  Steve is happy to be involved in the efforts to protect ground and surface water in his area.  Helping him get started on his first monitoring are(left to right) Andrew Aslesen, Sun Prairie, Mary Jo Vance, Pleasant Lake, Bill Vance, Pleasant Lake, and Rick Fahrenkrug, Neenah, and John Gremmer, not pictured. 

The Zaretzke-Mathys Riveer Keeper team is monitoring the Waupaca River above Waupaca.  This is their first year and they are very interested in learning about, and protecting the health of their river.  Both families live near, or on the Waupaca River.  From the left:  Gina Zaretzke, Dean Zaretzke, Rick Fahrenkrug(River Keeper Co-Coordinator and trainer), Linda Mathys, and Marty Mathys.

The Waupaca River Team(from left:  John Gremmer, Jan Brantingham, Nancy Rose, Bob Gayeske, and David Brantingham) monitors two sites on the Waupaca River---one at the Rose Farm, where the Waupaca River crosses Highway 10 and at Riverside Park on the east side of Waupaca.  (Missing from the image is Vance Linden, Tom Poullette, and Tom Young.)

Dakin Creek August 2012, suffering from greatly reduced flow due to drought. Eric Godfrey, the one-team Dakin Creek monitoring "team," is standing in it with Kris Stepnuck, WAV Coordinator. Kris was visiting as part of a study using several dozen streams to compare two different methods of measuring stream flow:  our measuring stick & tennis ball method (Eric's holding the net) versus a sophisticated electronic method (Kris is loaded up with the gear). Results can be surprisingly close if care is taken in measurement.

The Lower Pine River CWTU River Keeper Team(from left, Dr. Mike Sandretto and team leader Ron Neuman, members absent are Jim Ryf and Bob Smaglik).  This team has been monitoring for a number of years and the site is located on Ron Neuman's property.  We have three sites being monitored on the Pine River at this time.

Here is the(from left to right) Pollock, Humphrey, Talin, and Haase CWTU River Keeper Team.  The team leader is Bob Haase, Jim Humphrey posts the data, Dick Pollock is a former River Keeper coordinator, and Jack Talin has been involved since the beginning of the program.  They monitor the Mecan River and Wedde Creek.

Meet the new 2012 Bill Vance CWTU River Keeper Team.  They are monitoring the upper Chaffee Creek near Pleasant Lake.   From the left, Bob Gayeske(trainer), Mary Jo Vance, Bill Vance, Cindy Halverson, and Steve Halverson.  We look forward to meeting them in person at the November meeting.

Bill Vance, Team Leader for Chaffee Creek, Marquette County

Bill is a retired teacher, farmer and lifetime fisherman who, half- jokingly, declares that he learned more in Boy Scouts than he did in Graduate School. Bill and his wife of forty years, Mary Jo, are part-time residents on Pleasant Lake, as are team members, Steve and Cindy. Bill currently sits on the board of Friends of the Central Sands, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting good stewardship of natural resources within the Central Sands Region. He is grateful for this opportunity to continue his education and to be part of such a great organization as River Keepers.

John Tucker's Pine River Team.  This team monitors at Aniwa Road and has added several new members this year.  This picture includes WAV Coordinator Kris Stepenuck who was assisting this team on this particular day.  We currently have three teams monitoring on the Pine River.  John's team is doing the upstream section.  From the left:  Kris Stepenuck, Dick Stielow, Rodger Surprise, and John Tucker.  Missing are Bill Shuster, Barry Osicka, and Jim Van Lankvelt.

Meet one of the five new CWTU River Keeper teams that have joined in 2012.  This is Tom Kleczka's team that is monitoring one mile below the Weyauwega Dam on the Waupaca River.  This team is disturbed by the draining of the Weyauwego Lake that has left tons of muck and debris along their one-time pristine river front.  The river is wide(110 feet) where they monitor and in July they recorded around 200 cfs flow.  We welcome this team and look forward to visiting with them at the November meeting.   Standing, from the left, Tom Kleczka, Rick Fahrenkrug(trainer), Kathy Lodes, Mary Fischer, and Andrew Lodes.   Kneeling is trainer Bob Gayeske.

Chris Northway's CWTU River Keeper Team:   From the left:  Chris Pinkall, Dave Edwards, Dave Johnson, and Chris Northway.  This team has been monitoring on Willow Creek. 

Allan Sanders started monitoring on Sucker Creek near his home this year.  He gets friends and relatives to help him do the monitoring.  Even though he recently broke his hand in two places, the accident did not stop him from monitoring.  Allan has been improving the stream as it runs through his property.  He recently caught a few trout in the stream.

Here is Bob Jozwowski's CWTU River Keeper Team out monitoring Willow Creek.  This team actually monitors three sites---the West Branch of the White River, Bird Creek, and the Willow Creek.  All members of the this team are veteran water monitors.  Recently they worked with Heather Smith and Kris Stepenuck of the DNR on the West Branch of the White River collecting data with a meter to compare with WAV flow calculation using tennis ball and stop watch.  Pictured from the left are Frank Druecke, Lynn Druecke, Deb Jozwowski, and Bob Jozwowski.  Jan Muldenhauer another team member was unable to make this session.

John Hartl(above) and Judy Hartl are a new River Keeper team this year.  They are monitoring the Killsnake River on the east side of Lake Winnebago.  We are very happy to have added them to our group.  They have expanded our area greatly.  We look forward to visiting with them at the November 13 Buffet/Celebration/Program.

Jeff Wegand's Pine River Team.  This veteran team monitors at Jack Zimmerman's property to continue to gain  historical data.  This from right to left is Dale Bargmann, Gene Retert and Jeff Wegand.  Dale brought is ORV which gave us a working table and made it easy to be organized at the stream.  Missing was Ron Neuman who also played very active roll when Dale and Gene were not able to attend.

From Jim Murphy's Peterson Creek Team:  “Hats off to Joe Price,” our project Superintendent,  who served our WAV team for many years before taking a new job out of the area.

David Seligman's West Branch of the White River Team:  From the left:  Bob Burke, Erik Kopp, Linn Beck, Dave Seligman, and Chris Northway.

Jim Murphy's Team that monitors Peterson Creek.  From the left Brad, Joe Price, Robert Jorgens(the land owner), and Greg Morlock.  Rick Fahrenkrug took the picture(so is absent from the image) and Jim Murphy was absent.  Joe Price has moved out of the area.  They end each session with a round of malt beverages.