June 18th, 2016 WPR
Article written on 2016-06-19 by: Michael Renish
log sweeps and brushing
On June 18th, 2016, the Green Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited (GBTU) teamed up with two of our sister chapters, Oconto River Trout Unlimited (ORTU) and Wolf River Trout Unlimted (WRTU), led by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), to clear and bundle tag Alder on the first south branch of the Oconto River. This second work project of the year also found us placing many log structures and some of those same structures were covered in brush. The trout are going to have some happy places.
The project was a section of the first south branch of the Oconto River southwest, about 3 miles, out of Mountain. The specific location was south of County W where the south branch crosses. It is located in Oconto County. (Please see the 2016 Work Project Schedule Page for details on location).
The section we worked on today was upstream from where we reinforced a lunker structure with ROCKS GALORE in 2013.
We had a total of 23 volunteers, including WDNR employees, that fanned out into 3 work crews along the stream. Up top, Kyle Siebers, who is the Lakewood trout habitat crew project leader from the WDNR, lead a small crew of 5 in placing sweep logs in the stream.
JJ doing the detailing
Further down steam, Doug Weber and DJ Lokin, both WDNR Limited Term Employee (LTE)s we helped fund, led groups of log placement and brush bundling.
All 3 WNDR employees were busting chops on the chain saws and they were really needed. Volunteers followed up with loppers to detail the brush. Everybody was involved in hauling the brush to either place in bundles, on logs or off into the woods for decomposing.
The roster, in alphabetically order, included Wayne Czypinski (ORTU), Byron Dugre (ORTU), Dennis Dugre, Ron Glenzer (ORTU), Jeff Gross, Pat Hill, Bill Holton, Andy Killoren (WRTU), Pat Klatt (ORTU), Tom Klatt (ORTU), DJ Loken (WDNR), Dani Long, Matt Norem, Evan Pesut (Indiana TU), JJ Pyatsicowit, Jonathan Pyatsicowit (WDNR), Mike Renish, Mike Schlumpf (ORTU), Doug Seidl, Jeff Seidl, Kyle Siebers (WDNR), Don Wagner and Doug Weber (WDNR).
A HUGE THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! goes out to all those who attended. Without your help and dedication to making our natural resources better, none of this would have happened.
THANK YOU !!!
Please check out the Gallery of Photos.
PS. I’d like to apologize to the folks for making some rookie mistakes on a few of the photos; especially the crew photo. It turned out awful and I simply can’t publish the photo. It’s always a balance of taking my best camera and lens ($1000+), versus the convenience of the point and shoot (<$250). I’ve actually fell in and ruined one camera. It’s also a balance of me standing around taking pictures versus working; I prefer to work. I’ll try to do better, but also need everyone’s patience and cooperation.