| SUCCESS! 2010 Fish Cribs Are Finally Installed Into Flowage. Thanks Volunteers! | 6/27/2010 10:27 PM |
Thanks to FOG volunteers and Wisconsin DNR partners Advanced Fisheries Technician Jim Cox and Fisheries Technician James Zarzycki, all 21 of the fish cribs built in March 2010 have been successfully towed to their final resting places in the Gile Flowage.
The Flowage's spring water levels, even lower than usual, made it impossible for the DNR to tow the heavy log cribs off of the shorelines where they were constructed.
With a little help from Mother Nature, June's rains raised the Flowage's water levels slightly. Seven cribs, constructed along an island shoreline near deeper water, were the first to be moved. The remaining 14 cribs, assembled along the mainland, remained high and dry until the middle of June. Additional rains provided just enough water to tow them out into the Flowage. Even so, volunteers report that the cribs proved to be really tough to dislodge from their rocky resting places.
If installation proved impossible this spring, the cribs would have been left on the shorelines and most likely damaged over the winter. Reconstruction and re-stuffing the cribs with brush would have been needed next spring. Plus the Flowage would not have benefited from having these additional cribs providing habitat to improve the Flowage's fishery.
Thanks to our DNR partners and FOG volunteers for saving the day and all the hard work that was done in March to build the cribs. Your determination to finish the project is really appreciated! |
| |
| 2010 FOG ANNUAL MEETING- Saturday, May 29, 9:30 - 11:30 am; Squeaks Bar & Supper Club, Hwy. 77, Pence, WI | 5/18/2010 2:05 PM |
FOG Members and anyone interested in the Gile Flowage are invited to attend the Annual Friends of the Gile Flowage Meeting on Saturday, May 29 from 9:30 am -11:30 am. This year Squeaks Bar and Supper Club, located on Hwy. 77 in Pence, WI, will be once again hosting our meeting in the back dining room area. Coffee and sweets will be provided.
Agenda items include:
- Secretary and Treasurer's Year End Reports
- State of FOG- President's Update on 2009 FOG activities and Upcoming Flowage issues & Opportunities
- Elections for FOG Board Positions
- 2010 Ideas & Projects Open Discussion
As is our tradition, the meeting will feature an educational program on an issue affecting the Gile Flowage. This year we have invited Heather Palmquist, from the Iron County Land Conservation Department, to tell us about a large grant Iron County has received to work on invasive species control between Lake Superior, Weber Lake, and the Gile Flowage. Heather will explain opportunities for us to get involved as a lake association or as individual volunteers.
Heather will also tell us about a new cost sharingprogram offered through her department to assist shoreland owners restore their shoreland areas with native plantings and receive money-back to do so! Here is an opportunity to benefit the Flowage's fish and wildlife, improve property and stabilize shorelands, and get money to do so!
The Annual FOG meeting will feature a powerpoint slide show of FOG activities. The Treasurer and Secretary's books will be for inspectiion. There will also be a raffle for some special Flowage-related prizes!
Everyone is welcome to attend, so please help us spread the word to all our Friends of the Gile Flowage and join us at the 2010 Annual FOG Meeting. |
| |
| 2010 FOG Fish Crib Project A Success-- 21 New Cribs Added! | 3/14/2010 10:51 PM |
On Saturday March 6, sunny skies and 21 volunteers added up to 21 new fish cribs being constructed to improve the Flowage's fishery as part of FOG's 2010 Fish Crib Project. Funding for the 10 cords of hardwood logs needed to construct the cribs was provided by FOG membership fees and donations.
Special thanks to the volunteers who helped make this project a success and to our WI DNR partners Senior Fisheries Biologist Jeff Roth, Advanced Fisheries Biologist Jim Cox, and Fisheries Technician James Zarzycki for securing the needed permits, materials, and working with volunteers.
Special thanks to the Town of Pence which plowed out the log pile prior to the fish crib work bee day and to the volunteers who worked weeks earlier to pack trails and cut the brush needed to stuff into each crib. |
| |