Friends of the Platte River contracts 2 UW-Platteville students

Friends of the Platte River has contracted two UW-Platteville geography majors for the summer. Their job is to walk or paddle the Platte River, Little Platte River, and their tributaries to look for invasive species.

Once this field work is done they will go to the GIS lab on campus and produce maps so we know which invasive plants we have in the watershed and where they are located.

The students, Nick Flinner and Abbie Lehman hope to present their findings at the Association of American Geographers Regional Conference this fall in Chicago.

We owe a special thank you to those who have made contributions for this project: Dr. RJ Rowley in the Geography Department for assistance with the mapping and mapping gear, Mark Sethne in the Outdoor Recreation Department for renting the canoe, and Peggy Compton with UW-Extension for supplying hip waders from the Water Education Library.

Pictured above:
*Nick & Abbie with their best friend for the summer, WATER!
*Abbie on the river
*Nick in Trimble heaven surrounded by wild parsnip

Trash Clean Up Day

On Saturday, April 16th the Friends of the Platte River and over thirty local volunteers worked to clean up a hillside location on the Platte River that had been the site of decades of accumulated junk. The site is located on a steep slope along Big Platte Road outside of Platteville. Despite windy and snowy conditions, the volunteers work all day to clean up the site.

The event, planned and orchestrated in large part by Friends board member Mark Sethne, was truly a community effort. Faherty Recycling and Waste Collection of Platteville made the event a huge success with their donation of two large roll off dumpsters for use in the project. Potosi Portable Toilets donated a unit for use in the all day event. Dale Hood and Doug Steinbach/ Steinbach Farms donated skid steers for use in hauling large debris up the steep hill and placing it in the dumpsters.

Jared Marugg, UW-Platteville engineering student and student ambassador for the Friends of the Platte River, organized a group of nine engineering students affiliated with the American Society of Civil Engineers to help with the effort.

There were piles of used tires, many old appliances and computers, hundreds of bottles and cans, bedsprings, wire fencing and other items found on the site. Over 10,500 pounds of debris was removed.

The Friends of the Platte River expresses appreciation to all the volunteers and sponsors for this project.