Win a Kayak!!!

The Friends of the Platte River
invite you to a special event:
OPEN HOUSE
REFRESHMENTS
RAFFLE

Saturday, March 5, 2011
2:00-3:30 pm

The Dickeyville Community Center
500 East Avenue
Dickeyville, WI

Learn more about our exciting projects
Share your ideas


Become a member today!!
ALL MEMBERS
Will be automatically entered in a drawing for one of these exciting prizes:

…KAYAK & PADDLE

…BEER and GEAR package*
(Cooler loaded with everything you need for fishing fun)

MISSISSIPPI RIVER MUSEUM AND AQUARIUM TICKETS

…PLATTEVILLE CHAMBER BUCKS

And
…MUCH, MUCH MORE!!!

You don’t have to be present to win, so become a member TODAY!
(Membership form included in brochure) *must be 21 to win

Look Out! Oriental Bittersweet

Not to be confused with American bittersweet, oriental bittersweet is a deciduous, woody vine that can grow up to 66 feet in length. Oriental bittersweet is an invasive plant which is becoming more and more abundant, while American bittersweet is becoming increasingly rarer.

Oriental bittersweet can grow almost anywhere and will try to kill any other vegetation around it, even mature trees. The Oriental bittersweet will snake its way up and around a tree to choke it out. Picture a plain white candy cane, this is your tree. Now picture the red stripe starting at the bottom and circling its way up, this is your Oriental bittersweet. Once this happens, the tree’s growth is inhibited and will eventually die. The weight of the Oriental bittersweet will uproot the tree and bring it to the ground during high wind events, snow storms, and ice storms and create what is called a blow over. Oriental bittersweet has created such a disruption in some forest ecosystems that it is even visible in areial photos.

Identification is easiest in the fall when the fruit capsules turn yellow. Many people will use these beautiful fruits in autumn wreaths and decorations. American bittersweet also produces beautiful fruits in the fall, but their fruit capsules are orange. This is the best way to tell them apart. Next fall if you go to pick seasonal bittersweet berries and the capsules are yellow please refrain from harvesting them because the seed bank stays viable for years so when one throws out a wreath with Oriental bittersweet on it, they are spreading the seeds.
If you are aware of locations with an Oriental bittersweet infestation please note the location and a photo (if possible) and send it along with your contact information to:

Courtney LeClair
Invasive Plant Education, Early Detection, and Mapping Specialist
WI Department of Natural Resources
101 S. Webster St.
Madison, WI 53707-7921
Phone: (608) 267-7438

Ellenboro Canoe Launch

As part of ongoing efforts to develop a water trial on the Platte River, a canoe launch was constructed on the Platte River in Ellenboro in November 2010. Large stone for the site was donated by Allied Stone. This site was made possible through a partnership with Ellenboro Township and UW Extension with grant funding from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. This same grant also paid for dredging of the Banfield Recreation Area boat launch and removal of log jams on the Platte River.

Water Monitoring Project

The Friends of the Platte River Inc. recently trained six local families in water monitoring parameters as the first step in the implementation of a water monitoring program in the Platte River watershed. The families are affiliated with the Tri-State Homeschool Association. The families met in Memorial Park in Platteville in September 2010 to learn about becoming a Water Action Volunteer (WAV). The WAV training was performed by Kris Stepenuck, the volunteer stream monitoring coordinator, and Peggy Compton, the UW-Extension basin coordinator. The WAV training focused on 6 parameters that are used to establish the health of a river: temperature, turbidity, biotic index, habitat, stream flow, and dissolved oxygen. This was a hands-on learning opportunity where members of each family found themselves in the stream collecting water samples and testing for dissolved oxygen, filling up a tube with water and checking for water clarity, and scooping up macroinvertebrates and identifying the critters they found.

Besides learning how to collect the necessary data, the families were instructed on the implication of each parameter as an indication of stream health.

• Temperature is an important indicator of overall aquatic health. Warmer water tends to hold less oxygen than colder water and can cause higher plant growth and increase metabolic rates for organisms. Temperature fluctuation can make fish and insects more susceptible to environmental disturbances.  In addition certain fish require a specific temperature range in order to survive in a particular stream.
• Turbidity measures the transparency of water in a stream. Changes in clarity especially after a rain event can indicate runoff from construction sites, fields or other sources.
• Biotic Index is used to determine the presence or absence of certain macroinvertebrates in the stream. Macroinvertebrates are small animals without backbones and different types respond differently to differing physical, chemical and biological stream conditions. The types of macroinvertebrates found can indicate the level of pollution in the steam segment.
• Habitat Assessment measures the overall conditions of the land adjacent to the stream. The land use will affect the water quality and the habitat.
• Stream Flow indicates the amount of water moving through the stream during a set period of time. Stream flow will affect the stream habitat as well as the types of organisms and plants that can grow in the stream.
• Dissolved Oxygen in the water is a requirement for the survival of both plants and animals and is influenced by temperature, turbidity, wave action and by both living and decaying plants in the stream.

Together, these indicators give a good picture of the health of the stream. The collection of such data can help decision-makers quantify stream quality and will assist in the determination of areas of the watershed in need of further action. The monitoring program also helps watershed residents learn more about the waters of the Platte River and how our behaviors can affect water quality.

The families were loaned supplies from the water education library and each family will monitor a stream segment in the Platte River watershed monthly over the coming year. For more information on becoming a Water Action Volunteer or for learning more about the process you can visit http://clean-water.uwex.edu/wav/.

"Hoppiness on the Platte" Event

On July 10^th Laura MacFarland, the Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator with the River Alliance of Wisconsin, and around 15 members of the River Alliance and Friends of the Platte River came to the Driftless Area to enjoy a few hours on the Little Platte River. Launching from the bridge on County O, they started their 2.5 hour journey.  Along the way, everyone was able to see how thick the Japanese hops are along the riverbanks. Everyone was also able to experience tight curves, riffles, pools and an area where a tree blocked about half of the river. This tree turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip because this obstacle was the cause of Tammy Enz and Mark Sethne going for a swim. Laura appreciated a couple of people from the Friends of the Platte River going for a dip to show everyone that there was nothing to fear in the water! After everyone exited the river at Church Road, we packed up the boats and headed to Potosi Brewery where we enjoyed appetizers, good conversation, and some of the finer hops in life. It was a fabulous day, with a wonderful paddle, and a great crew of people.

Japanese Hops Study and Control

The Friends of the Platte River have recently been awarded a $45, 050 Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) grant from the Wisconsin DNR for the study and control of the aquatic invasive species—Japanese Hops in the Platte/ Little Platte watershed. The study will include a full-scale survey of the extents of the infestation throughout the Platte and Little Platte watersheds and exploration of eradication and control measures for Japanese Hops.

In August 2009 the Friends of the Platte River sponsored a Project RED (Riverine Early Detectors) training through River Alliance of Wisconsin. Participants learned to identify and catalog aquatic invasive species in the watershed. Through the training, Japanese Hops (Humulus japonicus) was discovered in many locations throughout the watershed.

Japanese Hops, native to Japan and eastern China, was introduced to the United States as an ornamental garden plant and is now found as an invasive species in many regions of the United Sates, including southern and western counties in Wisconsin. They reproduce by wind and water dispersed seeds. They form dense stands in floodplains and along stream banks and lakeshores but can also be found near roadsides and urban lots. Japanese Hops is a fast-growing, herbaceous annual vine. Its leaves are simple, opposite, and palmately divided into 5 lobes. Flowers are greenish and bloom in mid to late summer. Female plants contain oval seeds that remain viable in the soil for three years. Stems can be 8-35 feet in length and are covered with rough hairs. The plant can form a dense, almost solid, stand that outcompetes native vegetation and can displace native riverbank and flood plain vegetation, leading to bank destabilization and increased sedimentation in the streams of the watershed.

River Spirit Exchange Event

Forty students and young professionals from throughout the Midwest and beyond descended on Dickeyville on Tuesday, May 18 to learn about Japanese Hops and to participate in a pulling event. The project was part of a three-day event organized and hosted by the Environment and Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars, organized in 2006 and registered at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  The participants were involved in a camping and educational excursion in Wisconsin and Iowa to learn about working rivers and the potential of rivers as a cultural catalyst.  In the students’ words, the River Spirit Exchange is a cross-cultural event “to share our knowledge about rivers inherited from our ancestors and to explore new experiences that will connect us for the future.” The Exchange is a charter event for a people-to-people initiative called Rivers as Bridges that links the people of the Yangtze and Mississippi. Students from UW-Platteville and UW Madison participated. Other participants hailed from as far away as Harvard and University of Virginia Law School. About two thirds of the participants are from China and were anxious to learn about American culture, tradition and grassroots organization through this event.

The students were treated to a lunch served at the Dickeyville Community center provided by the Friends of the Platte River with snacks donated by local organic farmer, Darrel Hinderman. Mr. Hinderman also served as a lunch-time speaker, introducing the students to the field of organic farming. The Japanese Hops pulling event took place in the vicinity of Mr. Hinderman's farm south of Dickeyville. Cotton gloves used for the project were donated by Theisen’s in Dubuque.

The event served as a kick-off event for the Friends of the Platte River’s aquatic invasive species project. The invasive species project will also include a full-scale survey of the extents of the infestation throughout the Platte and Little Platte watersheds and exploration of eradication and control measures for Japanese Hops.