Northeast Region Chapters Step Up Again

In early December, seven chapters from the Northeast Region held their annual meeting, led by Regional Vice Chair Dale Lange. Since 1985, this annual meeting ensures that our partner agencies have adequate funding to conduct trout habitat work in northeast Wisconsin. Over time the state Council, regional and chapter leaders have found tremendous success by funding part-time limited-employee (LTE) positions for the agencies, with the understanding that they only perform trout habitat work. The agencies involved this year included Antigo DNR, Shawano and Lakewood DNR, and TU’s Great Lakes Restoration Program Team. Chapters at meeting included Green By, Oconto River, Marinette, Antigo, Wisconsin River Valley and Wild Rivers.

These chapters willingly crossed chapter boundaries with donations, applied matching funds to get Friends of Wisconsin TU grants and successfully funded the entire agencies request of $54,000 for 2025. Most of the funding will be used to hire LTEs.

Because of the generosity of the Northeast Region chapters, the summer of 2025 will see as many as six full-time employees performing a full season of habitat work. Bad culverts will be replaced, reconnecting miles of streams. And 20 to 30 miles of stream will be brushed, narrowed and deepened. Many culvert sites will be surveyed, and many stream surveys will take place. All that work will happen because the Northeast Chapter work hard to raise funds and are willing to put those funds to work in a way that best benefits the resource. – Kim McCarthy, Wisconsin Trout Unlimited – The Oconto River Watershed Chapter with the addition of a Friends of Wisconsin TU grant contributed $5000 to the 2025 stream habitat projects.