9/20/2009 Eau Clair Leader Telegram features Friends of the Black River Organization
9/20/2009 Eau Clair Leader Telegram features Friends of the Black River Organization
Group Supports the Black River
Updated: 9/20/2009
By Joe Knight
Leader-Telegram staff
The Department of Natural Resources wanted to purchase a scenic 50-acre parcel known as the High Banks on the Black River as part of the Black River State Forest, but it had a problem.
The owner wanted $50,000 more for the land than the appraised value.
The Friends of the Black River stepped in to raise the needed funding and keep the area undeveloped and open to the public.
"They were able to pull together, in a very short period of time, a number of local leaders to help us buy the High Banks," said Dan Helsel, watershed program supervisor for the DNR at Black River Falls.
On another occasion, when a landowner closed a canoe landing on his property because people were dumping garbage there, the Friends of the Black River cleaned up the area and convinced the landowner to allow public access again. The group also is making signs for the area to discourage further littering.
At another private boat landing on the lower Black River, the group worked with a landowner who signed a perpetual easement to keep it open to the public. The group used grant money to help improve the site, Helsel said.
Helsel said he has worked with a number of friends groups in his career at the DNR but none has been quite as active as Friends of the Black River, which formed in 2003 and has worked ever since on improving the river and its watershed.
"They've really done remarkable things in a relatively short time. Their core group of directors is just tireless," he said.
Andy Ellingson, the group's president, grew up fishing and kayaking on the Black River, and when he saw a notice in a newspaper that a group was forming to protect the Black River watershed, he showed up.
Many of the group's members are serious kayakers and canoeists, but they are more than a canoeing group, he said.
"We have fishermen, kayakers, people who live on the river, people who don't. It's a broad group. It's a conservation group, that's what it is. It encompasses a wide group of river users and some that are not active river users."
In 2002 the DNR completed a Land Legacy Report, identifying 228 places in the state most important in meeting Wisconsin's conservation and recreation needs the next 50 years. The Black River was on the list.
As a result of the report, the UW-Extension office in Jackson County and part-time employees of the DNR helped form the group to protect the river. Once the group was up and running in 2003, the DNR ended its direct involvement.
The Friends of the Black River finds plenty to do.
It has a trash pickup day on Earth Day or the Saturday closest to Earth Day, usually attended by 20 or 30 people, who police an area in the Black River Forest. Members have a second cleanup day in August, when they spread out on different stretches of the Black River and clean up the banks. Many bring their kayaks and canoes for that job.
Pete Bakken, superintendent of the Black River Falls State Forest, said the annual cleanups in the forest, combined with increased citations of illegal dumpers, has reduced the problem of dumping on forest land.
Once people begin illegally dumping in an area, the problem escalates, he said. "Trash begets trash," he said.
Once the site is cleaned up, people are less likely to dump there, he said.
The group also meets monthly and has a program about a conservation topic. Past topics have included prairies, wetlands, invasive species, groundwater, forestry, wildlife and solar homes.
Steve Rake, a member for three years, started attending the Friends meetings because the group had interesting topics.
"They have some great programs on a variety of conservation issues," he said.
One program he found particularly inspiring was given by Tia Nelson, daughter of the late U.S. senator and wilderness advocate Gaylord Nelson, who spoke about her father's legacy.
One unofficial function of the group is to canoe the tributaries of the Black River after spring runoff with chain saws to clear away trees that have fallen across the river.
The tributaries, including Robinson Creek, Halls Creek, Morrison Creek and the East Fork of the Black River, all offer scenic canoeing and kayaking routes if water levels are adequate, but they can be dangerous during high water if kayaks or canoes become pinned against downed trees.
Some members of the group are River Action Volunteers who do regular water quality monitoring, including taking streams' temperature and oxygen levels.
Knight can be reached at 830-5835, 800-236-7077 or joe.knight@ecpc.com.
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