Less invasive brush, better angler access
By James Card
Two parcels of land that make up the Waupaca River Fishery Area on County Trunk Q and Foley Road are getting a radical makeover.
The goal of the project is to remove invasive species that grow along the river. The three main species that are taking over local woodlands are buckthorn, honeysuckle and autumn olive.
A Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries work crew is in the process of wiping out these species and the landscape transformation is startling. Where previously it was so thick that is was almost impossible to see the river from County Q, it is now opened up into a park-like setting.
The impenetrable thickets are now small shards of wood fiber scattered across the ground. The main tool the crew used to annihilate the invasive brush is a skid steer with a Fecon mower head. It is a machine chews up shrubs and small trees and spits it out as wood chips. It is a machine that eats everything in its path.
Removing invasive vegetation
They also have an excavator to move heavy logs and they have also been running chainsaws and cutting the invasive brush by hand.
“We’re leaving as many native species as possible to help out-compete any invasives that might come back,” said Kyle Kossel, a DNR fisheries technician in charge of the project.
He mowed circles and trails and patches through the woods along the river, avoiding the native trees while mowing down the buckthorn, honeysuckle and autumn olive.
He hopes that more maples, oaks and native sedges will emerge this spring. This will also help to prevent with stream bank erosion as the invasive species blot out so much sunlight that hardly anything grows under their canopy. This will be a chance for other native plants to colonize that previous dead zone.
Angler access is another big part of this project as this work is paid for through the trout stamp funding and money from other nonprofit outdoor recreation groups such as Waupaca Trout Unlimited.
On the Foley Road parcel of the fisheries area, the Ice Age Trail runs along the river and five volunteers from the Ice Age Trail Alliance helped out to clear brush for a day.
Removing dead ash trees
Another invasive species they are dealing with is the emerald ash borer, the beetle that kills ash trees. This area of the Waupaca River has many dead ash and they are removing some of those also.
“We want to be able to deal with the ash trees once they fall into the river. We can go in there are manipulate them a little bit to make better fishing habitat,” said Kossel.
He mentioned a project he worked on along the banks of the Onion River near Sheboygan – an area hit hard by the emerald ash borer. The Onion was choked with dead ash trees.
“When you get that amount of wood in there, it gets too hard for people to fish,” he said.
Another reason to cut down the dead ash trees is because they can become safety hazards. The upper branches will eventually break off and fall along the banks where people will be fishing, hiking or paddling.
Kossel pointed out that besides turning dead ash trees into fish habitat structure, one naturally occurring benefit is that they are good as cavity trees, meaning the holes that various creatures like to nest in such as wood ducks, bats or raccoons.
Kossel and his crew are also working on a stream bank restoration project at Riverside Park. He expects they should be done in April.