Word on the Stream

In This Issue
Private Club Gets Its Way With a State Wild River
Photo Contest Winners!
Remembering Rod Nilsestuen

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Greetings!
If on a barstool or bus seat or deer stand this fall you overheard chatter about what will happen with natural resources policy with the new sheriff and his posse in town, Rat is happy to incendiarily fan any flames that chatter ignited in you.  In this installment, Rat ruminates on what it means to have Wisconsin finally "open for business:"

Read the Rat>>

Private Club Gets Its Way With a State Wild River

Pike River
The Coleman Lake Club is an 8,000 acre private hunting and fishing preserve in Marinette County.  What club members do with and on their land is certainly their business.  But the preferential treatment they either get, or make for themselves, is frustrating to watch, as they have taken advantage of ambiguity in two state laws.

They were recently allowed to rebuild two dams on the Pike River, one of the state's Wild Rivers, that runs through their property.  DNR granted that permission, in violation (in our view) of Wisconsin's Wild Rivers law. Read our letter to DNR.

The Club is  also taking advantage of a loophole in the state's Managed Forest Law.  By cutting up its acreage into scores of individual legal entities, it can get a property tax break but not have to allow public access to its land.  The property tax hit has been "devastating to local government," according to one area elected official.  Read Feb '10 WI State Journal article on abuses of the Managed Forest Law.
Photo Contest Winners!
Grand Prize: driftwood caught amongst the rocks by Eric Poggemann

Thank you to all who entered the River Alliance's fourth annual photo contest. There were so many GREAT entries this year. We look forward to featuring many of these amazing shots in our literature and on our website throughout the year.

This year we had five categories. A winner was selected in each category. Our grand prize winner was Eric Poggemann from Fredonia, Wisconsin (aka EPOG), who captured our grand prize-winning photograph (20091126) at the headwaters of a stream fed by Boulder Lake.

"It's a little gem of an area," according to Eric. "The main subject in the photo is the piece of driftwood caught amongst the rocks. I used a slow shutter speed to emphasize the movement of water around the boulders and driftwood. The photo was most dramatic converted to black and white."

All of the winning images will be printed in FLOW, the River Alliance of Wisconsin quarterly print newsletter with the grand-prize winner's image featured on the cover. Eric will receive a 11x14 print of their photograph, matted and framed.

Category Winners:
Animals: Philip Schwarz's Cedar Waxwing
Impacts: Thomas Ferrella's Spill
People: Tony Macasaet's October Summer
Landscape: Eric Poggemann's Driftwood (20091126)
Plants: Philip Schwartz's Spotted Touchmenot

Congratulations to our winners! If you are not already a member, join the River Alliance to receive a print copy of our quarterly newsletter, FLOW.

A warm thank you to our judges, Bill Pielsticker and Tony Sikes, and also to Jon Reddin, our artist-and-framer-in-residence.

Remembering Rod Nilsestuen
Rod Nilsestuen was the most thoughtful and imaginative agriculture secretary Wisconsin has had in decades. He died in a drowning accident last July. His friends - among them, River Alliance good friends Bill Berry, Tom Lyon and Judy Ziewacz -- have created a memorial fund to keep alive Rod's legacy of conserving working land and advancing cooperatives.

If you remember Rod's good works and support the causes he believed in, you can contribute to that fund by going to the Ralph K. Morris Foundation.

The fund will be used for symposia on issues affecting co-ops, land conservation and leadership development.

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