FOP9 Directors Meeting..................................April 1, 2013
  Eagle Surveys............................................ March-April 2013
Pool 9 River Clean Up....................................April 20, 2013
 MRAD App Deadline.........................................July 11, 2013
   MRAD................................................................July 16, 2013
  Fish Days Booth...........................................August 10, 2013
  Kids Fishing Day..........................................August 10, 2013
FOP9 Annual Meeting........................... September 28, 2013
Friends of Pool 9 Annual River Clean up for 2014



 

The Board of Directors are making plans for the FOP9 annual clean up of Pool 9.  The date was incorrectly listed in the recent issue of the organizations newsletter, The Otter's Tale.  The correct date for the clean up is Saturday, April 26, 2014.  Organizers will locate backwater debris and assign boats (and volunteers) to each collection site.  Boat operators should contact Bruce ReVoir (563-568-7358), Brent Darling (538-4489), Bob Henkel (538-4864), Al Wuennecke (544-4929), Jerry Boardman (563-419-7968), or John Verdon (538-4836) if they are willing to make their boat available for the clean up.  Volunteers should also contact these same individuals if they plan to take part in the event.

Boats and volunteers should gather at the VFW building in Lansing at 7:30 am on Saturday, April 26.  Boats will also gather in New Albin (Al Wuennecke at 608-790-8842), Ferryville (Larry Quamme 920-948-2245), Lynxville (Mark Schneden at 608-874-4478), and at Hetyman’s Landing (Dave Noelting or Sam Miller) and Black Hawk Park.  Gloves, garbage bags, water, and a lunch will be provided for all volunteers.  Dumpsters will again be located at Lansing, Black Hawk Park, and Ferryville, with a IA DNR truck at New Albin Army Road Landing.

Since 2004, volunteers have collected tens of thousands of pounds of debris from the river corridor and donated over 50,000 hours of volunteer time to the Upper Mississippi River Refuge in their clean up efforts.  While users of the resource are more informed today, and the river is getting cleaner, it’s still important that volunteers continue their annual vigil to remove debris deposited during the spring flood, as well as that left behind on our area beaches by careless users.  Plan to spend Saturday, April 26th (7:30 AM to 12:00 Noon) with us giving something back to the Mississippi.  Bring your sons and daughters as well; it’s a good opportunity to teach stewardship of the resource to the next generation.  See you on April 26th. 

Friends of Pool 9 Clam "Cagers" Back to Work



Eleven members of Friends of Pool 9 spent a cold and snowy February 19th at the "clam cage" building at Genoa National Fish Hatchery.  The group has been helping with the project for several years.  Endangered Higgins eye clam young are attached to host fish and placed in the cages for growth and development.  Eventually they drop from the host when they are large enough to survive on their own.  The clams are then introduced into the Mississippi River and tributary streams in an attempt to increase their population.

FOP9 volunteers remove the wire mesh from old cages and replace it with new mesh.  Rivets hold the mesh to a metal frame.  The frame is attached to a metal base lined with a plywood bottom.  Volunteers worked in teams on all phases of the rebuilding project; some taking the old cages apart, others rebuilding the bases, and a third group building new cages.  Nathan Eckert (GNFH) is in charge of the "mussel" project.  Workers were served morning coffee and a delicious lunch of grilled meats, chips, pop, and desserts. 

The group had an average age well into the seventies, topped by 93 year old Mit Wilde.  Lloyd Lorenz (from the La Crosse area) has been a volunteer worker at Genoa for years and worked with us (FOP9) in the past on this project.  He decided to join FOP9 and completed an application to become a member of Friends of Pool 9.  We welcome him and his wife and encourage him to join our other volunteer activities as well.  Everyone was tired at the end of the day but all agreed it was a great way to spend a day helping at Genoa National Fish Hatchery.  The re-introduction of the endangered clams into the river is important, it's neat when we all work together on a project and share in the accomplishment, the staff was super to work with and very appreciative, and the lunch was terrific.  What more could we ask for.  We'll see you again next winter Nathan, and look forward to helping Angie with the sturgeon tagging in the fall.

Jack Fink (L) and Brent Darling (R) construct a clam cage by using rivets to attach wire mesh to a metal frame at Genoa National Fish Hatchery.
Workers take a break and pose for a picture surrounding a stack of clam cage bases and a restored clam cage on top.  L. to R. Kevin Quillin, Nathan Eckert (GNFH), Bob Henkel, Don Thran, Mit Wilde, Sue Papp, Warren Coates, Jack Fink, Lloyd Lorenz, Brent Darling, Joe Papp, and John Verdon.
ITC Midwest Donates to Friends of Pool 9 Island Restoration Project

January, 2014
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ITC Midwest personnel Dan Hagan (left) and Mike Ivester (fifth from left) present Directors of Friends of Pool 9 with a $5,000 donation for the Beach and Island Reforestation project above Lansing.  L to R:  Dan Hagan, Don Thran, Larry Quamme, Jerry Boardman, Mike Ivester, John Verdon, Don Walsh, Bob Henkel.


 A $5,000 contribution from electric transmission company ITC Midwest will help reforest the Pool 9 Island beach area.

On Wednesday, January 8, ITC Permit Policy Specialist Dan Hagan and Local Government and Community Affairs Regional Manager Mike Ivester presented the funds to the Friends of Pool 9 Board of Directors. The money will assist with expenses toward the island restoration project upstream of Lansing. 

The 2014 project includes the transport of thousands of cubic yards of sand to the Lansing Beach area (RM 664) to build sand ridges for the reforestation of oak and other hardwood trees, as well as improvements to the beach area itself.  The hardwood trees are typically found in small numbers on the channel border islands since they are frequently flooded.  Raising the island height will encourage their chances of survival and abundance.  Seedlings of White Oak, Black Oak, Pin Oak, and Hackberry will be planted in the elevated area.  Seeds were originally collected from river tolerant trees located in (or near) the Mississippi River flood plain and grown in local nurseries.

The island and beach restoration project will involve the cooperation of the US Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources, Friends of Pool 9, and local contractors with access to large earth moving equipment.  The beach area will be enhanced both in length and width to improve the site for recreation, and hundreds of hardwood trees will add to the plant and animal diversity (and stability) of the island ecosystem.  All users of the river resource (wildlife and man) will benefit from this project of island restoration in Pool 9, Upper Mississippi River Refuge. ITC Midwest ITC Midwest, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Holdings Corp., the nation’s largest independent electricity transmission company. ITC Midwest operates more than 6,600 circuit miles of transmission lines in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri and maintains operating locations at Dubuque, Iowa City and Perry, Iowa; and Albert Lea and Lakefield, Minnesota.

Since its formation in 2007, the company has completed 23 new generator interconnects, adding approximately 2,500 MW of wind energy production capacity to the region’s grid. That amount of new wind energy connections represents investment of more than $5 billion by developers, and is more wind energy capacity than existed in the entire state of Iowa in 2007.



Online membership form now available click bellow to join the Friends of Pool 9 !
Membership form