DECEMBER 2024
LETTER FROM THE MNTU TEAM
Greetings fellow anglers and conservationists,
We’re excited to bring to you a few of our favorite moments from 2024. They include some of our accomplishments, fun events, and moments we were able to meaningfully connect with you!
We’d love to hear what you think we missed from our top moments! What did you see Minnesota Trout Unlimited doing this past year that peaked your interest, taught you something new, or provided you with a unique opportunity to connect with the MNTU community? Click on the link below to share your top 2024 moment and we might share it in future Enews or on social media!
Happy end of a great year!
John Lenczewski, Executive Director
Kristen Poppleton, Assistant Director
Jennifer Biederman, Habitat Director
Amber Taylor, Education Supervisor
Mark Abner, Development Associate
P.S. Thanks to all of you that participated in Give to the Max! Don’t worry if you missed out- your financial support is always welcome and you can give here.
|
|
|
1. Ten Whopping Miles of Reconnected Cold Water Habitat and More
|
|
|
|
In 2024, MNTU worked with partners to replace 5 fish passage barriers to reconnect wild brook trout to almost 10 miles of coldwater habitat along the northeast shore. Passage was restored on Keene Creek (St. Louis County), Hockamin Creek and Finland Creek (Lake County). Pictured here is a new culvert on a tributary of the Baptism River on Sonju Lake Road in Lake County. Read about our Driftless resoration projects in the most recent Trout Unlimited Newsletter.
|
|
|
On October 5 close to 40 individuals joined us for a day-long behind the scenes tour of sites where MNTU has completed habitat improvement projects. Our Executive Director John Lenczewski, and Habitat Director Jennifer Biederman led the trip, sharing their knowledge of how a project is planned, executed and monitored.
|
|
|
|
3. Keeping Agencies Accountable
|
|
|
|
|
On October 15, 2024 MNTU joined NRDC Action and Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) in filing a petition asking the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to adopt rules to protect Minnesota’s environment and people from neonicotinoids and other dangerous insecticides. We are calling on the MDA to develop a regulatory program for treated seeds.
|
|
|
4. Cooling Streams and Creating Wildlife Habitat with 100’s of Trees
|
|
|
|
|
Restoring native riparian forests brings benefits ranging from cooling stream temperatures and creating important wildlife habitat (in the near term) and future woody stream habitat (in the long term). However, planting trees is the easiest part – to survive and thrive, tree plantings require years of maintenance, including watering, weeding, caging, and uncaging. This year, MNTU and dozens of volunteers planted and maintained hundreds of trees, particularly in the northeast part of our state where riparian forests are threatened but critical for the health of streams. Streams where we worked on trees included Cedar Valley Creek (Winona County), Keene Creek, Chester Creek (St. Louis County), and the Little Stewart River (Lake County). (Pictured above is over 150 recently planted trees, including white cedar and white pine, were caged along the Little Stewart River to protect from foraging deer across the winter season.)
|
|
|
5. Fishing with the Riverkeepers
|
|
|
|
|
We had the fun of heading out to do some casting with a few of our Riverkeepers three times this year! Donors making an annual donation of $1,000 or more are invited to join the Riverkeepers Council. Riverkeepers Council donors receive dedicated communications, invitations to fishing opportunities, special events, and more.
|
|
|
6. Getting Students Outside Across the State
|
|
|
|
|
In fall of 2024, our education team worked with almost 1400 students conducting aquatic macroinvertebrate studies. This number brought us to over 20,000 direct student engagements for fall field days, winter programs, and spring releases since fall of 2018…20,750 to be exact! Trout in the Classroom is implemented by a small, dedicated team of contractors and volunteers around the state that engage students in exciting, impactful, and hands on adventures in and outside of the classroom throughout the year. In addition, teachers are conducting multiple lessons and activities with their students that weave TIC concepts into their curriculum. This adds thousands more students to our team’s total since 2018 that have learned about trout habitat, watershed ecology, and fishes of Minnesota and engaged in environmental stewardship projects, fishing excursions, hatchery tours, and much more. (Watch the video to hear from some of our classrooms!)
|
|
|
7. Protecting and Restoring Trout AND Flowers
|
|
|
|
|
In 2023, the unexpected discovery of the rate, state-threatened snowy campion (Silene nivea) just prior to breaking ground on a stream project in southeastern Minnesota almost halted the project for good. Thankfully, MNTU was able to work with the DNR to obtain a special collection permit, which included a detailed plan to mitigate harm and improve conditions for the rare species. In 2024, the MN Landscape Arboretum successfully cultivated hundreds of plants from seeds collected on site, and follow-up monitoring found hundreds of snowy campion within the project reach – far exceeding our goal. So far, it appears that not only did our mitigation strategy work, but opening the soil and eliminating invasive competitors along the stream corridor allowed the existing seed bank to grow and thrive. (Pictured above: A survey team including staff from MN DNR, MNTU, the UMN Landscape Arboretum, and EOR, Inc, were happy to discover hundreds of snowy campion growing within our project area in May 2024.)
|
|
|
8. Welcoming 1700 new followers on Facebook and Instagram
|
|
|
|
|
We welcomed over 1700 combined new followers this year on Facebook and Instagram! The post above was by far our most popular. Follow us from the links below and check out the post on Facebook from the button below.
|
|
|
9. Connecting at the 2024 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo
|
|
|
|
The 2024 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo brought together thousands of fly anglers from across Minnesota and around the world. Successful partnerships with a myriad of organizations highlight the Expo, and provide anglers the chance to learn fishing techniques, locations and opportunities for wherever they may fish. We’re proud to include key conservation messaging to address ongoing issues while we reach so many avid anglers. Watching folks connect as they learned, explored and expanded their fishing and conservation knowledge was one of our favorite moments of the year. The 2025 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo is coming March 21-23, 2025. Tickets for the Expo are on sale now here
|
|
|
10. Teamwork makes the dream work
|
|
|
|
Our tiny team could not accomplish all that we do without the 100’s of volunteers that show up for our work projects, send letters to agencies, and elected officials, and support Trout in the Classroom indoors and out in the field. We also have an amazing network of partner organizations that bring their expertise to our work to make it even better. Finally, we have so much gratitude to the dozens of landowners that have given the gift of DNR managed angling easements. Thanks to all of you that showed up for us this past year!
|
|
|
|
Top Moments from Our Chapters
|
|
|
CHAPTER SUBMITTED TOP MOMENTS
Twin Cities: Earth Day Trash Pickup on Eagle Creek
103 volunteers filled a 40-yard dumpster with trash and collected 32 tires. They ate 100 burgers and 75 brats. Not a single fistfight was reported.
Gitche Gumee: February Film Festival event
Our largest funding raising event had 200+ in attendance that helped raise over $2000 to go towards our mission and our community.
Hiawatha: April Lunker Structure Build
It wasn’t our biggest event in terms of numbers of people attending, but it was the coldest when 13 members gathered April 20 near the confluence of Mill Creek and the Root River to build lunker structures.
Headwaters: Trout in the Classroom in the News
Classrooms across the Headwaters chapter region were featured in multiple news stories this past year for their participation in Trout in the Classroom (TIC). TIC became a major annual ongoing educational endeavor of the Chapter in 2007 when it sponsored the first tank in Minnesota.
Win-Cres: Habitat Support Superheroes
Chapter members did hours of habitat volunteer work this year mowing, tree planting, and removing invasive species and barbed wire!
|
|
|
Established in 1959 with thousands of members and 5 chapters across the state, Minnesota Trout Unlimited advocates for policies that will build and sustain Minnesota’s coldwater fisheries and watersheds, restores instream and riparian habitat (100+ miles since 2009), and educates youth through our Trout in the Classroom program.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
