Nichols Creek Workday
On July 21, 2007, a crew of nearly 30 SEWTU and Wisconsin Department of Resources volunteers and employees turned out to the Nichols Creek Wildlife Area, outside of Waldo, Wisconsin, to perform brushing work on Nichols Creek. The crew split up into two groups, with the first heading to a section of Nichols Creek off of Cedar Road, led by John Nelson of the WDNR.. There, brushing work and stream narrowing work was performed, and a drastic improvement made to the creek. After work, the stream was opened, ran more free, and was narrowed in areas where it had washed out, widened, and become silt laden.
A second crew perfomed water quality monitoring work, led by SEWTU's own John Knitter and Chris Weber. Along with the help of some spirited youngsters, measurements were taken of Nichols Creek's temperature, oxygenation, biology, PH, turbidity, and velocity. Additionally, an electronic thermoster was recovered from the stream, and provided to the DNR for further electronic water data collection.
As most SEWTU members and friends know, Nichols Creek has been the site of prior SEWTU workdays, and will hopefully continue to improve as a public fishery as a result. At the conclusion of the workday, SEWTU volunteers enjoyed a traditional provided bratwurst lunch. All in all, this was a successful workday, and a good opportunity for SEWTU members to see the positive impact that their prior work has had upon the creek, as well as to improve yet another stretch of water.
