On June 12 & 13, Project THERMALS kicked off when Debbie Fenner, Kerry  Fenner, Colin Mahon, Devin Stephenson , Jordan Erwin. Kai Labella and Douglas Moran joined our friend Mark Nemeth of the DNR in 2 days of climbing in and out of South Creek and the South Branch of the Vermillion.
Project THERMALS is a 5 year program to monitor and report water temperatures in those 2 trout streams. The project was jointly developed between the DNR, the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization and TCTU. 
Why is it important? Because it will provide important baseline data that can be used to influence policy and practices for the streams and the landscape around them. Think of it this way, it will give the bugs and fish and wildlife in those streams a voice as the land use around the streams change.

by Bob Luck
Greetings from Hokkaido, Japan.  What I would like to write about this month is a beautiful river I fished yesterday for wild rainbows in the foothills of the Tokachi Mountains.  But this is not the Hokkaido Trout Unlimited newsletter, and, as President Yves reminded me yesterday, we are a coldwater conservation organization, not a fishing club.  Which means what I need to write about is bugs.
For most of my fishing career, my favorite order of aquatic insects was mayflies, with their elegant, upswept wings, stately bearing, and tragic Romeo-and-Juliet story of a single night of romance before embracing death. That changed six years ago when my daughter Marisa caught her first trout on a dry fly with an Elk Hair Caddis on the Rush River.  It was a beautiful 12” brown and she did everything right:  approach, cast, drift, set, land, pose, release.  You can guess which of us was more excited.  A few days later I ran into chapter members John Pogatchik, Pat Sexton and Ben Anderson who were clustered around a cell phone at a parking lot on the Rush, looking at photos of a 20+” Brown that John had caught and released.  Ben later sent me 40 (!) photos of the event, which shows you how excited he was. John told me I needed to try swinging wet flies during the caddis hatch and gave me a couple of Stop and Gos, which has since become my favorite wet fly.  With their mothlike appearance, Caddis may not be as lovely as Mayflies, but they are a blast to fish, and trout love them.
I fear that I may have fallen in love with Caddis just in time to watch them disappear from the streams in our area.  

The Hastings Environmental Protectors are one of our partners in preserving and protecting the Vermillion River.  Check out their volunteer opportunities this summer!

by Jim Sauter
"Even if they are not members of the 'Big Four': Mayflies, Caddis, Stoneflies, Midges, they are important for us fly fishers. They are year round residents in the water, are some of the biggest insect morsels for trout, and they are also members of the last major emergence in a stillwater year. Some say the best is saved for last."  Břetislav Kašpar, Global Flyfisher

DRAGONS & DAMSELS
Greetings from the TCTU Streamkeepers.
Tis the season for dragons and damsels.  Monitoring these aquatic macroinvertebrates can offer insights into water quality.  As a bonus, they can help us identify hatches on area streams when they entertain us with their amazing aerial acrobatic skills.  They also eat a lot of mosquitos!
Dragonflies and damselflies act as crucial bio-indicators of stream and wetland health in Minnesota. Because their larval (nymph) stage spends months or years underwater, the presence and diversity of specific species reveal a lot about water pollution, habitat degradation, and overall ecosystem balance. [1, 2, 3] 
The good news is that we have consistently found these macros in many of our area streams and in streams where we have conducted macroinvertebrate testing.

KIAP-TU-WISH, our sister chapter in Western Wisconsin, held its 5th annual STREAM Girls event on May 16th.  Sixteen enthusiastic 11-15 year-olds were joined by over a dozen equally enthusiastic volunteers for a day of learning about stream ecology and fly fishing for trout.  You can find a delightful account of the day by STREAM Girls Czar Michele Bevis below.