December Streamkeeper Report

by Jim Sauter

"Many men/ women go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." 
     - Henry David Thoreau 

Welcome to the winter season!  As 2024 winds down, we want to say thank you to all our members and stream volunteers who have helped us accomplish so much over the past year.  The response has been overwhelming and included monitoring streams, training using Save Our Stream protocols, stream cleanup days, habitat work, and having so many "eyes and ears" on our streams to help keep them healthy.  Thank you!

I have discovered that since becoming somewhat obsessed with trout fishing, I have a strong propensity to pay very close attention to the weather.  I am always curious about the air temperature, precipitation, wind, and now even water temperatures.  

So, when does winter really start?  After the first snowfall?  Once the lakes are iced over?  When temperatures fall below freezing?  After shoveling that first dusting of snow?  By all these accounts, winter is in full swing in Minnesota.

Recently when reading about the weather in the Mn Tribune from meteorologist Paul Douglas, he declared, "Winter has arrived."  For meteorologists, winter begins on December 1.  For the rest of us, winter "officially" starts after the winter solstice on December 21.   The next 90 days are typically the coldest days of the year.  Based on most of the criteria we use, winter has arrived.

Our stream monitoring efforts have taken a pause for now, and we will be resuming monitoring efforts in April of 2025.  We are planning to conduct our first REDD survey in mid-December on the South Branch of the Vermillion AMA.  This is a good time to avoid these areas during this very sensitive time for trout egg and fish development.  Even entering streams and disrupting silt can cause problems in trout egg hatches.  

For other brave souls, monitoring salt levels and taking water temperatures is a good way of connecting with nature and area streams during this time of year. 

So far this year, the Izaak Walton League has sent nitrate kits to over 750 volunteers in 44 states, and those volunteers have submitted an impressive 2500+ nitrate readings!  Since 2018, volunteers from 24 states have submitted over 10,000 chloride readings. This year TCTU has  joined these efforts.  In 2024 our Streamkeepers have recorded 74 chemical readings in ten streams and one lake, and we conducted our first biological macroinvertebrate reading in Eagle Creek during the Save Our Stream training.  We continue advocating for the decrease of nitrates and salt in our streams.

STREAMKEEPER TIP OF THE MONTH
Winter Salt Awareness Week will be held from Jan. 27-31, 2025. The program was started in Wisconsin and is spreading rapidly into the Twin Cities.

Why is this important?  Fish and bugs that live in freshwater streams can't survive in extra salty water. And many of us (more than 117 million Americans) depend on local streams for drinking water. Water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes.  We are advocates for smart use of salt in our communities.

You can help.

Salt test strips are free and can be obtained by accessing this site and ordering a free kit at:  https://www.iwla.org/water/stream-monitoring/salt-watch
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Reporting Data to Salt Hub:  Send the following data to me for entry or go to the Clean Water Hub.  You will need to provide the following information:
Survey Date
Stream Name and Location in including GPS
Most Recent Precipitation (i.e., less than 12 hours, 12-48 hours, 2-7 days, 1-2 weeks, more than 2 weeks)
Quantab Unit Reading
Expiration Date of Test Strip
Lot Number for Test Strip
 
More details about Salt Awareness Week are to come in the January newsletter!

Little Cannon River, Photo by Trust for Public Land

FEATURED STREAM OF THE MONTH: Little Cannon

Class 2 Trout Stream (Source:  MN DNR)

Article Source:  Excerpts from Bob Luck Blog on 4/16/23

The Little Cannon River in the Sogn Valley southwest of Cannon Falls occupies a special place in my heart.  A friend has a farm on the river, and he lets me fish it if I promise to lock the gate behind me and release any trout I catch.  It was there, on a spring day two years ago, that I caught my first and only 20” trout in Minnesota.  I was retrieving a black woolly bugger through a tongue of current, saw a flash, kept retrieving and the fish smacked it.  The fight was a bit anticlimactic—the fish made one spectacular jump and then sort of gave up, but it was a beautiful wild brown, with shoulders like a linebacker.  

I was thrilled to hear that the Trust for Public Land (TPL), using funds from the Outdoor Heritage Fund, purchased 77 acres along the Little Cannon upstream from my friend’s farm, and turned it over to the Minnesota DNR as the Little Cannon Aquatic Management Area...

The Little Cannon is plagued by sediment and high eroding banks that prevent it from connecting with the floodplain, and the AMA stretch is no exception.  But there is the possibility of a habitat improvement project in the future, and meanwhile, you can fish here!  The trout population is not high, but I can testify that there are some big ones. Kevin Stauffer of the Lake City DNR office told us that brown trout reproduction has been on the increase, and they may be able to stop stocking soon.

There is much work remaining to protect our streams in the heavily farmed country of Southeast Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, but we are blessed with good conservation partners such as TPL, engaged citizens and, especially, enlightened landowners who are interested in conservation and willing to work with TU and its partners. 
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The Little Cannon AMA is just south of Goodhue County 49 Blvd in Warsaw Township.  A map is here.

Summary of Water Quality for Little Cannon (Source:  Trust for Public Land)

The Little Cannon River is considered a popular fly fishing destination due to the large rainbow and brown trout that can be captured. The MDNR stocks adult rainbow trout and fingerling brown trout to maintain adequate fishing conditions...  Many stream reaches show high eroding banks and unstable substrates that may be limiting the spawning success of trout.   

The Little Cannon River sub watershed is home to a special concern species, the redside dace (Clinostomus elongatus). This colorful minnow was collected at multiple stations throughout the Little Cannon River and tributaries. One of its unique attributes is the upturned mouth (Image 16) that allows this fish to jump out of water to capture flying insects. This species prefers smaller streams with cool, clear water and clean gravel or bedrock substrates (Becker 1983, Eddy and Underhill 1974, Phillips et al. 1982). Due to the presence of this special concern species, additional restoration and protection measures should be considered to maintain and restore sensitive fish habitat and a cool thermal regime. 

Do you have a favorite stream that you would like featured in our article?  Just let me know at [email protected]

Native River Lamprey, Photo courtesy of the MN DNR

TRUE OR FALSE/ TRIVIA
All river lamprey in Minnesota are highly parasitic.

False.  Minnesota has five species of native lamprey, of which only two have a parasitic adult phase.  I have only observed one river lamprey, and this was on May 22, 2021, in Trout Brook in Goodhue County south of Mazeppa.  He/she was swimming right next to my waders, and I'm guessing it was getting ready to spawn.  
 
Lamprey’s lifestyle and body structure have remained almost the same for 250 million years! Native lamprey have lived in Minnesota since the last glaciers, 10,000 years ago.  

The much larger sea lampreys were first discovered in Lake Superior in 1946, and they created chaos in the Superior fishery for decades.  Sea lamprey only gained access to the upper Great Lakes when the Welland Canal was constructed between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in 1829. The canal circumvented the largest natural blockade to fish migration in the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls.