Some of the best trout fishing in the Midwest can be found in St. Croix County, one of the fastest-growing counties in Wisconsin. The City of River Falls, located on the southern edge of St. Croix County and in the heart of the Kinnickinnic River Watershed, is home to 12,000 people. Because of its close proximity to the major metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, River Falls is a rapidly growing community, with a 20% population increase during the past decade. Growth estimates project a population of 16,500 by the year 2010. This estimate may be conservative, however, since it does not include growth in the surrounding townships, where agricultural lands are rapidly being converted to rural residential uses.

The Kinnickinnic River, a state “outstanding resource water”, flows through River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. A premiere trout stream, the “Kinni” is renowned for its dense populations of wild brown trout. Approximately 2,000-8,000 trout per mile reside in the river, with no stocking needed to sustain this naturally reproducing fishery. According to fisheries biologists, a trout population of 1,000 fish per mile is considered excellent.

The Kinnickinnic River is a valuable cold-water resource representing a major natural amenity of the River Falls community. Although trout populations in the river are currently high, the effect of growth in the City of River Falls and surrounding townships has the potential to degrade the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the Kinnickinnic River and its tributaries. As growth occurs, the creation of impervious surfaces like roofs, sidewalks, driveways, streets, and parking lots generates a substantial amount of storm water runoff that can significantly affect a river. Storm water impacts include: higher stream flows, thermal pollution, chemical pollution, and sedimentation, all of which pose threats to aquatic habitat, trout, and other cold-water organisms.

In the early 1990s, the local Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) began noting differences in trout populations and habitat quality in the Kinnickinnic River, above and below the City of River Falls. Likely due to storm water runoff, trout populations were significantly lower and stream bank erosion was increasing downstream from River Falls. Thermal impacts were also suspected.

In response to the concern about thermal pollution, Kiap-TU-Wish established a temperature monitoring network in 1992, at six locations on the Kinnickinnic River and two major tributaries. With funding provided by the chapter and Wisconsin Council of Trout Unlimited, data-logging thermometers were purchased and installed at river locations upstream and downstream from City of River Falls storm water discharges and two local hydropower dams. The datalogging thermometers record river temperatures at 10-minute intervals during the April-September period, thereby documenting any thermal impacts associated with storm water runoff during summer rains. Significant thermal impacts have been apparent downstream from River Falls storm water discharges and hydropower dams. Rapid increases in river temperature (up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) are frequently evident at locations downstream from storm water discharges during summer rainfalls, and storm water temperatures may exceed 78 degrees Fahrenheit, the upper lethal limit for brown trout. The thermal impact of the two city hydropower dams produces downstream temperatures that are at least 3-6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than upstream temperatures during the summer months. In 1995, Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter member Kent Johnson, who leads the temperature monitoring project, summarized the first three years of temperature monitoring results in a paper entitled: “Urban Storm Water Impacts on a Coldwater Resource” (hotlink here to the Storm Water Issues Section of the Kiap-TU-Wish website?). The paper was presented at an international conference of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

One of the goals of the Kiap-TU-Wish temperature monitoring project was to obtain sound scientific information on the impacts of storm water runoff. Using this monitoring information, the chapter initiated a discussion with River Falls planners and policy-makers about the need for storm water management tools that would enable the city to grow while protecting the Kinnickinnic River. In 1993, the City of River Falls applied for and received federal funding to develop a storm water management plan. Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH), a local water resources management firm, was selected by the city to prepare the plan, in partnership with Kiap-TU-Wish, local townships, the WDNR, the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust, and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The “City of River Falls Water Management Plan for the Kinnickinnic River and Its Tributaries” (see Resources for You) was completed in 1994, at a cost of $115,000, with a portion of the funding provided by the city and Kiap-TU-Wish. The plan, adopted by the River Falls City Council in April 1994, provides a “blueprint” for the city’s storm water management efforts to protect the Kinnickinnic River as the city grows.

Shortly after adoption of its storm water management plan, the City of River Falls established a storm water utility (add pull-out definition box?) to generate funding for storm water management projects that protect and enhance the Kinnickinnic River. The storm water utility charges a fee to city residents and businesses according to the amount of storm water running off a property. As an incentive to residents and businesses that reduce the amount of storm water runoff from their properties, the City of River Falls reduces their annual storm water utility fee proportionately.

In 1995, efforts to protect the Kinnickinnic River expanded watershed-wide when the WDNR selected the Kinnickinnic River as a part of the state’s Priority Watershed Program. The Priority Watershed Program provides annual funding, over a ten-year period, for cost-shared projects in agricultural and urban areas of the watershed that protect and enhance the quality of the Kinnickinnic River. Prior to receiving state funding, however, a watershed plan had to be developed so that the state and local cost-share funding could be appropriately directed to areas of the watershed in greatest need. The Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter worked in partnership with the WDNR, two counties, six townships, three cities (including River Falls), the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust, and SEH to develop the “Nonpoint Source Control Plan for the Kinnickinnic River Priority Watershed Project” (see Resources for You), which was approved by the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board in April 1999. The plan is unique in that it is the first priority watershed plan in the state to incorporate an urban storm water management component, applying the approach used in the City of River Falls storm water management plan to other cities and townships across the watershed.

In 1998, recognizing the need for an educational tool that can be used to protect cold-water resources in urbanizing areas, the Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter, in partnership with Palisade Productions of Minneapolis, MN, produced a video entitled: “A Storm on the Horizon” (see Resources for You; also hotlink here to Storm Water Section of the Kiap-TU-Wish website?). Using the Kinnickinnic River as the backdrop, this 15-minute video describes the value of a cold-water resource, discusses the potential threats posed to cold-water resources by urban growth, and also describes some tools available to communities for protecting these resources while accommodating growth. The video won a Silver Screen Award in the “Environmental Issues and Concerns” category at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1999. Chapter members have distributed nearly 3,000 copies of the video nationwide, to local planners and policy-makers, engineers, scientists, elementary, middle school, high school, and college educators and students, nonprofit organizations, and other Trout Unlimited members and chapters.

In 2000, the City of River Falls and the River Falls School District got an opportunity to implement some of the new storm water management techniques described in the city’s storm water management plan. The school district was planning to build a new high school near the South Fork of the Kinnickinnic River, a tributary to the main river. After learning that a preliminary site plan had already been designed for the new high school, several Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter members showed “A Storm on the Horizon” to school officials and city planners, and stressed the need for good storm water management practices on the site. Kiap-TU-Wish members, the City of River Falls, SEH, and Kinnickinnic River Priority Watershed Project participants worked with the school district’s landscape architect to redesign the site. A large, expansive parking lot in the original design was changed to smaller, separated lots buffered with native vegetation that will infiltrate storm water runoff from these impervious surfaces. Native buffers were also established between the athletic fields, to trap soil and nutrients. Three storm water detention ponds on the site will contain and infiltrate excess runoff, including the runoff from the building roof. With funding provided by the Priority Watershed Project, an innovative irrigation system was also installed to pump storm water from the detention ponds to the athletic fields. As originally designed, the new high school site would have cost the River Falls School District $8,000 per year in storm water utility fees paid to the City of River Falls. With the redesign work, it is anticipated that no storm water will leave the site, saving the school district $8,000 per year while protecting the South Fork and Kinnickinnic River. With completion of the new high school in the fall of 2001, Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter members and Kinnickinnic River Priority Watershed Project participants plan to help the school district install interpretive signs that explain the various storm water management components of the site. It is hoped that these components can be incorporated into the educational curriculum at the high school. Funding for the signage will also be provided by the Priority Watershed Project.

In 2001, the Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter continues to work with the City of River Falls and SEH to develop and adopt a storm water management ordinance for the city. The ordinance, another key element of the city’s storm water management plan, will require all developers to incorporate low-impact storm water management practices as an integral part of the site planning and design process. The low impact development approach, as supported in the ordinance, will use biotechnology (rain gardens, swales, constructed wetlands, and buffers of native vegetation) to distribute and infiltrate storm water across the landscape, rather than concentrating and conveying it to the river with conventional storm water infrastructure (curb and gutter, storm sewers, and detention ponds).

Trout are an important indicator species of environmental quality, especially in an urbanizing area. As such, protection of the Kinnickinnic River is critical to help ensure the environmental, cultural, and economic future of River Falls and surrounding communities. With nearly 200 members, the Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been instrumental in protecting the Kinnickinnic River during the past decade. The chapter has raised the awareness of planners, policy-makers, and residents with regard to storm water issues, and has helped to change the way River Falls manages an outstanding cold-water resource in Wisconsin, thereby ensuring that the Kinnickinnic River will be available for the enjoyment of future generations.

For more information, please contact:

Kent Johnson

Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter, Trout Unlimited

P.O. Box 483

Hudson, WI 54016

Phone: 715-386-5299

FAX: 715-386-6065

E-mail: jjohnson@pressenter.com

“Like it or not, growth is necessary and inevitable. The goal of the Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter is to educate our communities about the value of cold-water resources, and then work with them to ensure that a sustainable blend of growth and resource protection is achieved.”

- Kent Johnson

“The emerging generation of storm water management will embrace a distributed rather than centralized approach, where storm water is broadly dispersed and infiltrated on the landscape rather than funneled away to the nearest surface water via curbs, gutters, and storm sewers. The result can be a landscape that is less harsh and unforgiving, more natural and aesthetically appealing.....where water is regarded as a valuable commodity.”

- Kent Johnson

“We shall never achieve harmony with the land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the most important thing is not to achieve but to strive.”

- Aldo Leopold

“I am trying to teach you that this alphabet of “natural objects” (soils and rivers, birds and beasts) spells out a story.... Once you learn how to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you.”

- Aldo Leopold

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

- Margaret Mead

Kiap-TU-Wish Website: http://www.lambcom.net/kiaptuwish/

In Storm Water Issues (http://www.lambcom.net/kiaptuwish/stormwater/):

“Urban Storm Water Impacts on a Coldwater Resource”

Author: Kent Johnson November, 1995

“Storm Water Management and the Kinni”

Author: Jeremy Cook December, 2000

“Guidance for Watershed Stewardship, Lower St. Croix River:

A Stream Protection Strategy”

Author: Kent Johnson December, 1998

Kiap-TU-Wish Video: “A Storm on the Horizon”

Available by contacting chapter member Kent Johnson

“City of River Falls Water Management Plan for the Kinnickinnic River and Its Tributaries”

Available at:

River Falls Public Library

140 Union Street

River Falls, WI 54022

715-425-0905

River Falls City Hall

123 East Elm Street

River Falls, WI 54022

715-425-0900

Questions about the plan can be directed to Reid Wronski, City Engineer

“Nonpoint Source Control Plan for the Kinnickinnic River Priority Watershed Project”

A copy of the plan is available from:

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Bureau of Water Resources Management

Nonpoint Source and Land Management Section

P.O. Box 7921

Madison, WI 53707

(Publication WT-522)

Minnesota Urban Small Sites BMP Manual: Stormwater BMPs for Cold Climates. 2001. Metropolitan Council, St. Paul, MN.

(http://www.metrocouncil.org/environment/watershed/bmp/manual.htm)

Protecting Water Quality in Urban Areas: BMPs for Dealing with Stormwater Runoff from Urban, Suburban and Developing Areas of Minnesota. 2000. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN.

Center for Watershed Protection

Website: http://www.cwp.org

An outstanding resource for information on storm water impacts and best practices for storm water management. After you visit the Kiap-TU-Wish website, go here before you go anywhere else!

Low Impact Development Center

Website: http://www.lowimpactdevelopment.org

Excellent information on best practices for storm water management.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Urban Nonpoint Source Website: http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/urban.html

Provides the national perspective and direction with regard to urban storm water management.