Arlington, VA – Trout Unlimited (TU) has recognized Florence, Wisc., as one of five rural communities around the country as “Conservation Towns” that are successfully incorporating their unique cultures and landscapes, their rivers and streams, and their hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities into long-term blueprints for economic success. These communities provide unique examples of innovation, civic engagement, and collaboration that provide a model for rural communities navigating change across America.
Locals in Florence County take pride in their remote, rural setting. The fact that there isn’t a single stoplight in the entire county, including the town of Florence, is a matter of pride. What the county lacks in stoplights and population it makes up for in streams and fish. Collaborating with a host of partners, TU has been working hard to improve the health of the area’s streams. The Pine and Popple rivers are two crown jewels in a county in which 43 percent of the land is publicly owned.
“America has hundreds of ‘resource dependent’ towns that barely survived the boom-and-bust cycles of commodity development,” said Chris Wood, TU’s president and CEO. “Many of those towns remain resource dependent, but the resources they depend on today are hunting and fishing, public lands—especially roadless areas—clean water and the wild landscapes that sustain our great nation.
“America needs to develop our natural resources, and conservation towns are a celebration of how to do that in a smart and collaborative manner. Trout Unlimited works with large and small communities across the country helping them to care for and recover our nation’s cherished public lands and waters. We’re proud to spotlight these communities, their river champions, and the innovative approaches they’ve taken to make the lives of people in their community better.”
With more than 300,000 members and supporters, 400 chapters, and nearly 400 staff members working across the country, TU had hundreds of potential examples to choose from for the inaugural list of communities.
Five communities were recognized as Trout Unlimited’s Conservation Towns:
1. Philipsburg, Mont. (800 people)
1. Gunnison, Colo. (6,800 people)
1. Fort Bragg, Calif. (7,000 people)
1. Florence, Wis. (2,300 people)
1. Rockland, N.Y. (3,300 people)
In Florence County, the winding, scenic Pine and Popple rivers draw lots of paddlers and are so appreciated by locals that they inspired the construction of the Wild Rivers Interpretive Center, a joint project of the U.S. Forest Service and the town of Florence. While those two rivers get a little two warm in the heat of summer, trout from many tributaries move between the fertile larger rivers and the smaller, cooler streams. “It’s amazing angling with light pressure,” says Chris Collier, who manages TU’s projects in the region.
“The Pine and Popple Wild Rivers were uniquely set aside by state law in 1965, and Florence County has been promoting the Wild Rivers as a destination since 2014,” said Wendy Gelhoff, director at the Wild River Interpretive Center. “These unique rivers offer activities for many types of outdoor recreation: trout fishing, paddling, hiking, bird watching, and tubing. There are also eight waterfalls to explore and photograph, including Breakwater Falls, which is the 6th largest waterfall in Wisconsin. Many people who spend time on the rivers share that they feel like they are in Canada thanks to the undeveloped and sometimes rugged terrain they encounter along the state, county, and federal owned lands that protect these Wild Rivers.”
Much of TU’s work with partners such as the county’s land conservation office, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the Forest Service consists of addressing barriers to fish passage, removing undersized and perched culverts and replacing them with fish- and paddler-friendly structures. TU has completed seven such projects to date, with several more in the works. Expanding the amount of habitat the region’s native brook trout can reach for feeding, spawning and finding coldwater refugia
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