Written for the winter issue of WisTrout. For more details on the decommissioning process, visit the West Fork and Coon Creek Watershed Planning website.
While it has been over six years since the floods of late August and early September of 2018, their effects are still felt today. The failure of five dams in the two watersheds, including the Jersey Valley dam, have led to the need to reassess the safety of these dams. After studying the topic, all three counties in the watersheds – La Crosse, Monroe, and Vernon – have approved plans to decommission the dams in the West Fork Kickapoo and Coon Creek watersheds. This will be a first of its kind operation as nowhere have as many dams been removed in as short a period of time. Many are watching from both close and afar to see what happens as there are thousands of these dams of similar ages throughout the United States.

PL-566 was enacted in the 1950’s to help protect small watersheds from the effects of floods. PL structures, as they are commonly referred to, are relatively small dams that were built on small streams largely in the 1960’s and are past their life expectancy. There are 88 structures in Wisconsin and a quarter of these dams are in Vernon County. As with most counties in the state and across the country, the county lacks the resources to remove or rebuild these dams. All three counties have approved dam decommissioning and are seeking funding to V-notch the dams, rather than fully removing the dams. Cutting a notch in the dam rather than removing the entire structure is less expensive than full removal and is expected to achieve the same effect. Efforts to notch one of the failed dams in the West Fork Kickapoo headwaters are ongoing. Removal of these structures is expected to cost $4 million, a price tag that would be funded through Federal programs. Estimates to fix the dams are $61 million, a significantly greater cost and one that would be much harder to secure funding to complete. Some in the watershed are exploring other options. The largest price tag is for the rebuilding of the Jersey Valley Dam and creating a new lake downstream where the geology will better support the structure.

The discussion around keeping the dams in place or notching the dams is multifaceted. Farmers in the valley fear that increased flood frequency will doom their livelihood while others in the valley fear future dam breaches will destroy homes, infrastructure, and potentially end in the loss of lives. The fact that nobody was killed in the 2018 floods is itself something of a miracle. Preliminary plans are to breach the dams that are most likely to fail first as the entire decommissioning process will likely take several years. Dam failures have been linked to dams abutting with sandstone geology that creates a weak point, allowing water to bypass and erode the dam structure. Part of the planning process was to examine the dams and determine which were most likely to fail in future storms. The planning process also determined that the smaller dams did not provide a flood control benefit that outweighed their costs. However, the cost of rebuilding the Jersey Valley dam showed a positive cost-benefit analysis due to its recreational value.

The Coulee Region chapter of Trout Unlimited (CRTU), concerned with several “trout-related” issues, wrote, and circulated a position paper on the dam decommissioning within the Coon Creek and West Fork watersheds. Our main concerns were two: 1) that the Brook Trout fisheries protected from non-native Brown Trout by dams in Seas Branch, Maple Dale Creek, and the upper West Fork of the Kickapoo are protected into the future, and 2) thermal issues on the West Fork are addressed in the rebuilding of the Jersey Valley dam. As I have written previously in WisTrout, the upper West Fork of the Kickapoo has seen a decline in the fishery since the 2018 floods that is largely due to a much warmer river. CRTU temperature loggers showed that during the height of this recent summer, stream temperatures averaged over 70°F for the entire day and routinely peaked at over 80°F during the summer. The stream grew warmer upstream, a sure sign that Jersey Valley Lake, near the headwaters of river was impacting the river. This has resulted in a fishery where trout densities are lower and densities of fishes not associated with cold water have increased.

Brook Trout fisheries above three of the larger dams on the Upper West Fork (Jersey Valley Lake), Seas Branch, and Maple Dale Creek are popular and unique resources that CRTU, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and others feel need to be preserved and protected. In these streams, protection ultimately means that Brown Trout need to be excluded from these stream reaches. Those of us that have been fishing these streams long enough remember when upper Seas Branch and Maple Dale Creek and their tributaries were Brown Trout fisheries. Through the considerable efforts of the WDNR, Brown Trout were captured by electrofishing and removed from these reaches which has allowed Brook Trout to thrive. In fact, WDNR data shows these streams to have some of the highest Brook Trout densities in the state. We are working with the county and WDNR to explore options to maintain barriers for the streams that have native Brook Trout populations. On a personal note, these are some of my favorite places to fish because I can go anywhere to catch Brown Trout, but there are few places in the Viroqua area where I can catch native Brook Trout.

CRTU has not opposed the Jersey Valley dam reconstruction – though we do not endorse it either. However, we do have some reservations about its reconstruction, most notably, we need to be reassured that the dam will be large enough and more specifically deep enough that the bottom-draw will cool the West Fork. The West Fork, especially since the 2018 floods, is unique in that the river cools down as you move downstream because large tributaries from the West contribute significant amounts of cold water. Due to the geology of the watershed, tributaries from the East are not generally as cold as those from the West, but fortunately the two largest tributaries – Seas Branch and Bishops Branch – drain the western part of the watershed. We also understand that maintaining adequate water quality in Jersey Valley Lake will continue to be a significant challenge. The lake and the river are both on the State’s impaired waters list (303d) due to phosphorus which leads to excess growth of algae. This impairment is not unexpected given that 80% of the land use above the dam is agriculture. Without sufficient efforts to create riparian buffers and reduce phosphorus inputs into the upper West Fork and its tributaries, the “new” Jersey Valley Lake will suffer the same water quality and fisheries issues.
The Coon Creek and West Fork watersheds produce some of the most productive fisheries in the state and the restored Brook Trout waters in the West Fork provide a unique resource. Many trout anglers, myself included, have been fishing these waters for decades. They are truly special places that continue to change and we hope continue to improve. For all those that feel the same way, we hope you will voice your concerns about the protection of Brook Trout populations preserved above the dams and ask that a solution that allows Brook Trout to continue to thrive in these Brown Trout-free waters endures well past our lifetimes.
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