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The Lakeshore Chapter of Trout Unlimited is an all-volunteer organization that was founded in 1983 and serves the cold water fisheries of Kewanee, Calumet, Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties. With 180+ members, the LSTU organization has a rich history and is an active leader in the conservation community creating and caring for multi-use resource areas for future generations.

Please patronize our sponsors

Chapter News:

May 7th: Plant a Tree Event at Camp Y Koda: Our Chapter joined numerous TU Chapters across the United States in sponsoring a tree planting event this spring. In the spirit of Arbor Day and Earth Day, LSTU hosted a tree planting at the Camp. This was a very exciting event that brought 20 volunteers of all ages together to plant about 180 trees at Camp Y Koda. Most of the volunteers came from outside of TU including families, High School aged volunteers and members of the community. It was an opportunity for conservationists of all ages to participate in an environmental improvement event that will have an immediate and lasting impact. We planted a variety of native trees including Burr Oak which can live to be 300 years old!! By all accounts, this was a fun and very successful event. Thank you to everyone who came out to help. We look forward to more tree planting events in the future.

May 14th Onion River Habitat Workday Wrap-up: This is the first workday of the year in which we are back in the river. Our group of nine volunteers broke into teams of three to remove log jams, cut dead Ash trees that were going to fall in the river and begin preparing to repair bank covers that are critical to the health of the river. This will likely be our focus for the remainder of this year. We are hopeful that our efforts will keep up with the rapid rate of dead trees that are falling into the river. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this effort. We need all sorts of help from actual workers to financial contributions to maintain our equipment.

New Officers and Board elected at our May 17th meeting:
Here are the new leaders of Lakeshore Trout Unlimited:
President: Al Wortz
Vice President: Miles Thompson
Treasurer: Herb Twiss
Secretary: Jeff Yax
Board Member: Chris Clough
Board Member: Larry Doebert
Board Member: Wendy Lutzke
Past President: Myk Hranicka

We will have two habitat improvement workdays in August. We will meet August 6th and August 13th at 8:00 am at the Winooski Rd bridge: Our focus for the August work day will be determined in the coming weeks. We have lots of in stream work to do repairing existing structures. We will also remove fallen trees from the river, brush trails and remove logjams. We are working hard to keep up with and maybe get ahead of the impact that the ash borer damage is having on the river. Free flow of water is a critical factor to the health of any cold water resource. For the past 20+ years LSTU has invested huge amounts of money and manpower into increasing flow rates and improving habitat in the Onion River. This work is now threatened. The volume of trees falling into the Onion is tremendous. The trees once in the river block the flow, redirect current and damage habitat structures. A few trees is one thing but the number and size of trees that this catastrophic event (ash borer) is causing to fall into the river will choke out the stream for years to come if not dealt with.
We are also in the process of obtaining a permit to perform significant repairs to more than 32 existing bank structures that the elements and time are negatively impacting. These structures are the original work done by LSTU and the DNR in the late 90's that made the Onion the gem it is today.

In order for us to maintain the benefits of all of our past work and investment, we must do our best to keep up with both the onslaught of the ash borer and the effects of time on our prior work. We are the only ones who will do this work. We need help of all kinds. If you have questions or would like more information please call me, Al Wortz at 920 889 1503 or email me at alwortz@gmail.com

Upcoming Events:
August 6th: Chapter Work Day - 8:00 AM - Winooski Dr. Lot, 1/2 mi east of Cnty E, Plymouth, WI
August 13th: Chapter Work Day - 8:00 AM - Winooski Dr. Lot, 1/2 mi east of Cnty E, Plymouth, WI
July 19 Board meeting only - 6:00 PM - 3 Sheeps
No July member meeting will be held.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining us please contact Al Wortz at 920 889 1503

We appreciate all of our sponsors with special recognition to Aventuron for their continuing support and Camp Y Koda for the use of their facilities.

Please remember to patronize Aventuron for all your fly fishing and sporting lifestyle needs!

January 18th, 2022 Chapter Meeting: Anton Pohl from Aventuron was our special guest. At the meeting, Anton presented our Chapter with an amazing donation of $7396.76 from Carl and Kathryn Martens, owners of Aventuron. Carl and Kathryn made a pledge to donate 10% of all of their sales on "Giving Tuesday" to LSTU. Carl's message to our chapter demonstrates not only their generosity but also their purpose. They are an amazing family with an incredible and rapidly growing outdoor goods business. Here is what Carl wrote regarding our Chapter and their support of it:

We started our business with our kids in mind…something to “give” them…hopefully make life just a little easier for them than it was us. Being able to also give back to our community as well as help others is something we are very proud of.
Lakeshore has done a generational transformation of our local waters. What I mean by this…well, you should attend a meeting or workday if you have any concern for the environment or interest in conservation. In just my short time being involved with the group I’ve been a part of workdays in which we have restored riverbanks that had been blown out, created structures for fish to hide and thrive, cleaned debris, and more. These are changes that in perspective don’t take a lot of work for long term change. Let me make one thing clear…it’s not easy work and it IS work…it takes a group and we could use more people, but the work done will last a generation…or more.
Being able to provide this money to this group…we just feel so good about it because we trust this group so much and know they’re going to put it to use so we all can benefit. Our kids will grow up in a better place because of it. And that’s why we started our company.
-From Aventuron owners Kathryn and Carl Martens

Frankly the total amount is stunning in its generosity and it will have a long term positive impact on our Chapter. The spirit of giving back and improving our community and our environment is exemplary! We are incredibly grateful to Aventuron and encourage you to support their business at every opportunity! You can find them at www.aventuron.com.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining us please contact Al Wortz at 920 889 1503