Terry Dodge

Well that didn't space out the way I thought it would. Sorry.

About Love Your River MissionThe mission of Friends of the Kishwaukee River is to promote and enhance good stewardship of the river and the surrounding lands by restoring and preserving its natural character, encouraging safe and responsible recreation, protecting its watershed from degradation, and increasing our community’s appreciation of its natural beauty. Company Overview Our 2012 Initiatives: Stewardship Initiative - Form an alliance of concerned organizations, concerned individuals, and local landowners that will adopt a hands-on approach to encourage good stewardship of the river. Education Initiative - Increase public awareness of the Kishwaukee River's unique and precious attributes, the threats that they face, and the ways we can protect them. Safety Initiative - Communicate with local and regional law enforcement officials to ensure that the river is being used in a safe and responsible manner. Legal Initiative - Work with elected officials to amend existing ordinances and implement new ordinances that will better protect the river’s natural character and encourage safe recreation. DescriptionWe're an alliance of concerned individuals and organizations. General Information This year we will be launching our "Love Your River" campaign. Stay tuned for more information. An email I received this week........... Hey Friends Joann will be presenting our proposal to the Cherry Valley Board of Trustees this Monday. Our proposal contains: 1) Request for funding for a kiosk in Baumann Park 2) Request for funding for additional police patrols or a park ranger to patrol Baumann Park on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer 3) Permission to hold our Love Your River kick-off at the shelterhouse on June 9 4) Request to sign a Memorandum of Understanding and become an official partner. We would like several of our committee members to be present at this meeting to show support for the project. The meeting is this Monday at 7 p.m. at Cherry Valley Village Hall. Please attend if you are available (I will be at a church meeting). I'm pleased to announce that Friends of the Kishwaukee River is now a member organization of the Four Rivers Environmental Coalition. FREC is a non-profit alliance of environmental organizations and agencies in the watersheds of the Rock, Pecatonica, Sugar, and Kishwaukee Rivers. Naturally, this is a perfect fit for us. Check out FREC at www.fourriver.org or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FourRiversEnvironmentalCoalition I'm VERY pleased to announce that FREC has also approved our request for funding. We now have a grant of $1000 for our Love Your River campaign! (We're not broke anymore!) This is one of the largest grants FREC has ever given and I'm extremely grateful for their trust and support of our project. This grant will come with a few restrictions; details are forthcoming. As a part of our new relationship with FREC, we will be introducing ourselves at FREC's general meeting on Wednesday, March 28th at 3:30 p.m. at the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District Headquarters (5500 North Rock Drive, Rockford, Illinois). Our own Jamie Johannsen and Katie Townsend serve on the FREC Board of Directors (although they abstained from the vote that gave us funding). JoAnn and I will be giving a quick presentation on who we are and what we're doing. Again, I'm asking any of our committee members who are available that day to attend the meeting and introduce yourselves. Enjoy the weather, Jim -- Friends of the Kishwaukee River 1623 Pleasant View Court Rockford, Illinois 61107 I have been work with these people and giving them some input over the last few months. I do plan to attend the "Love Your River" kick-off campaign on Saturday, June 9. It would be great if I could get a few ISA members to also volunteer to show up to this thing and maybe help out if needed. I'll know more as we get closer to the date. I should warn anybody that might attend that I have been asked to perform my Kishwaukee River song at this event. I have agreed to do so and may even do more than the one song. Sorry. One big thing this group is trying to focus on is supplying tubers with some type of bag to put their trash in so they don't leave their trash on the banks, islands or in the river itself. I hope they can figure it out. They do plan (not sure if they have yet) to apply for a grant through the ISA Grant Program. Hope to hear from some of you. ~Terry

I'm jus playin'. There is no Darkside to fishing. Not even fly fishing. I'm just a little excited about getting my bro out wading. I'm not sure if he has ever waded. If he has waded then it's been 30+ since he's gotten his feet wet.

Another best thing you can do to develop as a flyguy is to listen to ronk.

One of my goals for 2012 is to spend more time fishing with my brother, who is a fisherman, but spends most of his time fishing the lakes up in Wisconsin. I'm not much for lake fishing myself. I'll take a small to mid-sized river over a lake any day. My brother told me today that he would like to go out and do some wading for smallmouth with me. If I can get him out on a good day, when the bite is hot, I think I can open his eyes to the best way of fishing. I was just wondering if anybody has ever successfully got a person away from their preferred power boats and lakes (The Darkside) way of fishing and opened their eyes to the world of wading for smallmouths? I hope to have fun trying.

I would also like to thank everyone that showed up. We had a halfway decent turnout of about 10 people.

Thanks for posting, Mike. It was nice to hear that the Kilbuck thing from 2011 is kind of in an in-between stage of a hash letter sent to the company and the Attourney General. Glad I acted when I did. I could have acted soon. Live and learn.

Welcome, Craig. Be sure to attend some of the outings this year. There's a lot more to "wow" you.

I'd like to thank everyone for showing up. A big thanks to Mr. Mike G. for being the featured Guest. I'll try to come up with something and do this again on a weekday night real soon.

The TV is OFF! Directions 1) Coffee. Make sure you have a cup of coffee within your grasp. 2) Click the address bar for ISA-TV 3) You will be asked for a password ( isabbb ) click on connect or hit "Enter" on your key pad. 4) You will be asked to sign in on a network. Click on "Guest", type in your user name (ex - terryd), click on "Go" or hit "Enter" on your key pad. OFF

Noted.

Glad to hear. Not sure how you got the 10am time (?). When: Saturday, Feb. 25 @ 12pm. (noon) Where: Rockford, IL. Gander Mountain. What: Charles (Chuck) Corley from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Come to this Northwest Region meeting and listen to Mr. Charles (Chuck) Corley, of the IEPA, as he discusses what we should watch for and things we should be concerned with when it comes to our waterways. Chuck will also be taking questions so jot down any questions or concerns that come to mind and bring them to this meeting. Let's have a good turn-out for this one. Be prepared to protect in 2012 Meeting starts at 12pm. with Chuck taking the floor about 12:30pm. Gander Mnt. Rockford, IL. 3068 McFarland Rd Rockford, IL 61114 (815) 637-9600

Two (2) things happening this Saturday Feb 25, 2012. #1) 9am, ISA-TV on the web forums. This is a test session with Mike G as the featured guest. Dump some coffee in a cup and join us as we try to work the bugs out. Should be good for a laugh. #2) 12pm, N.W. Region meeting at Gander Mnt. in Rockford. Chuck Corley of the IEPA will be the guest speaker.Check there calendar for more info. If you get a chance come on out and bring a friend. Would like to see a good turn out for this. We will also be talking about outings for this season.

With all the changes to the ISA web-site forums, I have decided to change the name of my "ISA Live" chat-room to be named "ISA-TV". Watch for it @ 9am. Saturday morning, February 25, 2012. Mike G. will be the featured Guest.

I noticed today that Google has updated their satellite images on their maps to show images from last summer. I just had to take a look at the quarry on Kilbuck and look what I found............ http://maps.google.c....01354&t=h&z=16 You can see that blue/gray color going into what looks like a retention pond. Of course as you know a lot of that didn't make it into the pond.

Eric Just so you know....... I too had an Event date change with the new up-grade. I changed it back already but I guess it might be wise for everyong to know that if they have something on the calendar they should check the date.

Thanks Scott but not necessary. After further review, I have noticed that there are hard copies of other signs posted in these information stands (see yellow sign under ours in picture) that are screwed in. I plan to contact WCFPD to see if they would like to replace the old faded paper type signs with our newer hard signs. I also plan to ask permission to post signs at popular roadside hot spots where no signs are present. From what I understand we here in the Northwest Region have had problems with WCFPD as far as getting their approval for posting our signs. I am going to attempt to build a relationship with them and hopefully get the OK to display our signs along with (underneath) their signs which already have posts. That way we would not have to sink any new posts. I believe the sinking of other posts on Forrest Preserve property is the thing they don't like. We'll see.

Here in the N. W. Region, the WCFPD is kind of picky about us putting up signs. They do have information stations at most parks with an older signs in them............ These signs are a paper type version (see the staples). Do we have a paper version of the new signs we are currently using? I believe WCFPD does not want us to pound post into the ground and put up sign because of fear we would be followed by other organizations wanting to put up some kind of sign. If we have a paper version of our signs then I would like to give the newer version to WCFPD to replace the old signs. I am going to hit them up about posting signs at popular roadside stops within their property. Could somebody put up a picture of the signs we post? A close-up picture would be nice.

They (the committee) have been told that we (the N.W. members of the ISA) will help with sign postings and river clean ups. I'll be keeping in-touch with these people and posting info as I get it. Thanks tgoodmanii for offering to help when needed. I'll let you know. If you would like to attend a committee meeting to hear whats going on just let me know and I'll try to set it up.

If there is anyone in the N.W. Region that might be interested ( I work 2nd. shift)......... (sent to me in an email) Friends, Friends of the Kishwaukee River will be having its first meeting this Thursday, February 9, at Cherry Valley Village Hall at 6:30 p.m. We are a new organization comprised of concerned individuals and organizations that will work to promote and enhance good stewardship of the river and the surrounding lands, encourage safe and responsible recreation, protect its watershed from degradation, and increase the community's appreciation of its natural beauty. Our primary goal for 2012 is to address the litter and safety concerns caused by people on floating on inner tubes between Baumann Park and Kishwaukee River Forest Preserve in Cherry Valley, Illinois. We are looking for several dedicated individuals who are interested in serving on the 2012 FOTKR Executive Committee and helping to protect one of our region's greatest natural assets. Those individuals who have agreed to work with FOTKR so far are: Paul Gorski, WebmasterNathan Hill (Kishwaukee River Ecosystem Partnership)JoAnn HudsonJamie Johannsen, Publicity and Community Relations Chair (Winnebago County Forest Preserve District)Jim Johannsen, Chairman (Natural Land Institute)Katie Townsend (Four Rivers Environmental Coalition) Several of the current committee members also served on the Kishwaukee River Advisory Committee, which will be giving a presentation to the Cherry Valley Village Board tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6:30 p.m regarding the problems caused by the "tubers" and potential solutions. We envision the committee to be comprised of 8-12 individuals, each with his or her own set of skills, talents, and experiences, and from a variety of backgrounds. We are especially interested in those individuals who: - Have experience in the fields of environmental education, land and water preservation/conservation, ecology, environmental advocacy, or law enforcement.- Use the Kishwaukee River for recreational activities such as canoeing, kayaking, tubing, or fishing.- Own riverfront property, property near the river, or property in its watershed. The Executive Committee will be meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of February and March (Feb 9, Feb 23, Mar 8, Mar 22). The frequency of later meetings has yet to be determined. Individuals interested in working with Friends of the Kish and protecting our river should call Jim Johannsen at 815-601-5567 or respond to this email. If you are unable to attend this Thursday's meeting but are interested in serving on the committee, please call or email. For your reference, a draft of our 2012 strategic plan that will be revised and ratified this Thursday is attached to this email. Sincerely, Jim JohannsenChairman

Power point presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 7 @ 7pm. in Cherry Valley at the Cherry Valley City Hall. I'm there.

I would hope so. I believe Mr. Mike also plans to tie a spin gear type of the same fly. Let me say that again.......(with and added Emoticon) I believe Mr. Mike also plans to tie a spin gear type of the same fly.

I have sent an email to the support and info team. For the pro version it does say that there are no ads with the up-graded "Pro" version ($10 a month charge) In the email I asked about the ads going away texting limits if we were to up-grade to Pro. I was just thinking Nov. as a start date as I know we need to test this more and work out any bugs and by the time we got all of that done and taken care of, then the nice weather would be here and we would all be out fishing. Not sure when a good day and time would be to do anything with this when we could be fishing. I'll post more info on the "Pro" package as I get it.