Watershed Moments: Travis Coenen

Travis Coenen grew up on the river in Wrightstown, fishing, canoeing, and launching from the boat ramp. As an adult, he works for the community as the Village Administrator of Wrightstown.

He was aware of the pollution in the river, even when he was young. He didn’t know what was causing it, but when the algae would bloom in late summer, “all of a sudden the river would turn bright green – like in Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day when they dye the river. It didn’t seem right.”

His family enjoyed fishing, but his parents would encourage him to bring home a perch from the bay or up north. “We would go north to Clintonville or Tomahawk,” Travis said, “and the lake waters were so much clearer than the Fox River.”

By the time he was taking biology and chemistry classes in high school and college, Travis had his aha moment. He understood that the problem was what we were putting into the water. At that time, it was the PCBs in particular, coming from the manufacturing along the Fox River.

But that wasn’t the only thing. Travis also noticed that as generations changed and property was handed down, people were adding septic systems to old cabins. And he realized the dirty water from those buildings used to go straight to the lake. “I was just swimming there!” Travis said. “How can that be? We need to do something better.”

While the DNR sets regulations for stormwater treatment according to the size of the community, Wrightstown is working to exceed those expectations. Travis knows that “water quality is part of our community,” so the Village has partnered with area municipalities to meet higher standards.

The Village is also partnering with Fox-Wolf to restore Plum Creek. There’s so much erosion and sediment in the creek that Travis says it looks like “a chocolate milk stream coming into town.” This project will start at the mouth of the creek and provide almost a mile of shoreline restoration.

A project of that magnitude is often beyond what a small community can fund. “This is a million-dollar project, but we’ve only had to pay 20%,” said Travis. The grant money brought in by Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance has dramatically increased the impact the community can afford.

The Plum Creek project isn’t done, but the Village is already seeing the benefits of doing more than is required for water quality. Travis says you can see it in the fish.

There’s a small, family fishing tournament in Wrightstown every year, trying to see what is the biggest fish of each species they can catch. At first, they only caught carp, catfish, and bullhead. But recently, they’re also catching perch, walleye, muskie, crappie, and bass. Not only are there more species, “the coloration of the fish is so much better. The clarity of the river is so much better.”

And that’s how Travis knows the work is making a difference. “I feel blessed that I got acquainted with Fox-Wolf. The collaborative efforts they’ve initiated, created, or facilitated have been amazing,” he said. “They’re stewards out there trying to actually fix things. Their feet-on-the-ground initiatives are actually happening.”

Plum Creek flows into the lower Fox River carrying so much sediment it looks like chocolate milk.