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For Luke Vandenberg, caring about water didn't begin with a dramatic moment on a riverbank or a lesson in a classroom. It started with growing up on the Fox River. "As a child, we played along the riverbanks with my buddies and fished and recreated," he said. "I got into kayaking and boating during [...]

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This article is Part 2 of a four-part series exploring the history and evolution of the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance. By 1994, the organization that began as a research initiative had entered a new phase. With much of the foundational study work complete, the focus shifted from defining problems to implementing solutions. Reflecting this transition, [...]

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Jim Wickersham

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A story from the 2026 Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup Every spring, the Fox-Wolf Watershed comes back into focus. Not because the creeks, streams, and rivers reawaken for the year, but because the people who depend on them show up to prove they still care. This year, more than 1,800 volunteers turned out across 80 sites [...]

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This year marks 35 years since the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance was incorporated in 1991. But the organization’s story begins two years earlier, in 1989, when Jack Day and a group of community leaders began meeting to address growing concerns about the Fox and Wolf rivers, Lake Winnebago, and the Bay of Green Bay. The [...]

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Randall Volmer doesn’t just spend time near water. He studies it. Since retiring in 2020, he’s been out most days with a camera, watching how light shifts and deciding when to wait and when to click. “I think it’s therapeutic for me,” he said. “It sort of just sort of calms me and relaxes [...]

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Scott and Shelly Christie didn’t set out to restore a field. When they bought their place in Waushara County in 2010, the plan was practical. The farmhouse could hold office space for Shelly’s landscaping business. The open ground could store equipment. And like a lot of rural properties, part of the acreage could be [...]

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Rachel grew up chasing frogs in the low, wet corner of her family’s farm in Waupaca County. Her family called it “the swamp.” To Rachel, it was a place for tadpoles, muddy boots, and watching water that felt alive. Her farm sits in the Fox-Wolf watershed, where rain and snowmelt eventually flow into the [...]

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Some mornings, the small stream her class monitored sounded less like a science lab and more like a playground. Teenagers in chest waders shuffled into the water, trying not to splash each other. A football arced over a shallow stretch near the far bank. Someone shouted they had seen a frog, hands spread wide [...]

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After nearly five decades in public service, Chuck Farrey has seen the full range of county work. Town board nights. County board debates. Budget cycles that come and go. “You start out naive,” he said. “But you meet a lot of good people.” For most of those years, water quality was just one concern [...]

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Pauline McCleary has been caring for water her whole life, long before she was raising beetles in the kiddie pools in her backyard. Raised on a farm with a spring-fed well, she learned early that water wasn’t just something that came from a tap. “If it goes in the lake, you’ll drink it later,” [...]

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For Phil Wisneski, the lessons about water started early, long before he ever thought about his current role with the Oneida Nation. They began in quiet moments at his grandfather’s tree nursery, where a row of rain barrels stood along the shed. The farm had its own well, but that didn’t stop his grandfather [...]

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The tractor sank into the soaked red clay, its tires spinning for grip. Bruce Peterson eased forward, the machine losing momentum until it rolled onto two narrow strips of ground. There, the tires moved easily over firm, dry soil—the only solid footing in the whole field. A week earlier, seven inches of rain [...]

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A story from the 2025 Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup It’s a strange thing to search for what others have left behind. Stranger still to do it alongside people you’ve never met. But that’s how the day began. Gloves on, heads down, eyes scanning the edges of parks and shoreline trails. Little by little, the land [...]

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Jack & Susan Groh: A Watershed Moment on the Fox River On a cloudy April morning, the Fox River moved slow and quiet. Along its banks, patches of snow lingered from a long Wisconsin winter. It was Earth Day in Green Bay. Volunteers in yellow shirts spread out along the Fox River Trail, [...]

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At Voyageur Park, one family is leading by example It started with a piece of glass Chelsea Bishop was walking with her son, Prince, at Voyageur Park. Prince, who is autistic, had darted toward the playground, drawn to something glinting in the grass. Chelsea wasn’t far behind when she saw what he was reaching [...]

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ENOUGH WATER TO LAST Experiencing the reality of water scarcity Dennis Kittel uses a specialized net to search for microplastics. “When you live in Wisconsin, you don’t think about water,” said Dennis Kittel, citizen scientist and retired engineer. “You expect to go anywhere and find a bubbler. But in [...]

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A PLACE IN THE WATERSHED Caring for places that are meaningful, even if we don't live there Amanda Kruger poses at Cave Point County Park, enjoying the views of Lake Michigan. “I’m most grateful for the sense of home. That I belong,” said Amanda Kruger, researcher. “I feel loved. [...]

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A UNITING EFFORT Improving water quality one relationship at a time Steve demonstrates how to monitor for invasive species at an Adopt-a-Launch site. They describe themselves as “three old guys who love to kayak,” but they’re on a mission to see the East River become a paddling destination that [...]

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Jeff Mazanec finds perspective by taking time to enjoy local waterways.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if you are really making a difference with your life. Other times, you remove sewage from the landscape, and there is no doubt.

Jeff Mazanec, engineer, completed his first design project on the south shore of Lake Winnebago in the 1970s. At that time, lots of houses right on the lake had septic systems, and they were failing and leaking. Jeff designed the sewer and wastewater system that replaced what wasn’t working. “I realized I was making a difference,” Jeff said.

A decade later, Jeff started working on his first project with the City of Appleton, designing the North Fox Interceptor. He visited local parks and riverbanks to assess the situation, and he could see evidence of sewer overflows. In the park. Right next to the river!

Recalling what could have been a pretty gross moment, Jeff chuckled. Instead of turning up his nose, he said to himself, “I’m just glad we’re doing the project!”

Jeff has spent a lifetime jumping in to do this critical behind-the-scenes work, never taking much credit. “I can be proud of my role on a project,” Jeff said, “but there’s nothing we do alone. It’s humbling when you see how much other people have dedicated their professional and sometimes personal lives to improve the environment in every way they can.”

For Jeff, it has been a lifetime of watching things get better. “We don’t often see blatant pollution like we used to,” Jeff said. “I’ve been in this field for 50 years. We tend to spend 90% of our time on the 5% of things that are bad. Paddling lets me enjoy the parts that are very good.”

After the hard work of designing and maintaining hidden infrastructure, Jeff enjoys the beauty of our waters by getting into a canoe or kayak.

He’s been the president of the Northeast Wisconsin Paddlers for 13 of the last 15 years. In the early 2000s, they started a program with Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance called the Special Places Program.

“The primary purpose,” Jeff explained, “was to get people to see the community from the water. They would understand why water quality practices matter, and they’d want to keep those in place.”

Jeff is passing the love of water and paddling to his family. “My son has done six Boundary Waters trips with me. I’m hoping I can stay fit and healthy enough to take my grandkids out paddling, especially to the Boundary Waters.”

Does he think the water will be up to the task? “I think it’s a bright future, but it’s going to take continued diligence and investment,” Jeff said.

“It’s important to keep perspective,” he continued. “Every now and then you have to pull your head up and have a beautiful day in the park here on the Fox River, nice breeze, and sit back and take a little bit of a deep breath and enjoy it. There’s always more work to do, but in my experience, it’s come a long way.”

There’s More to the Story!

In October, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance held an event to celebrate all the things that are going right for our local waters and to honor individuals and organizations that are making a difference. This issue of Watershed Moments highlights three of the individuals honored with a 2024 Impact Award. You can see the short videos for these and other honorees at our YouTube channel.

Watershed Moments is a publication of Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, sharing the stories of how your donations have impacted lives in our community. Read our latest project updates, make a secure online donation, or become a member at www.fwwa.org

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