DICKEYVILLE, Wis. -- Tammy Enz grew up in the Platteville area. She remembers as a child, playing with her siblings in the Little Platte River. Years later as an adult, Enz and her husband, Daniel, bought a house in Paris Township that overlooks the Platte River.
"It's so beautiful," she said of the two watersheds that consume a substantial portion of Grant County. "It's so rural. You're out in the fields, you can see cliffs. It's all rustic and serene."
Enz recalls talking to her neighbors about their experiences and observations of the Platte River, which originates near Montfort, and joins the Little Platte north of Dickeyville near the U.S. 61/Wisconsin 35 bridge.
"We kind of came together, looking out for the river," she said of the Friends of the Platte River, a grassroots organization. "It's all very informal."
Friends, with the assistance of three grants and organized in 2006, exists to serve as a forum to address issues affecting the Platte/Little Platte watershed. The organization seeks impartial solutions
annual meeting What: Friends of the Platte River Inc., annual meeting When: 6 p.m. Monday, May 18 Where: Dickeyville Community Center (located two blocks northeast of the Dickeyville Firehouse on East Avenue.) Featured speakers: Brad Pfaff, representing U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis.; Hank DeHaan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Laura MacFarland, Wisconsin River Alliance. where is it? The Platte/Little Platte watershed is located in the southwest corner of Wisconsin. It covers more than 350 square miles in east central Grant County and small portions of southeast Iowa County and northwest Lafayette County. |
"We want to get more people on or along the rivers to fish, paddle or walk," Enz said. "Then they will want to preserve and help restore vital areas of the watershed."
The organization is funded, meaning it can connect the people and the land to the available resources to preserve and protect the watershed, she added.
