ALPHA — The public is invited to go to the Alpha Michigan Brewing Company in Alpha from 11 a.m. to closing Saturday to help raise funds for the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Admission is free. Lunch with a drink will cost $10 and will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Seth Waters from Dark Waters Fly Shop and Guide Service will be showing his favorite videos from local fishing trips and displaying some of the gear he recommends using. Trout Unlimited members will be available to provide information about their cold water fisheries projects in Iron County.

The Fred Waara Chapter of Trout Unlimited has several ongoing projects in Iron County.

Under a grant from WE Energies, which allowed purchase of equipment, it is recording water temperatures at 22 locations in the entire Iron River watershed.

It is also supplementing temperature monitoring done by the U.S. Forest Service at four locations on the upper Paint River system with an additional 13 locations using equipment supplied by the chapter. Local volunteers installed these monitors in June and recently removed them for the winter. The recorders will be re-installed next summer and are part of a long term effort to aid study of the overall health of our local cold water fisheries.

Also, the chapter has its ongoing “brush bundle” project on Cooks Run where, in cooperation with fisheries biologists from the U.S. Forest Service and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources work is being done to enhance fish habitat. While the USFS and the DNR experts are doing the high tech work associated with this project, for the past three summers numerous volunteers have been doing the installation work on the river along with crews from the USFS and the Great Lakes Conservation Corps. The chapter also provided volunteers who removed trash, did general clean-up and secured the Iron County owned Cooks Run Rearing Station property. They are also working on additional opportunities for that property such as roofing replacement on the cabin on the site.

The chapter also spends considerable time and funds providing outdoor and indoor activities for the veterans at the Jacobetti Home for Veterans, “Salmon in the Classroom” equipment and training to many schools and teachers in the central Upper Peninsula and regular, every-other-month educational presentations which are available to the public.