April 29, 2026
The Coon Creek Confluence is back for its fourth season on May 2nd, and this year the festivities are headed to Chaseburg. The non-profitCoon Creek Community Watershed Council hosts the Confluence annually to celebrate watershed conservation, thank Coon Creek producers for making running water walk, and ring in the growing season.
This year features live music from 11-6pm; a donation-based creekside cookout featuring Chaseburg-based Simply Smoked starting at 12pm, fishing pole and flood preparedness kit
giveaways with Coulee Region Trout Unlimited and the Vernon County Public Health Department, and more than 30 farmers, artists, writers, and other conservation partners.
“It’s great seeing the community come together with food and music and conversation, and watching kids walk away with fishing poles to get out on the water this summer and get to know
these streams in a new way,” said CCCWC Vice President Tucker Gretebeck. “We just don’t get to see our neighbors enough, and this is a for-everybody event. Everything and everyone in this
watershed is connected.”
A fishing pole giveaway recipient explores Timber Coulee Creek at the 2025 Confluence. The fishing pole giveaway is back for again this year.
Some of the neighbors who will be present at the Confluence include local farmers and other land use decision makers. They will be on site to answer questions and have candid conversations about their conservation practices. Other watershed partners include regional
nutrient management specialists with UW Extension; grazing specialists from groups like Golden Sands RC&D and UW-Madison’s Grassland 2.0; and conservation collaborators like Valley Stewardship Network, Fishers and Farmers, and Sharing the Land.
In addition to exploring land management resources, guests will also have a chance to meet area
artists and authors whose work is inspired by Driftless landscapes and stories, like the hands behind Treehugger Totes, illustrator Zoe Frances Craig, and historian Curt Meine along with leaders from the Johnson Center for Land Stewardship Policy.
Guests will also get to know producers from in and around the watershed, including Hazel Heart
Farms, Embark Maple, Fizzeology Foods, Gist Teas, Driftless Seed Supply, Little Bird Plants, and Firefly Farm and Mercantile.
This year’s Confluence takes place next door to the Chaseburg Nature Trail, a short walk from
beloved establishments like the Tippy Toe Inn and Codger’s Bar, and only a few minutes’ drive
from several renowned public trout fishing areas.
Guests at the 2025 Confluence examine soil samples taken from different farms across the Coon
Creek Watershed. The Confluence celebrates Coon Creek’s legacy as a leader in the soil conservation movement nationwide, and promotes continued investment in soil health.
The Coon Creek Watershed is also famously the site of the 1930s Coon Creek Watershed
Demonstration Project—the first watershed conservation project in the nation.
In the 1930s, Coon Creek residents facing overwhelming and intertwined soil erosion and flooding crises collaborated with a broad coalition of partners to develop land use practices that
remain critical to reducing soil erosion and flooding in the Coon Creek Watershed and in watersheds across the nation.
This coordinated, basin-scale conservation project eventually reversed catastrophic cycles of
flooding and erosion in the Coon Creek Watershed set in motion by settler agriculture. At a moment when flooding is once again intensifying, the CCCWC is looking to and learning from
the watershed’s history of community collaboration to guide its path forward.
“We hope our festival calls back the experimental and collaborative spirit that made the Coon
Creek project a national model for land and water conservation,” said CCCWC President Nancy
Wedwick. “We know that the Coon Creek community has always been at the heart of conservation work, and the CCCWC is proud to carry that tradition forward through events like
the Coon Creek Confluence.”
The Coon Creek Confluence is free and open to the public. The day coincides with the Chaseburg Village-wide Rummage Sale, happening 7-1pm; as well as a donation-based pancake breakfast benefiting the Chaseburg Area Cancer Walk, taking place at the Chaseburg Village Hall 7-11am.
Confluence guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, shoes they are comfortable wearing on grass, extra layers, and their own picnicware to help us reduce waste.
The Confluence is made possible with support from Coulee Region Trout Unlimited, the Vernon
County Public Health Department, Ethos Green Power Cooperative, Viroqua Food Cooperative,
the Stoddard Lion’s Club, J.F. Brennan, Inc, Nelson Agri-Center Ace Hardware, Westby
Cooperative Creamery, Ray’s Gas and Goods, Coulee Region Group Sierra Club, and Organic
Valley.
Add comment