SHERIDAN — After years of collaboration and teaching youth how to fly-fish, Joey’s Fly Fishing Foundation and Steady Stream Hydrology intend to collaborate officially on their first business-based project, with hopes of increasing that relationship in an eventual full-fledged partnership down the road.
Joey’s own Joey Puettman and Steady Stream’s Tina Krueger acquired a piece of land northwest of Sheridan that encompasses part of Goose Creek on Randal Huckeba’s land. Huckeba’s three sons frequented Joey’s shop on North Main Street to work with other youth building personal fly rods and participating in Joey’s Fall Fly. Because of that, the landowner thought his recently acquired piece of property — the Ox Bow Ranch 2 miles west of town — presented a great opportunity to have the two groups collaborate and use as an educational start for children close to town.
Huckeba and his wife, Stacie, and their boys have become more familiar with Krueger over the years, and recognized with her expertise the opportunity for collaboration.
“My objective is allowing an opportunity for something close to town that these kids can come out and work on and get them out of the house, in the field,” Huckeba said. “There’s just so much you can learn in the classroom. This is hands-on experience.”
Huckeba saw the collaboration as an opportunity for his three sons, who have aged out of Joey’s primary focus of youth, to mentor other young children while on the family’s property.
While Puettman and Krueger are still working to secure grant funding for the program, the two solidified a timeline and content for the program, with its main intent to add a conservation element to the mentoring they already do on the water with children.
“To start, we talk about stewardship and conservation, and Joey talks about using the fly rod, getting the kids on the water, we want them to recognize that the water is there for us, but why is it there?” Krueger said. “Because people before us have taken care of it, and we need to take care of it for the people after us.”
Puettman agreed, noting his desire to expand his nonprofit through partnerships like the one with Krueger extends 10 years into the future.
“Tina’s a source. Randal’s a source. And I always tell people, fly-fishing is a source,” Puettman said. “Now we get to add the other source, the river, the creek. What I love about all this is what people don’t understand is tapping into energies…it really is a powerful energy.”
The timeline remains simple and one second nature to Krueger. First, students of the conservation arm of Joey’s nonprofit will learn about the land by gathering necessary data to properly rehabilitate and preserve the water and its surrounding land. That is completed by measuring, pebble counts and testing to determine soil erosion and bank stabilization, among other duties, during the program’s first summer, 2021.
During the winter, Krueger in her normal business hunkers down to complete all necessary paperwork and indoor items on her checklist. Similarly, she will work to obtain permits necessary to move dirt and implement preservation practices on the water, collaborating with the Army Corp of Engineers, city and county governments, Sheridan County Conservation District and all other entities necessary when making changes to the landscape. Similarly, students will help compile data ahead of work to be completed in summer 2022.
Finally, visible changes will be made where youth conservationists will participate in making alterations needed to best preserve land, including seeding, rolling fabric, pounding stakes and planting trees to restore healthy riparian areas and more.
Puettman also discussed his dream of erecting a science center on North Main Street near Goose Creek in May 2019 and has been collaborating with the Sheridan Economic and Educational Development Authority to compile all necessary items needed to present a cohesive business plan for the building and its purpose for the community.
While starting small with the conservation project at hand, Puettman hopes to continue collaborating with Krueger in the potential facility on North Main to help educate youth in fish habitats and conservation for years to come.
Ashleigh Snoozy joined The Sheridan Press in October 2016 as a reporter before moving into the managing editor position in November 2018. She is a native of Colorado and graduated from Biola University in Los Angeles.
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