Brice Wizner has always had an interest in fish and where they live.
Growing up in La Crosse, Wisc., Wizner spent a lot of time chasing trout and walleye throughout the region’s lakes with his grandfather.
After college, an early job was working for the state of Minnesota as a fisheries technician. Was it a glamorous gig? Not really.
“I measured and weighed fish, took scale samples, that kind of stuff,” he recalled.
But that fish tech job set him for his next step, working for a private company in environmental remediation, spending part of that time managing and constructing stream restoration projects. After five years Wizner set out on his own, starting Geomorphic Restoration with the goal to focus solely on the restoration field. Now in its fourth year, the company often works with conservation groups, including Trout Unlimited, on stream and wetlands projects.
“When I got into fisheries restoration, I was enamored with it,” said Wizner, a 34-year-old who has lived in Duluth, Minn., since graduating from the University of Minnesota at Duluth. “It’s not just about making money. There’s a point to the projects.”
Wizner’s company recently contracted with Trout Unlimited on a project to replace a dam and restore the stream corridor on a stream in Wisconsin.
“Trout Unlimited relies on contractors for many of our larger restoration projects,” said Chris Collier, TU’s Great Lakes program manager for Wisconsin. “It’s great to be able to work with companies like Geomorphic Restoration and people like Brice who not only have deep knowledge of how streams work, but who are passionate about natural resources, too.”
Wizner’s company is relatively small.
“I have a number of younger people who work for me,” Wizner said. “I enjoy mentoring them.”
While much of his company’s work is in the upper Midwest, Wizner isn’t shy about tackling far away jobs, including as distant as Texas. In addition to working with TU, Geomorphic Restoration has collaborated with other conservation nonprofits, including Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and the National Forest Foundation.
When the company settles in for a job, Wizner and his team often supplement their workforce with local workers and rely on local vendors for additional job support.
“We use local labor and buy from local nurseries, local quarries and such,” he said.
Wizner said he appreciates being able to query local contacts to help him craft projects using native plants and trees, as well as for guidance on what materials are best suited for the waterway or wetland where they are working.
While working on distant jobs can present logistical challenges, Wizner makes the most of the opportunities. He enjoys learning about new and different ecosystems and carefully crafting projects to best fit with the site.
“We go in and treat it like brain surgery,” he said. “These riparian areas are sensitive, so we really try to be meticulous with how we do things.”
When working at distant job sites, Wizner often makes an effort to travel home on weekends.
“My wife is an angel,” he said. “She does a great job of holding down the fort when I’m away at a job.”
Sometimes his wife, an oncology nurse, is the one traveling on weekends.
“Sometimes she will fly out to visit and we make it into a little vacation,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for us to visit new parts of the country, and we really enjoy that.”
Wizner said he likes working on projects with Trout Unlimited because TU shares his passion for healthy watersheds.
“TU has great communication and cooperation with us,” he said. “They understand the tough work windows stream restoration contractors can face, such as dealing with regulatory restrictions.
“TU’s staff is knowledgeable about a project’s effects on passage and how they want the stream to function after construction. They make it easy for us as a contractor to provide a high-quality finished product.”
This is just one more example of the many Faces of Restoration. TU works with just such contractors across the country to restore and rehabilitate rivers and streams.