FAIRFIELD - If boaters want to enjoy all of the Baraboo River, they will need to grab a chain saw, government permits, and a whole lot of volunteers.

In the Lower Narrows, fallen trees tangle with brush and cause water to swirl and erode steep dirt shores, on which Highway U rests nearby.

Pooling water during the June floods in this area also caused an 18-foot dike to break - causing millions of dollars of crop damage while also closing Highway 33, which crosses the river near the broken dike.

Frustrated by continual flood destruction, some farmers are looking for long-term solutions. They want to maintain crops in an area they claim has terrific soils, while also protecting commerce and recreation in the Baraboo area, said local farmer Richard Gumz.

Gumz is president of the Columbia County drainage district, and a farmer who lost more than a million dollars' worth of crops in recent floods in the area known as the Fairfield Marsh.

Verne Ramsey, a farmer who lives in Fairfield, put the damage in perspective.

"In this whole valley, there's probably 2,800 acres, and we'd be lucky to have about 400 acres left after flooding."

For a day this week and two days last week, Gumz said local farmers and their staff worked to clear fallen trees from the river by Highways 33 and U. A large excavator was used to pull fallen trees out of the river as helpers in a boat attached large chains to them.

About $10,000 was appropriated from the local drainage district to pay for the initial work, Gumz said, in an experiment to see how much large-scale operations could cost.

"The Narrows is about 17 miles long. A project that large could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars ... (and) some places are impossible to get to right now," Gumz said.

Clearing fallen trees in the river is an effort Sauk County Conservationist Joe Van Berkel said canoeists have noted is needed in the Lower Narrows in the past few years, if the full potential of the Baraboo River is to be enjoyed.

Clean-up options discussed so far include cutting trees along the shoreline, clearing the entire Lower Narrows of debris, repairing broken dikes and adding new dikes. But Gumz said there could be more ideas that have not been considered yet and he urged people to come forward to collaborate.

All of this will come with a price tag. Gumz said he is hoping government agencies will collaborate to foot the bill.

Farmers belonging to a small drainage district will not be able to leverage as much disaster relief funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as people of populated residential areas, Columbia County Emergency Management director Pat Beghin said.

"This is entirely different than the Wisconsin River," said Beghin. "Here it is just natural vegetation versus pieces of houses.

"Protecting primary residence is the primary concern of FEMA. It makes no difference if a farmland floods repeatedly," Beghin said. "This issue has been forwarded to the state, but it's of lower priority than others."

Ultimately, the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources will look at the issues of the drainage district and a request to clear the river of natural debris or excessive trees once a formal request is submitted. No requests have been considered yet, and Gumz said he is still trying to bring all parties together who could help create a plan or fund one.

"I'm pretty confident the DNR will do the right thing (if a request is submitted)," Van Berkel said.

Van Berkel anticipated the DNR would weigh the costs and benefits of any plan for solving some of the drainage district's problems fairly, once a detailed plan is submitted and developed. But he also questioned where funding would come from.

The Baraboo River Canoe Club has consistently inquired about how to get funds to clean up the river of natural debris to make the scenic views on the river more accessible, Van Berkel said.

"I've talked to (Gumz), and I know some of these problems with log jams have been arising for years," Van Berkel said.