If you walk the East River Trail near Wiese Park this month, you will hit a fence you have never seen before. It is not a detour sign for routine maintenance. Crews are installing a new canoe and kayak launch, and the project traces back further than most residents realize, to a 2019 flood that reshaped how five municipalities think about this stretch of water.
Here is what is actually happening, why now, and why the trail closing does not touch the fall calendar already set at Green Isle Park.
The Closure, Exactly
The Village of Allouez, working with Brown County, is installing a new canoe and kayak launch and river access point at Wiese Park. Construction runs from September 9 through September 16, 2026, weather permitting. During that window, the East River Trail closes from the south side of Wiese Park to the Ten Mile Drive access trail in De Pere. The project is funded by Brown County and coordinated through the Brown County Land and Water Conservation Department.
Read that closure boundary carefully. It is the southern leg of the trail, the stretch that runs toward the De Pere line. The section through Green Isle Park itself, where most of Allouez's fall programming happens, is not part of the closed segment.
Two Trails, Not One
Residents who have lived in Allouez for years still sometimes conflate two separate trail systems, and the closure is a good moment to separate them for good.
The Fox River Trail is a Wisconsin State Trail maintained by the Brown County Parks Department. It runs the length of the village along the Fox River, with access points at Marine Street, St. Francis Park, Lazarre Street, the Allouez Trail Connection, the Heritage Hill Pond Trail west of the Green Bay Correctional Institution, and Sunset Park.
The Resch Family East River Trail is a different animal entirely, and it is the one under construction this month. It is a 2.7-mile one-way trail built and maintained by the village, starting east of the Green Isle tennis courts and following the East River south to the village limits at Le Brun Road. When it opened in 1990, it was the first paved recreation trail in the greater Green Bay area. Dogs are allowed on a 6-foot leash, and the trail is plowed through winter so it stays usable year-round.
| Fox River Trail | Resch Family East River Trail | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintained by | Brown County Parks Department | Village of Allouez |
| Opened | State trail, longstanding | 1990, first paved rec trail in the Green Bay area |
| Runs | Length of the village along the Fox River | Green Isle tennis courts to Le Brun Road |
| Dogs | Not specified in village materials | Allowed, 6-foot leash required |
| Winter | Plowed | Plowed |
If your daily walk follows the Fox River side of the village, the September closure changes nothing for you. If you are on the East River side south of Wiese Park, plan a different route for that week.
Why a Kayak Launch, and Why Now
This is not an isolated village project. It is one visible piece of a much longer regional effort that started after the East River flooded in 2019, when record rainfall, ice melt, and wind pushed water levels up across Green Bay, De Pere, Allouez, Bellevue, and the Town of Ledgeview, closing off portions of the East River Trail for weeks at a time.
That flooding led to the formation of the East River Collaborative, a partnership between the affected municipalities, The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Sea Grant, and NEW Water, built around improving flood resilience across the East River watershed. Out of that partnership came the East River Recreational Trail Master Plan, funded by a Wisconsin Coastal Management Program grant, with the goal of identifying exactly where the trail floods so a permanent fix can be designed. Allouez's representative on that planning team is Chris Clark, alongside counterparts from Bellevue, Green Bay, De Pere, and Ledgeview.
The Wiese Park launch is a physical result of that multi-year planning process, not a standalone parks department upgrade. Once it is finished, Allouez residents will have a formal river access point that did not exist before, built specifically because the old, informal access points along that stretch were part of what made flooding worse during high water years.
The Park's Calendar Doesn't Wait
While the trail work runs its one-week course, Green Isle Park's own fall calendar is proceeding exactly as scheduled, because none of it depends on the closed segment.
The village's Pooches & Pints program runs two events a year at Green Isle Park: a Summer Kickoff, held June 11 this year, and Barktoberfest, set for October 17, 2026. Barktoberfest started in 2019, the same year the village changed its ordinance to allow dogs in all of its parks, and it has become one of the more visible fall fixtures on the village calendar since. Misfit Mutts Dog Rescue and Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin have both shown up in past years to help with adoption promotion alongside the pop-up dog park, food trucks, and craft beer.
The village's Senior Enrichment program has its own October date at Green Isle Park, with the Senior Halloween Dinner and Dance set for October 13, 2026. And the park's use as a community gathering space extends beyond recreation programming entirely. The village board approved a special events permit for NAMI Brown County to hold an event there on October 3, 2026, part of a longer pattern of nonprofit organizations using Green Isle Park's pavilion and grounds for awareness walks and fundraisers throughout the year.
None of this sits inside the closure zone. The trail work is happening at the southern edge of the East River system, near Wiese Park and the De Pere line. The community calendar runs through the core of Green Isle Park, further north.
What This Means If You Actually Walk This Route
- If your usual loop takes you south past Wiese Park toward De Pere, expect the trail closed there September 9 through 16.
- If you stay within Green Isle Park itself, for the playground, the pavilion, the ball diamonds, or the tennis courts where the East River Trail begins, nothing changes.
- The Fox River Trail on the west side of the village is a separate system entirely and is unaffected either way.
- Once the launch is finished, Allouez gains a river access point that residents did not have before, positioned at what has historically been one of the more flood-prone stretches of the trail.
The short version: a fence goes up for a week, and when it comes down, the trail is not just reopened. It is slightly different, and better equipped, than it was before.
Allouez residents who have watched this stretch of trail flood in past wet years will recognize this project for what it is, a small, visible step in a plan that has been years in the making. The dog park pop-up and the senior dinner dance are proceeding on their own separate clock, because they always have.
If you're weighing what a home near Green Isle Park or the East River corridor is actually worth in a market shaped by projects like this one, Sandra Ranck and the team can walk you through it. Request a complimentary home valuation or schedule a listing consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
