A new year brings optimism although Baby Optimism seems to have had a difficult birth and an uncertain future in 2025. But outside, hope is always to be found. Reality too.
Yesterday reality struck first. I was fishing on Big Spring Creek in Grant County. We know that much of southern Wisconsin is in a drought and that we're only at 10% of our usual snow cover. But the stream, one of the healthiest in southwest Wisconsin, was shocking. It was extremely low and clear and some of the bottom was covered in algae. That does not signal permanent damage but reminded me that snow is much needed (so don't complain, Topf, if we finally get it) and that climate change is not only here but, barring decisive action, entrenched.
Trout stream shaded by mature trees keeps water cooler! Photo by Linda Ib’s photopix FCC
Hope came on the drive in and back home. I passed a work site where the Southern Wisconsin and Henry and Laura Nohr Chapters of Trout Unlimited are working with the DNR to restore an oak landscape along the stream. The DNR and we will return in a series of work days this spring and the DNR is also rejuvenating the upland oak woods. You might wonder why Trout Unlimited Chapters are concerned about oaks along a stream—don't we usually muck around in the water? Our coldwater streams need shade in a changed and warming climate and our native oaks are the best providers. They also are home to an extraordinary number and variety of native insects. Accordingly, birds love oaks as much as trout. Secondly, over the past decade coldwater conservation organizations have taken a much more holistic and comprehensive view of stream ecosystems.
Land trusts such as Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, The Prairie Enthusiasts, Groundswell Conservancy, Driftless Area Land Conservancy, and the Mississippi Valley Conservancy have broadened their visions too to know and better care for the water resources on the lands they manage and hope to preserve. The SoWBA purchase and management of lands surrounding Otsego Marsh is a great example (I'm still awaiting an SoWBA preserve with a trout stream-- hope springs eternal).
Bald Eagle by Arlene Koziol
Hope flushed along with a magnificent Bald Eagle alongside the road as I drove home. What can be more spectacular than a mature Bald Eagle 25 feet away? It was the clearest wildlife sight of my life thanks to more newness, my cataract-free eyes thanks to two January operations. I've had glasses since I was 10; I had no idea that I would ever see with such sharpness, brightness, and clarity. Wow. And the surgery was easy and the care competent and kind. Perhaps the new eyes will focus me on becoming a better birder or at least the semblance of a birder.
Brown trout photo by Shellie Evans FCC
More New, SoWBA has a connection to a newly discovered trout stream, the upper Yahara River. The portion of the river flowing through Deforest is now a trout stream. That water has not been a trout stream for decades. A DNR fish biologist who surveyed it in the 90s found no evidence of trout anywhere. Two years ago, two DNR biologists following a new protocol that has them surveying more segments of more streams in watersheds that hold any trout found wild trout in the Yahara. Brown trout had never been stocked in that part of the Yahara.* The wild brown trout are there now and in so many year classes of trout that the DNR reclassified the stream as a Class 2 stream. That's a big deal because the key factors in that class are natural reproduction and the combination of cold water and habitat that supports wild trout. SoWBA's Benade Prairie, the westernmost property in the Goose Pond complex, is part of the the Yahara River watershed if there are really strong rains or significant runoff from snow. The long time stewardship of that property with its conversion of farmland to grasslands is one of the reasons the upper Yahara is now such a healthy stream.**
Nature always has some new and pleasant surprises for us. So get outside and find them. I need all the pleasant surprises I can get these days.
Best regards,
Topf Wells, advocacy committee
* So how did the trout get there? An educated guess is that improved agricultural and municipal practices reduced runoff and promoted infiltration. That set the stage for increased baseflow of groundwater and springs to the creek. Wild and stocked trout have been present in Token Creek for a long time. Some brown trout probably traveled from Token to the Upper Yahara and found a happy, new home.
** People can produce pleasant surprises too. The Village of Deforest has embraced the new trout stream. They own 5 miles of the stream corridor in the Village and are planning huge projects to reduce sedimentation, improve habitat, restore native vegetation and create convenient, safe public access. The DNR, Dane County, and SWTU are happy to help.
