Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited

05/31/2026

Twenty-seven SWTU and Nohr Chapter volunteers showed up for our work day at Big Spring. We finished cutting and treating willows and box elders. The DNR now takes over in the fall or spring with burns and other steps to restore native vegetation.

The skies were a bit overcast, the temperature moderate, and the breezes gentle and consistent. The willows were not so friendly. They grew in clumps with grasses, usually reed canary, covering the stumps that needed to be sprayed. Chain saws, brush saws, and loppers were the tools of choice but none made the task easier. Lots of bending. I'll be practicing the stretches my physical therapist recommends. We stuck with it and the willows are gone, gone, gone. The bird nest and fledglings we discovered, however, are still there and in good shape when we left.

This is one of our most cooperative projects. Our TU partner has been our good friends in the Nohr Chapter. The DNR fish and wildlife managers have been coordinating efforts on a big swath of the public lands at Big Spring.

Removing the willows eliminates a favorite beaver food and dam material. Beavers are the subject of endless discussion in Wisconsin and elsewhere. On this stretch of stream the dams hurt more than they help with sedimentation and warming water temperatures. The restored native vegetation, scattered hardwoods, grasses and forbs, will be better for birds, bugs, and brookies and less attractive to beavers. The DNR and we have already planted some of those trees in the areas we had worked on. They were in great shape today.

A special thanks to all who volunteered today. It's the time of year for graduations and other special events and, to be honest, today's weather was great for fishing. Not easy to find the time today for the drive and hard work at Big Spring. Thanks.

Some rewards awaited. The Nohr Chapter treated all of us to a great brat cookout. We also had a great group of folks of varying ages and experiences. This workday saw several generations of conservationists working together. Three members of the UW Madison Hoofers Conservation Club worked really hard, were lots of fun, and saw the Big Spring for the first time. We hope this is the first of many work days they'll join. We had some great TU conservationists from Illinois led by Jerry Sapp. Jerry has lead the effort to fund the DNR brushing crew for several years. Some of our best SWTU volunteers showed up again. They really are essential to the success of these days. It's always fun to catch up on the latest fishing stories and tips.

We had the sad opportunity to say good by to Jared Myers on his last day as a DNR technician at the Dodgeville office. All of us at SWTU and the Nohr Chapter have worked with Jared. We admire and are grateful for that work. He's always hard working, productive, and upbeat. We and the DNR are going to miss him.

Huge thanks to Jared for this last hurrah. He was the sole DNR representative. He had mowed trails so we could access the work site and he handled the UTV and all the DNR gear and logistics. Ted Swenson organized Nohr's participation. Ted is efficient, optimistic, and an extremely dedicated conservationist. He helps keep the Nohr/SWTU cooperation strong and fun. Dyan and Wayne again drove the trailer, organized equipment, and attended to many of the details of the work day. Jim, our Conservation Committee Chair and work day guru, planned and guided another excellent day (and cut and treated a lot of willows himself).

We're nearing the end of the spring season of work days and will finish with a bang-- with your help. The final day is June 9, a Tuesday, on the Sugar River at the Duerst property, all 650 acres recently acquired by Dane County. The professional Stihl chainsaw crew will be cutting big box elders. We've spent hours clearing underbrush so this crew can work as productively as possible. Clearing these trees is the next and necessary step in the County's reclamation of this section of stream. We're needed to haul and pile what the sawyers cut. Stihl is donating this crew's services and $2,000 of Stihl power equipment to the chapter, the latest in their battery technology. The work is important but the opportunity to see this team of experts take on a real challenge is unique and worthwhile. More details to follow. We know that finding time during the work week to volunteer is really tough. Please consider joining us if you have the time to do so. -Topf Wells

05/18/2026

Another great workday, making a big difference and enjoying a beautiful day.

05/18/2026

Indeed, another fabulously varied work day. The chief mission was to plant 70 swamp white and bur oaks along the newly completed DNR restoration on Smith Conley Creek on CTH H near Hollandale. Justin Haglund, the DNR fish biologist who designed the project, and Scott Harpold, Vince Schmitz, and Pat Gorman, the operations crew who refined and implemented the project, planned the day with Jim Hess. Justin and Lloyd Meng, his colleague on all fish matters, dug holes and had the trees, fencing, and other paraphernalia in place. The trees will provide shade and promote the growth of other desirable streamside vegetation. The first of many thank yous: that prep work makes tree planting fun, not drudgery.

19 SWTU volunteers and 4 DNR staff assembled, divided into teams and had all the trees properly planted in about 90 minutes. That left time for, as always, food and fun conversation. Dyan outdid herself with a cookie with dried fruit, nuts, coconut, oats, and
honey-- delectable and healthy. My contribution looked like a sugar cookie but the baker informed me it was a French butter cookie. The French use butter so well. And pork sticks. We spent time with the Bennetts, who own the land with one of the easements the DNR worked on. They're excellent botanists and birders. The property has wetlands, a sedge meadow, grasslands, and a wooded hillside and bluff, fabulous bird habitats. They also located an endangered lichen on the property-- gotta be great
botanists to find that.

The break ended with Don Golembiewski presenting all of us with his brand new, deadly lubegill and bass bug pattern, the DRIFTLESS DECIBEL DECEIVER. Don creates them from the foam ear plugs some of us use for hearing protection on workdays. He cautions everyone to remove the hooks before using them as
yeah, these will take b ear plugs. Everyone agreed: oh yea these will take bluegills. Way to go and thanks, Don.

We ended the day with spreading a wet soil seed mixture and mulch on a few bare spots on the banks.

Justin remarked that the DNR easements cover 82% of Smith Conley. These are old easements and most folks looking at the creek might think: big deal, looks like a pain to fish. But Justin's surveys show the creek has a surprising amount of wild browns and
a few brookies. The creek needs a lot of work but 25 years ago so did Gordon and Kittleson. Justin's surveys and the two SWTU workdays of three years ago convinced him the creek is worth some work. Based on what we saw today and a stretch upstream where a privately funded stream and prairie restoration occured on an easement, I think he's right.

This creek flows through a wetland with a lot of sand in the streambed. I'd give the restoration some time to heal before fishing it. Justin and Jim are also contemplating a project that would make the long walk into the creek easier. The long walk means anglers are going to have a peaceful experience.

Thanks to all who showed up, including some great Board Members and work day veterans. We were deeply honored to have Caryll Terrell, Caryll is one of the great environmental advocates in Wisconsin over the last 40 years. She helped create many of the environmental and conservation laws and procedures that protect Wisconsin's natural resources and the folks who depend on and enjoy them. In Dane County, she served on several important commissions and always was a kind, respectful, well informed and strong voice for environmental protection. She's a good tree planter too.

We continue to depend on Jim Hess, Dyan Lesnick, and Wayne Griffin to plan these days, lug all the equipment we need, make sure the day runs smoothly, and do a lot of the work. Thank you.
-Topf Wells

05/17/2026

The New Zealand Mud Snail (NZMS) has been found in the Seas Branch Creek in Vernon County this year. If you fish this creek, please brush up on how not to spread these invasive species.

New Zealand Mudsnails (NZM) are a tiny aquatic invasive species (AIS) discovered in Pennsylvania in 2010.NZM thrive in cool, stable streams and about 5-50% o...

05/09/2026

We hope join you can join our great friends with Coulee Region TU to cast these vintage rods and have some fun on a Spring evening in the Driftless. Bring your rod and get a brush-up on technique from certified casting instructors or take it for a cast or two on Reads Creek on the Second Nature grounds.

04/30/2026

I usually start these reports with the report before thanking folks but Pam Allen, the landowner on Garfoot Creek, gets pride of place today. Her easement is probably the oldest DNR easement in the Black Earth Creek watershed. She takes great care of her creek, welcomes anglers, and, as a member of the Black Earth Creek Watershed Association, is an advocate for the entire watershed. As a high school teacher, she introduces many students to conservation and sustainable agriculture. She is a shining example of both with her management of her farm and cattle. Today's project was to clear brush so the DNR can re-build the fence along the creek and an important pasture. Grass fed beef and a protected trout stream are the ultimate goals of today's project. She is also an extremely gracious and generous host, providing a spread of pastries, including apple fritters, and beverages, including chocolate milk. Folks agreed that the combination of apple fritters and pork sticks was the best SWTU breakfast ever. Finally she ran her tractor all morning to move brush to its final resting place.

We sure tried to return the favors. About 20 of us finished clearing the fence line. DNR Crew, you're up next. Just about every work day I think oh, the honeysuckle can't get much worse. Don't bet against honeysuckle. It was thick and old with its frequent neighbors, buckthorn and grape vines. I was once in a fancy restaurant where they proudly noted they grilled their meats over grape vines. They could have grilled a steer over the grapevines "harvested" today. We also had to cut and haul some box elders intruding on the fence line.

Today was just flat out hard work with sawyers, brush cutters, clippers, haulers, and sprayers. Pam still has a couple of piles to haul and that was after 3 hours of steady tractoring. The weather was great and so far I've only found one tick. It was luxuriating in the spot I had sprayed the most. Hmm.

We had a wonderful mix of folks with veterans and some new folks. A special shout out to Sam, the founder of the Edgewood High School Fishing Club, and his associate. Sam thinks the club should provide community service and conservation in addition to fishing knowledge and experience. Way to go, Sam and Edgewood. Grace returned as one of our sawyers. She and all the sawyers were relentless in the face of the tangles. Just don't call her Amazing Grace; she's heard that about 6,000 times. Thanks also to many Board Members who showed up. Actually, huge thanks to everyone; this was a tough and great day.

Kyle Oliverncia, our Dane County DNR fish biologist, worked all morning with us. That would be praise and thanks worthy any Saturday but Kyle is in the middle of his spring lake surveys. Heavy work, especially with nets, and nocturnal. He has just completed a stretch of 11 out of 12 days and nights on the water. SWTU is really, really lucky to have him as our biologist.

Jim Hess organized another productive and safe day and manhandled a brush saw all morning. Jim, our most heartfelt appreciation.

Please join Jim, many of us, and members of the Nohr Chapter for our next work day. NO honeysuckle! We'll plant oaks at the DNR's Smith Conley restoration. The holes will be dug. We'll put the cherry on top of a superb restoration that we started with three work days and supported with a $12,000 donation. So check out what our donation of time and treasure have wrought. The date is Saturday, May 16. Details coming soon. -Topf Wells

04/24/2026

https://www.facebook.com/100066865038138/posts/1274326371472852/?fs=e&fs=e

04/14/2026

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11/20/2025

Yes, it was a great way to end the Fall Workday season. Starting to work on sites for next Spring.

11/19/2025

About 25-30 folks showed up at Deer Creek for our last work day of the year.

This part of Deer Creek flows out of some improved sections and is in pretty tough shape. It then joins Frye Feeder and forms Mt. Vernon Creek. This is another staging work day for Dane County's more comprehensive restoration of this lowest part of the creek. The work will sound familiar-- take out the dense understory of honeysuckle and small box elders so that a professional crew (Dane County's in this case) can remove the large box elders and begin the hydrological restoration. Eventually, Deer Creek should be much healthier with more trout, best access, better habitat, and a stream corridor of prairie and wetlands, including some sedge meadows to be rejuvenated.

James Brodzeller, the County's stream and wetland restoration specialist, described these prospects; Jim Hess and he then led an extremely productive day. At our break at about 1020 he remarked that we had already accomplished what he had hoped to see for the day. So we worked harder and knocked off 30 minutes early with clear consciences.

And full stomachs. I had wondered if Dyan would bake her corn or blueberry muffins. She topped that with her corn muffins with blueberries. Goodness gracious. Pork sticks, brownies, energy bars, oranges and Jim's excellent well water kept us stoked and hydrated.

We cleared hundreds of square feet of stream corridor. For all its issues with high, eroding banks Deer Creek looked pretty good. One could see enough gradient, gravel, and rock to be hopeful for its future.

Everyone worked hard and with good cheer. Again we had a great mix of newcomers and seasoned hands. We also ended another season without injury thanks to Jim's cautions and the care all of us take. Way to go!

Several of our newcomers are interested in becoming sawyers. We can cover their training, usually with Dane County, but Jim and the Conservation Committee might want to consider whether a new and additional chainsaw would be helpful. The electric ones seem to be performing well. We might also need an electric brush saw. The honeysuckle at our previous day bested our current model.

Deer Creek and Donald Park are an important part of SWTU's history for over 40 years. One of our volunteers described how his parents had been caretakers and residents of the Donald/Woodburn homestead for many years. He had some great stories about Delma Woodburn, the matriarch of the family, who lived well into her hundreds and inspired the family to work with Dane County to create the park.

Jim will have the final count but we probably had over 100 volunteers this year. Thanks to all. As far as I can tell just about everyone who attended had a good time. Jim Hess makes all the good work and times possible. He deserves our most sincere thanks and a restful winter. -Topf Wells