By Topf Wells

SWTU returned to Dane County’s newest trout stream, the Upper Yahara River in Deforest on Saturday, 10/10. About two dozen of us decided to finish clearing the stream bank of invasives and unwanted vegetation. Today, buckthorn occupied our attention. Dyan Lesnik probably put it best: “Today buckthorn became my least favorite invasive.” Extraordinarily dense with some examples of buckthorn becoming a tree given enough time.

The brush saws and chainsaws whirred, haulers created huge piles, and the sprayers made sure the buckthorn was done for the foreseeable future.* We made it to the creek and there encountered a vision of the future. The creek looks pretty good and holds several year classes of wild brown trout. But it needs some work. The point we reached had some work stream bank and habitat stabilization and enhancement done years ago.** My goodness gracious … no doubt we were standing above some trout in happy homes and undeniable evidence that the creek will respond to improvement.

More encouragement was forthcoming. The village of Deforest has just completed the first year of its 5 year restoration of the creek and a small portion was visible upstream of the bridge near our work site. Lots of work and love are going into that creek; the work is carefully planned, engineered, and implemented.

Greg Hall and Judd Blau of DeForest’s Public Works joined us in working hard. Two other special guests were Kyle Olivencia, the DNR fish biologist for this area, and Jenna, his fiance. Maybe not the most romantic date but incredibly supportive of them to work with us on a lovely Saturday. And so thanks to all the SWTU members who could have been fishing or breakfasting or not sweating so much. Special thanks to a great turnout of Board Members and Officers.

We replaced the calories we burned with doughnuts, courtesy of Greg and Judd, Dyan’s oh so fabulous muffins and apple cookies, and pork sticks. SWTU will always provide a balanced diet.

Jim Hess planned another great work day. He also announced that as he turns 80, he’s handing the reins of the work days to Dyan and Wayne Griffin. Work days have been an important part of SWTU since the beginning of the chapter over 50 years. The folks who planned and supervised these days have always led us to fun, interesting days and good results for our streams. Jim raised an already high bar. During his tenure, SWTU has accomplished the greatest variety of work on the greatest variety of streams with the greatest variety of partners. That qualifies Jim as the greatest. On behalf of SWTU our most profound thanks to Jim.

But he’s not disappearing. He’ll plan and lead the remainder of our fall work days and help Wayne and Dyan during the transition of next spring and early summer. A nice way to thank Jim will be to attend one or more the fall sessions. The next (Happy Halloween) is on 10/31 at Pleasant Valley Creek. More details to follow; hope to see you there.

* Kevin Graeme, one of our sawyers, discovered why spraying is necessary. Someone had cut some buckthorn several years ago without treating the stumps. The result was the unpleasant, dense thicket that Kevin had to re-cut.

** A private landowner funded the work, which demonstrates that some folks have known about the Upper Yahara’s trout before they were officially discovered.

Photos courtesy Dyan Lesnik.

Remaining fall workdays – all are Saturdays from 9am to 12 noon:

Nov 14 – Mt Vernon, Deer Creek – Continuing our work on this site at Pop’s Knoll Park, State Hwy 92 working with James Brodzeller.

Dec 5 – Garfoot Creek on Garfoot Road – Working with Kyle Olivencia, Scott Harpold, and Vince Schmitz clearing the stream and making brush bundles. Here is a link to this site: https://maps.app.goo.gl/WL2p29EkxomJFLRh8