By Topf Wells

Years ago when I started a serious exercise program the expert at UW Sports Medicine told me, if you’re sweating a lot while you work out, that’s a sign you’re in good health. The SWTU work day crew is in good health.

We were part of a multi-stage project. Pam Allen owns a lower part of Garfoot Creek with one of the oldest DNR easements in the Black Earth Creek watershed. As part of the easement, DNR agreed to fence and maintain it so Pam can graze her cattle in the pasture without harm to the creek. Years went by, brush grew, and the fence deteriorated.* It needed major repair but that would have put the DNR crew in the 9th Circle of Hell. Our job was to clear the brush so fence repair would be possible.

About 20 of us entered the fray, including Pam and a fellow farmer on a tractor and skid steer to move the brush, and Mitch Trow of the DNR. Jim wisely scouted ahead and brought a stepladder so the sawyers could climb the 6 (!) strand barbed wire fence. They cut the honeysuckle, box elder, buckthorn, and grape vines that had the fence in a death embrace. Haulers hauled (surprise) the stuff over the fence and stacked it on the machines.

This was the hardest work day I’ve ever attended. The sawyers were hacking their way through a jungle that had a barbed wire fence as its border. After pulling the mess over the fence, the haulers clipped it to manageable portions and loaded the skid steer and tractor. The weather upped the misery factor. Even though the temps stayed in the 70s, the dewpoint must have been high. Despite a break and Jim’s wonderfully cold well water, we were creating little wetlands with our sweat. At the end of the day (and we wrapped up a bit early) more than one of us had hit the wall.

All that work was well worth it. We cleared hundreds of feet of the fence line. We might return for another work day but the DNR crew now faces an important but feasible task.**

Pam Allen provided a delicious sandwich buffet. The French say Hunger Is the Best Sauce – they might be onto something. That was the best ham sandwich I’ve ever had. The setting was restorative: the shade of a magnificent 80 year old sugar maple on Pam’s front yard.

At our break and lunch, Pam provided some history of the farm, which occupies a place of honor in Wisconsin conservation history. Otto Festge, a former Madison mayor and Dane County Clerk, owned the farm. One of his best friends was Gaylord Nelson. Governor/Senator Nelson ran his gubernatorial campaign from Otto’s dining room and created some of his conservation plans there, including a focus on stream conservation. Otto had planted the sugar maple to celebrate the birth of his son.

SWTU is honored to have helped Pam and the DNR. She is a great conservationist and hopes to improve her already impressive conservation practices on the farm, including, if possible, the conversion of row crops to rotationally grazed pastures. The DNR is working hard with grossly inadequate resources to fix that fence (the cattle having access to that pasture is extremely important to the economy of the farm).

So, lots of work and history and lots of fun. We had a great mix of veteran and new members and had the chance to share some fish stories. Our most sincere thanks to all. Leading the list as usual is Jim Hess, who organizes and leads our work days. This was a different task and setting than usual, which means more field work and consultation for Jim. Maybe one of our hardest but absolutely one of our best work days. Jim, THANK YOU! Always fun and informative to have someone from the DNR with us and Mitch is a hard worker, a great guy, and fun. Tip o’ the Day, courtesy of Mitch: you might want to check out a downed tree/snag upstream of Scherbl Rd.– with 0X tippet.

BTW, if you want to fish this stretch of Garfoot, parking is tricky on KP, a busy and fast county highway. Pam has extended an invitation for TU members to park in her yard. Park on grass, not any driveway.

* One might be tempted to think, well what’s wrong that darn DNR, why didn’t they fix the fence sooner. For some reason, projects such as this (and access) along trout streams is the responsibility of the Operations wing of State Parks. In the southern part of the state, the Legislature has cut the number of those positions from 40 to 2.

** As the fence doglegs to the west from where we stopped, it’s a mess. Pam asked, pretty nervously – she doesn’t want to presume – if we might have another work day in the spring if that would precede the DNR’s fencing work. That depends on the DNR’s schedule and our spring schedule, but I told her I’d inquire. So, Jim, blame me, not Pam.