Fantastic speaker and topic + Elections for our April 14, 2026 Chapter Gathering

SWTU is honored to welcome Jason Freund as our featured speaker for the spring (that’s him, snorkeling in a stream!). Few WI trout conservationists and anglers have Jason’s breadth of experience and accomplishment. He learned to fish and tie flies from some of Wisconsin’s most well known anglers. He has a Ph.D, in wildlife and fish ecology and post-doctoral research. He is a professor at UW-LaCrosse and directs research in the cold water ecosystems of the Driftless Area, He is an erudite and entertaining blogger with excellent observations on every aspect of fly fishing for trout (and other topics). He is the President of the Coulee Region TU Chapter.

He will talk about some stream ecology concepts and how we apply them to research questions in the Driftless Area. He present data from undergraduate and graduate students on coldwater stream research in Crawford, La Crosse, Monroe, and Vernon counties. Studies are a winter mortality study that will soon be published, their lab’s efforts on Pammel Creek – an urban Brook Trout stream, the distribution of sculpin in the Kickapoo River watershed, and past and future studies on how geology effects streams and their fishes in the Driftless Area.

Please join us at our April 14 meeting for Jason’s presentation. As usual, we’ll meet at Schwoegler’s with food and drink available anytime after 530 and Jason’s presentation starting around 7. Schwoegler’s is on Grand Canyon Drive on Madison’s west side with ample parking, good food, beverages, and service.

Board Elections

The annual SWTU elections will be held at our April meeting. We have two Board vacancies with one candidate when the newsletter went to press. The floor will be open for nominations and we can also hold the second Board position open if members who are interested need more time to think it over. The SWTU Officers will run for another one year term: Topf Wells (President), Dyan Lesnik (Vice President), Josh Reilly (Secretary), Michael Westbury (Treasurer) and Michael Williamson (State TU Representative).

Our Three Board of Director Candidates: Read More