SWTU, P.O. Box 45555, Madison, WI 53744-5555 president@swtu.org

Newscasts – March 2024

This issue is filled with great information, including:

Taste the Great Destinations

Serving up a mouthwatering presentation at our Tuesday, March 12 Meeting
(this is rescheduled from the January meeting canceled due to snow)

Ben LubchanskyBen Lubchansky will be presenting tips and tricks (and trips!) to bring gourmet elements to your destination angling and adventure trips. From planning and packing to improvising in the field, Ben will give you the info you need to ensure your adventures are unique, memorable, and beyond the standard package. Ben will discuss his ‘Casting and Cookery’ series of angling trips as well as things you will want to know to make your own trips more exciting and enjoyable – whether stalking bonefish in the islands or overnighting with old friends in the Driftless. Ben will cover equipment, ingredients, meal planning, ingredient sourcing, foraging, dining out, and managing rental home assets and liabilities all in addition to presenting his own uniquely inspired trips featuring great destinations at the best time of year and the fish and food that makes them special. Read More

Get your tickets now – 3rd Annual Spring Fair Fundraiser

Spring Fair Background

Join us Saturday, April 20, 2024, for another fun-filled, social day of camaraderie. This is a one-week shift from what we previously shared. We’ll be returning to the East Side Club on the shores of Lake Monona with hopefully stunning weather this year. As in the past, this is a ticketed event and tickets are required to enter.

Buy your tickets now at this secure online site.

Offline sales coordinated by John Freeborg – contact john-tu@freeborg.com. Tickets can also be purchased at SWTU chapter meetings on 3/12 and 4/9 from Topf Wells at the front table – cash or check only. Students use STUDENT discount code during checkout for 50% off any admission ticket. Must present valid student ID at event for admittance.

Spring Fair Fundraiser - Saturday, April 20th 2pm to 7pm. Bucket raffle, silent auction, mouthwatering street food. Tickets Required

 

Sara Johnson passes

Sara JohnsonSara Elaine Johnson of Salem, Oregon, died on February 3, 2024, after a long battle with cancer. Good friends were holding her hands on the final stretch of her life journey.

Sara was born on the South Pacific desert island of Canton, lived as a child in Kabul, Afghanistan, then moved with her family to Washington, DC. Sara worked for National Public Radio as the National Training Coordinator, then moved to Wisconsin to complete her undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, she worked with UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture and UW-Extension in natural resource policy and outreach.

In 1993, she co-founded and was the first executive director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin (RAW), a statewide citizen-advocacy organization for rivers. Under her leadership, RAW became nationally recognized for dam removal and river restoration. The restoration of the Baraboo River to a free-flowing state was one of Sara’s most cherished achievements. She was also instrumental in a landmark settlement with Wisconsin Electric Power affecting 11 dams on the Menominee River system in Wisconsin and Michigan. Read More

Jim Addis passes

A committed conservationist and highly skilled administrator, the people and natural resources of Wisconsin are better for Jim’s decades of exemplary service.

As stated in his obituary: In 1974, Jim joined the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a fisheries manager in the Southeast District. He quickly rose through the ranks, demonstrating exceptional leadership skills in various high-level administrative roles and successfully handling several complex and controversial natural resource management issues.

Jim Addis was a valued partner for SWTU and many other conservation organizations. You can read his full obituary at the Ryan Funeral Home website.

SWTU Tentative 2024 Workdays (March update)

By Jim Hess, Conservation Chair

We look forward to seeing you at one or more of our spring workdays. It’s a great way to meet new people, explore new water and make a difference for our cold water resource. Read More

SWTU Helps Fund an Intern

The SWTU Board recently and unanimously approved $3,750 to help fund a DNR intern for a summer of work. A generous donation from the Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance covered the remaining funds for the position. The request came from Kim Kuberly and Camille Bruhn, the DNR Water Quality biologists for this part of the state, for an intern to help them complete their summer stream and river surveys. They need the intern to complete the work and some budget problems put that hire in doubt. Read More

Barr Emerger (PMD)

Barr Emerger (PMD)

Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

The year is 1975, in early summer. An experienced angler fishes a PMD hatch on Nelson’s Spring Creek in Livingston, MT. Like nearby DePuy and Arm­strong Spring Creeks, Nelson’s is a short, free-flowing, tributary of the Yellowstone River. Its water is crystal clear, glassy smooth, and incredibly rich with aquatic insects. Hatches, especially those of PMDs in June and July, can be of biblical pro­portions. It’s no accident that this part of Montana is called Par­a­dise Valley. Nelson’s trout are abundant and large, but they are fished heavily and have rep­u­tations for humbling both beginner and expert alike. They’ve seen every fly in the Umpqua cat­alog and are very wary of imitations. Read More

Learn What Your Board’s Been Up To – March 2024

Minutes from SWTU Board of Director meetings can be viewed in this Google Drive. If you have questions on what you read in them, reach out to one of the Board members listed on the last page of each newsletter. (Note that you may need to click the “Last Modified” header at the top to sort the list with the latest minutes at the top.)

What Do We Do With the $

By Topf Wells

You’ll read and hear a lot about our Spring Fair Fundraiser. Great, great fun but some of you might wonder what we do with the money?

Some recent examples:

  • $3,750 for a DNR summer intern to help complete stream surveys (see the article in this newsletter).
  • $500 for native grass seed for a DNR easement on Conley Lewis Creek. As the DNR and we prepared for a work day, the Fish Biologist convinced the landowners to convert a 3.2 acre streamside area from row crops to a buffer with native vegetation. We’ll buy a variety of native grass seeds for the 500 and our Nohr friends will provide an excellent mix of native wildflowers. The results will be less runoff, more infiltration, less pesticides in the creek, less erosion and more bugs in the stream.
  • $2,500 for expanded and improved water quality monitoring on Black Earth Creek. We became a member of a group of local governments and conservation organizations to enable the USGS to improve round the clock monitoring of the trout water on BEC. The DNR and others will receive immediate notification if certain problems arise, like a dangerous change in water chemistry.
  • $3,000 to help the Nohr Chapter restore a headwater stretch of the Blue River; one of two big projects we’ve supported on the Blue River this year.
  • $1,000 to help The Prairie Enthusiasts transform 10 acres of row crops and sediment into a wetland within a few feet of the Williams Barneveld Branch. We held a work day on the creek with TPE two years ago and saw how much that wetland would benefit the creek.

Read More