By Topf Wells
Dan Oele, our superb DNR Fish Biologist for Dane, Green, and Rock Counties, has had a pretty darn wonderful July.  He and his wonderful wife Jessica welcomed their daughter, Harper, into this world in early July.  Harper, Jessica, and Dan are doing well.  Not quite as important but pretty darn cool is Dan securing another easement on local trout water.  The Severson easement on Sawmill Creek on Hay Hollow Road is now open for fishing.  The DNR signs signifying the exact location and boundaries of the easement will be up shortly.  Dan also has furnished a map of the easement.

This is the eighth easement resulting from the two landowner dinners and field day sponsored by Pecatonica Pride, the DNR, and SWTU to promote public fishing easements in the East Branch of the Pecatonica, Sawmill, Erickson, Gordon and Kittleson watersheds.  COVID stopped those outreach efforts but the DNR has continued to follow up on landowner interest generated by those events.

Huge thanks to the many volunteers and DNR staff who worked many hours on those events and who then followed up with landowners.  The list of everyone would be too long but some of the stalwarts were Jim Hess, Pat Hasburgh and Topf Wells of SWTU, April Prussia, Steve Fabos, and Kriss Marion of Pecatonica Pride, and Dan Oele, Justin Haglund, Bradd Sims, Kim Kuber and Paul Cunningham of DNR.

SWTU thanks Jim and Deb Severson for this easement, which is already posted with DNR signage.  They are great stewards of the creek and land — so kind and generous to share it with the angling public.

It’s a lovely stretch of stream with some happy brown trout in residence. It’s small with some overgrown stretches and might fish better earlier in the season.

Dan is continuing to work on easements in Green County.  We hope that his project, supported by SWTU and State Council, on Hefty will continue to interest landowners in easements and restorations on their trout streams.