By Topf Wells
Jim Hess has more than earned his trip in search of smallmouth bass and pike eager to take a fly with his brilliant organization of the fifth and (almost) final SWTU workday of the spring season.

We returned to Smith Conley to continue our efforts to reduce the boxelders and increase the sunlight on a stretch of the creek that’s open to public fishing.  Lots of trees were marked with orange by Jim, Justin Haglund (the DNR fish biologist for Iowa County), Ted Swenson and the landowner.  We darn near got them all, including those that fell in the stream.  Our winch – pictured here – was pressed into action and it worked, mostly.

With so many box elders removed, we had a much better sense of the oaks the landowner has planted.  They ranged from just hanging on to flourishing.  With the box elders gone and more sunlight, all will do much better.  The native Wisconsin oaks are an astounding resource.  We know how important acorns are for many wildlife species and we have a better sense of how important their shade can be to trout streams.  They also support over 900 species of caterpillars, a vital food source for birds (and I bet more than a few fall into the streams to the trout’s delight).

Lloyd Meng is a DNR fisheries technician, who works for Justin and has been a mainstay of the Smith Conley workdays.  He is prodigiously strong and a highly skilled sawyer.  One scrawny oak tree was the beneficiary of Lloyd’s skill.  He had to fell three box elders, any one of which seemed destined to wipe out the humble tree.  Lloyd dropped each one to save the tree.  When it grows into the king of the forest, I hope it remembers Lloyd.

We had over a dozen folks out, a great turnout for a muggy day in early June.  We had a couple of members from the Nohr Chapter join us (always fun to work with folks from that great chapter) and five of our Board Members.  Way to go!  The two days on Smith Conley have challenged our sawyers and all did a great and safe job.  Bob Harrison continues to set the style standard for sawyers with an impressive and very safe helmet.

Joining us on her second workday was Kailee Bergee, our first SWTU/DNR/Zoology Museum intern.  She is in the midst of an exciting (and sometimes exhausting) summer of fish activities. She worked really hard – and is pictured here doing a modified caber toss into the burn pile.  We wish her the best for the rest of the summer.  Be sure to attend our August meeting when Kailee will be our featured speaker.  Thanks to John Lyons for his essential roles in creating the internship and supervising Kailee.

This is a stream with miles of easements for public fishing and lots of potential.  We hope these workdays will increase folks’ awareness of and interest in this stream.

And with stream potential in mind, Kailee and I walked the ongoing DNR restoration of Hefty Creek to which SWTU contributed.  The crew is progressing well.  We saw one completed segment that looks great.  Even I could probably catch a trout there.

This day ended just as our previous one did for me, with a wood tick crawling out of my hair line.  Despite that I and all the other folks on the workdays, thank Jim for his fabulous efforts.

After he catches loads of trout and smallmouth bass during the rest of the season – and he really deserves them – we look forward to he’ll schedule in the winter.

Photos courtesy Jim Beecher– see more below.