By Topf Wells

Maybe not the Marines but our workday on the Sugar River at the Davidson property seemed like an amphibious assault at times.

We were clearing the stream bank of invasive honeysuckle and the too common box elder and creating a brush bundle. Doing so stabilizes the streambank and provides excellent habitat for small fish and invertebrates. It also gives some native plants a chance. An example is downstream where most of the oak understory is honeysuckle and nothing but honeysuckle. But in the few places where honeysuckle is not present, some native spring ephemerals thrive.

We had 13 helpers. We suffered a casualty in the form of a lost cellphone, which triggered a search (alas, futile). The sawyers, haulers, and brush installers worked hard and well. As a result, anglers have better access to the river and the river has better habitat. It’s a heck of a brush bundle. Our brush bundles have always worked well and are stable and secure. Jim Hess is now incorporating the anchoring system used by the DNR crew so that performance should improve.

We could have used some more folks. The combined age of the 3 installers is about 215 years and we felt every one of them. The folks on shore had to contend with a temperature that rose quickly.

The temperature should be cooler for subsequent work days and we can use the help. The brownies, cheese curds, pork sticks and camaraderie await.

Jim Hess was even more heroic than usual with his planning, new technology, hours of brush installation and, finally, taming a tree that fell just a bit too far in the river. Kathleen Falk spent as much time in the water and I finally joined them. Wading wet was cool but I brought home pounds of Sugar River silt. The effects of the drought are noticeable. Stretches of stream bottom that are usually pretty clean gravel have a couple inches of silt. A scouring rain before spawning time would be most welcome.

Our sawyers did a great job with a special shout out to John Freeborg, who found my car fob that I knocked off the table. I owe John a beer at the next meeting. The brush haulers and tossers were fabulous. They paced the flow of brush perfectly and not one log hit one head. Young Quentin from Belleville and his Dad, Chris, were wonderful additions to the crew. Quentin deserves a big fish on his next trip to the Sugar.

Our next work day is October 7 with the Nohr Chapter dealing with yet another prolific invasive, willows on Big Spring. They make accessing the stream impossible and are in the words of a retired DNR fish biologist, beaver candy. The beaver is a wonderful mammal but their dams are sometimes detrimental to Driftless trout streams. See details in the prior article.

Photos courtesy Jim Hess.