Preventing rapid runoff

aids trout streams

By 1933, erosion from rapid water runoff was so severe in Vernon County, and the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin, that it was thought trout would soon disappear from all the streams. With every cloudburst, water rushed downhill to dig new gullies, and widen the old, before dumping their load into the streams that ran too thick for trout to survive.

For two reasons those dire predictions on the passing of trout were wrong. First, wild trout are stout-hearted survivors, and they moved upstream to the forested headwaters where they found water thin enough to breathe. Second, in 1933 a new federal agency, the Soil Erosion Service, selected Coon Creek as the first watershed in which to demonstrate the values of soil conservation.

Coon Creek drained 91,000 acres in portions of Vernon, La Crosse and Monroe counties, and it was representative of the Driftless Region in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota. The Driftless Region is an area of deep valleys and high hills that the last glacier, of about 12,000 years ago, failed to enter, grind down, fill in and level off.

Drainage in southwestern Wisconsin was not interrupted by a glacier, as happened in most of Wisconsin where you find swamps and lakes, which assist in holding water. Water in the Driftless Region fell from the sky and rolled downhill often unabated, gathering momentum. And the way most farmers were tilling the soil and planting crops in 1933, they were assisting the rapid runoff of water, literally encouraging erosion.

The first meeting of the farmers in the region took place in October of 1933. Raymond H. Davis, regional director of the Coon Creek Project, said, “I was surprised at the way the farmers grasped the importance of such a program. They realize the necessity of something being done.”

The farmers, looked, listened, learned and cooperated. By the spring of 1934 many signed a five-year cooperative agreement where the government supplied fertilizer, and seed; and the farmers agreed to follow recommendations for strip cropping, crop rotation, rearrangement of fields and retirement of steep land to pasture or woodland.

Aldo Leopold, from the University of Wisconsin, appeared on the scene and wrote an article about what he observed. His article, “Coon Valley, An Adventure in Cooperative Conservation,” appeared in American Forests in May, 1935.

Regarding rapid water runoff Leopold wrote, “Gone is the humus of the old prairie, which until recently enabled the upland ridges to absorb the rains as they came. Now rain runs off deforested ridges as from a roof. The ravines are the gutters and great gashing gullies are torn out of the hillside.”

When the first settlers came it was different. Leopold wrote, “The trout streams ran clear, deep, narrow and full. They seldom overflowed. This is proven by the fact that the first settlers stacked their hay on the creek banks, a procedure now quite unthinkable. The deep loam of even the steepest fields and pastures showed never a gully, being able to take on any rain as it came, and turn it either upward into crops, or downward into perennial springs.”

Ed Brick retired in 1990 as a hydrologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Brick said, “Strip cropping and contour tillage helped to mend and heal the fields. With tillage on the contour all furrows become little check dams. Getting the cattle out of the woodlots helped to restore infiltration, so most water then soaks into the soil to emerge again as spring water. So, then you have water coming up slowly in springs at 48 degrees instead of running off on top of the ground at air temperature.”

What Brick said was reminiscent of what a farmer who owned land on Tainter Creek said last year. He said he had rented out cropland along the creek that now was too wet to farm, so he leased it to the DNR for trout fishing.

“Since 1950, soon after we improved our farming practices and slowed down the rapid runoff of water, our streams have shown 2 percent more water flow every decade from spring water,” Brick said.

That equals about 10 percent more in cold water flow in our trout streams in the last half century.

“Yes, and that is a story largely untold,” Brick said. “A lot of people know the streams are colder with more water today than 50 years ago, but they don’t know why.”

A thunderstorm which suddenly dumped one-half inch of rain on the land 25 years ago would wash soil into the stream causing a lure to disappear in 18 inches of water. Today it takes twice as much rain to result in the same turbidity. We continue to slow down the water allowing it to soak into the soil and come out as cold bubbling spring water. The land and the stream are healing. The trout are abundant and happy. Aldo Leopold would approve.

Hard water, good fishing

There are two kinds of trout streams. Freestone streams, the kind most anglers are familiar with, are found in the glaciated portion of Wisconsin. Limestone streams are present in the Driftless Region of southwest Wisconsin.

Just as all soil is not the same regarding production, all streams are not the same. Freestone streams are like the poor sandy soil of central Wisconsin, where stunted jack pine struggle to survive; limestone streams are like the rich soils of Dane County, where you can grow an abundance of corn.

The limestone trout streams of Vernon County will yield a food supply as high as 5,000 pounds per acre. The poorest freestone stream in the sand country of Marquette County will yield a food supply as low as 10 pounds per acre, an astonishing 500 times less. Technically speaking, regarding mineral content, all the trout streams of Vernon County are as much as 500 times better than the poorest trout streams in Wisconsin.

Most of the water in southwest Wisconsin that leaches down through the soil reaches limestone bedrock. There the water easily dissolves the calcium carbonate, the principal composition of limestone, into its flow. Caves and sinkholes often result from the dissolving action of water before it emerges as spring water. And calcium saturated water accounts for lime deposits in practically every home built above limestone bedrock. If you talk to a Viroqua housewife about limestone she will probably show you a cleaning solvent she used to remove lime deposits from her sink.

It is the dissolved calcium, and sometimes magnesium, that makes water hard. And the nutrients in hard water make the water alkaline, a chemical property that accounts for the growth of tiny aquatic organisms. These organisms are the basis of the food chain, and they provide forage for all stream inhabitants.

Calcium and magnesium are the fertilizers in the stream that stimulate plant growth. The growth of water plants and algae in limestone streams provides food, cover and oxygen for trout.

Insects and crustaceans, like sow bugs, scuds, stonefly nymphs, mayfly nymphs and fairy shrimp are abundant in limestone streams and they provide food for crayfish and minnows. While small trout feed on these little insects the larger trout (13 inches and longer) thrive on the crayfish and minnows.

Water in a limestone stream is very stable and the volume of flow per mile is high compared to a freestone stream. Therefore, the limestone streams in Wisconsin seldom form ice in winter in the upper third of the stream. Thus, due to a more consistent year-round temperature, consistent water flow, and an abundant food supply, reproduction, survival, and growth in limestone streams is considerably higher than in freestone streams.

It is the abundance and consistent supply of food for trout in the limestone streams that can provide for 1,000 trout per mile and grow trout to 24 inches in five years. While the same trout, in a freestone stream, wouldn’t reach 24 inches in 10 years—the average lifetime for brown trout in southern half of Wisconsin.

The best of the best

The task of selecting the best and also most attractive streams in Vernon County is both easy and difficult.

Easy because most of the 74 trout streams in the county would fit this description. Can anyone find an ugly stream in this region? No, the beauty of the Driftless Region doesn’t allow it. Can anyone find a poor quality stream in this region? No, because they are all limestone streams rich in minerals.

The only limiting factors are probably volume, length and habitat improvement. Some streams are too small and lack depth and cover that large trout need.

BEST AND MOST PICTURESQUE

TROUT STREAMS IN VERNON COUNTY

Stream Miles Points

1. Kickapoo River (Crawrord, Monroe) 60.4 250*

2. Coon Creek (Crawford, La Crosse) 31.8 142

3. Kickapoo River, West Fork 24.0 132*

4. Bad Axe River, South Fork 16.5 70

5. Timber Coulee Creek 8.2 65*

6. Reads Creek “Black Bottom” 6.6 56*

7. Spring Coulee Creek 6.0 44

8. Seas Branch Creek 4.5 43

9. Hornby Creek 5.8 43*

10. Warner Creek 8.6 42

11. Bishop Branch Creek 6.0 42

12. Chipmunk Coulee Creek 5.5 41

13. Bad Axe River, North Fork 9.0 40

14. Cheyenne Valley Creek 6.0 40

15. Billings Creek 7.7 35*

16. Springville Branch “Duck Egg” 7.6 34*

17. Huff Creek 4.0 32

18. Bear Creek, South Branch 4.1 24

19. Weister Creek 7.8 20*

20. Baraboo River, South Branch 6.0 16

21. Bear Creek, North Branch 5.3 15

22. Baraboo River, West Branch 4.6 13

23. Otter Creek 4.5 13

24. Knapp Creek 4.0 12

Trout fishing author Jay Thurston's ratings scale is based on points combined for stream length and for natural reproduction. Therefore, the longest streams that have natural reproduction, score highest the list of best streams. An ‘*’ denotes Jay’s personal favorites...

Yet, that’s not always the case. Three years ago, while fishing a stream only two miles long, a large 24-inch brown trout came out from under a lunker structure (habitat improvement) and smashed my lure.

I was too surprised and startled to set the hook.

As a result of the improvements being made on our trout streams, from the proceeds of the trout stamp, we sometimes find very large trout in small streams. However, using 60 years of trout fishing as a guide, the best streams are usually four or more miles long.

Regarding beauty, streams that have cliff pools where trout can find deep water and constant shade — north-facing cliff pools — are preferred. Also, streams that have at least half of their flow through areas not pastured or under cultivation, in other words, somewhat remote and natural, like the first settlers found it, are quite pretty.

A resource with a future

Helping to prevent rapid runoff of water is an ongoing saga.

Today, and each decade since that first prophetic meeting of farmers and conservationists in 1933, a higher percentage of rainfall soaks into the soil than runs off. The water eases down one drop at a time to arrive at limestone bedrock. Flowing along the bedrock it comes out as fresh, clean, clear, mineral-rich, spring water at 48 degrees.

Many streams today run clear and cold enough to support native brook trout which thrive and reproduce. The streams have given to the visiting angler brook trout to 20 inches and brown trout to 28. The word is out regarding the quality of fishing in this picturesque region. Anglers come from across the United States. Last year I met an angler who came to fish Vernon County from Budapest, Hungry. This summer I fished with an angler from Savannah, Ga.

It’s not unusual to share the stream with a deer and fawn which came down for an early morning drink of cold water. In a trout stream valley you observe turkeys high on your left move slowly along the wood line. Up ahead, on your right, a pheasant crows from a clump of tall grass. And when you look up into the deep blue sky, you watch an eagle glide on a thin air current. It’s a peaceful country, where you are at ease and feel welcome, with miles of stream to wade and trout to catch.

Today we have flowing in practically every valley a great stream. And that is largely due to the action Brick calls “quiet hydration.” We can’t see or hear the water that slowly percolates into the soil. And unless we wade trout streams, we go about life largely unaware of that wonderful increase in stream flow.

Those who think pure spring water is not important should go to the grocery store. There they can observe the loss of pure water through measuring the steady growth of the bottled water section. Beyond the grocery store our springs flow with 2 percent more water each decade. This story of quiet hydration, pure water, and great trout fishing, we celebrate every time we drink water from our own tap or catch trout.

We are all stewards of the land and the water. Polluted drinking water is a sign of our failure. A clear stream full of trout flowing within its banks is a sign of our success.

Some of the information in this article came from the booklet titled, Wisconsin Trout Streams. It was published April 19, 2002, and is available online or from a DNR center.

Editor’s note: Jay Thurston is the Vernon County Broadcaster’s trout fishing columnist. He has written the book, “Following in the Footsteps of Ernest Hemingway,” about his trout fishing adventures and also penned the children’s book, “Out of the Rainbow.” He is a retired educator and lives with his wife, Diana, at “Trout Central”—Viroqua.