Wetlands Assn. Boat Tour Results

Notes from Sunday's Wetlands Association boat tour of Lake Koshkonong:

I went on the boat ride with the wetlands group yesterday afternoon.

It was a very pleasant day on the lake- calm and hardly any boat traffic compared to the Madison Lakes. It turned out to be pretty much a bird watching and native american history tour. Very little was said about the wetlands and with boats you couldn't really get close enough to see much into the wetlands. A few tidbits I did pick up along the way...

...An archeologist from the Wisconsin Historical Society that talked about a lot of the indian history and artifacts found around the shore. Basically she said you probably couldn't throw a rock without finding some indian artifacts. I think she was talking mainly about upland sites but said the marshes were largely unexplored. Some of the better artifacts such as dugout canoes may be found in the wetlands where they would be better preserved...

Quentin Carpenter...also said that even though he is generally not in favor of armoring wetland shores, it does seem to be working well on Lake Koshkonong...

...A dentist from Chicago that lives near Carcajou asked him what he thought of the proposal to raise the water level 7 inches...

...The (DNR's) Don Bush more or less said that he could manage the fish at what ever level and the annual, natural water fluctuation is much greater than the 7 inches...

...He did have two points of concern. He liked a fall drawdown because it forced carp out of the marshes, where they are probably doing the most damage and into the lake. He was referring particularily to Mud Lake. An he liked the marsh fringe to have water on it in the spring for spawning, particularily for northern pike...

...Another thing I noticed that even with pontoon boats and not particularity big motors (40-70 hp) we were stirring up quite a bit of mud going in and out of some of the bays. I didn't see any submerged aquatic plants, but visibility into the water was poor...