Monday, December 31, 2007

Blog About Sunset Tavern


Sportbikes Blog

I don't come in here hardly at all...but just wanted to let you all know that we have an amazing ice track set up on Lake Koshkonong. Jeff Fredette (an MX great-ran Last Man Standing a couple years ago) will be joining us today. We will be riding until it's dark.

We plan to run ice through New Years so if you locals are bored or wanna check it out come down to the Sunset. Use this info for Mapquest:
Sunset Tavern
W7905 High Ridge Rd
Fort Atkinson, WI 53538
920-563-5702

Basicly take 106 West of Fort Atkinson. Turn South on Northshore Dr. Turn west on Highridge Rd. Sunset is on your left.

See you around!!!




Thursday, December 27, 2007

Trust, couple preserve historic camping site

From the Janesville Gazette


KOSHKONONG TOWNSHIP — It was once Chief Black Hawk’s favorite camping ground. Now it will be preserved forever.

Linn and Ann Duesterbeck of Milton worked with the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County to preserve 65 acres of wetlands and uplands on the southeast side of Lake Koshkonong.

With the help of the trust, the Duesterbecks have placed the property, which includes a mile of shoreline, in a permanent conservation easement.

“It’s a wonderful gift to nature,” trust Chairwoman Martine Koeppel said. “You’re going to see wildlife, native vegetation and osprey. You will see the property how it has always been.”

A conservation easement is attached permanently to the property and will transfer to the next owner if the property is sold, even if it’s sold in small pieces.
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Click link above to read entire article

Monday, December 17, 2007

Conservation Easement

Easement for lake bluff to land trust
The full story appears in the Dec. 14 Daily Union

Continuing its efforts to protect and preserve land throughout the area, the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County has accepted a donation of a conservation easement on a 64-acre wildlife area in the Town of Koshkonong.

The property, located on the south side of Lake Koshkonong and referred to as Blackhawk Bluff, is owned by Linn and Ann Duesterbeck.

Significant portions of the land have been restored to native prairie and wetlands, which are home to many birds, wildlife and aquatic species.

“It is a wonderful gift to nature,” said Martine Koeppel, chairperson of the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County. “It’s just a beautiful area.”

By recently donating a conservation easement on their property, the Duesterbecks have protected their land in perpetuity.

Conservation easements, when completed, are attached to the title of the property and are forever enforced.

Members of the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County monitor the easements for compliance and the easement travels with the entire piece of land, even if the land is split up and sold as separate pieces.

“Property owners like the Duesterbecks, who wish to determine the fate of their land even after they no longer own it, may place a conservation easement on their property restricting it from future residential, commercial and industrial development,” Koeppel explained.

The easement also restricts the destruction of the land itself. Activities such as mining, gravel and sand extraction, and sod farming, are not permitted.

Koeppel said landowners can be very specific with their conservation easement by including language that restricts logging in certain areas, ensures that their prairies are not disturbed, and even restricts the type of recreational activities allowed in the future.

In October, the land trust accepted another donation of an easement on a 137-acre farm in the Town of Sumner.

Koeppel said the property owners, who wished to remain anonymous, currently grow crops and raise livestock on their farm, and wanted this tradition to continue in the future.

“This farmland conservation easement was created to protect farming in the future for Jefferson County, but it also protects the native wildlife habitat that exists in the woodlands, prairies and wetlands that exist on the farm,” she said., adding three more projects are under way.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Rock County Circuit Court Rescheduled

Oral argument are now scheduled for;

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
10:00 a.m

Ted Peck On Ice Fishing Koshkonong

LAKE KOSHKONONG
This 10,400-acre shallow basin on the Jefferson-Rock county line has an "exceptional" population of adult walleyes, according to Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist Don Bush. A dominant year-class of these fish is hovering in size between respectable and trophy status - something the DNR needs to monitor.

If you can find and pattern the fish, icing a limit of 24- to 26-inchers is a real possibility. And that's the scary part. About 15 years ago there was one winter when icing a 28-inch or larger 'eye was something you could almost plan on accomplishing every evening. Every angler was catching - and keeping - huge walleyes. It's taken this long to bring Kosh back. How about establishing a harvest guideline with just one fish over, say, 25 inches allowed? The spring DNR hearings are right around the corner. Trophy fishing could be, too. Or maybe not.

Meanwhile, the key is targeting water over 5 feet deep - away from the crowds - using tip-ups baited with shiners and fathead minnows set about a foot off the bottom. Mobility is important. Tap a bunch of holes before you start fishing, then keep moving the "boards" to stay over active fish.

Time of day isn't as important as natural presentation. Since this is shallow water, it's important to cover the hole. One of those Frabill Igloo Tip-Ups does an excellent job in this capacity.

Ice-angler Steve Glass knows the bounty that swims herein. Stevie says the shortest route to a flag is keeping your eyes open, snowmobile warmed up and mouth shut. And he's absolutely right. We shouldn't even mention nearby Hope Lake as a "Plan B" for bluegills. So we won't.

Riverfront Resort, located on Blackhawk Island at Koshkonong's east end, is a great place to get the skinny on fishing Koshkonong. And Rose's chili is good enough to keep you off the ice just long enough for one more bowl.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

If only it were July....

Lake level today is at 776.33 - the DNR Summer max.

Too bad it's December and not July.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Engineer to RKLD Dies

I am sad to say I just learned today that a member of our team of experts, Randy Weltzin, died while deer hunting near Antigo last month.

Obituary HERE

Randy was President of RSV Engineering, of Jefferson, WI. If you atteneded the RKLD annual meetings, particularly this past July's meeting at the Fort Atkinson High School, then you saw Randy give a presentation on dredging.

Please keep Randy and his family in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare to begin our Rock County Circuit hearing on Friday.

He will be missed.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Snowmobile Tragedy on Rock River

December 10, 2007 --

2:00pm The body of a second snowmobiler in Jefferson County has been found.

40 year-old Gerard Debaets from Watertown was found just before 11:00 Monday morning.

He along with two others fell through the ice on the rock river Saturday night.

When crews arrived near Highway N and Zeibell Road, they immediately found 36-year-old Wendy Heiman also from Watertown.

Heiman was taken to the hospital were she later died.

The third snowmobiler .. 39-year-old Brian Nimm survived.

Snowmobile Tragedy

AZTALAN - Two Watertown area residents died Saturday night when the snowmobile they were riding went through the ice on the Rock River east of County Highway N just north of the intersection with Ziebell Road in the Town of Aztalan.

Divers recovered Wendy Heiman, 36, from the river Saturday night and were still searching as of this morning for the body of Gerard Debaets, 40.

A third individual, Brian Nimm, 39, who had been traveling with the pair and previously broken through the ice moments before the fatal incident, was treated and released at Watertown Hospital.

State Department of Natural Resources Conservation Warden David Walz said the initial incident involved Nimm breaking through the ice on a snowmobile approximately 300 yards upstream from the scene where Heiman and Debaets died.

The DNR warden said Nimm's snowmobile went into the river but he was able to get out.

"For some reason, the trio continued down the river from that point," Walz said, noting that Heiman and Debaets went tandem on one sled and Nimm rode the other.

He speculated that they may have been heading to get off the river around Capn's Corner or the Glacial Drumlin Trail.

However, shortly after proceeding from the scene of Nimm's incident in the water, the snowmobile carrying Heiman and Debaets went into the river.

Nimm was able to get to the nearest residence on Highway N and call for help.

"Eventually all three people went into the water," Walz said, referring to Nimm's initial breakthrough and the subsequent fatal incident involving Heiman and Debaets.