Reading about the endangered status of the monarch butterfly in today's New York Times reminded me of my most idiotic trout fishing trip of all time.
Lodi Marsh, photo by Joshua Mayer
Years ago I was hunting rabbits and grouse during the early winter on the Lodi Marsh Public Hunting Areas. This is a spot all of you might want to know about because the area is where the Ice Age Trail runs through the marsh and surrounding uplands. The trail runs through some spectacular hills and nicely restored grasslands and wetlands. With the diversity of habitats packed into a small area, you can see a lot of different birds. It was only one of two places in Dane County I could always find and always miss grouse (though they may or may not still be present, given the precipitous decline of the species across the Driftless Area). On the marsh side of and at the base of the steepest hill I noticed a gargantuan spring, loaded with watercress and puddle ducks.
I hatched the plan almost immediately. Seeing such a huge source of very cold water, I decided to hike back into the spring on a hot, very hot, as hot as I could stand, summer day. Trout would be packed into the spring enjoying that cold water. As the next season began, I persuaded my best fishing partner to join the expedition.
On an extremely hot and muggy day and carrying all our fishing gear including our waders, we hiked up, over, around the hill and through part of the marsh to arrive at the magnificent spring. We were completely sweat-drenched and exhausted. But the water was gloriously, bone-chilling cold.
We rigged up, started fishing, and soon found hundreds of fish. Not a trout in the bunch. They were sticklebacks, a handsome, native fish topping out at maybe 3 inches. We retreated to the marsh, where the spring entered the creek and did not encounter any fish remotely resembling a trout. Then we had to hike back to the car. It's a wonder my friend ever spoke to me again, much less fished with me again.
A DNR fish biologist explained the flaw in my plan. Trout need a lot of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water along with cold temperatures. The water emerging from under the hill had low DO and the gradient of the spring and stream at that point was so flat that almost no aeration was occurring. Sticklebacks require much less DO than trout. Without the DO, the cold water could not attract and sustain trout.
Monarchs on swamp milkweed, photo by Arlene Koziol
This debacle taught me that wonderful animals like brown and brook trout and monarch butterflies often have complex and interlocking habitat requirements, even more so if they migrate like monarchs. The NYT story made this point concerning monarchs abundantly clear. It noted the increasing amounts of milkweed and nectar producing wildflowers which organizations like Madison Audubon are producing throughout the upper Midwest. (Remember the Benade prairie Madison Audubon just planted? The mix was designed to boost monarchs and other pollinators.)
But monarchs need much more. They need food and shelter along their spring and fall migratory paths. In Mexico, where our Eastern monarchs over-winter, they need those already small roosts to remain intact and healthy. Climate change which produces storms that can devastate those roosts and which alters the temperatures and plant development along the migratory corridors threatens monarchs. So does development, new pesticides, and other agricultural changes. Increasing the amount of Wisconsin milkweed, showy goldenrod, and other monarch-friendly plants by tenfold won't save them from extinction if we don't confront those other problems.
Roosting monarchs by the thousands. Photo by Brenna Wiesner
The complexity of the challenges monarchs face is a great reason they should be on the endangered species list. The feds agree that's what the science recommends, but they don't have the resources to add to the list with the current backlog of creatures who need help.
Let's give President-elect Biden the opportunity to select the new Secretary of the Interior, the new director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and all the bosses of the federal agencies, bureaus, and programs charged with protecting the officially listed and the other really endangered species. When they're in place, we should demand that they provide all those species including our monarchs, with the protection they need to survive and finally thrive.
That's a 2021 resolution worth keeping.
Take care and stay healthy,
Topf Wells, Madison Audubon board member and advocacy committee chair
Cover photo by TexasEagle FCC
