It’s time to go for a walk

Posted on March 29, 2015 by paulmozina

Pati and I met Dr. Jim Meeker, and his wife Joan Elias, when their neighbors, Greg Legault and Janette Christie (Legault), introduced us on the memorably challenging, private, cross country ski trails they had woven across their adjoining properties in Gurnee, Wisconsin. We began renting Greg’s cozy cabin back in the early 90’s and I remember how starstruck Pati was when we met Jim, who already had a reputation for the manoomin, aka wild-rice, research he had done in the Bad River’s Kakagon Sloughs.

Jim and Greg at the South Point Banyan Tree house

One of Jim’s best pictures of the Kakagon Sloughs

Jim and Joan befriended us and we stayed in touch over the years. Pati and I were truly saddened when we heard that Jim had “walked on” (see page 10 in this issue of Mazina’igan, or expand the article shown below.)

I felt lucky and blessed to be in Gurnee on March 21 for the Memorial Service and Celebration of Jim’s Life (Pati had a business commitment in South Africa.) Here are a couple of testimonials:

Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission is grateful for Dr. Meeker’s many contributions as a former staff member, scientist, teacher and mentor, but mostly as a very gentle, approachable human-being, filled with kindness and concern for all living creatures, but especially those plant-beings!

or, this from the Northland College Magazine (see page 8)

A professor of botany and natural resources, Jim shared his passion for the outdoors with students in the classroom, field and laboratory. Jim fostered an inter-disciplinary approach to solving problems and used an experiential pedagogy before those approaches were being promoted within higher education.

Jim loved to share what he learned from nature: “It’s time to go for a walk!”

One of Jim and Joan’s favorite places in the neighborhood: Potato Falls.

That is the upper falls above cascading over multiple tiers, and below we see the lower falls.

I got a real treat when I met a team of kayakers who had just run the upper falls!

Check out Jonathan Sisley’s run down the upper falls, which begins around 1:00 into this video (thanks for sharing this Jonathan!)

Back at The Springs, there was buckthorn to cut and pile. Andy Buchta stacked all the brush I laid down near the marl factory.

I continued clearing the areas on both sides of the trail a couple hundred yards from the parking lot on Hwy ZZ, in what used to be, The Buckthorn Alley.

Tuesday I focused on the left side of the trail…

…and cut many a buckthorn, though it’s hard to tell (below, same three views after.)

On Thursday I continued cutting on both the right and left sides of the trail (below, before cutting, looking right, then left.)

Below, the same three views after a 6 tanks of gas in the chain saw.

Ben Johnson joined me after work to help rake out and rehabilitate the burn rings/scars from the last brush pile burning season. The skunk cabbage is emerging.

Believe it or not I was back at it on Saturday. I’m trying to cut as much buckthorn as I can while it’s still dormant. Andy is following close behind piling the brush. Thanks Andy!

Ben has been helping Anne Korman, Assistant Superintendent KMSF – Southern Unit, work on a plan to make the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail handicap accessible from the parking lot to the Hotel Spring and we had a date to review project. The removal of the bridge by the Hotel Spring has opened up some new perspectives on how to route the trail. Anne, and her boss Paul Sandgren, scoped out the situation and they are seriously considering building the new bridge over the river at the old sawmill site at signpost #12. The new trail would follow the berm that formed the lower pond.

This would be a beautiful spot to cross the river, with the added bonus that the east bank of the old bridge site, which has some very unique springs and flora, would be allowed to return to a natural state. The DNR Water Regulations and Zoning engineers will have a say in the matter for sure.

While Ben moved boardwalks and cleared a trail along the berm, I continued cutting buckthorn on the left side of the trail, where I left off last time.

That is how it looked before I got started. Andy joined me and piled tons of buckthorn while I cut.

I can’t wait to see how these wetlands respond in the absence of the buckthorn cover!

Ben and I had an excellent adventure exploring the northeast corner of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Preserve and then we took a tour.

I’m excited to share that the Natural Resources Foundation has added the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail to their 2015 Field Trip Schedule.

See you at The Springs!

p.s. Thanks to Mark Miner for monitoring bluebird houses!

IATA Leads Hartland Marsh Restoration

Posted on February 20, 2015 by paulmozina

I feel a lump welling up in my sore throat when I consider the latest turn of events in the saga of the Hartland Marsh restoration. My involvement began in earnest back in 2004 when I decided to clear the buckthorn from The Marsh, and I began spending most of my free time pursuing that goal. I succeeded to a point: over the next 7 years I cut almost all of the mature buckthorn, burned hundreds of brush piles and followed up with brush cutting and foliar spraying, but I was not able to persuade the powers that be to implement a prescribed fire program — the only long-term solution to fighting invasive species — and I threw in the towel.

The Hartland Marsh is home to some of the biggest, most beautiful oaks, in Southeast Wisconsin, and Pati and I returned to visit over the next 4 years whenever we could.

In November of last year we were stunned not only by the site of the Chimney Swift Tower, but by the awakened spirit of CARE in the Village of Hartland that made it possible. Perhaps is was just a coincidence, or maybe it was the Law of Attraction at work, but at the same time the tower was taking shape, Kevin Thusius, the property manager for the Ice Age Trail Alliance, decided it was time to commit some of his considerable leadership and organizational skills to resuscitating the Hartland Marsh/Bark River Preserve Project.

Kevin formed a committee including: Paul Sandgren, Forest Superintendent Southern Unit – KMSF Lapham Peak & Glacial Drumlin Trail East; Marlin Johnson, representing the Waukesha County Land Conservancy; Dave Cox and Mike Einweck, from the Village of Hartland; Duane Grimm representing Waukesha County; and fellow IATA members Brad Crary, Russ Evans and Ken Neitzke (I replaced Ken, wait, that’s not possible), and he enlisted Craig Annen with Integrated Restorations LLC to come up with a plan. Per the assessment from Craig’s team:

Management action should be undertaken within the next five years to preserve this remnant and curtail any further degradation of its structural and compositional integrity and prevent local species loss; if the present trend is allowed to continue for more than five years, species invasions and successional changes will be increasingly difficult and expensive to reverse, and will require a longer time commitment to accomplish. Fortunately, previous efforts by IATA (Ice Age Trail Alliance) and WCLC (Waukesha County Land Conservation) volunteers have already placed this site on a trajectory toward recovery, and capitalizing on these efforts can be accomplished within a three year time period with a routine level of management intensity. The only foreseeable challenge this site poses is its urban location and obtaining permission and public acceptance of the use of prescribed fire as a management tool.

The plan prioritizes the uplands (see area enclosed in yellow and the John Muir Lookout Island, circled in magenta below.)

Money is the limiting factor, so if you know any “angels” who are willing to come forward and help us save the Oaks of the Hartland Marsh, please ask them to contact Kevin (kevin@iceagetrail.org)! With the funds Kevin has been able to hustle so far, we plan to hire Craig’s team to begin putting the plan into action by attacking the invasive species on the 37 acres of uplands. Paul Sandgren has generously donated two days service from DNR Trail Boss Don Dane and Forestry Technician Mike Spaight to help us cut fire breaks and begin mowing the buckthorn, box elder and other woody invasives.

We really appreciate that Lake Country Now is helping us tell our story! Thanks for that post Steve, and for convincing your editors to send freelance journalist Rebecca Seymour out to meet us this past Wednesday as we gathered at The Marsh to review the plan and flag the areas where Don and Mike should work. The next few shots are courtesy of Rebecca.

(From left to right: The Buckthorn Man, Craig Annen, Mike Einweck, Kevin Thusius and Marlin Johnson)

Our nemesis: Mr. Buckthorn.

Keep an eye on Lake Country Now (2/24 and 3/10) for Rebecca’s next stories about The Marsh.

♥♥♥

After our meeting on Wednesday, I drove down to Forest Headquarters to review the plan with Don Dane. I had heard a little about the cuts to the DNR that Governor Walker has planned for the 2015-2017 budget, which begins in July, and Don filled me in with the following:

I’m a Voluntaryist, and Anarchist, so I’m not going to ask you to beg the legislature or governor to spend the money they take from us via threat and coercion (hyperbole? pay or you go to jail!) differently. No, I’m asking you to roll up your sleeves, volunteer, and get to work. You take responsibility for the land; don’t rely on government.

♦♦♦

It’s been darn cold and I’ve been under the weather a bit so I only got out to The Springs one day this week on Monday. I continued cutting and burning along the stretch of trail between signpost #2 and Marl Factory. I’m going to focus on finishing this area while it is frozen. Here is how it looked when I got there.

I had a relaxing day and made modest progress.

If you are interested in prescribed burns, aka wildland fires, and want an inside look from the DNR’s perspective, check out the videos from their 2015 Prescribed Fire In-Service. I found the Cranberry Fire — Lessons Learned and the Prescribed Burn Scenario, which features the 2014 Bluff Creek East Burn, very interesting.

Last but not least, don’t forget to visit my Wisconsin Wetlands Association “Big Share” campaign and make a donation. Please note, the totals for contributors and dollars are not updated and still show zeroes; that’s just the way it is.

See you at The Springs!

Winter Break

Posted on January 31, 2015 by paulmozina

I confess — I’m a little burnt out working at The Springs.

Maybe it’s the Red Pill I took, or the Coffee, or the Buckthorn, or Winter, or too much Smoke — I don’t know, but I need a break. I’ve been taking advantage of the mild weather, and the opportunity to work with the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards, to clear huge swaths of Buckthorn from the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA and the Buckthorn Alley and I’m pooped out. I need to do some yoga, strum a guitar, prepare for traffic court and simply be with Pati, so I’m taking a week off.

Yes, you heard right, I’m going to fight the speeding ticket I got a few weeks ago in the Town of Lisbon on the way home from hiking the Ice Age Trail on the Loew Lake segment. I’m taking the approach recommended by Marc Stevens and striking at the root i.e., their claims that their laws and statutes apply to me because I’m physically in the State of Wisconsin, and that they have jurisdiction (they can speak [diction] the law [juris] — they can control me.) That is their argument and I’m simply going to ask: where are the facts — the persons with first hand knowledge — that prove this is true? Mere opinions, albeit, made by men and women dressed in black robes and sitting on pedestals, that reference the state statutes/codes and the citation are circular: the code applies, because the code says it applies (the bible is the word of god because the bible says it is the word of god etc…)

I’m an anarchist. That just means I don’t believe in rulers; it does not mean I don’t believe in rules. I’ve been listening to Lysander Spooner’s seminal work No Treason, No. 6 The Constitution Of No Authority to help ground me:

The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago. And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons who had already come to years of discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory contracts.

I’ll be bringing an unsigned plea of guilt to the intake/arraignment, which I am ready to sign, if they can just show me the facts that substantiate their claims that their laws apply to me and that they have jurisdiction.

Mark Passio explained: “Morality and freedom are directly proportional.” One need look no further than the NSA’s warrantless spying programs to understand how our immoral government reverences the constitution.

When it comes to Buckthorn, I don’t rely on opinions that this obnoxious invasive tree must be eliminated from our forests to grant jurisdiction to me and my chainsaw; I can see the factual evidence that this weed tree is causing harm and violating the rights of White, Red and Burr Oaks to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The Buckthorn Man has jurisdiction!

Last Tuesday, Jim Brown, my oldest and dearest friend — since we were 4 or 5 — came out to help me cut and burn on the east end of the Buckthorn Alley. Here is how it looked west, north and east, before we got started:

Jimmy never flagged and we got a hell of a lot done.

Pati joined us and we warmed up by the fire before taking Jim on a grand tour of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail.

On Wednesday, Chris Mann volunteered to help me burn the brush piles Andy Buchta made on the south side of the trail last Fall, near the location shown above. Again, here is how it looked north, east and south, before we got started:

I wanted to take advantage of the minimal snow and moderate winds.

Jimmy came out again to provide a shot of energy just after Chris left and, all together, we got dozens of brush piles lit.

Thanks Jimmy!

We hung out by the fire and Jim wished the day would never end.

See you at The Springs!

The Pike Lake Springs

Posted on January 26, 2015 by paulmozina

I love springs. They’re pure and simple, shimmering musical, bubbling forth life and hope; just what I need. So it was serendipitous that Pati and I decided to hike the Ice Age Trail in the Kettle Moraine State Forest Pike Lake Unit, where we discovered that the lake is fed by numerous springs along its eastern shore.

The Rubicon River flows through the lake on its way to the Rock River, providing refreshing circulation.

In 2001 a 60′ observation tower was built at the top of Powder Hill that provides a unique perspective of the the surrounding Kettle Moraine topography.

The highlight of the extensive trail system is the Black Forest Nature Trail, which takes you through a remnant of Southern Dry-Mesic Forest that includes spring-fed wetlands.

We are definitely going to visit this beautiful place again as the seasons change.

Back home at The Springs, I had another great week thanks to a little help from my friends. On Martin Luther King Day, I was joined by my old friend from Northwestern Mutual, Mark Mamerow, who helped me for many years to clean out the Bark River and make it navigable for canoes and kayaks from the Village of Hartland to Lake Nagawicka.

Before I dive into our modest accomplishments, I want to call your attention to An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, by William F. Pepper. While the nation was distracted by the O. J. Simpson trial, the family of Dr. King was successfully pursuing truth and justice via a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers. The jury deliberated for about an hour before delivering their verdict:

THE COURT: In answer to the question did Loyd Jowers participate in a conspiracy to do harm to Dr. Martin Luther King, your answer is yes. Do you also find that others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by the defendant? Your answer to that one is also yes. And the total amount of damages you find for the plaintiffs entitled to is one hundred dollars. Is that your verdict?

THE JURY: Yes (In unison).

There is overwhelming evidence that James Earl Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that others, “including governmental agencies” were involved. Yet, every year on Martin Luther King day, the nation’s collective amnesia is “refreshed” by the total blackout of this important information in the main stream media. This is the kind of thing that drives The Buckthorn Man crazy. You can listen to William F. Pepper tell the story here.

I met Mark at the DNR parking area above the Hotel Spring and we headed to the area north of the old barn site along Hwy 67, where I have been working recently. Our goal was to burn the brush previously cut and continue clearing the buckthorn from the hillside below the highway. Here are a few shots taken after we got the first fire started.

We allowed time and energy to take a tour of The Springs afterwards and I got to show off all of the cool things we did last year. Thanks Mark!

Last Thursday I was joined deep in the Buckthorn Alley by Chris Mann and the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards (Brian Brandt and Austin Avellone.) We are clearing the north side of the trail, which, now that you can see, consists of rolling uplands interspersed with wetlands. Here is how it looked before we got started (the views are looking east, north and southeast.)

Lunch break update.

The results far exceeded my expectations! Brian Brandt really kicked ass, putting Chris, Austin and The Buckthorn Man to shame. I think he might even be able to give Ben Johnson and Lindsay Knudsvig a run for their money! Below are the same three perspectives shown above.

Finally, on Saturday, taking advantage of the mild weather, I headed over to the east shore of Ottawa Lake to burn some brush piles that Andy Buchta stacked this past Fall. Thanks again Andy!

Mark Miner joins us when he can, and I really appreciated his help on Saturday to watch and tend the brush piles after I got them lit. We had a safe and effective day burning piles along the lake shore all the way up to the east side of the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA.

Views from the campground, site #380, where I parked my truck.

Views from the east side of the fen.

It’s a load off my mind when I can get brush piles burned!

A couple of closing shots from our adventure at Pike Lake yesterday.

See you at The Springs!

The U. S. Government is a Pyschopath

Posted on January 4, 2015 by paulmozina

The Buckthorn Man enters 2015 swinging a chainsaw and a torch in the hopes that you will see the lay of the land.

Walk this trail with me: Start with an abstraction called government and make it real in your mind (reification); then anthropomorphize it with the worst of human characteristics i.e., psychopathy and you get the metaphor — The U.S. Government is a Psychopath.

Jan Irvin showed me this trail in his recent podcast entitled: “Remedy Roundtable 05 – Prof. Jay Courtney Fikes, Lydia & Royce White Calf – “The Lakota, Naropa Institute, and Wounded Knee – From Gen. Custer to Carlos Castaneda.” I’m embarrassed sometimes by my lack of recollection of history and resulting inability to put current events into context. When reminded of the way the Lakota were treated by the U.S. Government following the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and the way they are being treated now, in the context of the Keystone XL Pipeline debate, I know we are dealing with a psychopath.

It didn’t take but a few years for the U.S. Government to strip the Lakota of the vast majority of the lands, “…set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named…”, as declared in Article II of the treaty.

(Map sourced from OWE AKU International Justice Project)

The U.S. Government has physically, culturally and financially terrorized the Oglala Lakota, or Oglala Sioux, people since they first met. The latest abuse is the continued ignorance of their legitimate ownership claim to the lands ceded to them back in 1868, which, inconveniently, would give them veto power over the proposed path of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

(Map sourced from TransCanada)

The debate in congress focuses on man-made climate change, and the potential for a spill on the pipeline route to pollute the Oglala Aquifer.

But, missing in the debate in the mainstream media and congress, is the context that the proposed pipeline would pass directly through territory ceded by treaty to the Lakota: a treaty the U.S. government abrogated within 8 years of signing. The Lakota people are the only military opponent of the U.S. Government to capture it’s flag 3 times and they are not done fighting! They have refused to be bought off and they stand united to protect the earth and assert their legitimate rights.

I described the double bind I’m in volunteering at The Springs in a recent post i.e., I Hate Government — I Serve Government, and I tried to resolve it by suggesting that I’m really serving The Creator, not the the temporary owner of the land. And so I carry on…

The snow is swirling and blowing outside as I write this and I’m really glad we focused on burning as many brush piles as we could at The Springs, before they got buried. Thursday I was joined by Chris Mann and his team from the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards including: Andy Buchta, Austin Avellone and Phil Hass. Our goal was to burn all of the piles near the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail parking lot on Hwy ZZ.

We did that and a whole lot more. I really enjoy working with these guys! The audio on this clip is drowned out by the wind at times, but you’ll get the idea.

Chris and Phil returned after dinner to listen to The Buckthorn Man rant.

I was in the neighborhood, fetching some water at the Parry Road Spring on Friday, and took advantage of the lack of snow to add some gravel to the beginning of the trail where water tends to puddle.

Here are a view perspectives of the areas we burned on Thursday.

I continued clockwise on the trail through the old buckthorn alley until I arrived on the east end and surveyed the areas we recently burned there.

I’ve been working well into darkness for the last couple of weeks so I really enjoyed seeing The Springs in the daylight.

When I arrived at the Emerald Spring, the water was cloudy and disturbed and I suspected a creature had just vacated the premises. In this video I jump to the conclusion that a turtle is making it’s home in the neighborhood, but I think it might be a muskrat. What do you make of this?

Turtle caves? Muskrat dens?

See you at The Springs!

Fire Works at The Springs

Posted on December 31, 2014 by paulmozina

We’ve been celebrating the end of 2014 at The Springs

with fire works of our own.

It’s been a great year, and we’ve accomplished a lot — some of which is really good. Visit the Archives drop-down list, on the right side of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail Home page, and pick a month to scroll through. I did just that, and added my favorite moments of 2014, one for each month, to the Posts I Like section of the Home page (scroll down and look on the right side.) I hope you have enjoyed your journey on The Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail with The Buckthorn Man in 2014 and that you will continue with me in 2015! I welcome your comments, suggestions, clarifications and corrections.

There is one thing that buckthorn fears more than The Buckthorn Man: FIRE. Buckthorn will fight you until you subject it to the flame. When you’ve been offended, slapped, pricked, tripped, mocked and poked by buckthorn, like The Buckthorn Man has, then you will understand how satisfying it is to cut, poison and burn this vermin foliage in a few hours time.

Usually we wait for snow cover before burning brush piles, but this Winter has been wet enough that I considered giving it a try. Our first burns at the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA were safely conducted and very productive. It saves a tremendous amount of time and effort when you can throw freshly cut buckthorn onto a raging fire, as opposed to piling it to burn another day (when it may be buried under 6″ of snow.)

Last weekend I began burning brush piles along the northeast rim of the loop trail. I tried, and failed, to light some of these piles last year, and was glad to get another chance at them sans snow.

I’ll never get tired of saying ‘it was a great day’!

Andy Buchta came out to help me and mentioned that he had finished piling the brush we cut, and did not burn, at the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA. Thanks Andy!

On Sunday, I had a date with Chris Mann and the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards and we continued where Andy and I left off on Saturday. But first, here are a couple of “the day after” views of what we accomplished.

The slope from the wetland shown above, east to Hwy 67, transitions from mostly buckthorn to mostly black locust. The black locust has been harvested but many of the buckthorn were simply pushed over. The ones that were cut did not appear to be poisoned. The combination of battered buckthorn and slashed black locust resembled a war zone, and I wanted to clean up the mess.

Chris, Andy and Austin joined me as we re-cut and poisoned the buckthorn stumps and fed huge fires with buckthorn and black locust slash. We cleaned up the lower portion of the hillside, leaving the rest for a contractor that the DNR hires. They grind everything up, which contributes fuel for a prescribed burn, but it is necessary to come back and poison the resprouts from the undamaged buckthorn root systems. On the other hand, our technique leaves much less fuel for a prescribed burn but kills the buckthorn the first time. It will be interesting to see how fire carries through these areas if the DNR is successful at executing a prescribed burn here in 2015.

The conditions for burning brush piles are still very good, so I’m going to try to burn as much as I can before the snow finally arrives. We got out again yesterday and continued on the west side of the wetland shown above, approaching The Buckthorn Alley.

It was a cold day and the fires felt real good. Andy, Chris and Austin standing before a huge blaze.

One of my favorite things to do is hang out by a fire on a cold winter’s night. I propped myself up with a pitch fork and watched the smoke trailing up from the embers and through the trees into the moonlit sky.

Happy New Year and I hope to see you at The Springs!

The Ottawa Lake Fen Scientific Area

Posted on December 25, 2014 by paulmozina

Perhaps it was a reaction to my post about the Bluff Creek Springs, where I lamented the inability of the DNR, given the funding available to them, to adequately manage the state-owned lands under their care, that prompted Jared Urban, the coordinator of the State Natural Areas volunteers, to send me the Wisconsin’s Natural Heritage Conservation Program 2014 Annual Report. The report explains some of the complex issues the DNR faces, as they try to manage 673 State Natural Areas encompassing over 373,000 acres with a budget under $5,000,000. I have only respect for the hard working, dedicated staff of the Natural Heritage Conservation Program.

Philosophically, I’m in a bind. Government is literally and etymologically: mind-control. It is a religion based on the dogmatic belief, programmatically instilled in us from birth, that it is OK, even possible, for people to delegate rights that they do not have to an association of people that they call government. People calling themselves “Government” assert rights they do not have, that no human being has e.g., torture, taxation etc., and they take away rights we all inherently possess e.g., prohibition, licensing etc. So long as the vast majority of people continue to believe it is OK to do business and force your services on people at the point of a gun — if you call yourself Government — there will be no awakening of consciousness and immoral acts done in our name will continue.

Whether or not I think or believe any government: federal, state or local, is legitimate, counts for nothing when it comes to the reality of the challenges humanity faces if we choose to accept responsibility for preserving and protecting the flora and fauna on the planet. Right now, entities we call government, control vast and diverse lands encompassing the treasures of the natural world and they are NOT prioritizing the effort to take care of them. The amount of money spent on the Natural Heritage Conservation Program in 2014 is obscenely trivial compared to the amount required, or the amount spent on the military, industrial, security complex (to keep us safe, of course!)

I’m choosing to cooperate with government by volunteering my time and energy to help take care of the land it controls, but I’m sorely conflicted:

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

In the past month I have been focusing, with the help of the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards, on the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA.

Chris Mann, and his team from the KMLS, have made a huge difference, reminiscent of the way Ben Johnson super-charged our efforts at The Springs this past year. Thanks again to Ron Kurowski for hiring Chris and to the Kettle Moraine Natural History Association for funding his team.

As we progressed clearing the buckthorn from the tamarack grove and along the north and east sides of the fen, I imagined a trail all the way around the fen connecting with the boat launch on the southwest side of Ottawa Lake. I asked Anne Korman, the Assistant Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest — Southern Unit, about it and she entertained the idea. I got an email the next day from Eric Tarman-Ramcheck, a long-time land steward recently hired by the DNR, containing The Ottawa Lake Fen Scientific Area Report. This fascinating document, from 1975, provides a window into the management strategy of the DNR at that time, and includes this very interesting map of the fen.

The dashed (——) lines could easily be mistaken for a trail system but they actually demarcate the different plant community zones. Imagine what it was like back in 1975 when the buckthorn was not an issue and the bird watching tower and canoe accessible boardwalk were in place. 40 years of hands-off management “to maintain area in wild condition”, allowed the degradation of the land by invasive species to progress. It has taken the effort of one who “loves his servitude”, to The Creator that is, to reverse that trend.

This past Monday, December 21, Chris Mann and Austin Avellone helped me finish clearing the buckthorn from the east side of the fen, just north of the walk-in campsite #334. Here is how it looked before we got started.

The rain held off until the afternoon and then the gentle drizzle did not damper our spirits. We had a very productive day and I returned the next morning to document the results.

I made a date with Chris and company to meet me at The Springs, just down the trail a bit towards signpost #1, to burn some brush piles we made in late 2013 and cut the nearby buckthorn orchard. Here is what we faced as the sun tried to peek through and a strong breeze from the southwest help dry out the wood.

Jake Michaels joined Chris, Austin and myself and we had a field day!

As I took the video below, two deer crept up behind me, blending in almost imperceptibly with the landscape.

I am amazed and, dare I say, overjoyed, by the progress being made since Chris and the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards joined the fray!

See you at The Springs!

Swift Action In Hartland

Posted on November 9, 2014 by paulmozina

Pati and I were dumbfounded as we walked up the trail to the Cottonwood Gazebo at The Hartland Marsh. What was that monolithic tower poking through the treetops at the top of the hill? I pulled my coat across my face, cowering like quasimodo behind Pati, and, turning slightly to avoid looking directly at it, I pointed with my right hand asking with trembling voice: “what is it?”

I’ve walked up that trail a thousand times and it was absolutely jarring to see a brick tower at the trailhead.

It all started when Tikvah Schlissel, Hanna Kimmel and their friends from the Hartland School of Community Learning heard about the near threatened Chimney Swift…

… and the fact that one of their favorite resting spots in the Village of Hartland was scheduled for destruction. Thousands of lives were at stake! Ramsey Schlissel does a brilliant job telling the story.

The whole Village of Hartland came together spurred by the passionate environmentalism of their vibrantly conscious youth. Wow! They still need some help paying for the new Chimney Swift Tower. Visit them on Facebook or at SaveTheSwifts and make a contribution.

Can a movement in the village to Save The Oaks Of The Hartland Marsh be far behind? The buckthorn has returned, thick as thieves, since I abandoned my valiant (or was it vain?) effort to save the oaks there 3 ½ years ago.

∞∞∞

One of the reasons I “gave up” at the Hartland Marsh was the resistance to the use of fire as a tool to restore the landscape and control the buckthorn seedlings and resprouts. I was lucky they let me finish burning the hundreds of brush piles I left there. At the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail, on the other hand, I have the total support of the DNR, and, in fact, they are hoping to burn The Springs in 2015. To that end, I continue to focus on prepping the land for the next burn.

On Monday, November 3rd, I used a brush cutter to “mow” the woods on the northeast side of the loop trail. The DNR has never been able to get a hot ground fire to run through this area. Now, with the removal of the black locust and my brush clearing, we’re hoping for better results in 2015.

I recently replaced the bar oil pump, clutch and muffler on my Stihl 361 Pro chainsaw and I was eager to see how it performed. On Wednesday I returned to the cut-off trail to finish cutting a little patch of buckthorn on the east side of a wetland that sits between the cut-off trail and north loop trail. Then I moved 100 yards to the east to cut buckthorn on the east side of another wetland near an old building foundation.

And after cutting… the same three perspectives shown above.

Pati joined me and we walked over to the north loop trail to check out the view from that perspective and to see the newly minted brush piles that Andy Buchta made. Thanks Andy!

Here is a view of the work area as seen from a bit further east on the cut-off trail.

And video tour of the area.

My chainsaw ran perfectly and on Friday I was back at it again this time on the south end of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Preserve. There was a patch of buckthorn on a little knoll between the Scuppernong Spring and Hwy 67.

I had to tie a rope around some of the buckthorn to pull them pack away from the road as I cut them.

Then I moved over the west a few yards to tackle a nasty thicket of buckthorn mixed with black oak slash.

Like Wednesday, it was a sunny warm morning that turned cloudy and chilly as the day progressed. Here are the same three views above at the end of the day.

I caught the sunset at Ottawa Lake.

See you at The Springs!

The Ottawa Lake Springs

Posted on October 29, 2014 by paulmozina

I hope you enjoyed the marvelous stretch of blessed Fall weather we recently experienced here in Southeastern Wisconsin as much as I did.

I chose to camp in late October at Ottawa Lake site #335, aka My Shangri-la, back in January because I wanted to enjoy the 5th annual Halloween Bash, and the event turned out to be magical indeed.

The campground was almost full Saturday evening for the climax of the festivities and a crescent moon hung over the lake. As Pati and I strolled amongst the fantasmicgorically decorated campsites, we were occasionally startled by ghoulish outbursts piercing the sweetly scented campfire smoke.

The pumpkin carving was exquisite again this year.

It was pure good fun, except for the premature report of the demise of the Buckthorn man, which I found very disconcerting.

Contrary to the epitaph above, I had a super productive week working on the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail and the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA. I setup camp on Monday October 20th…

… then proceeded with my empty truck to the gravel pile Anne Korman (Assistant Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest — Southern Unit) had directed us to.

There were a few spots on the trail that tended to puddle and I filled them with stone.

Back at camp I enjoyed a dinner of fresh vegetables, stir-fried with the Buckthorn Man’s secret recipe curry brown lentils and wild rice.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I began clearing buckthorn and honeysuckle on the south side of a channel that drains a spring that emerges from a ditch just below Hwy 67.

Here is the view before I got started standing on the shoulder of Hwy 67 and looking towards Ottawa Lake.

People I meet on the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail tell me that they used to be able to see Ottawa Lake from the highway. Now, the only way you could possibly do that is via the drainage shown above. I was determined to reopen this view as a tease to draw people into exploring this beautiful area. At the end of the day on Wednesday, I followed the drainage up expecting to see the water emerging from a culvert that drains wetlands on the northeast side of Hwy 67. Instead, the culvert was dry and I found the source was a bubbling spring on the west side of the highway.

On Thursday I took a day off, sort of, sharpening my chains in camp and later meeting Ben Johnson at the Hotel Springs to work on positioning a boardwalk that we had relocated to the cut-off trail. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits one bit! It was a pleasure to have Ben over to the campsite for dinner afterwards and we dried our butts off by the fire.

Lindsay Knudsvig joined me on Friday and we began clearing the north side of the channel that flows from the spring I “discovered” on Wednesday. Ottawa Lake is fed by many springs and I think this one may be the most substantial. Here are a couple views after we finished for the day.

There is a massive, pre-settlement, white oak near the spring’s channel.

Unfortunately, Lindsay could not stay for dinner, but Pati came out and we enjoyed the sunset and campfire.

There is an embankment on the north side of the channel that extends out to where the water joins the pond that is at the center of the Ottawa Lake Fen. There are excellent views south, west and north from this vantage point.

On Saturday I started to clear the buckthorn from both sides of this embankment. Here is what it looked like before I got started (looking left, then right).

I finished the left side on Saturday and began clearing the debris from the channel with the intention of getting a current flowing all the way to the union with the fen pond. That evening Pati returned to stay a couple nights with me and it was sweet.

On Sunday morning we took a nice walk around the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail waiting for the day to warm up and then we headed to where the Scuppernong River passes under Hwy Z to do our last river monitoring of the year. You can view the data we collected in 2014 at the Water Action Volunteers site by searching by site (Scuppernong River at Count Hwy Z) and specifying the date range of April thru November and the “select all parameters” button.

In the last post I made the bold and unsubstantiated assertion that: “We do not see the diversity of macroinvertebrates typically found on stoney, sandy, bottom riverbeds…”, in the muck and marl filled stretches of the headwaters of the Scuppernong River. So, Pati and I repeated the same biotic index study we did at Hwy Z as part of our river monitoring, at four locations in the Scuppernong River headwaters where the DNR is planning to remove material to enable the river to headcut. We investigated the areas just upstream from where the changes will be made. Here is what we found (refer to this link to see pictures of the Macroinvertebrates):

Where the Scuppernong River crosses Hwy Z, which has a stoney and sandy riverbed:

Aquatic Sow Bug
Crawfish
Amphipod or Scud
Dameslfly larva
Giant Water Bug
Back Swimmer
Water Boatman
Riffle Beetle Larva
Pouch Snail
Caddisfly Larva

Now, at the four sites in the headwaters. First at the Old Mill site:

Aquatic Sow Bug
Crawling Water Beetle
Amphipod or Scud
Dameslfly larva
Predaceous Diving Beetle
Back Swimmer
Riffle Beetle Larva
Orb Snail
Caddisfly Larva

At the Hotel Spring Bridge site:

Aquatic Sow Bug
Fishing Spider
Amphipod or Scud
Nematode of Threadworm
Leech
Pouch Snail
Riffle Beetle Larva
Orb Snail
Caddisfly Larva

At the bridge to the Hidden Spring site:

Aquatic Sow Bug
Amphipod or Scud
Nematode of Threadworm
Whirligig Beetle
Pouch Snail
Predaceous Diving Beetle
Dobsonfly Larva
Caddisfly Larva

And finally, at the first bridge to the Hillside Springs:

Aquatic Sow Bug
Amphipod or Scud
Riffle Beetle
Riffle Beetle Larva
Dobsonfly Larva
Caddisfly Larva
Backswimmer
Water Strider

I think it is fair to say that I was wrong to conclude that there was not the same diversity of macroinvertebrates in the headwaters area, where the riverbed is generally full of muck and marl, as further downstream, like at Hwy Z, where the riverbed is stoney and sandy. I did have to literally drag the net through the muck and marl in the headwaters to get the samples so it may be the case the the macroinvertebrates there are not as accessible to the trout as they are in the areas downstream that are stoney and sandy. In any case, we will continue to collect data in the headwaters at the sites listed above next spring, before any changes are made to remove material from the former embankments, and continue to collect data after the changes are made.

Sunday evening we finished dinner early and raced over to the Indian Campgrounds to catch the sunset.

And finally, this past Monday, I finished clearing the buckthorn along both sides of the embankment that follows the Ottawa Lake Spring channel to its entrance to the fen pond.

One Last view from the highway.

I also pulled out a lot more junk from the spring channel including: a car tire, one 5 gallon bucket, three 1 gallon plastic plant containers, bottles, cans, logs, planks and deck boards. Walk with me as I follow the channel from the fen up to its source at the spring. There is a bit of drama halfway through when I get stuck in muck up to my chest and let a few choice words fly.

Last but not least, I captured these images of the brush piles that Andy Buchta made on the east side of Ottawa Lake in the area that I cleared last month when I camped at My Shangri-La. Thanks Andy!

See you at The Springs!

KMSF — Southern Unit Wins 2014 Gold Seal Award

Posted on September 26, 2014 by paulmozina

The Kettle Moraine State Forest — Southern Unit won the 2014 Gold Seal Award for the best self-guided nature trail! There are 5 self-guided nature trails in the Southern Unit: Bald Bluff, Lone Tree Bluff, Paradise Springs, Scuppernong Springs and Stute Springs. The Friends of Wisconsin State Parks announced the contest back in August. Congratulations to all the hard working folks at the Southern Unit including: Superintendent Paul Sandgren, Assistant Superintendent Anne Korman, and especially, Don Dane — the Trail Boss!

Ben Johnson, and his wife Karen, were hard at work while Pati and I vacationed up North. They added 12 more steps to complete the erosion control on the path down to the Indian Spring from signpost #6 and they installed a very stylish bench near the Hotel Spring.

I whacked some buckthorn sprouts and seedlings with my brush cutter on Tuesday and ran into Dr. Dan Carter from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. He was documenting rare plants and waiting for the rest of his team to arrive to complete the demarcation of the wetlands for the Wisconsin DOT. I know, “Say it ain’t so Joe!”, but WisDOT is in the initial planning stage of some changes deemed necessary to make Hwy 67 safer. Please plan on attending the public meeting, which WisDOT will be scheduling for later this Fall, and help us make sure they don’t mess with The Springs.

Dan has a keen eye and he spotted the sixth known occurrence of Pipsissewa (Chimaphila Umbellata) in the area: “It is more rare in the region than any other plant I am aware of at The Springs…” (photo courtesy of Dan Carter)

I want to give a belated thank you to Scuppernong Springs Super Friend, Anne Moretti for informing me that there is a difference between Buckthorn and Chokecherry!

Last year when I was cutting in The Buckthorn Tunnel, Anne noticed that I was oblivious to the distinction and she gently pointed it out. Well, I’m a little slow when it comes to confronting my own ignor-ance and I finally “did the grammar” and now I know the difference. I’m going to let 100 Chokecherries blossom!

I had a crazy busy week and didn’t get much work done at The Springs, but Pati and I did enjoy a wonderful late afternoon at Ottawa Lake yesterday, and we caught the sunset from the Indian Campground.

Andy Buchta has started piling the buckthorn I recently cut on the east shore of Ottawa Lake. Thanks Andy!