Jon Bradley Loves the Springs

Posted on October 7, 2012 by paulmozina

Here is a guest blog from Jon Bradley.

The Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail is one of my favorite places. I started walking it when I was just a young child. I still grab a guide at the entrance of the trail every time I go, although I pretty much have the entire thing memorized. I’ve been to the trail at least once every year, and this year I’ve been lucky enough to visit it 6 times, and planning a 7th visit this October when the leaves change. In fact, last year, on October 8th, I came for the fall colors as well, and it was a fantastic sight along the crystal clear Scuppernong River.

Also some fall colors at the old Marl Plant.

One of the reasons I love this area so much is because it seems to be a good fit for a wide variety of animals and plants, some even threatened or endangered, and the common ones thrive. Snakes are almost a guaranteed sight along this trail in Spring and Autumn. Last autumn I found this young Common Garter Snake next to the main Scuppernong springs.

One of my favorite views (and with the recent efforts to clear out some trees, an even better view) of the Scuppernong River Habitat Area, is located at the old Native American campsite. This photo of the fantastic view was taken 8/27/12.

Last Autumn I found this large spider at the Native American campsite. I don’t know spiders, but I think its probably a Wolf Spider.

Here is a photo of the Hotel Spring that I took earlier this year, and I’d like to mention on my last trip there (2 days ago) I noticed one of the bricks had fallen off the wall and into the water.

Lastly, I have a few photos of the centerpiece of this trail, the Scuppernong River.
The first photo was taken on August 27th, in the morning before the fog rolled off. This is one of my favorite parts of the trail. There always seems to be a lot of bird life in this area such as Eastern Kingbirds, Cooper’s Hawks, Belted Kingfishers, American Goldfinches, and Great Blue Herons. I know its also a good place to find Garter Snakes, Hog-Nosed Snakes, and Northern Watersnakes. I love that the place is literally crawling with wildlife.

These two photos were taken just past the Marl Works, to the east. This area is listed as #5 on the guide and highlights fur trapping. The first photo was taken in the morning on August 27th, 2012, and the second was taken in the early afternoon on July 9th, 2012.

Finally, this area was recently cleared right near the old Hotel, and is listed #12 on the guide.

(ed. note, Thanks Jon for your story and great pics!)

Get After It! Interview with Dave Hoffman

Posted on October 5, 2012 by paulmozina

It’s good to be back at the Springs! Pati and I had a great time on our road trip out West, which included Yellowstone, The Tetons, Glacier, Crater Lake and Mt Shasta. I know this will sound crazy but I am able to share our experience ala John Coffey, the death row prisoner featured in the movie “The Green Mile”, so be sure to visit me out at the Springs so I can lay my hands on you!

Out West, when you want to get something done, you “Get After It” and that is going to be our new motto out at the Springs.

Lindsay and I “got after it” yesterday, 10/4, and the day started with removing a huge Red Oak that snapped off at the base and fell across the trail just up the hill from the Scuppernong Spring.

Then we went down to the river just below the Scuppernong Spring to attack a patch of Phragmities that we are treating as a test plot. We want to see how the technique of bundling, cutting and poisoning with Habitat works. Lindsay learned the technique while volunteering with the DNR (Jared Urban) at the Bluff Creek Site. Here our a few pictures

As we were “getting after it”, Dave Hoffman, DNR Bureau of Endangered Resources Specialist, who is currently working to secure a grant via the North American Wetland Conservation Act to continue the restoration efforts in the Scuppernong River Habitat Area begun by Ron Kurowski, paid us a visit. What a coincidence! With the departure of DNR veteran Tim Peters, Dave is stepping up to fill the gap in coordinating the DNR efforts to execute the master plan for the Scuppernong River watershed. We toured the site with Dave and captured a short interview with him, which you can listen to here Dave Hoffman Interview 20121004.

After our visit with Dave, we resumed our efforts to prepare the Sand Prairie at the Indian Campground site for mowing. DNR Trail Boss, Don Dane, is planning to mow this area soon. We worked in the area South of the spur trail that leads to the Indian Spring.

We still have some prep work to complete in this area and plan to “Get After It!” on Saturday.

Brush clearing along the river

Posted on September 3, 2012 by paulmozina

I’m revisiting a couple of areas that I worked on last year. On the first pass through these areas along the river, I focused on Buckthorn and left a lot of brush including Willows and Dogwoods and a lot of scruffy, half-burned, Cherry trees and spindly Aspens that have fallen over without the Buckthorn there to prop them up. The areas in question are highlighted below.

Trail boss Don Dane and retired DNR naturalist Ron Kurowski both recommended cutting these woody plants to clear the way for the natural Fen and Wet Meadow plant communities. This will also improve the views from the bridges at the Marl Pits #4 and on the Scuppernong River at #5 above on the map as well as reveal clear views of the Marl Pit bridge and Scuppernong River from the Scenic Overlook on the Indian Campground.

Here is view from the Scenic Overlook looking in the direction of the Marl Pit bridge. The brush in question is just to the right of the two big Red Oak trees in the center of the picture.

Here is view from the bridge over the Scuppernong River at signpost #5. The brush is on the left in the shadows.

And here is the view from the Marl Pit bridge. The brush appears above the cattails and below the large trees.

That was harder than I thought it would be. After 10+ hours cutting in a Willow thicket, I was about ready to throw my chain saw at it. It was hot today (9/3), and I was pouring sweat from the minute I fired up the chain saw. Here are the after pictures, first from the scenic overlook. It’s hard to see in this picture but you can now see the river flowing underneath the Marl Pit bridge.

And the view from the bridge over the Scuppernong River at #5.

And the view from the Marl Pit bridge. Notice you can see through to the scenic overlook.

I’m taking a break for a month and will be back at it around 10/6. Hope to see you out at the Springs sometime.

Buckthorn Clearing Continues at Indian Springs

Posted on August 28, 2012 by paulmozina

It’s been a while since we cut Buckthorn at the Indian Springs. Lindsay took a bite out of it on Saturday 8/25 and I did some cutting yesterday 8/27. Here are some before shots.

At the work site as the fog was lifting.

And the view from the scenic overlook.

6 tanks of gas and bar oil later the view from the work site.

And the scenic overlook.

And from the Indian Spring.

We are focusing on cutting now to allow the Buckthorn to dry out as much as possible. We’ll pile it later to finish preparing it for burning this Winter, when we get some snow cover.

On his last visit, Ron Kurowski showed me where a spring was hidden by the old hotel site. I have marked it with a white line on this map.

I forgot to take some before pictures, but all you could see was a bit of water cress. Below are pictures of the “new” Spring after I cleaned it up. When I found the 4″ pipe that was originally installed to collect and channel the outflow of the Spring and unplugged it, the water began flowing at a much higher volume. Thanks Ron for pointing out the location of this Spring!

The view from the trail. The outflow pipe is hidden under the big flat stone.

And the view from the river.

It was another beautiful day at the Springs. Here are a few closing shots.

The scenic overlook and Indian Campground after the recent clearings as seen from the Marl pits.

Evening.

Flora Update

Posted on August 26, 2012 by paulmozina

Here is a guest blog from Ron Kurowski, retired DNR naturalist.

This is a photo of forked aster (state threatened plant),

which is found in only one location at the Scuppernong Springs at present. It is found on the east side of the sand dune in the more open woods, towards the bottom of the slope (left of the boardwalk).

It appeared suddenly after several controlled burns. At times I have seen over 100 plants blooming in this general location. There is also a colony blooming at Paradise Springs, so I would suspect that it likes wet soils.

Lesser fringed gentian (state threatened plant). The yellow flower is from
shrubby cinquefoil that is common to fens.

You will also find the larger gentian growing here too, probably reaching its peak, sometime around the middle of September. (ed. note, the picture was taken along the Marl Pit)

This picture shows the large marl pit at its south end.

I have never seen the water level in the marl pits so low. The plant community to the left of the marl pit is part fen and sedge meadow. The fen is just starting to show its beautiful flowers, so people who walk along the marl pit in the next
couple of weeks will see several fen flowers including grass-of-Parnassus,
nodding lady’s tresses orchid, small fringed gentian (state threatened) Ohio
goldenrod, marsh thistle, and gerardia. Fens are springy wet grass lands
that very alkaline and the rich marl (calcium carbonate) soils make this a
very special site.

(ed. note Thanks Ron! Regarding Purple Loosestrife and Tracy Hame’s recommendation that we introduce the Loosestrife Beetle, Ron explained that the DNR has been doing this for many years in this area. I am following up with him on this to see if we should step up this effort. The Purple Loosestrife appears to be getting the upper hand.)

I Can See Clearly Now…

Posted on August 24, 2012 by paulmozina

My last 4 visits to the Springs were spent prepping the Indian Campground for mowing and burning. I made good progress on 8/21 on the Northeast section.

Cutting stumps and charred logs in the sand is tough on the chain, bar and sprocket. The grit gets in between the swiftly rotating parts and wears them down fast. I had to constantly stop and tighten the chain because of the wear on the links. I wore out 4 chains, a bar and 2 sprockets.

To preserve my sanity, I needed to work on something a little easier and more fun so yesterday I focused on continuing the effort to open up the views to the West from the Indian Campground Scenic Overlook.

I am a landscape artist in my dreams and when I resumed working at the Springs in April 2011 my first goal was to open up the views West from the Scenic Overlook. To that end, I began clearing Buckthorn on both sides of the Indian Springs and yesterday was the day to “take the curtain down” and see what we could see. Here is a before picture and video panorama.

The trees in the foreground of the picture above on the left included Cherry, Red Oak and Hickory. Normally I focus on Buckthorn but in this case, recognizing the land was previously an open wetland/meadow, the DNR recommended these trees be cut. I purposely preserved the longest, straightest pieces of wood that I could. I know a couple people who turn wood on lathes and they may be able to make something from these pieces. If you would like to harvest some 10-14″ diameter 20-30′ foot long pieces, of Cherry, Red Oak or Hickory, please help yourself. In the interest of making a dramatic change, I focused on cutting and saved the piling for another day. I must admit, as I contemplated the days work and the huge difference I was about to effect, my heart was racing. As we used to say, it was a rush.

Here is an after picture and video panorama.

The row of Buckthorn on the left in the picture above is the target for the next workday. Later that evening I was joined by my wife Pati, who road her bike out from our home in Milwaukee, and I took a few more pictures.

I hope you like it!

Later that afternoon Ron Kurowski, retired DNR naturalist and the force behind the Scuppernong River Habitat Area project, stopped by and we took a walk around. I can best describe his mood as ebullient. He showed me pictures and described the many flowers, some rare, that he had seen already on his walk. I asked him to document his findings and send me the descriptions and pictures so I can post them as a guest blog here. Thanks Ron!

Ron filled in more of the history of the most recent beaver activity in the area and explained the relationship between the dam they made at the Marl Pit bridge and the defunct short cut trail that used to bisect the loop trail. The dam caused so much water to back up that it flooded the area to the North where the cutoff trail went. Check out the map above, this is a huge area! Although beavers have always been an important contributor to the natural landscape, the powers that be dictated that they had to go. Ron hired a trapper to remove the beaver and he said one of them was over 100 lbs, the biggest beaver he had ever caught. Ron said the beaver at the Marl Pit dam used to be quite an attraction. My efforts to redirect the river back onto its main channel, from where it had gotten diverted by the beavers, is holding up around 90% effective. This will have to be redone.

As we toured the Springs, especially the area around the Emerald Springs, Ron suggested that we contact Ben Heussner, DNR Fish Biologist, and get some of the left over “geo logs” that were originally used to help constrain the river into a narrower channel. We need to install more of these logs and do some dredging to continue the efforts to put the river back into its natural bed. There is still too much water spreading out into the surrounding land around the Emerald Springs and it is feeding the Phragmites and Cattail. We’re not done “fixing the water” yet.

Tracy Hames Interview

Posted on August 20, 2012 by paulmozina

We had a wonderful visit with Tracy Hames, the executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, on Sunday August 19th. It is easy to see why they hated to see Tracy leave his position as head of the Yakama Nation’s Waterfowl Program. Tracy is very passionate and enthusiastic about protecting and restoring our wetland resources and we are lucky to have him back home in Wisconsin.

Tracy, Sophia, Connie, Lindsay, Paul and Pati at the Scuppernong Springs. Thanks Anne for the photo!

Connie captured some great moments on video and pictures as we toured the Springs and we will add some of that content to this blog soon. Listen to the interview I captured with Tracy at the Indian Springs.

Tracy had many suggestions for things we could do including: introducing beetles to attack the Purple Loosestrife, working with a DNR Hydrologist to install one or more water flow gauges, studying the historic (before European settlement) use of the land and water and the flora and fauna present at that time, and in general, carefully monitoring the results of all remedial actions we taken to determine their efficacy.

Later that day, our friends Jim and Cathy Brown visited us and we took another tour of the Springs. We walked out along the Marl Pit channel, which is very easy to do now because of the dry weather, and I captured a couple shots along the way.

The opening in the distance on the hillside below is the Indian Campground.

Hope to see you soon out at the Springs!

Fix the Water

Posted on August 18, 2012 by paulmozina

“Fixing the water” has been one of the top priorities of the DNR and the Kettle Moraine Natural History Association in regards to the Scuppernong River Habitat Area Restoration. Our efforts to clean up the Springs, the headwaters of the Scuppernong River, compliment the DNR’s efforts to put the river back on its original stream bed (Ben Heussner interview) and all of the other things they are doing to improve the watershed.

On Sunday August 19th we will be taking a tour of the Springs with Tracy Hames, the executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association. Tracy spent 20 years working to “fix the water” on the Yakama Reservation in Washington state. Here is a bit of Tracy’s philosophy. excerpted from his Wetlands & Riparian Restoration Project documentation.

“we’re trying to restore the hydrology
– to get the water working the way it used
to. That’s what we’re talking about when
we talk about hydrologic restoration. The
first thing we want to do on a project like
this is ‘fix the water.’ Then you can start
working on all of the other components.”

The last time DNR trail boss Don Dane took a tour with us, Lindsay pointed out that the river had taken an unwanted diversion immediately West of the Marl Pit bridge. Don recommended that we block the side channel and get the river running back on its main course. Ron Kurowski also recommended the same when he toured the site back in the Spring. So, in honor of Tracy’s visit, I took a break from brush clearing and tried to “fix the water”.

These pictures are taken from the Marl Pit bridge area and show the before views downstream. The river got off course sometime after the channels connecting the Marl Pits to the River were filled in with gravel. There used to be large buckthorn trees laying across the main channel and they trapped logs and other debris until finally the river found a way around by making a turn to the right/North. The river returned to the main channel approximately 20 yards downstream.

A better view of the main channel full of debris.

The side channel diversion is show below.

Here are some after shots. I noticed a classic pool, riffle, run pattern after the river resumed its normal course. There is a pool right where the side channel formed and now, after the clean up, you can see this followed by a riffle, a run and another pool where the old side channel returns to the river (Ben Heussner explains this pattern in his interview).

My repair job is probably not up to DNR standards, but its a start.

Snakes and Birds!

Posted on August 18, 2012 by paulmozina

Today we are featuring a guest blog by John and Sue Hrobar

Sue and I have been fortunate this past year to have the time to hike the Scuppernong Springs trail every few days usually a couple of times a week. We have been impressed by all the invasive clearing that you, Pati, Lindsay and your occasional other volunteers (ed. note Saturn Tre Volte, Mark Mamerow, John Mesching, Mike Fort) have accomplished. Sue and I try to hike a number of the other trails in Waukesha County and have hiked a number of sections of the Ice Age Trail. We both feel the Scuppernong Springs trail is one of the most important for a number of reasons. At Scuppernong Springs, you have a number of habitats and soil types and conditions all coming together. There is some gradient associated with moraine topography which contributes to the springs and you have lowlands, wetlands , fens and what almost seems to be an old vegetated dune in the area above and to the east of the Indian Springs. This juxtaposition of these variables allow a visitor to view habitats and their gradation into each other, sometimes abruptly, and how the plants and critters that make up that biota interact and use the habitats.

The photos below are from several dates. As we all recall it has been a brutally hot and abnormally dry summer. Many plants bloomed quite early . Once the hot weather set in Sue caught these images. On July 1st, these three snakes were observed in the creek, near the marl pit bridge. The two lighter colored snakes are Northern Water snakes, the one with his head under a rock is underwater in the middle of the creek, after a minute or two he came to the surface with what appeared to be a Slimy Sculpin in his mouth. He was pretty quick so Sue couldn’t quite get that shot. We had only a fleeting glimpse of the small Darker snake underwater so we didn’t positively ID it. Then she has a nice photo from July 9th which is a nice photo of a Hog Nosed snake. We have observed several of these in various locations. On one occasion we observed Mr Hog-nose with toad legs still hanging out of his mouth but we didn’t want to get closer or attempt a photo and disturb his well earned meal.

Northern Water Snake.

Darter Snake?

Hog Nosed Snake.

Sue and I wanted to send you these photos taken near what we call the Hotel Spring, from the trail guide, which is downstream from one of the wooden bridge crossings. The springs have a nice dolomite wall in an arc which is handy to sit on and cool your feet on these very hot summer days. Sitting on the dolomite wall arc and cooling our feet on June 26th, we were able to observe this beautiful scarlet tanager using the shade of the large willow that cools the rocky riffle area that has spring water flowing out over it. Numerous other species were flitting in and out of the willow and the shaded riffle area. We speculated that the combination of shade, firm rocky riffle with cool water and some over head protection from a possible predation from Copper’s hawks made this a special area for a number of bird species.

On July 1st ( still beastly hot) this female goldfinch and waxwing were again enjoying the shaded, cooled riffle area. We have seen many bird species flying in and out and perching on many different plants and areas all along the trails. The variety of birds and numbers taking advantage of this spot surprised us and after documenting this use we thought it important to mention to you.

(ed. note Thanks John and Sue! We appreciate your observation that the huge Willow Tree by the Hotel Springs creates a unique setting for birds. We had planned to cut this Willow down to open up the views up and down the river but, per your advice, we will not cut it.)

Indian Campground Cleanup Continues

Posted on August 15, 2012 by paulmozina

My ever loving and trustworthy soul mate Pati Holman came out with me yesterday to work at the Springs. She took a day off from her work as a Feldenkrais Practitioner to play in the Sand Prairie with me. Pati has been very supportive over the last 15 years helping me out when she could at the Brady’s Rocks and Hartland Marsh projects.

We continued the effort to prepare the Indian Campground Sand Prairie for mowing and burning doing some clearing and piling in the Northeast corner. It was a hot day! Here are a couple of before shots.

The view from the Indian Campground looking West.

Pati pulling spotted knapweed.

The target work area.

After cutting and piling.

It’s slow going as the area is a tangle of large dead trees interspersed with “witches broom” regrowth from the previous mowing all tied together with wild grape vines.