OWAA Conference — The Driftless Area

Presented by John (Duke) Welter, vice-chair of the National Board of Trustees, Trout Unlimited.

24,000 square mile area in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.
Characterized by a limestone bedrock that was not part of the last glacier activity (10,000 to 12,000 years ago)
Other names are blufflands, coulee regions—depending on the location. Basically same area.
Contains about 4,500 to 5,000 miles of coldwater streams in this area that harbor trout.
Algific slopes (aka refrigerated slopes).
These areas have their own unique insect life.
This area has a colorful social history: Trapping and trading, lead mining, Indian conflicts, Underground slave railroad, and more.
Upon settlement, much of the soil on the ridge-tops was susceptible to erosion through gully flooding.
The depths of the topsoil erosion(down in the lowlands) typically ranges from about 4’ to over 20’ deep.
Now, these rivers are carving their way through this eroded soil which comprises the river banks of these trout streams.
Contour farming, upland flood control dams, CRP and reforestation all improve the stream culture for trout.
Richard J. Dorer (state forest) is a model for reforestation to reduce erosion—both on private and state owned land.
If you can control the soil erosion these are really high quality trout streams.
Today, the erosion is from the streambanks and not the gully erosion from up higher on the bluffs.
For instance, over-grazing on streams breaks down the stream quicker.
So what needs to be done? Move forward the science of watershed restoration. Get funding for the projects and build regional identity.
Marry local TU chapters with a need with other (bigger) TU Chapters that perhaps don’t even have a trout stream in their area.
Local communities were also adopting streams and building up the stream quality.
Some of the projects have allowed different techniques to be tried to see what works best.
Not all efforts are being completed just for the benefit of trout, there are snake hibernaculum and turtle habitat also incorporated into the efforts. Some valleys even include habitat for migratory songbirds.
It was important that for lots of these efforts they needed to have public access guaranteed.
The goal has long been not to have any costs on the landowner.
Economic impact throughout the region is $1.1 billion per year in this region.
Quality of life is another big issue for this region.
Why is this area different from other trout spots around the country? These are small, intimate and challenging streams that can be tremendously challenging for the fisher.
It’s a place you go for your fairly private streams…there’s no epicenter of activity (like you find in streams in Western States). The good fishing is spread out over a large area of the region.
“Flyfishing Midwestern Spring Creeks” by Ross Mueller (suggested read)