Lands, waters a matter of trust
Trust isn't a long word. But it is an extremely important one in multiple contexts.
For starters, it forms the foundation of lasting relationships.
I was reminded of it last week when Kal Larson of Brookfield invited me to join him on a fishing outing.
It would involve about a 800-yard pull of a canoe into a lake on a stateowned property in southern Wisconsin.
The "walk-in" or "carry-in" access waterbody wasn't large and didn't have huge fish. But it offered good water quality, had no buildings or piers on its shores, was rarely visited by other anglers and provided a unique, "up north" feel for a lake within 45 minutes drive of Milwaukee.
Larson is a retired high school teacher and avid outdoorsman I've known for 15 years. Our friendship had taught me he didn't just want me along on this trip to serve as a mule. Or that he'd be taking me on a gnarly march through a waistdeep, mosquito-infested swamp.
Of course if trust is to endure it has to work both ways. In return, I knew he'd prefer I not tell the world about a place he discovered through research and legwork.
We set out mid-morning Monday on a gem of a late August day. The air temp was 78 and a cool front overnight ushered in clear skies and light winds.
We plunked Larson's canoe on a home-made wheeled contraption, filled it with a cooler and some fishing tackle and pulled it along a tree-lined path. It was a breeze to haul the rig over the hard trail.
After about 20 minutes an opening in the trees revealed a sparkling jewel of a lake. We unstrapped the canoe from the wheeled base and carried it a few feet to a sandy shore.
Moments later we were paddling and casting along weed edges on a 30-acre piece of public, watery paradise.
The fish were relatively small - largemouth bass that averaged about 10 inches in length and bluegills about 5 - but eager and fun to catch on light tackle.
We were joined on the water by a trio of great-blue herons and one great egret. Over our 4-hour outing, a total of four other humans made appearances along the water's edge, one with a dog.
Mature red pines and white oaks dominated the shore.
About noon we dropped an anchor mid-lake and enjoyed lunch with a couple of beverages and sandwiches.
If you changed the lake's name and location, it was a spitting image to many I've fished in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and Northern Highlands-American Legion State Forest.
But this place was on public land in southern Wisconsin. For me, it was nirvana.
Most of my friends and I have an unspoken honor code which I do my best to abide. And I will this time.
I have a handful of reasons for mentioning the experience.
One is to remind readers that such opportunities exist, even in highly developed regions.
But they can be hard to find.
So I'd also like to implore the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Department of Tourism, county forests and local units of government to constantly update and improve their recreational outreach and products.
The lake Larson and I fished, for example, does not appear on any list I could find of carry-in, walk-in or shoreline fishing.
I'd also like to highlight another aspect of that short but meaningful word from the beginning of the column - in this case, a common trust protected by law.
Wisconsin's Public Trust Doctrine assures that navigable waters are public property for all to enjoy and that we have access to lakes and streams.
Wisconsin law protects our access to waters and keeps them public.
In addition, municipalities have a legal responsibility under state statutes to provide public access to navigable waterways.
To protect the Public Trust Doctrine, the Wisconsin legislature enacted a system called Lake and Navigable Stream Shore Plats. It requires a 60-foot-wide access corridor to the water's edge connected to existing public roads, at not more than one-half mile intervals.
Very few people know where these access points are located.
Here's the good news: the DNR is starting a project to share the information and make it readily available with the latest technology.
The agency has formed a Waterway Access Mapping Team to lead the work. It includes representatives from the agency's lakes, fisheries, legal, wildlife, real estate, parks, natural heritage conservation and R3 departments.
The work and ultimately the product available to the public will rely on powerful geographic information system (GIS) mapping tools from the Wisconsin Land Records Modernization Act (Statewide Parcel Map Initiative established by Act 20 of 2013).
At the end of the Monday outing, Larson and I had nine bluegills on ice. We also took home some trash we found floating on the shoreline.
And we had filled our creels with that precious commodity of time spent in the great outdoors on Wisconsin's public lands and waters.
It behooves state and federal agencies to make it as easy as possible for the public to get out and enjoy the lands and waters we all own.
So now, at the start of what Backcountry Hunters & Anglers calls "Public Lands Month" and what the federal government has proclaimed "National Wilderness Month," here's hoping access to and information on Wisconsin's public resources only continues to improve.