Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic
for this August 7th, 2025.
Have your host James here.
We're joined right now by our great friend from UW Division of Extension Wood County.
We have Anna Mitchell with us.
Nice to be here.
It's always good to see you.
And thank you so much for being here.
It's been a little while.
I always appreciate you here and certainly appreciate everything UW does and the extension
and the great team you guys got over there.
You give us a chance to touch on topics.
We don't always get to in our day to day lives.
In particular, today's I think is a really good one.
We're going to talk about aquatic ecosystems.
And this is an interesting topic to me, one that I feel like every time I think I know
something about, I talk to you and I don't very little.
So let's find some out and let's get into this a little bit.
Yeah, so we're going to take a very high level overview because I could spend probably
a whole show just talking about each one of these ecosystems.
We're going to talk about one of us, I guess all five of Wisconsin's aquatic ecosystems.
So as all of us know, Wisconsin is very rich in our aquatic resources, our lakes, rivers,
streams.
We have a vast diversity of aquatic ecosystems.
There's actually five.
They include lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and parts of the Great Lakes that border
are state.
So a lot of these ecosystems are super vital to our state.
They provide a ton of economy.
They're really vital for our environment and the recreational opportunities that us
and others from outside of our state usually come here to seek.
In fact, these ecosystems are so important that they support a large majority of our states
plant an animal life and we have over 160 fish species.
Those are native fish species here in Wisconsin.
These ecosystems support 19 of our states' amphibians and thousands of invertebrate species
and those invertebrates are like bugs, aquatic bugs and stuff.
I've been fishing for over 20 years since I moved out here and everything.
If you had asked me to name 160 of the different types of fishes, I could get 10 maybe.
I would never have guessed that many types.
A number like that, I can't speak for others, but I know for me, it really reminds me of
the impact and the importance of this conversation and keeping our wetlands safe, keeping all of
these things that we're going to get into safe.
It's also just kind of cool to think about too, you know, that there's that many different
types in our lakes and naturally growing fish.
Right, yeah.
I think it's really easy to think about those game species, which I'll talk about a little
bit.
I could also dive really deep into fishers, but then we have some of those non-game species
that are really unique and cool.
I think those probably make up a vast majority of those 165 species.
I think we just also stumble across a future topic.
I think so.
I think so.
You mentioned the types of aquatic ecosystems we have here in Wisconsin.
Would you mind if we kind of broke those down a little bit, spend some time on each one
of those?
Yeah, for sure.
So we'll go through all five of them.
Like I said, this is just a real brief overview of them.
So the first of those aquatic ecosystems is our inland lakes.
So in Wisconsin, we have over 15,000 inland lakes, which many have been formed by glaciers
in the past, which is pretty cool.
That's 3% of our area in the state, nearly 1 million acres is lakes.
Yeah.
That's staggering to think of.
Wow.
Yeah, I like to say, you know, they say Minnesota is a land of 10,000 lakes.
Well, Wisconsin is a land of 10,000 more.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is a good line.
That's a good line.
Yeah.
So these inland lakes are aquatic ecosystems that support numerous different fish communities.
You know, those game fishes like Walleye, Northern Pike, Panfish, Muskie and others.
But they also support some of those non-games species too and a lot of our amphibians.
Yeah.
When it comes to the importance of these things, I hope other people are catching some
of these numbers that you're throwing out there.
We understand.
I don't believe there's a Wisconsin citizen that doesn't understand what we're talking
about.
I don't want to.
Man splain was constant to Wisconsinites already.
But I do think that it, even the most diehard nature lover, the most, you know, was
Wisconsinite, Wisconsinite is going to hear some of these numbers and be like, wow, I
didn't realize.
Yeah.
Hopefully that really brings home the impact of this, the importance of this, but also how
cool this is and some pride in these things.
I don't know that we get to touch on that as much.
A lot of the time we're trying to bring awareness to things and that's really first and foremost
is so important for any of the other things we want to enjoy.
But there is nothing wrong with taking some pride in your land, taking some pride in
your state.
Yeah.
I'm seeing a lot of that from this and I'm not even going to Wisconsinite.
Oh, well, good.
I love it.
I think it's really cool.
The thing that you mentioned there about the glaciers is also I just, I get so caught
up in that stuff too and the forming of all of this land of ours.
It's so cool.
It's really interesting.
So many different ecosystems besides aquatic ecosystems that are impacted or were impacted
by glaciers.
So then the next of our aquatic ecosystems are rivers and streams.
So our state has more than 84,000 miles of rivers and streams.
So if you were to take that 84,000 miles and stretch them out, the amount of streams and
rivers we have in Wisconsin would wrap around earth just over three times.
That's correct.
I can't even wrap my brain around that.
Little lo and wrap it in the round here.
I did have to do the math and it's correct, you know.
You got to double check, right?
Yes, you do.
Yes.
It's really interesting.
And the Bear River River actually is one of the longest free flowing, meaning that it's
not impeded by any dams, river systems in the nation.
So Wisconsin, you know, we have quite a bit of dams that I'll touch on later and those
can have some kinds of impacts to aquatic ecosystems.
But it's just really cool to know that we have one of the largest free flowing parts of
a river.
I don't know.
I couldn't place where I did, but I know I've heard something like that in my passing.
It's cool to hear that it still is and it is a beautiful river that whole area over
there is beautiful.
Yeah.
Very beautiful.
And then to touch on something that I'm also really passionate about, there's nearly
2,700 trout streams in Wisconsin that support some of our cold water ecosystems that include
Brook trout, which are or which is the state's only in a native inland trout species.
So you can find like rainbow trout and brown trout in these cold water streams, but Brook
trout are only native inland trout species in the state and they're beautiful.
Yeah.
They're really are.
They really, really are.
It's one of the first trout that I remember recognizing and being familiar with.
And again, going back to pride in your state, that's your fish.
That's keeping that fish healthy and giving it a long, long, longevity is very important.
Yeah.
That's a great one to bring up.
Yeah.
Wetlands.
This is another one where I think it's not, it's interesting.
I have some friends in Florida I talk to and everything.
And I've mentioned them many times.
Oh, I want to check out the Everglades.
I want to get there and I want to see the Everglades.
Yeah.
And they're like the Everglades.
It's just a bunch of swamp and everything.
Oh, man.
But to me, it's, it's just a, you know, ecosystem while we're, you know, I couldn't even
rent my, I couldn't even begin to think of the things that I could, and be interested
in rabbit holes.
I go down with that place.
I think that wetlands in general are probably one of the most overlooked and underrated ecosystems
within our entire world.
Doesn't matter if you're in Wisconsin or the Everglades, they're so diverse and so
cool.
It's interesting to think too that you don't necessarily have to go to Florida to experience
some of that.
It's not the same thing.
I mean, but of course, you have a very similar thing here, even in where I was a kid in
Rome.
But we had a little of this.
Yeah.
I mean, wetlands are one of like a, a very vital part of Wisconsin's history.
There's actually 5.3 million acres of wetland in our state today.
And that covers 15% of our total acreage.
But historically, it's estimated that there were 10 million acres of wetlands in
Wisconsin.
So our state was pretty widely covered by wetlands.
And so yeah, you can find these types of ecosystems all over and they go so overlooked, but they're
so cool.
Wetlands are really important for a lot of our wildlife species too.
They're nurseries for fish and wildlife.
They purify our lakes just because the plants and kind of the biological parts of an ecosystem
allow them to take in more nutrients in water.
And then those plants filter out those nutrients and actually produce cleaner water.
So yeah, it is.
It's incredible.
They're like sponges.
They're sponges.
They help with flooding.
There's so many, so many cool aspects of wetlands.
I know we have great lakes to get to yet, but it does feel like each one of these we could
spend an hour on.
Really good.
I hope it encourages other people to keep research and keep reading.
This stuff is great information, but it's also I think in some ways meant to kind of encourage
you to like, hey, look a little more into this and go down that rabbit hole.
It's exciting.
It's interesting.
And yeah, great lakes is of course one of the big ones we got to talk about.
Yeah.
So we have two great lakes that border our state.
We have lakes superior in Lake Michigan.
So those are two of the world's largest lakes and so they're called great lakes.
In fact, our state has over 800 miles of great lakes shoreline.
Both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan have fueled our state's economic growth.
So the harbors and marinas of these two lakes support $9.4 billion annually just to recreational
boating.
A billion with a bee.
Yeah.
A billion with a bee.
And then there's more than $7 billion, the billion with a bee, right?
$7 billion worth of cargo that passes through Wisconsin parts each year.
Not only is that incredible, sorry if I got you on there.
No, no.
It's incredible to think of those numbers and that amount of commerce and everything.
I also think again, going back to the history of this, that's part of what made this state
is that.
Of course, back then we're talking fur traders, we're talking boat trains and all that.
And we still have iron ore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's kind of cool to think again.
That the economic way of making money in this state is still very similar to how it
was in the beginning in some ways.
And I think when you go to those, I don't want to call them coastal, but you go to those
great lakes communities.
You can see that history and you can feel that history in those communities, which is really
cool.
I love those communities so much, they're so unique.
And the dams, of course, is a big part of this too.
I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.
There is other parts of this we wanted to cover, where do you want to go here?
Yeah, just what you're getting at it with dams.
It's the impoundments and reservoirs in our state.
These are created, they're basically man-made, right, created with the use of dams.
So we have numerous impoundments and reservoirs, like I said, many of which were created using
dams.
In fact, we approximately have 3,900 dams currently in existence in Wisconsin.
It's amazing to think of.
It is.
Yeah.
And that's low compared to the historic number of dams that we've had.
And some of those have been taken out due to safety concerns.
Others have been habitat restoration projects.
When you put in a dam, you completely change the flow of a river system.
So when you take that out, you're encouraging the system to go back to its natural formation
and its natural ecosystem.
Touched on another one of my favorite kind of side topics in architecture.
And you know, infrastructure isn't a sexy topic, but it is so vital to so many different
things.
And it touches on so many different aspects of our daily life in our economy.
Dams are one of the better examples of this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the essential role that aquatic ecosystems play economically for us, or the essential
role just in general, I mean, that they take.
Yeah.
So there's a couple of different really essential roles that are aquatic ecosystems play
in Wisconsin.
And we've touched on these before.
I just want to reiterate them.
So our aquatic ecosystems, they support a wide range of plants in animal life.
I think that's huge, huge, very huge.
They also provide us recreational opportunities.
I didn't even touch on fishing and boating recreation.
That contributes to a huge part of our state's economy.
I think the last time I checked, there was, I don't want to miss state, but over 1 million
fishing licenses sold by Wisconsin DNR.
I think that number, I don't think that sounds harpy fetch, far fetching all, like that
sounds about right.
Yeah.
Well, in the state, well, nationwide we have what's called the Dingle Johnson Act, which is
an excise tax on marine fuel and then fishing supplies.
And so portions of anything purchased for marine fuel or fishing supplies goes back to help
fund our aquatic ecosystems, which I think is pretty cool.
Yeah.
So then other essential roles of our aquatic ecosystems, they help maintain water quality.
This is really huge in our state when a majority of our citizens in Wisconsin get drinking
water from groundwater, but our surface water resources like these lakes, rivers, streams,
wetlands are what help protect our drinking water and restore the quality.
Water is amazing.
Yeah.
Water is awesome.
It's amazing and complicated.
Yes, that too.
Yeah.
And there's not only all of this, but again, one of those topics that we encourage you
to dig even more into it, I think you'd be surprised by how impactful an essential this
role is.
Now, we do certainly like to also pay attention and bring a highlight the concerns we
might have with this too.
Yeah.
So there are a couple of concerns.
Pollution being the number one concern, probably, and that pollution can come from many sources.
Urban, agricultural, industrial sources, and then habitat alterations.
We talked about dams altering habitat, right?
But there's also wetland loss and shoreline development.
And then we have the spread of invasive species.
We're taking huge steps to help educate folks about invasive species.
These are species that are non-native, but when they're introduced to our state, they're
so competitive, they grow so fast, they outcompete and alter the ecosystems within our native environments,
right?
And then we're facing climate change, right?
We're facing climate change is actually affecting our aquatic ecosystems.
We have raising water level temperatures and for our cold water streams, that's really
important to notice, especially for our brook trout.
They can't really take fluctuations, many fluctuations in temperature, water temperature.
But then we also see increased precipitation, which altars are water levels in general.
I try not to get on this soapbox of mine.
That often.
But every once in a while, I am set up perfectly.
And I try to remind a lot of people this that I'm a big believer in the planet and helping
it and doing anything we can to keep our future generations and join the same world that
we have and everything.
But I feel like oftentimes we miss say this stuff, there's no saving the planet.
It's about saving us.
The planet's going to be here.
The planet Earth has been here for a very long time and it's going to be here a very
long time.
Now, some of the things we do can hurt it, can give it a black eye, can scar it.
But the Earth will keep rolling and keep moving, whether we're here or not is a big deal
to me.
I think I care about it quite a bit, and I think that so it is a mutual beneficial relationship
us and the planet.
By helping the planet, we are helping ourselves and helping keep the human race on the planet.
But I do think that it's important to note sometimes that saving the planet is important,
but we can't kill the planet.
If every nuclear bomb went off, the planet's still going to be here, saying a move, saying
a TV show where some superhero comes in and the planet's gone already there.
That's not how this thing works.
But it's important to us, I believe, if they help, this is a far-fetched take.
They know how.
Did human beings stay on the planet that we keep this going?
So we have to work with the planet.
We have to find different ways that we can both live here cohesively.
We have to be stewards.
Yeah.
And this is a good thing.
This is all good.
This is not something that I feel like there is a controversial take or anything like
that.
I think it's something that is beneficial for all of us along with the planet.
Yeah.
And I know people can get overwhelmed.
It seems like a lot of the times with climate change there is that doom and gloom approach
to it.
I don't want to take that approach to it.
It can feel so overwhelming.
I want people like want to give people the information that hypes them up to be like,
this is really cool.
I'm passionate about this resource or I'm passionate about this hobby in order to do this
hobby.
I have to protect this resource or I have to educate others about protecting this resource
so that I have it, other generations have it, you know, like it's in inheritance,
right?
Like a lot of people don't have access to private land resources, but all of us have
access and ownership to our public land resources and Wisconsin is rich in that.
And so let's educate people on how to be Stuart so we can stay here and the planet can
be healthy while we stay here, right?
I really like the way you wear that.
It's in inheritance.
Yeah.
You're so right.
That's a great way to put it.
I couldn't agree more.
That's good.
When it comes to what's being done to protect our water resources, I think that's a great
place to wrap up.
I agree.
There's quite a few initiatives to protect our water resources.
So we have water quality, monitoring and management that's done at the institutional level, governmental
level, right?
DNR, University of Wisconsin, Madison's doing a lot of things, but then we also have a lot
of citizen science groups and opportunities to get involved with those citizen science
groups.
So these groups are working to identify pollution sources and implement practices or sometimes
even regulations, right, to reduce pollution.
We have many wetland restoration and protection projects that are going on.
We have Wisconsin Wetlands associations that are doing such a phenomenal job at bringing
awareness to wetlands.
Then we have invasive species management.
There are a lot of programs within Wisconsin, like clean boats, clean waters that are just
working to simply educate folks on the value of reducing the spread of invasive species.
You know, there's states all over our nation that are doing this.
This is not just something in Wisconsin, right?
It's great.
No.
Yep.
And then public education and outreach, like I think that's one bias, but I think that's
one of the most important parts, right?
Agreed.
Agreed.
So especially when it's done the way you do it.
No, thank you.
And you did this earlier and you've done this a lot of the times we've talked and it's
interesting that we're meeting today.
Today's Rachel, a white hair is perfect.
And you know, I've talked with her a lot about this in years, in years past and everything
and I don't mean to bring her up every other interview.
Hey, shout out to Rachel White, hair, happy birthday girl.
But for me, she was a real eye opener for a lot of this stuff.
And so much of what we've talked about, we have with our friends and extension many
times about this, the approach you guys take is not doom and gloom, is not trying to
scare people.
I like to think that more people than not have gotten that and realized that that nobody
very seldom in life do people ever listen or hear when they are scared or they are
being made to be made afraid.
In a, people like horror movies, people like all those kind of things, horror movies,
you don't often see a very complex horror movie where they're asking you to think a
lot and wonder who's this or what's that.
That's a mystery.
A horror movie is just about scary, just about, jump scares and all this and everything,
four or five seconds or whatever and then moving on.
That's not a good way to get across information, it's not a good way for people to register
stuff.
You guys get that.
You guys have understood that and your approach is very, hey, this is important.
I'd like you to hear this, but I also encourage you to understand that this guy isn't falling
kind of down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's not like, I think that's a wonderful balance and you guys do a really nice job
of that.
Okay.
And I appreciate that.
That's something we believe in around here and we're very much promoting and when it
comes to a topic like this, I can imagine that, you know, there's a lot of things people
might learn, but maybe even other questions they might have had too.
If they have those questions, Anna, how can they reach you?
You can reach out to me via email at anna.m.james at wiskwisc.edu or you can stop in at the
Wood County Extension Office.
Really appreciate the time and as always, the great conversation.
Say hi to the staff over there and we'll talk soon.
We'll do things, James.
Thank you for joining us, everybody.
And we'll big thank you to our friends at Crockett Sceptic for sponsoring another edition
of WFHR's Rapids Report.
