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Any Iowans Out There?
As was noted in a previous thread started by me ("Wisconsin Trout
Fishermen-Proposed Law"), there is a move afoot to remove protections on very small streams here in the state of Wisconsin. The sponsors of this piece of thievery say that they are basing the modifcation on current laws in Iowa. While N.E. Iowa is graced with pretty little spring creeks the topography makes channelization by agri-business difficult and economically unrewarding. However in central Iowa, where I spent a good deal of time a few years back, my impression is that the Iowa navigability law has allowed many or most small streams to be channelized, restricted to big ditches. Is this correct? How has the faster runoff from these straightened streams affected flooding in the towns and cities along the larger rivers? Has the loss of micro wetlands along the old stream corridors negatively affected wildlife and fish? (I remember bring told that the fishy looking Marblerock River in central Iowa was only a meager producer of bass and catfish.) Obviously I am biased on this issue but in order to avoid the sin that I'm accusing the sponsors of this bill of engaging in ; i.e. only accessing information that gets through their ideological blinders, I would like to hear if I'm wrong about my impressions of Iowa's stream health. Are there big fish in the arrow straight creeks that flow through the corn fields of Iowa? Do heavy rains flow effortlessly through the cities of Mason City and Des Moines? Tell me what I don't want to hear. Or confirm what I already suspect. g.c. |
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Any Iowans Out There?
No.
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Any Iowans Out There?
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Any Iowans Out There?
"George Cleveland" wrote in message ... On 11 Oct 2003 21:17:29 -0700, (BJ Conner) wrote: It's been a few years but I did a lot of fishing in eastern Iowa in the smaller streams. The country there rolls more and i don't remember any of the creeks being channelized. Most of the streams wandered around and most of time didn't look big enough to have fish in them. Summer rains would bring fish up from the Cedar and the Wapsi into the creeks. I didn't fly fish any of them but there were smallmouth and largemouth bass to be caugth along with some supprizing big catfish. I also discovered that soft shelled turtles have a long neck and strike at you almost like a snake. (George Cleveland) wrote in message ... g.c. Northeastern Iowa is very similar to SW Wisconsin and SE Minnesota. The hilly terrain has preserved a lot of the small streams simply because there wasn't enough arable land to bother ditching the small streams. There are a number of pretty good trout streams there. Central and Western Iowa is a different matter. In fact if I hadn't asked my girlfriend at the time about all the ditches full of water, I never would have known that they were once tiny creeks (her family's business was agricultural drainage). g.c. I fished most of the trout streams in the NE. French Creek was my favorite. On weekdays there wasn't enough time to drive up there, thats when we would try anything with water in it. |
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