DAM!

Nice day for a bicycle ride.  Cool temps and low humidity.  I needed to go to the high school, about 5 miles (8 km) away, to photograph the new teaching staff for the local and school news.  So I packed up the Z9, jumped on the bike and did exactly that.  Then I swung the bike about 4 miles (6.4 km) NW out to the Sheboygan County Marsh.  A new dam was constructed to replace the aging one and to minimize cattail clogging of the river as mats break off and float downstream as the water rises.
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The Dept. of Natural Resources has a policy of draining the marsh every few years to allow the cattails to settle and re-root. Then they re-flood the marsh by closing off the dam and hope for the best.  It hasn't been working very well over the last few decades as about 2 years after draining, large chunks of cattail mat float downstream and totally clog up the dam.  It gets very time consuming and expensive to remove them.
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Personally, I think they'd be better off not draining every few years.  The DNR is trying to be all things to all people and can't seem to decide whether to manage the marsh for waterfowl or fish. Every few years both waterfowl and fish suffer from lack of water and the fish have to be restocked.  I think they've decided to go with waterfowl as there's plenty of other places to fish in the county and this is prime nesting territory for waterfowl.  PLUS.......Ducks Unlimited ponied up a large chunk of cash to rebuild the dam.  Money talks.
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Anyway....this dam is infinitely more controllable than the old one and it remains to be seen if the cattail issue will be resolved.  The sharp eyed among you will notice a couple of small clumps of cattail mat already at the dam's edge floating in a sea of green duckweed (Lemna. sp.).  Sometimes they are backed up so far you can't see one end of the mat from the other.  Fingers crossed.
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All that remains is a 10 mile (16 km) bike ride home and then a little computer work.
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BEST IN LARGE.