\nCurrent Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n
When your heart wells and you shed tears of joy, the occasion merits serious attention. In my long years of professing bio-regionalism, many such moments of pure connection with some true marvel have happened: out back on my patchwork of land; elsewhere amid prairie forbs and grasses; at the raging Pacific Ocean\u2019s shore; and in doing creative work. Finding myself misty-eyed at last year\u2019s Research Rendezvous lectures\u2014given by scientists who work in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore<\/a>\u2014surprised me, though.<\/p>\n Brett Fessell, a river ecologist with Russell Clark Associates<\/a>\u2014an environmental planning and design group that belongs to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians<\/a>\u2014was the speaker for the Research Rendezvous lecture back in September 2016, and his talk brought me to tears of joy. <\/p>\n Fessell\u2019s affection for Otter Creek and its population of brook trout is plain. He has been doing a long-term study of brook trout in Otter Creek, which meanders leisurely through marshes of cedar, poplar, and alder shade, then out into Lake Michigan. <\/p>\n Although Fessell\u2019s presentation was easy going, it offered a rich synthesis of his considerable knowledge of the Otter Creek watershed\u2019s geohistory, hydrology, and ecology. As he spoke about the glacial processes that shaped the roughly five-square-mile watershed\u2014the ancient forces that deposited the marls that conduced to the springs that cooled the pools where brook trout could spawn and mature\u2014those dynamic earth changes became vivid and comprehensible. It was time travel, courtesy of the facts and imagination.<\/p>\n Fessell\u2019s existentially serious attention to this minute but vital portion\u2014a clean, short, little capillary\u2014of Lake Michigan\u2019s watershed is something wonderful but not unique. Scores of naturalists in our bio-region are fixing their minds and hearts on wild lives and landscapes. <\/p>\n The field scientists among them who brave the elements, discomforts, and all-season rigors of the place to study its biota and who then contribute sturdy data to public questions about how we might better coexist with those multitudes of other beings\u2014they perform a very real service.<\/p>\n Moreover, jurisdictional, political, and regulatory complexity are inescapable working conditions for resource professionals, but it is surely affection that sustains them through the number-crunching, desk work, and hazards in the field. Fessell, who has worked with the tribe for 20 years, is seasoned in collaborating with a complex welter of public agencies, a tribal government, and feisty anglers. This perseverance and diplomacy also attest a consecrated life. <\/p>\n Fessell might not see it that way, but he seems mighty grateful to be doing what he is doing. It suits him, right down to his waders.<\/p>\n A Plan for the Brookies The natural continuance of brookies, Salvelinus fontinalis<\/em>, is the keynote of the Otter Creek survey and any future restoration work. <\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The \u201cbrookie\u201d\u2014a nimble, charismatic native fish\u2014is a prized catch. It is a versatile creature, thriving in both streams and along the coast of the Great Lakes. Coasters, the adfluvial brook trout that swim out of their native streams and into the great lake, can bulk up during the next few months or years, spent in the lake\u2019s wide open spaces. For instance, typical weight varies from half a pound to 6.5 pounds, but a coaster that was caught in Thunder Bay a century ago weighed in at more than 14 pounds, and there have been reports of Otter Creek coasters, too, for the way to the coast is clear.<\/p>\n
![\"Brett](\"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brett_Fessel-web.jpg\")
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