The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wants to make trout fishing more accessible in six northeastern and northcentral Wisconsin counties. It’s hosting an informational meeting this week so landowners can learn about selling easements along streams.
The Streambank Protection Program launched in 1989, and has been very popular in southwestern Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. Through the program, the DNR buys 66-foot easements along streams for public access.
Now the agency has an eye on cold water streams in northern Wisconsin — specifically, in Shawano, Marathon, Portage, Waupaca, Lincoln, and Langlade counties.
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Jonathan Pyatskowit, a state fisheries biologist, said the DNR has identified a number of prime fishing spots.
“Class 1 trout streams means that there’s sufficient trout populations there that are supported by natural reproduction, so they’re not stocked,” he explained.
The program is voluntary. Landowners are paid for the easements depending on what their land is being used for now. If landowners in the targeted counties agree, Pyatskowit said work on the easements could begin this fall.
The informational meeting is set for Thursday evening in the village of Wittenberg in Shawano County.
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