Courtesy Photo | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources personnel walk through a Fort McCoy, Wis.,...... read more read more
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On July 23, the Fort McCoy Fisheries Program partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and the La Crosse County (Wis.) Land Conservation Department to collect mottled sculpin from Fort McCoy waters and then restock them into a Brook Trout Reserve Stream in La Crosse County where mottled sculpin are absent.
Brook trout (the only native stream species of trout in Wisconsin) and mottled sculpin, need cold-water streams to survive, said Fishery Biologist Steven J Rood with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch. Unfortunately, with the gradual increase in both air and water temperatures, some streams in Wisconsin have begun to see brook trout abundance decline.
The Wisconsin DNR Brook Trout Reserve Program has identified streams that, because of the surrounding landscape and hydrologic conditions, will buffer the warming effects and should continue to sustain a cold-water fishery in the future.
Efforts by the WDNR are underway to enhance these Brook Trout Reserve streams, to include stocking them with their native fish species, in this case mottled sculpin. Since Fort McCoy is located in the headwaters of the La Crosse River, Fort McCoy Streams are fed by groundwater upwelling which helps keep the streams at a preferred temperature for fish like brook trout and mottled sculpin. Because of this, nearly every stream on Fort McCoy is designated as a Brook Trout Reserve Stream and is home to an abundant population of cold-water fish species, Rood said.
“Also on hand from WDNR were veterinarians to complete fish health certificates to ensure all fish were free of disease and could be moved to other waters,” Rood said. “These inspections are extremely important to prevent pathogens from moving in between waters. This is one of the reasons in the state of Wisconsin, including Fort McCoy, it is illegal to move live fish in between waters or dump unused bait into the water.”
Mottled sculpin live in cold-water streams and spring ponds, and most people have likely never encountered one. Adult sculpin are typically between 2 and 4 inches long and spend all their time on the bottom of the streambed or next to overhead cover like rocks or instream vegetation.
“They are perfectly camouflaged for a life on the bottom of a stream, which is important because they are a favorite prey item for both brook and brown trout,” Rood said. “Their presence in a stream is associated with good water quality and cold-water temperatures.”
This is not the first time that Fort McCoy has partnered with the WDNR. In 2010, adult largemouth bass were transferred from Fort McCoy to Lake Tomah as part of the WDNR’s carp eradication and lake rehabilitation project. After the carp were eradicated and the lake was refilled, the adult largemouth bass were stocked into Lake Tomah to restart that fishery. Prior to transferring any of these fish, fish health certificates were completed to ensure the fish were disease free.
“It’s great that we can partner with other agencies to enhance the natural resources outside of Fort McCoy,” Rood said. “Our partnerships not only includes working with aquatic resources, but also with whitetail deer chronic wasting disease management, invasive species identification and eradication, and endangered species preservation just to name a few.”
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.)
| Date Taken: | 09.16.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2025 15:50 |
| Story ID: | 548322 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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