>> All right. Well, Ryan Rasmussen, thanks very much, I
appreciate it. >> Spring storms have pounded
Wisconsin in recent weeks, but parts of the state are still
experiencing a long term drought that can cause problems for
marine life, that need high water levels to survive. Here
and now, reporter Nathan Denzin has more on one species that has
been hit particularly hard. >> We reached peak drought
severity in September of last year to just see that crash with
almost no rain for a long time was very disturbing.
>> It's been a very dry few years for Wisconsin.
>> I started getting lots of phone calls from people saying
the there's all these mussels out there and they're, you know,
they're stranded there. They're dying. What can we do?
>> It's had a significant impact on a species we hardly think
about. >> I was no longer picking up a
mussel and placing it gently in the water. RFK, Jr, I was
throwing them as fast as I could.
has been in a perpetual drought since about 2021, straining
aquatic resources despite spring rains. Drought is still hitting
the southwestern part of the state right now near the
Wisconsin River. the fall or usual fall. Rise did
not occur. And then really, a paucity of snow, especially in
northern Wisconsin. >> Mark Cup is the executive
director of the lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, where he
works with the Wisconsin River from Prairie du Sac to the
Mississippi. anything happen with our spring
flow that we usually see. >> Droughts are very stressful
to aquatic organisms as well. >> Ellen Vos is the climate
resilience director with the Wisconsin River Alliance.
>> It is average. >> There's just less space for
the things that animals and plants and insects and
everything else need to survive. >> One animal that can be
squeezed out by low water is mussels.
>> They're basically just, you know, a mollusk with two shells.
And they live in the rivers and lakes, rivers and streams of
Wisconsin. expert at the Wisconsin DNR.
>> They don't have a brain and they don't have eyes. So they
they you know, they can't just figure out where the deeper
water is. She says there are tens of thousands of mussels on
the bed of the Wisconsin River, including 40 different species.
>> They filter as much as ten gallons of water a day per
mussel. and thousands of them, they
really help purify the water. >> But when the drought reached
its peak in September, mussels started to wash up on shore
banks. was actually historic artifacts,
because the water was so low, I'd never seen it this low in
the time I've lived here. >> Jean Anmuth is a retired DNR
scientist who lives near the Wisconsin River in Prairie du
Sac. She was the first person to contact experts when she saw
stranded mussels. >> Mussels are a huge part of
the ecology of this river because dams act as a barrier
>> Almost all of the mussels in for some aquatic species.
below. Prairie du Sac back. the Wisconsin River can be found
>> So I thought, hey, I'd better ring the alarm on the dam.
>> Here is the last of 26 on the waterway because we had such a
drought year, the dam did not have water to release many of
the dams on the Wisconsin, including Prairie du Sac, have
strict federal regulations, while dams keep a reservoir of
water on hand to generate electricity. We federally
regulated dams are not allowed to release more water than they
receive whatever comes into Lake Wisconsin at the at the very
head of the lake comes through the dam. Those dams are called
run of river dams because any water that comes in must go out.
Alliant energy, which owns the Prairie du Sac Dam, in a
requires us to maintain the statement said our license
release more water during water level. Therefore we cannot
on the Wisconsin River are drought conditions. Not all dams
facilities, and some may licensed as run of river
scenario. manipulate water levels in this
wrong. Everybody was in there in compliance with their license
obligations the entire time. And yet the outcome was thousands or
tens of thousands. We don't know. Dead mussels on the river.
>> That meant the only solution to save the mussels was to
physically walk the shore banks and throw them back into the
river. Just saying. We know that this
is a problem. If you're able to help, please go out to the
river. spending 3 to 4 hours. Forget
the artifacts. I was no longer looking at that.
mussels saved. I mean, individuals were picking up 100
mussels a day, 300 mussels a day. I mean, it was pretty
amazing what people were willing to do.
>> Anmuth saved more than 1200 herself.
a year and just those 1200 mussels, you you're filtering
like over 3 million gallons of water.
>> I know that we made a difference. And that will pay
dividends down the road. >> Extended forecasts for the
summer show that for the fourth straight year, drought
conditions are likely. Let's just assume that we run into a
similar situation and we don't have rain, particularly in the
northeast and central part of the state.
. And that is yes. We will need to do muscle rescues again.
>> There is a live, phone tree muscle rescue alert system in
place. >> They can also contact me
anytime and I can give them, advice as to what to do until
the time comes to walk the shore banks again, experts eyes will
be glued to the weather for be glued to the weather for