Wisconsin Life

In the rushing waters of a cool stream, Sauk Country conservationist Serge Koenig is gathering samples. It is important that we get our feet wet and get our hands dirty and get right in there and figure out what's really happening. Serge is part scientist, part ambassador for conservation. This is the resource that we work to protect. Yeah, thank you. That resource is the watershed that feeds the Baraboo River. The Baraboo drains almost half of Sauk County. The historic river that rolls by Circus World in Baraboo has seen many changes in recent years. The Baraboo is the longest restored river from dams in the United States. It was grist mills and electricity production and some woolen mills. It was working hard. Now it's Serge who's hard at work to improve the water quality. What we're trying to do now is just clean up the water a little bit. It's the second most polluted feeder into the Wisconsin River. And the Wisconsin River is a long river, starting up by Eagle River down to Prairie du Chien. And we're number two on that, from a phosphorus stand point, phosphorus run-off. That run-off from farms and towns threatens the diversity of life in the water as it flows through Wisconsin to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf. There Serge witnessed firsthand the effects while on a family vacation. So we waded in the river where the Mississippi entered the Gulf. And it was eerie. It really was dead. There was no life in that water. And so that's when it really hit home that we've got some work to do up here. That work means connecting to Sauk County's farmers. By then we're going to have grass about this tall. I'm just going to watch the clover. - Okay. It's a lot different than what I would have learned in college, in the sense that we just never learned the ins and outs of farming and yet that's what we had to learn in order to be more effective at our jobs. Serge learned on his own, even volunteering to milk cows for three weeks. Get up at four in the morning. Milk cows. Go to work. Work the eight, nine-hour days. Come back and milk cows again. Get up the next day and do it again. You know, and I really got a sense of what that life was like. I've made so much fence and laid so much water lines. I've moved people's cattle. Yeah, no problem.

chuckles

It's just a little bit easier to talk the talk when you've walked the walk a little bit. It's been a long walk for Serge. One that could easily have kept him feeling like an outsider. He was born in Madagascar off Africa's coast where his love of the outdoors was first nurtured. I always gravitated towards that natural world. That didn't change as a student at UW-Stevens Point. I considered a lot of things but I always came back to the natural resources. So I thought, well, this must mean that this is what I'm supposed to do. He does it with the scientific training he's received but more so, with the personal connections he's able to make. You're getting what you're paying for. You know, so you can Google "How do you clean up a stream that's polluted?" Or you can ask Siri. You can always figure that out, you know. But it's the people part, that's the hardest part to learn. Serge's skill with people has convinced many to adapt better environmental practices like converting farmland to rotational grazing. Last year we put in a 1,065 acres. We went from 10 acres to a 1,065 acres. It's unbelievable. But Serge is a believer. It's what makes him a compelling messenger for conservation. We can work on farms and we can try to address the root of the problems. But if we don't know how to do this, it doesn't matter, right? It's really all about people all the time. It's probably why I'm still here. I feel like this is my calling.