UW undergrad, Emily Hilts, spent her summer getting to know Lake Mendota. While she didn’t fall head over heels for Madison’s lakes, she’s leaving on good terms. by Emily Hilts This morning, I moved my books and papers out of the desk I used at the Center for Limnology all summer, and took some time …
Louis Agassiz was an early prominent ichthyologist (someone who studies fish) at Harvard in the mid-1800s. When one of his graduate students, Samuel Scudder, showed up for his first day, Agassiz told him to take a preserved fish specimen and look at it – then left for several hours. Scudder ended up sitting and looking …
Last fall, as I moved in to a new house, I asked my parents (who are regular patrons of rummage sales) to look for a taxidermied fish. When they scrounged up a musky, with its mouth wide open to reveal pointy teeth, I was ecstatic. My roommates were less enthusiastic – one even claimed to …
“NO WAY!” I yelled as I pulled up a rock from a creek bed, with a huge smile on my face. “Look! It’s a FRESHWATER SPONGE!” Chelsey Blanke, who was watching from the boat, just laughed. She volunteers for the Center for Limnology on Fridays, and has accompanied me for a couple of trips out …
by Emily Hilts When I worked at Trout Lake Station, I usually went running after a day in the field and then jumped in the lake – not only to cool off but to get clean. After all, Trout Lake is gorgeously clear, and the stink of the day washed right off. Showers were reserved for …
By Emily Hilts This week I had the privilege of returning to Trout Lake Station to help with the annual public open house. Sitting on the dock felt like coming home, and I let out a deep sigh of happiness at the sight of one of my favorite lakes. Why? I guess because Trout just …
By Emily Hilts Lakes transform when the sun goes down. The once-familiar shoreline becomes unrecognizable and water takes on an inhospitable chill, making an after-hours trip a notch more exciting. So, when graduate student Jake Walsh (who studies zooplankton in the Vander Zanden lab) invited me to come along for a night of sampling, I …
by Emily Hilts So far this summer, I’ve either stayed below the surface of Mendota’s waters or perched on top of the lake in a boat. Which means, of course, that I’ve been missing big pieces of the overall puzzle of this aquatic ecosystem. To fill in some of the gaps, it was time to …
In Muckraking Mendota: A Naturalist’s Investigations, UW–Madison undergraduate, Emily Hilts, plunges beneath the surface of the Yahara chain of lakes to answer questions about Madison’s aquatic ecosystem. Follow her to uncover your own connection to the lakes. — As I snorkeled among the vegetation, the ‘weeds’ around me looked more like a sprawling neighborhood than …
by Emily Hilts While walking along the lakeshore to my first day of work, I spotted a smallmouth bass hanging out in the rocky shallows of Lake Mendota. After watching for a minute, it finally struck me … the water was clear. I could see the bottom! So much for the scummy cesspool I’d imagined. …