Fill 'er up! ...

The Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness Department began the process of filling Indian Springs Pond in the Waukon City Park this past week, reversing the drainage measures taken last year before the recently-completed dredging project at the pond took place during the late winter and early spring this year. The dredging of the pond was a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-funded project following the summer flooding of 2013 and was completed by Jim Hanson. In addition to increasing the depth of the pond, the project also involved the installation of some fish habitat (pallets and greenery visible in the far end of the pond in the above photo), which will welcome bluegill stocked by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources later this summer, as well as catfish and bass next summer. The geese that have made the pond their summer home have recently returned to the pond as well. Waukon Park, Recreation and Wellness Director Jeremy Strub does request that no one relocate any fish from the Mississippi River or elsewhere into the pond, as the DNR will be supplying the fish that best support the pond’s ecosystem and that will provide opportunity for fishing later this summer. Standard photo by Joe Moses.