Vermont Church Wetland Preservation

Vermont Lutheran Church owns the 115-acre former farm east of the church, which includes 22 acres of wetland through which flows Vermont Creek, a tributary of Black Earth Creek. In spring 2024, the church was awarded an NRCS grant to do forestry mowing in the wetland on either side of Vermont Creek, manage invasive species, and cut some trees to provide better access to the creek for fishing. That project was completed during winter 2024-25. In April 2025, representatives from Dane County, the DNR and BECWA met with the church’s Legacy Fund Committee to walk the creek and start the process of creating a habitat improvement plan (pending). In the meantime, on July 1, 2025 the DNR performed electroshocking sampling of a 430-foot portion of the creek collecting 77 Brown Trout, the largest of which was 14 inches.