Wisconsin’s Sturgeon Guard back to work with spawning underway

Sporting a fluorescent green Sturgeon For Tomorrow vest, Tom Markowski and Mike Schmalzer stood out like sore thumbs as lake sturgeon cruised the Fox River in downtown Princeton, Wis.
The pair were two of more than 100 volunteers who hit the river behind Princeton’s Water Street April 19 for the start of the annual spawning run up the Fox and Wolf rivers. Markowski and Schmalzer headed to Princeton from their homes in Redgranite and Rosendale, respectively, as Sturgeon Guards, part of a group of more than 100 volunteers who keep an eye on crowds as DNR crews capture, record information from, and release hundreds of fish each year.