Moisture is necessary in some form for organisms and the ecosystems they live in.  We sometimes disagree with the state and timing of precipitation events because it inconveniences our activities.

“Don’t curse the rain,” Author Jerry Apps wrote using a statement his father, a farmer, once made.  It’s much the same thing with snow because snow, water in a solid state, is moisture and much more.

In addition to providing moisture now and later snow accentuates our surrounding, allows the few green and yellow items to acescent our perception of nature, insulates what is beneath it, and nice cover over the entire surrounding.

“Ice anglers, at least early in the season, need a little snow to be camouflaged from the fish below.  It’s sort of like fishing trout and muskies on a cloudy autumn day,” said Kate Mosley, at Kate’s Bait near the entrance to Governor Dodge State Park in Iowa County, Wisconsin.  “It helps with an angler’s footing on new, slippery ice, too.”

“Right now, we have 12-14 inches of ice on the two lakes in the park,” she said.  

“A lot of people, when the ice is safest, like to walk their dogs on an inch or two of fresh snow topping ice or grass.  It allows for a dog to walk on clean snow, free of salt,” said Don Martin, at Martin’s in Monroe, Wisconsin.  “As for ice fishing, it must be a catching mode because I’m sure selling a lot of panfish live bait, waxies and red and white spikes.”

One can’t do skiing, cross-country and downhill, without snow.  “Snowshoeing, snowmobiling and tracking requires snow,” said Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage, Wisconsin.  “It sort of cleans things up for a while after all the vegetation goes to a dreary brown.”

“Tracking takes an interesting turn when visiting a bubbling spring and looking to see who and what were there the day or night before,” Williams said.

Greens take on a fresh look, too, from the watercress in the springs, to fern fronds peaking though the snow in a woods, and a few live garlic mustard leaves.  They are edible, watercress and garlic mustard.

Photographers don’t mind, either when most things with color show finer with a white background than brown, be it grasses turned gold and planted in front of a yellow-painted Leopold bench.  Whether we focus a camera lens on it or just admire the scene and smile, snow helps the situation.

Some animal life relies on snow.  Grouse may roost in deep, fluffy snow.  Deer beds are softer and insulated from frozen ground with a few inches of snow beneath them.

During the days of one-room country schools, rural town roads with high snowbanks were perfect walls and hills to dig into to make snow caves, just so long as they were far enough off the roads.

One might imagine that snow makes a great drink.  Sometimes dogs try it and a bird or two who can’t find a spring or heated water bath might, too.  But snow takes a great deal of energy to warm up inside a bird’s body, and human’s, too.  It’s almost like a sea voyage when there is water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”  Winter water is important to keep us hydrated, but lukewarm or tepid water is better than ice cold water or snow. 

If you’re indoors and feel chilly, drink a glass of tepid water; it will warm your body.

Turkey hunters may be out tracking gobblers and hens in the snow, toward a bubbling spring, through a marsh into a blooming skunk cabbage patch and daydreaming of the spring season.  Anxious to get started by purchasing a license and a few supplies?

New Department of Natural Resources hunting and fishing licenses go on sale March 1.  A new gun can be purchased from Williams or Don Martin at Martin’s in Monroe, Wisconsin.

“We can fix hunters up for about $350,” Williams said of the interesting .410 shotguns. “But the shells are extra and a little pricy.”

The old licenses expire March 31.  New licenses can be purchased March 1, 2025 and are immediately valid.

Mosley sells a few turkey hunting supplies including masks, gloves, calls and Avian-X turkey decoys, which are the next thing to real feather decoys.

Don’t fall too deeply in love with snow, though.  It comes and goes quickly during March.  Just use and enjoy this form of precipitation while it’s insulating and later watering alfalfa, spring ephemerals, and morel hyphae.    

Contact Jerry Davis, a freelance writer at sivadjam@mhtc.net or 608.924.1112.