Wisconsin Salt Awareness Week

Wisconsin Salt Awareness Week, observed from January 22-26, 2024, aims to shed light on the often-overlooked consequences of excessive road salt usage in winter. While road salt is crucial for ensuring road safety during icy conditions, its environmental impact on...

What Happens to Soil in Winter?

The soil under your feet is still teeming with life, even in the frozen temperatures of winter.  Soil is essential to life. One reason is that soil protects plant roots, animals, and microbes from freezing in the winter. As air temperatures drop below 32° F, water...

DNR News Release: PFAs Grant

New PFAs Grant Program for Small Public Water Systems Opens in 2024 https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/newsroom/release/86001  The WDNR has announced the opening of a new grant program in 2024 that will help Other-Than-Municipal Community and nonprofit, Non-Transient...

Climate Change

Last week, I wrote that Lake Metonga had finally froze up.  Well, this past week, there was a fishing boat out on the lake.  They must have been catching fish because they were there most of the afternoon into the early evening.  This event made me think of how...

Ice Safety

I noticed this morning that Lake Metonga finally froze over. Soon, we’ll be back out on our Northwoods lakes to begin the Hardwater Season. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) urges the public to practice ice safety on all of Wisconsin’s waterbodies as...

How Many Trees Are There?

It is an age-old question; how many trees are there? In recent years some have asked, Are there more trees on earth than stars in the Milky Way? NASA estimates that the Milky Way has approximately 100 billion stars. So let’s see how trees stack up. In the United...