Environment

A plan to add restaurant space at a pavilion overlooking Lake Michigan along the Milwaukee lakefront might sound like a great idea. Food service and tiki huts offering more beverage and eating options are already part of the Bradford Beach summer scene. But in recent months, plans to expand to the upper deck of Bradford’s 1950’s era pavilion is raising concerns, including that the project could drive people apart rather than bring them together. Tuesday the Wisconsin DNR is meeting Milwaukee...

Wisconsin recently held its first gray wolf hunt since 2014. Native tribes exercised their treaty rights to 50% of the quota in ceded territory and the state was left with a target of 119 wolves for nontribal hunters. In just the first three days of the weeklong hunt, nontribal hunters registered 215 dead wolves , blowing past the state’s goal. In Ojibwe culture, the Ma'iingan, or wolf, is considered a sacred animal, and tribes choose not to hunt them. Edith Leoso is a member of the Bad...

People from all across the state of Wisconsin are coming together virtually this week to talk about one of the state’s most important resources — water. 2021 Wisconsin Water Week is a conference meant to bring river and lake lovers from all over Wisconsin together to share research, educational strategies and new ideas about how to care for the water of the state. Eric Olson is director and lake specialist for UW Stevens Point Extension Lakes , a team dedicated to bringing people together...

Linda Halley is general manager of Gwenyn Hill Farm in the Town of Delafield. "Gwenyn" means honeybee in Welsh. Halley says the name is a nod to generations of people who farmed this lush valley, starting back in 1842. “A Williams married the original farmer’s daughter, another Williams bought the land next door, and so this was just a valley of Williams farmers. [They] dairy farmed and one of them had sheep, [which is] a Welsh thing,” says Hawley. By the 2010s, most of the Williams family...

Milwaukee’s rivers have slowly been revitalized through a variety of cleanup projects in recent years. But, the estuary — the area in which the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic Rivers meet Lake Michigan — is still one of the most environmentally degraded sites on the Great Lakes due to contamination caused by decades of industrial waste. The estuary has a federal designation as an “area of concern.” But change is coming. Years of planning has led to a massive $400 million cleanup...

On Monday evening, Nearby Nature Milwaukee held their second Annual African American Environmental Pioneer Awards celebration to honor people in Milwaukee who are helping to create a healthier and more racially just environment. Sylvia Wilson, program director of Teens Grow Greens , was one of the honorees. LISTEN: Milwaukee Teen Leadership Program Makes Neighborhood Greenhouses Its Home Wilson said when she headed to college she planned to become a lawyer, but she found her passion in...

As winter continues on and as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make indoor gatherings unsafe, many people are looking for outdoor activities to pass the time. For many Wisconsinites that means venturing out onto a frozen body of water for ice fishing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing or just a nice walk. But even bodies of water with thick layers of ice can pose dangers for recreational activities, so Wisconsin DNR Recreational Warden Jason Roberts explains how to stay safe when out...

Wisconsin's wolf hunt will begin next week with up to 200 animals to be harvested, the state Department of Natural Resources Board determined at a hastily called meeting Monday in reaction to a court order requiring a hunt this month. The unanimous board vote came even as the state was asking an appeals court to stop the hunt by putting last week's court order on hold. The state Department of Natural Resources and the board, represented by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, filed the...

Updated Feb. 12 at 5:10 p.m. CST A Wisconsin judge ordered the state Department of Natural Resources on Thursday to start a gray wolf hunt this month rather than waiting until November. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed wolves in the Lower 48 states from the federal endangered species list in January, returning management to the states. The move was among Trump administration actions on the environment that President Joe Biden has ordered reviewed. Wisconsin law mandates the DNR run...

Finding ways to bring science to life and to create excitement about its importance can be challenging for educators. It can be even tougher in this time when many students are learning from home. But organizers of Science Strikes Back , a program that attracts grade schoolers to college students and adults throughout the region, weren’t about to let the annual science fair languish this year — its fifth. Escuela Verde, a public charter high school overlooking the Menomonee Valley, hosts the...

One of Milwaukee County’s most cherished and popular shared spaces is Bradford Beach. Swimmers, sunbathers and volleyball players enjoy its sweeping vista along Lake Michigan. But there are rumblings of concern over a proposal, critics say, would privatize a portion of this public treasure. Its 1950s-era pavilion, officially called the Bradford Beach Bathhouse, resembles a ship with its curved lines and second-floor deck. Acccording to the Milwaukee County Historical Society, the structure...

The controversy over how the gray wolf, humans, livestock and pets can coexist is not new. The wolf has been on and off of the federal endangered species list within the last decade. Early this month, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service delisted the wolf, transferring its management to states. A dozen Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin sent a letter to the state's Natural Resources Board urging approval of a hunt this winter. The letter resulted in a special board meeting Friday to discuss the...

A binational commission, representing Canada and the United States, is making three recommendations it says will improve the two governments’ ability to protect the Great Lakes. The group, called the International Joint Commission (IJC), has some experience in advising the two countries. It was created more than a century ago — through the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty — specifically to prevent conflicts between the two countries over shared water resources. As part of its job, every three...

Over the last decade, Oak Creek has been evolving and city leaders believe a new housing development will continue that trend. Oak Creek’s evolution began when a former major manufacturing plant site was reimagined as a 21st century town square, with an adjacent restored wetland. READ: Wetland Restored As Park Of Oak Creek's Main Street Development Then to the east, north of Ryan Road and east of 5th Avenue, the city turned a portion of another old industrial site into Lake Vista Park . Its...

Wisconsin is due to resume management of the gray wolf, including a hunting season, as the animal loses federal protection. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced the gray wolf's successful recovery, setting the stage to delist in all lower 48 states. In Wisconsin, the gray wolf has swung between state management and federal protection for more than a decade. Wisconsin Gray Wolf Debate Fires Up Again Tuesday, Wisconsin's Green Fire, a statewide conservation organization, is...

Half of Wisconsin is covered in forests, so managing all that land is no easy task. It’s up to the Wisconsin Division of Forestry , which falls under the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to keep the land healthy. The forestry division works with federal, county, tribal and private landowners. It’s a team of about 420 people scattered across the state. And, the person leading this division is Heather Berklund. Last month, Berklund was named chief state forester — the first woman to hold...

Jobs, the economy, social justice, the coronavirus: those are a few of the major issues motivating people to go to the polls on Tuesday. But for some voters, including in northeastern Wisconsin, water quality is among the top concerns. Marinette County residents are dealing with surface, ground and well water contaminated by PFAS, a manmade chemical that has many uses, including as an ingredient of firefighting foam. READ: Wisconsin Takes Another Step To Drive Down PFAS Contamination PFAS is...

Milwaukee aldermen are in the process of sorting out the city’s budget for next year, divvying up dollars leaders say are increasingly scarce. Among public concerns, an increasing number of people want more funding to go to the city’s health department, specifically to serve children impacted by lead poisoning. READ: Mayor Tom Barrett's Budget Proposal Cuts 120 Milwaukee Police Officers Pastor Mary Martha Kannass of Hephatha Lutheran Church was one of many calling for action at a budget...

In the spring of 2016, residents of Flint, Mich., were experiencing one of the country’s most devastating water crises. Flint-native Mari Copeny decided to do something about it. She wrote a letter to then-President Barack Obama which led to the president traveling to Flint and sitting down to talk with Mari. What might be most remarkable is that Mari was just 8 at the time. Now 13, she’s launched into a life of activism . Mari will be the keynote speaker at Saturday's Alverno College’s...

Some highly engaged naturalists — including those at Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center — are piloting a project called Yardversity to lure people to the outdoors as well as fuel research about the natural world. READ: Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center Strikes On A Formula That Works Yardversity kicked off on a late afternoon in July when Ethan Bott took to YouTube to provide a how-to for people interested in studying the ecology of their own backyards. Bott is part of the Urban Ecology...