by Anna Mueller – I have grown up in the Madison lakes – jumping into Mendota and Wingra every summer without a second thought, doing polar plunges late in the fall, fishing with my brother. And, this year, rowing competitively for the Badgers. When I enrolled for my first semester at UW Madison, I chose …
Before ice season melts completely away on Madison’s lakes, we wanted to share some really cool photos that local ice angler, Jim Kusuda, took when he was fishing in 70 feet of water on Lake Mendota back in February. What, Kusuda, wanted to know, were all these “white worms” turning up in his fishing holes? …
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: A new study is highlighting the outsized impacts that invasive species can have – even on the tiniest residents in an ecosystem. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report maps out how two invasive species affected the microbial community of one Wisconsin lake and led …
A few weeks ago, a letter arrived in our mailbox here at Hasler Lab from a reader of this blog. It was … not the most positive message. In fact, it stopped just short of “mean Tweet” territory. Here, in its entirety, is the letter: It seems to me that your blog is no different …
Last Saturday, with temperatures hovering in the mid-teens, an experienced ice-angler died when his ATV broke through the ice on Lake Waubesa. A few days prior, a woman walking her dog fell through the ice near the Spring Harbor Boat Launch but was saved thanks to the quick thinking of a nearby fisherman. It might …
For fans of ice fishing, ice skating, cross-country skiing and just enjoying a winter walk, this holiday season was especially timely. One year ago today, Lake Mendota was still making waves and waiting on its annual ice cap. This winter, however, Madison’s biggest lake received a literal Christmas present – the Wisconsin State Climatology Office …
When Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin froze over a few days after New Year’s Eve, it marked the beginning of “ice season,” a time of year when (once the ice gets thick enough, of course) the iconic bodies of water in this lake-rich city suddenly become host to a variety of outdoor pursuits. Winter is …
Earlier this summer, Alice Ogden-Nussbaum was checking on a gill net she had set a day earlier in Lake Mendota’s deepest waters. As she rolled the curtain of net up out of the lake, a remarkable, silver-scaled find surfaced – one that made Alice reach for her phone and excitedly text a photo to her …
by Jake Vander Zanden — You may have noticed that, In the last week or so, the Madison lakes have been crystal clear, with visibility of up to 30 feet recorded in Lake Mendota by Center for Limnology researchers. But, in the last two days, (especially if you’ve been near a downwind shore of our …
A new study in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences is linking climate change to yet another environmental impact – longer lasting “dead zones” In lakes. According to the study, warm summer weather is the main driver behind longer periods of anoxia, or oxygen-starved water, in Lake Mendota. Each summer, many lakes settle into …