Tag: WDNR

Easily Overlooked, Wild Rice Has Big Cultural and Ecological Impact

by Cassie Gauthier — When you are at a lake, do you ever stop to consider the plants growing along the shoreline, or in the water as you drive past in your boat, or next to your feet as you swim? Have you ever considered why the plant is there, how it might be helping …

Algae Blooms Aren’t Just for Summer

Earlier this month, Richard “Dick” Lathrop, a long-time limnologist and honorary fellow at the Center for Limnology headed out to Devil’s Lake in Devil’s Lake State Park to take a sample of an algae bloom. We asked him to send a report of what he found. By Richard Lathrop – While many people think of …

In Fight Against Invasive Species, Can the Cure Be Worse Than the Disease?

by Mary Magnuson, University Communications Invasive Eurasian water milfoil is flourishing in Wisconsin’s lakes, sometimes outcompeting native plants and creating floating mats that cause problems for people, boats and property values. But new research shows that the benefits of using one type of historical lake-wide herbicide treatment may be outweighed by the costs to native …

Water We Talking About? Life in a Lake as a Mammal

Happy Friday! It’s time again for Water We Talking About – when kids send us freshwater-related questions (or queries about the moon!) and we track down real-life scientists to answer them. This week our subject involves the furrier critters that call our lakes home, so we reached out to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ …

Blog Redux: Our Weekend as a Walleye Nursery: Video and Pics

After a week of our walleye research in the news, it made us think back on past posts. Then we stumbled upon this one from 2013 when, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, Kurt Welke, poured more than a quarter of a million fish into our boat slip here at Hasler Lab. Enjoy!    …

Checking in on Madison Lakes Ahead of the Fishing Opener

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of catching a walleye or musky or pretty much any fish in Wisconsin, you might want to thank someone from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). They’re the folks tasked with stocking our lakes with fish, keeping an eye on fish populations and setting bag and size limits. …

Battling the Big Waves of Johnson Lake

by Riley Steinbrenner Just outside of Minocqua, Wisconsin, we drove up to the Johnson Lake boat launch and you could see them clear as day. No, not the different species of macrophytes, or aquatic plants, we were after, but wind-driven white caps. White caps may be a promising sign of catching some gnarly waves in …

What We Lose If We Lose Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine

Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, recently unveiled a budget plan that would put an end to Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine. The publication has existed for nearly 100 years in one form or another and serves to inform Wisconsin residents, hunters, anglers and visitors about how their tax dollars and license fees are being used by the …

Purging DNR’s Website Doesn’t Change Climate Facts

Last week, we shared our resolution to stand up for science in 2017, after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources changed their website to reflect an incorrect and politically motivated stance on climate change. Yesterday CFL director, Steve Carpenter, and six other distinguished UW–Madison faculty published a letter that has already been picked up by …

Notes from the Northwoods: Putting Aquatic Plant IQ to the Test

This summer, Anna Krieg, an undergraduate at Arizona State University, will spend a few months in a much wetter habitat as the CFL’s summer outreach intern at our Trout Lake Station. These are her Notes from the Northwoods: by Anna Krieg – On June 28th, 25 people climbed into 6 boats and set off to …