Opening weekend of gun deer season, conditions were nearly perfect. The weather was cool, but not too cold. The sun came out and warmed us. A light dusting of snow made it easy to see critters’ tracks from the night before.

I saw nine deer opening morning. What an abundance!

Wisconsin environmental regulators announced in August 2018 that they will take new steps to track and try to curb the spread of chronic wasting disease among the state's deer population.

MADISON - New rule revisions designed to reduce manure groundwater contamination, specifically in the northeast section of the state, take effect July 1.

The changes, under the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' ch. NR 151, Wis. Adm. Code, relate to Silurian bedrock, which are areas where the soil depth to bedrock is shallow and the bedrock may be fractured.

On 5/25 Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a suit to challenge the recent DNR approval of diverting water from Lake Michigan to suppy the upcomfing Foxconn project.  The gist of the suit is that the DNR mis-interpreted the provision in the Great Lakes Compact allowing water diversions. The compoact requires that water diversions be made for public water supply purposes. Racine had argued that since the city primarily uses residential water that the diversion was appilcable.

Deep in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal is a seemingly benign item formalizing the transfer of 15 scientists within the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Two years ago, Walker and lawmakers enacted a budget that cut 18 DNR science service bureau researchers amid complaints that their research related to climate change, pollution and wildlife habitat were controversial and unneeded.

I highly recommend following James Rowen's web site, The Political Environment. He has been following the continuing saga of the state DNR's changes to their web site, in which they have scrubbed the site of mentions of humans causing climate change. The DNR has stated that their mission is to manage state "adaptation" to climate change, rather than actually researching the cause, or -- you know, doing anything about  stopping or slowing it.

On Tuesday Nov. 15 approximately 300 people attended the EPA listening session at Chippewa Valley Technical College. The session was set up for the Administrator of US EPA’s Region V, Robert Kaplan to listen to citizens testifying about water quality in the state and to help determine if the EPA should take over the oversight of Wisconsin's compliance to the Clean Water Act.