Local Features

One of the nicknames given to soldiers in the First World War was “Sammy.” During the holiday season of 1917, people in the Northwoods were encouraged to support the troops by becoming a “Sammy Backer.” What was a Sammy Backer?

Are you doing everything you can to keep toxic heavy metals away from your family and out of the environment? In this week’s Wildlife Matters the Masked Biologist takes aim at the use of lead ammunition.

Recent Study Finds that Lessons from Tribal Forestlands could Help to Improve the Health of Public Forests in the Northwoods. Jim Skibo has the story

In the late 1990s, when Patrick Taylor moved back to his Merrill hometown, he bought a house on the water. It was one of more than a hundred homes on a mill pond created by the old Ward paper mill dam. “It was a great area for duck hunting,” Taylor said. Other people on the water fished, swam, or canoed. Then, Taylor learned the water was about to disappear. “The day after we closed on the house, they announced the removal of the dam,” he said in an interview this week. Twenty years later, the

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders was one of the most famous touring shows in American history. When Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show toured the Northwoods in 1900, one of his performers fell in love with the area and decided he wanted to call it home.

This is the time of year when mice invade your home. Well maybe not yours, but definitely the home of the Masked Biologist, as he shares in this week’s Wildlife Matters.

Jim and Ruth Brennan thought the days of iron ore mining in northern Wisconsin were over. So when Gogebic Taconite started drawing up plans about earlier this decade for a massive mine near their home in southern Ashland County, they were surprised, to say the least. “A three- or four-mile ditch that would actually come within about a mile of our house,” said Jim Brennan. Jim and Ruth live in the town of Morse, near Mellen and Copper Falls State Park. Their unique house overlooks Lake Galilee.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders was one of the most famous touring shows in American history. What few people today remember is that Buffalo Bill Cody brought his show to the Northwoods and thrilled the local area with feats of skill and daring.

Botany of Thanksgiving Everyone has their own list of things to be grateful for at Thanksgiving. Along with your thoughts of turkey and football, take a minute to appreciate the plants, yes, the plants, that originated in the Americas, that add flavor, color and nutrition to your Thanksgiving table. T hese plants include corn, beans, squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cranberries. You might not realize that these plants are all New World species, that is, they originated in the Western

Earlier this summer, parts of the forested North were devastated by wind storms and tornadoes, and work to clean up the aftermath is ongoing. In this week’s Wildlife Matters, the Masked Biologist reminds us that while it is tragic to see trees broken and lying down, sometimes messed is best for wildlife species.