Local Features

Animals are like people in the most basic ways. For example, they need food, water, and shelter to live. In this week's episode of Wildlife Matters , the Masked Biologist goes back to basics in wildlife management. My first college level wildlife course was appropriately named Wildlife 101. It was a pretty basic class, but it covered a lot of material with broad strokes—everything from individual wildlife species information to how to write a memo. We learned about basic concepts like most

Did you know that the town of Sayner was named for its founder, Orrin W. Sayner? This week on a Northwoods Moment in History , Gary Entz tell us his story. Although a small town with a year-round population of around 200 people, Sayner can boast of a number of “firsts” in Wisconsin history. Sayner can lay claim to having one of the nation’s oldest summer camps in Camp Highlands; it can lay claim to being the town where the snowmobile was invented; and the Plum Lake Golf Course is the oldest nine

For baseball fans, the World Series represents the best of times. For one Milwaukee native and longtime Northwoods summer resident, the championship baseball series represents something much more… the memories of having played in the World Series. Meet number 10, Tony Kubek, of the New York Yankees. WXPR’s Dave Daniels has the story. I remember it like it was yesterday. Early October, 1958, I’m in grade school at Whitman Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington. My teacher, Mrs. Myre is a huge

You may have heard of some invasive wildlife species here in the Northwoods, but do you know our native species have invaded some other countries as well? In this week's episode of Wildlife Matters , the Masked Biologist looks at one of our more insidious invasive species here in Wisconsin, as well as species of our that have invaded Europe. If you haven’t heard, we occasionally have problems with pigs and boars here in the Northwoods. Feral pigs were sighted on state land near Rhinelander in

Mottainai is a Japanese term that conveys a sense of regret over waste. It translates roughly to “what a waste.” It’s also the theme of local artist Debra Ketchum Jircik’s artist residency at the Walter E. Olson Memorial Library in Eagle River, where she’s been holding workshops since the end of August. Ahead of her talk at the library on Friday, October 19th, Mackenzie Martin talked to her about her work during the residency and how it was inspired by a trip she took to Japan. Debra Ketchum

Downtown Rhinelander used to be very different. This week on a Northwoods Moment in History , Gary Entz tells us about a fall festival that happened there in 1934. U.S. Highway 8 used to pass directly through the city of Rhinelander. This served to bring out-of-town visitors directly into the downtown area. It was a boon for local business and helped maintain economic vitality for Brown Street merchants. In the early 1990s the Wisconsin Department of Transportation constructed a bypass of

When you ask people what they like most about autumn, usually the beautiful fall colors are near the top of the list. In this episode of Wildlife Matters , the Masked Biologist examines the science behind the beauty of autumn leaf colors. Autumn has arrived. The weather has been holding out, stretching the feel of summer, but the fall colors are developing brilliantly. I always regret that fall colors just don’t look as good in a photograph as they do to my eye. Every year, I marvel at the

If you are familiar with Oneida County, you've probably heard the name Pelican more than one time. This week on A Northwoods Moment in History , local historian Gary Entz tells us about the name Pelican and its history in the Northwoods. Other than Indigenous place names, the name of Pelican is quite possibly the oldest place name in Oneida County. The oldest maps of Oneida County have the name Pelican in them, and in fact the name Pelican was attached to the region even before there was an

In this month's episode of Field Notes , Susan Knight of UW-Madison’s Trout Lake Station describes an unusual growth pattern of an aquatic plant, reminiscent of mushroom fairy rings. Over a year ago, a colleague sent me a fuzzy photo of a lake with what looked like two rings, or rather, doughnuts, of floating plants in the middle of a lake. The plant was probably water shield, and while water shield often forms a ring around the perimeter of a lake, I had never seen a ring out in the middle of a

We all need a hint or a pointer now and then. In this episode of Wildlife Matters , the Masked Biologist shares some insight as he discusses the annual influx of requests for good places to hunt. Every fall, I get numerous phone calls from people across Wisconsin and the eastern US asking about places to hunt. Usually the hunter is planning a trip north, on short notice, and they want to know where to hunt their prey of choice, often grouse, deer, turkey, or waterfowl. These folks are not