WXPR The Stream

Are the Northwoods walleye you catch safe to eat, or do they have too much mercury? The answer is tied to several factors, but new research shows a surprising variable might have the biggest effect. The water level of the lake where you caught the fish could tell you more about its safety than anything else. The realization of the connection started years ago, when lakes researcher Dr. Carl Watras found an interesting trend. The water level on Northwoods lakes, and even the Great Lakes, followed

A month ago, in a ballroom at a hotel conference center in a Madison suburb, social distancing wasn’t even in the vocabulary of most people. The coronavirus wasn’t yet a threat to Wisconsin. Hundreds of people packed into a convention to talk about, and hear about, a different threat to health--PFAS. “It is the hot ticket issue right now,” conceded Bridget Kelly, the Wisconsin DNR’s Program Coordinator for Emerging Contaminants. The topic is only growing hotter. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl

At Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Rhinelander last Sunday, pianos and voices paired for the song “Down to the River to Pray.” It was the final hymn at Mass, and songs about prayers at the river were just one of the many references to faith and water at Catholic Masses across the country. The Sunday Gospel, taken from John, Chapter 4, told of Jesus and a woman at a well. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will

On Tuesday, Scott Blado found good news as he dipped scientific instruments below the ice on the Big Eau Pleine Reservoir in Marathon County. “Right now, we’re seeing [a reading of] 10.9 dissolved oxygen, which is fantastic. We couldn’t ask for anything better than that at this time of the year,” said Blado, an environmental specialist for the Wausau-based Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company (WVIC). Blado tests multiple points on the reservoir every week, and on Tuesday, he saw a significant

As Wisconsin works toward setting up enforceable limits for PFAS in water, it’s already behind several other states. But the federal government seems to be trailing even farther behind in protecting the public. The man-made group of chemicals got more attention in Wisconsin once it was found contaminating water supplies like Rhinelander’s. The contaminant, linked to health risks, is present across the country. But the actions taken by different governments are a hodgepodge. “There’s a lot of

Since a 1940s dam on Sailor Creek near Fifield in Price County created a 200-acre recreational flowage, the Lobermeiers have considered it part of their home. The S-shaped flowage is spotted with islands looking out at wooded shorelines, and for Dave Lobermeier, it’s a place of enjoyment. But the Sailor Creek Flowage has also become the source of a decade of legal headaches. “I feel like I’ve got a bullseye on my back, quite honestly,” said Dave, walking with his brother Butch on the frozen

In the winter, snowshoes are the best way to navigate a swath of undeveloped, wooded, privately-owned land between Monico and Pelican Lake in Oneida County. The simple forest roads that exist are snow-covered and unplowed. In late January, Badger Minerals, a Michigan-based subsidiary of a Canadian company, announced plans to drill several holes on this tract, seeking to learn more about minerals under the snowy surface. Some of those holes, which would likely average a depth of 400 feet, would

Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron are on pace to set all-time records for high water levels in February. Lake Superior is 15 inches above normal, while Michigan and Huron are more than three feet above average. That’s sent Great Lakes states into action, scrambling for solutions as water stays high. “From the Corps’ perspective, we’re focusing on what’s happening right now. Right now, it’s just been unbelievably wet across the Great Lakes Basin, leading to these record high levels,” said Keith

Note: WXPR’s Ben Meyer celebrated his honeymoon in New Zealand this month with his wife, Erika. This week’s edition of The Stream is inspired by their visit to one of New Zealand’s mountain glaciers. Every day the weather cooperates, a helicopter delivers hikers onto Fox Glacier in the mountains of New Zealand’s South Island. Guides lead groups wearing boots and crampons across the ice sheet, which sparkles white on the surface and bright blue in its many crevasses and ice arches. A hike on the

Wisconsin is the home of its own conservation hall of fame, the home of the founder of Earth Day, Gaylord Nelson, and the home of John Muir. It was the first state in America to ban DDT. “Wisconsin has had such a long tradition in the conservation area and protecting the environment,” said Susan Hedman, the former Great Lakes Region Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Hedman says Wisconsin used to a leader in the field. But now, it’s a leader in something else. Between 2008