Hardwood Hearings
Rock River Raftoon
Sometimes the best photographic opportunities flutter into existence on made up words as I’m walking in my crocs smelling the scuzzy scum of the Rock River. I’m a fan of made up words (and nature’s bountiful scuzzy scum), mostly because it seems like pretty much all words were made up at some point in time. I guess it comes because made up words push literary boundaries and open a closed (and locked one even) mind.
‘Paint it, black’
Preliminary results on black cerakote Canada goose bands
Leg bands on waterfowl have long been used for research by agencies worldwide. In their underlying simplicity, they have changed with the ever alternating avenues of waterfowl research, hunting, and conservation.
New UTV/ATV regulations from June 1, frequent reoccurring violations
Beginning June 1 of this year, there were several new ATV/UTV regulations put in place across the state. In a press release, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) listed new changes regarding statewide ATV and UTV regulations.
Newsroom addition to The Lakeland Times
Reporter Jacob Link brings experience to new community
Earlier this July, the newsroom at The Lakeland Times acquired a new member in Jacob Link. Link, who grew up in Madison, originally went to UW-Oshkosh for journalism, but added two more majors and one minor to his diploma by the time he walked across the stage this spring.
Greene takes over as editor of The Lakeland Times
Looks to continue the culture, add his own twist
After nearly five years of working as a reporter, Trevor Greene was promoted to editor of The Lakeland Times in early July after Dean Hall’s retirement. Greene said he has a good understanding of how the newspaper operates thanks to a myriad of coworkers, and has built relationships with community members during his time as a reporter.
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Circles
One spindly little alder shielded my monochromatic view of the dozen mallards that circled the snowglobe of a lake we hunted that day. I like to think it obstructed their view as much as mine, but given the 24 eyes looking back at me, that was unlikely.
Wisconsin Land and Water Camp at Discovery Center
Saxon Harbor bioretention basin planting
The Wisconsin Land and Water Youth Conservation Camp took place at the North Lakeland Discovery Center (NLDC) in Manitowish Waters earlier this summer. The camp gives high schoolers interested in the natural resources field some insight in different career paths in the discipline, as well as hands on activities they may perform if they continue to a career in natural resources.
Lakeland 14U softball wins league title
The Lakeland 14U softball team beat the Laona Rebels 12-1 in five innings on July 8 at Lenz Field in Minocqua to win the league championship. A nine-run fourth inning helped seal the victory on the final game of the season. Adalyn Bohne had the walk-off hit, and, after some confusion, the game was called with a 12-1 final due to the run rule.
Blake Timmons first on podium at SCTP state in Lakeland trap team history
For the first time in team history, the Lakeland trap team had an athlete receive an award at a Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) state event. The honors went to seventh-grader-to-be Blake Timmons, who took second place and shot 83/100 targets during the SCTP state trap doubles event at the Heart of Wisconsin Sportsmans Club in Wisconsin Rapids on June 19. The team had a combined 77 entries in four different state disciplines at state events (trap singles, trap doubles, handicap trap, and sporting clays).
One inning spoils win for Senior Babe Ruth team
The Lakeland Babe Ruth Sr team lost to Tomahawk 15-7 at Tyler Kahle Memorial Field in Tomahawk on July 9. Lakeland had five more hits than Tomahawk, but a nine-run sixth inning proved too much to overcome.
Legion Post 89 splits back-to-back games
The Minocqua Legion Post 89 baseball team split a pair of back-to-back games on July 6 and 7 at the Minocqua Park Complex in Minocqua. They lost 12-5 to Rhinelander Post 7 on July 6 and won 11-1 over Tomahawk Post 93 on July 7.
Snowhawks edged by the Chicago All-Stars
The Lake Tomahawk Snowhawks were defeated 16-9 by the Chicago All-Stars during the Fourth of July snowshoe baseball game at Snowshoe Park. “It was a nice crowd,” Snowhawks manager, Jeff Smith, said. “We finally had a beautiful day and night for the Fourth, and I think a lot of people were in anticipation, waiting for a good game, and had a good fireworks show.”
2026 ruffed grouse survey results; summer game bird survey significance
Habitat management tips for the state’s declining population
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the 2026 ruffed grouse and pheasant survey results in a press release on June 24. “The survey measured ruffed grouse drumming activity heard along roadsides throughout Wisconsin this spring and showed an 11 (percent) decrease in statewide drumming activity compared to 2025,” the DNR’s press release said.
Babe Ruth Prep topped by Phillips
The Lakeland Babe Ruth Prep League baseball team lost to Phillips in a Monday night matchup at Minocqua Park Complex on July 6. The team’s lone run came in the bottom of the third inning when Jayce Nielsen crossed home after reaching on a walk. They surrendered 26 runs to the Loggers in the five-inning game.
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Dreamdrops
Restless in bed one night, I’d flip the pillow and stare and the starless ceiling. Enough illumination spun through my window where I could make out the light fixture of a moon. Whatever held my eyes open took my heartbeat too.
State approves zero doe quota for DMU 116
Youth antlerless harvest still authorized
The Natural Resources Board (NRB) approved the final quotas and season structure for the 2026 deer season on June 24 during a meeting in Black River Falls.
Kurt’s Island and Visitors Bureau nominated for outdoor industry awards
A pair of Minocqua establishments were recently nominated for statewide outdoor industry awards for their representation in promoting outdoor recreation. The Wisconsin Governor’s Outdoor Industry Awards were presented on the lawn of the Wisconsin Executive Residence and Governor’s Mansion in Maple Bluff on June 24.
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Next year
If not for having seen a wood duck open its wings to unburden most everyone, I too would be a carnation which fell shut without knowing the unmitigated piles of attraction under the sun. Their overwhelming beauty blossoms into my constant pursuit of their company.
Conservation on point
American woodcock banding using certified pointing dogs
It’s frequent that complete human lifetimes elapse without ever setting eyes on a brood of American woodcock (woodcock). Even those lifetimes spent tearing through the trunks with an over/under that also weave through stands of young timber in the spring can come up empty in stumbling across a hen woodcock on a nest or hunkered down with her brood.
Diving to make a difference
Boat retrieval from Minocqua Lake
On each cast, there’s a risk to be run should a crankbait catch a rock, weed, log or ... toilet, treadmill, washer and dryer. A lot of anglers, dare I say nearly all, have left some kind of fishing equipment hooked to the bottom as their line snaps on a snag.
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Broken on the Bay
The target island was there, I just couldn’t see it. My waning headlamp batteries only saw about as far as down to my feet, sinking in the silt. The little light accentuated my one ungloved hand, but didn’t extend far enough to reach the island across the slough.
Drumming surveys help with population trends in ruffed grouse
Other methods contribute productivity and harvest information
The thumping wings of a drumming ruffed grouse are unmistakable to the ears that embrace their sound during the spring. It’s an event more often heard than seen through the thick cover of young forests, and a great deal of help in estimating the population across the state.
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Remind me, sky
Remind me, sky, of my tilted footprints beneath your drenching upset stomach bound to the brim of my ball cap. Spit back out each smile that accompanied the atmospheric rivers who thrust castaway driftwood upon the sandy barrier beside the Bay.
Long-tailed ducks on Lake Michigan
In-person hunter harvest survey in Two Rivers helps address minimal harvest information
A study recently published in The Journal of Wildlife Management explained how researchers on Lake Michigan conducted a long-tailed duck hunter survey out of Two Rivers to help address a lack of harvest information and discuss management implications for the species. It was part of a larger study of long-tailed ducks on Lake Michigan that began nearly a decade ago.
Hardwoood Hearings
Where can you blow a duck call?
A lot of the nooks and crannies in my frictionally wrinkled life are filled with duck calls. They call to me and I hear their voices between the spinning helter skelter as I wait for fall every year.
Preliminary tribal fish harvest in Oneida and Vilas
Numbers to be finalized in July
In the preliminary data collected by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), tribal fish harvest in Vilas and Oneida counties was estimated at 17,780 walleye and 149 muskie. Harvest ran from April 10 through May 15, and finalized numbers will be official in July.
Bugles in the Badger State
2026 post-calving population estimates
As within the last couple years, roughly 25,000 state residents recently submitted an elk tag application before the May 31 deadline. To remember a time when elk were on Wisconsin’s landscape prior to successful reintroduction, you have to go all the way back to 1886. That year, the last known record of an elk in the state was contained in a shipping receipt to a meat market after an elk was harvested just west of Stevens Point.
Preliminary tribal fish harvest in Oneida and Vilas counties
Numbers to be finalized in July
In the preliminary data collected by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), tribal fish harvest in Vilas and Oneida counties was estimated at 17,780 walleye and 149 muskie. Harvest ran from April 10 through May 15, and finalized numbers will be official in July.
Lakeland trap team fires off awards from season
Range development grant for Minocqua Gun Club
The Lakeland trap team distributed season awards to athletes on June 1 at the Minocqua Gun Club. Amelia Wigant and Tyler Fadroski received Top Gun awards for having the highest individual conference score of all team members. Wigant scored a 181/225 throughout the nine week season, and Fadroski tallied 209/225. Fradoski’s 209 was also third in the Great North Trap Conference in the male varsity division and helped him earn first team all conference.
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Wings outside the walls
An outdoor classroom like no other, the duck blind is a place where wonder and thought can roam free with whatever else shall cross its path. Within it’s uncharming and nonconforming walls, made of a melting pot of natural things, a student can hide from avian detection, but never from distraction. The wind will twist a tree that looks like a bird flying by, or an otter can playfully scoff at the smear of fake ducks downwind.
Molecular methods help improve understanding of American black duck genetics
Hybridization dead ends and boreal forest implications
If you were to compare an American black duck (black duck or American black duck) to perhaps the most well known waterfowl in the world, the mallard, there would be many similarities. The two species, along with several others, have a close-knit relationship due to a short evolutionary timeline.
Hardwoood Hearings
Bogs and lettuce
Give fault and reason to whatever or whoever you want, but it’s probably no secret we live in a fast world. There’s always another thing to do no matter how many tasks we cross off.
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Over the shoulder
“Walleye chop,” my dad shouted from the back of the canoe as we paddled in the wind across one of the many lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). The waves lapped against our canoe, and the trees tossed in the breeze along the jagged shore.
Lakeland trap team shoots at the 8th annual Northwoods Invitational
The Lakeland High School trap team competed with 16 other teams in the Northwoods Invitational May 15 to 17 in Harshaw and Minocqua. An event that offered opportunities for athletes to shoot trap singles, trap doubles, skeet, and sporting clays, the event was divided between the Harshaw Sports Club and the Minocqua Gun Club to accommodate shooters from all 17 teams.
Midges emerge in Northwoods
Joining the warmer weather, insects have started to emerge, and among them are various species of midges. The short-lived midges swarm along our lakes and provide an important food source for the rest of the environment.
Rice restoration efforts at Spur Lake State Natural Area
Twenty thousand years ago, when the glacier over northern Wisconsin slowly receded north, a chunk of it broke off and got lodged in the ground about five miles south of Three Lakes. Eventually, temperatures warmed and that giant ice cube that was left behind melted to form what is now known as Spur Lake State Natural Area.
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Fur question, feather obsession
In all my towering love of the Northwoods, deer hunting admittedly never really left a rut in my repertoire of desired activities. I’ve harvested a few deer and enjoy the time outside and traditional family and friend company, but without a doubt would rather be holding a shotgun or camera eyeing up my feather obsession.
Conclusion of CDAC meetings
DMU 117 and 120 antlerless quota recommendations
The Citizen Deer Advisory Council (CDAC) meetings have concluded for Deer Management Unit (DMU) 117 and 120, which make up most of the rest of Vilas and Oneida counties with DMUs 116, 121, and 122.
A peeping proclamation
Our ephemeral residents have begun their cacophony of amphibious acoustics, and I have followed their serenade to the topographies of true.
Fire for fowl
Spring Creek State Wildlife Area prescribed burn
Any woods walker who wanders the trunks this time of year can hear the crunchy needles or leaves beneath them. Before any substantial amount of rain saturates our forests and before any new green growth sprouts to the sky and shades the understory, fire season engulfs our arid and fuel-rich landscape.
Rhinelander team wins dartball state championship
Wiedeman inducted into hall of fame
Rhinelander’s McDonald Bus Service dartball team, captained by Jeff McDonald, shot a bullseye — or hit a home run rather — in the 2026 State Dartball Tournament, taking home the Class C championship after defeating Balz Inn of Athens last month at the Central Wisconsin Convention and Expo Center in Rothschild.
General fishing season to open May 2
New regulations in place for Oneida and Vilas counties
The wait is over for the anglers who have anticipated getting back on the open water of more than 15,000 inland lakes across the state to cast their crankbaits with the hopes of reeling in a big one. As anglers head out for the general fishing season opener tomorrow, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds residents to check updated regulations for the 2026-27 season. There’s an abundance of lake specific changes across the state, as well as new season frameworks for inland trout and muskie.
Deer management unit 116 CDAC meeting
Zero-doe-harvest quota to be recommended to Deer Advisory Committee
With the statewide Citizen Deer Advisory Council (CDAC) meetings wrapping up, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Deer Advisory Committee will soon review CDAC harvest quota and season framework recommendations. Towards the end of May, the DNR administration will review harvest quota and season framework recommendations as well, before the final proposal is made to the Natural Resources Board (NRB). The NRB will approve final deer season structures during their scheduled June 24 meeting in Kenosha.
Wisconsin Conservation Congress spring hearings held statewide
The Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC) held their annual spring hearings on April 13 from 6-9 p.m. in all 72 counties. Public comment was welcomed at the hearing, and questions were taken by a panel of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff and WCC members.
The importance of scouting
Any fundamentally sound duck or goose hunter ought to know the importance of scouting. They know that to have a successful day afield, you have to hunt where the ducks want to be, and the only way to do that is to find them.
DNR reminds public that young wildlife are soon to emerge
In a recent press release, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) described what to do if you encounter young wild animals as temperatures continue to increase across the state. “The public can help keep wildlife wild by observing from a safe distance to provide young wild animals their best chance of survival,” the release stated.
Timberdoodle timeline
On a recent moonlit drive home, the gravel roads wound a reminder around my impossibly cornered eyes of just how chaotic spring can be here in Wisconsin. With an almost 60 degree high before nearly a foot of snow and ice in the forecast, I shouldn’t be surprised.
From block to block: Time Capsule Decoys
“You got some history there, young man,” Kenley Cordts, 90, of Tomahawk told me as a I leafed through a book titled “Ducks and Men: Forty years of co-operation in conservation.” The book, copy written in 1978, tells the story of Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), and the beginnings of its integral part in conserving continental waterfowl populations.
NRB to consider adopting emergency order regarding migratory bird hunting regulations
Concealment restrictions to change if adopted
The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board (NRB) will meet Wednesday, April 15 at 8:30 a.m. in Madison. On the NRB’s agenda is Emergency Board Order WM-13-25 (E), which, if adopted, would affect chapter NR 10 (game and hunting), specifically the 2026-2030 migratory bird season framework and regulations.
2024-25 creel survey reports for Tomahawk Chain, Minocqua, and Kawaguesaga lakes
If you’re an angler who fishes on the Minocqua Chain, you may have been interviewed by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries staff during past fishing seasons about what you caught, how long you’ve been out, and some of the specific species you’re targeting.
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