Invasive Species

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed the tool in 2021 to prevent oak wilt advancement in a time of unpredictable weather.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is slated to begin construction next year on a $1.1 billion project in Illinois aimed at keeping invasive carp out of the Great Lakes. The Army Corps and Illinois Department of Natural Resources held meetings about the project and toured the site this week. Engineers will install more defenses…

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a landmark ruling that reaffirmed the 1837 treaty rights of a northern Wisconsin tribe to hunt, fish and gather on ceded territory. In 1983, two brothers from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Fred and Mike Tribble, were arrested for spearfishing outside the boundaries of…

In a lower Manhattan off-Broadway theater, tucked away from the traffic and bright lights, an old farm house nestled on 40 acres of remnant prairie introduces theatergoers to a Wisconsin woman making zucchini bread, and Rebecca Gilman’s play “Swing State” begins. The play, set “somewhere in the Driftless area of Wisconsin” in the late summer…

The spotted lanternfly is “knocking right at the door” of the Badger State after being detected in Illinois last week. The invasive species, native to southern Asia, is now in 16 states. First found in North America in Pennsylvania in 2014, it has since spread through the mid-Atlantic to the Midwest. Michigan had its first…

This time of year, yellow jacket wasps can be a bit ornery and aggressive. PJ Liesch, manager of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab, said there’s a good reason for that. “To put it shortly, they’re basically ‘hangry,’” he said. “They are really hungry this time of the year because they’re running low on…

Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands dwell below a Bayfield hilltop orchard where, for a short time this summer, mature apple trees were accompanied by 100 potted poplars. The young poplars glowed bright green as they waited to be purchased. Patrons, scientists and staff at Hauser’s Superior View Farm prophesied the poplars’ future like new…

Entomologists and the state Department of Natural Resources say Wisconsin could be seeing one of the worst spongy moth caterpillar outbreaks in more than a decade. Spongy moths, formerly known as gypsy moths, are invasive insects from Europe that were introduced in the late 1800s. They are destructive as caterpillars and are voracious eaters in…

Blacklegged ticks or deer ticks are widely known to transmit Lyme disease, and now researchers have found that they may also be a pathway for spreading chronic wasting disease. Those are the findings of a study led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison that were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Scientific Reports. The study…

Average ice cover on the Great Lakes dropped to one of the lowest levels on record this winter as the region has witnessed warmer than normal temperatures. Less ice sets the stage for the lakes to warm up sooner earlier in the year, and researchers say that could affect water quality and the food web.…