Wisconsin Water News

People searching online for control options related to unwanted plants that grow in lakes and rivers use many different terms. Some call them “lake weeds,” other call them “freshwater seaweed,” still others “cabbage.” Rarely do people search with the same terms that natural resource managers and scientists use, such as the plants’ Latin names or the more formal, “submerged aquatic vegetation.” The...

We all know that oil spills pollute water. But what might be news is that they can also trigger the release of natural pollutants when the spills reach groundwater. This pollution domino effect is the topic of a current Water Resources Institute-funded study by Matt Ginder-Vogel at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He’s working with investigators Beth Parker from the University of Guelph and Je...

Wisconsin ski hills face multiple challenges due to changing snow conditions from climate disruption, plus changes in skier behavior. However, Wisconsin researchers Austin Holland and Natalie Chin found that the state’s ski operators are adapting to meet these challenges. Their study was published in the journal, “ Environmental Research Communications .”

On a sunny morning in mid-June 2024, the Phoenix, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s research vessel, headed out onto the bay. Aboard were Sea Grant researchers Emily Tyner and Bill Sallak and a small mound of recording equipment. It was piloted by Chris Houghton, assistant professor and fish ecologist, who was assisted by first mate, undergraduate student Jacob Hoffman. The bay tour was only sup...

In a new study, natural foams and water surface microlayers of 43 Wisconsin rivers and lakes were found to contain 36 compounds in a group of chemicals known as PFAS. While PFAS were detected in both the foam and the water surface, it’s the foams that the researcher said were orders of magnitude higher in PFAS concentration compared to water, and they urge people and their pets to avoid them. The...

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have detected a suite of new viruses in five species of Wisconsin sport fish. Although none pose a threat to human health, one is a type of coronavirus that’s usually associated with birds. It was found in healthy walleyes from Wisconsin lakes. The finding is part of a Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded study by Tony Goldberg, a professor in the Departmen...

Leaders in several northern Wisconsin counties and cities were chosen to participate in a Lake Superior Climate Champions Program organized by Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve in 2023. The program provided funding and guidance to two teams to work on goals of their choosing that addressed climate change. Hear what they worked on and other outcomes of th...

What is marine debris, what are its impacts and what can we do about it? These are the central messages of a play written on behalf of Wisconsin Sea Grant by David Daniel with American Players Theatre of Wisconsin. “ Me and Debry ,” is a half-hour, whimsical, audience-participation play about litter (or marine debris) in the Great Lakes. It had its “world premiere” in Wisconsin’s Door County in Oc...

A new report published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that Wisconsin’s rural residents perceived significant risks to water quality from pesticides, PFAS (which are per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) and excess nutrients. They also ranked water as very or extremely important for supporting wildlife and for hunting and fishing, in addition to home uses such as drinking and cleaning...

Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Anne Moser has learned enough about wastewater treatment to create “ Plastic Panic ,” a grab-and-go kit that formal and nonformal educators can use to teach about plastic pollution in the Great Lakes, specifically, microplastics. The colorful artwork in the “grab-and-go” kit both educates and enthralls it audiences.

Michael Notaro with the University of Wisconsin-Madison is teaching Wisconsin school children the similarities in snowflakes to share the wonder of nature and information about the Great Lakes climate, but also to expand an international environmental database.

How do you make a park in the middle of Lake Superior accessible to people with disabilities? Natalie Chin and Marie Zhuikov from Wisconsin Sea Grant had the chance to travel to Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore to see first-hand what the park is doing to make it more accessible.

A report published recently by Wisconsin Sea Grant cites a lack of housing as a major barrier to development of nature-based jobs in Wisconsin’s northern tier. This includes Douglas, Ashland, Bayfield and Iron counties. This episode features interviews with the report authors and panel members from a webinar about the report, “Workforce Needs for Nature-Based Solutions in Wisconsin’s Northern Tier...

Sea Grant-funded researchers Sandra McLellan and Gyaneshwar Prasad, both with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, are building on previous research to find ways to decomplicate beach managers’ lives by determining what factors could limit long-term survival of E. coli on beaches. They are also in the process of developing a scorecard for the potential of long-term E. coli reservoirs for each of...

High water levels in Lake Michigan since 2013 have caused erosion rates that are faster than usual, especially in 2020, when lake levels set records. This has created an urgent need to know more about erosion processes along and in the lake. Lucas Zoet with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Geoscience and his research team are looking at bluff erosion and sediment movement at two W...

The three-year tribally driven project called, “Quantifying PFAS bioaccumulation and health impacts on economically important plants and animals associated with aquatic ecosystems in Ceded Territories,” was recently funded. The project has three goals: One is to assess aquatic environments for PFAS contamination in the Ceded Territories, two is to determine the accumulation of PFAS in different pl...

A Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded research and outreach project is designed to explore how the Anishinaabe people connected to and homesteaded the lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota points and how they used fire to manage the landscape. The project name, “Nimaawanji’idimin Giiwitaashkodeng,” translates into “We are all gathering around the fire.” It is being led by Evan Larson with the University of Wisc...

What empowers people to help the environment and rhymes at the same time? Answer: “Me and Debry,” a half-hour, whimsical, audience-participation play about litter (or marine debris) in the Great Lakes. The play had its “world premiere” in Wisconsin’s Door County in October 2022 before a full house at the town library in Egg Harbor. Starring in it were two local actors: Cassandra Bissell and Neil B...

Barker’s Island in the Duluth-Superior Harbor was the site of a free, bird-focused morning during the fall of 2022. People of all ages and ability levels attended an accessible birding outing led by experts from the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve. This free event was made possible through the University of Wisconsin–Madison Dean’s Innovation Grant to colla...

The Wisconsin Idea is one of the longest and deepest traditions surrounding the University of Wisconsin. It promotes the principle that education and the influence of the university need to reach beyond the boundaries of the classroom across the state. Associate Professor of Geoscience Michael Cardiff and his research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are applying the Wisconsin Idea to g...

A Wisconsin Water Resources Institute project is exploring how bacteria and other water contaminants flow through soil by applying a medical technology usually used for cancer imaging. Chris Zahasky, assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received two years of funding to study soil types in the two most vulnerable geologic settings in Wisconsin...

Teachers with a passion for the Great Lakes are sharing their expertise across the region with other teachers in a program that benefits the educators and their students. The mentor program, organized by the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (or CGLL), is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Gavin Dehnert with Wisconsin Sea Grant is part of a research team that found the use of the herbicide fluridone in lakes to control Eurasian watermilfoil is a good news, bad news story.

UW-Milwaukee researcher Charles Paradis and his team are studying the year-round impact that road salt has on Wisconsin rivers and the groundwater that feeds them.

Joe Sanford with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has spent his academic career getting his hands dirty. The assistant professor of soil and crop science has been studying uses for biochar, a form of charcoal that’s made by burning wood and plant byproducts (such as pine chips or dried corn plants) under low oxygen conditions.