WGF Blog
Posts by WGF members on a variety of conservation-related topics.
Profile in Conservation
Nancy Turyk is the chair of WGF’s Climate Change Work Group and has recently directed her career focus to climate change by contributing her expertise through local, state, and federal work groups. We asked Nancy about her background, how she became interested in the field of climate change, and how she inspires others to fight climate change.
Read More >Remembering Dan Wisniewski
Dan Wisniewski was a founding member of Wisconsin’s Green Fire and a champion of conservation. The Northwoods Land Trust recently named its 40-acre riverfront property, “The Dan Wisniewski Deerskin River Preserve” in his honor. It is not a coincidence that the Deerskin River is a fine trout stream.
Read More >Earth Day at 50: Celebrating Dependence Day
Early in July, sometime in the mid-90s, I found myself driving North for a late start to the field season. We headed out early the next morning, visiting two forests before calling it a day. The drill was familiar— flag corners of the quadrats, then count the tree seedlings and saplings, recording substrate and any …
Read More >On the 50th Earth Day: The Places We Saved Became the Places We Needed
On this year’s Earth Day I will step out of at-home seclusion during the global pandemic and get outside for a few hours to stretch my legs and breathe deeply.
The state’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program has provided Wisconsin residents with outdoor places to go for fresh air and safe social distancing even though state parks and …
Read More >How an Idea Becomes a Law
As Wisconsin’s Green Fire’s (WGF) Legislative Liaison, I monitor legislative activity and watch for opportunities for WGF to provide information through testimony and comments. Unlike many environmental and conservation organizations, WGF does not actually lobby for law changes. Instead our role is to provide information to legislators and the public about proposed legislation based on …
Read More >Will the U.S. EPA Back Away from Reducing Mercury Pollution?
On December 27, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced changes to the Mercury Air Toxics Standard (MATS) established in 2012. EPA will accept comments on the proposed changes for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, which was expected to occur by mid-January. The MATS requires reduction of mercury air emissions from …
Read More >New Federal Report Predicts Increasing Environmental and Ecological Costs due to Climate Change in the United States.
Climate change presents growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth in the United States. On November 24, 2018 the US Global Change Research Project released the FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States. The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses …
Read More >Op / Ed Ask Candidates Where They Stand on Using Science in Conservation
On Election Day, November 6, 2018, voters in Wisconsin have an opportunity to support the health and future of our natural resources. The quality of natural resources impacts every single person in the state – via recreation, tourism industry, paper and logging industries, our heat and electricity, agriculture, hunting and fishing, the water we drink, …
Read More >What if we knew Nature loved us? How would we act differently?
Attended by over 100 members, the Wisconsin’s Green Fire (WGF) 2018 Annual Meeting caused much philosophical pondering and also provided some concrete ideas on how to make connections.
Read More >In the Vortex of Climate Change
Over eleven days in late August, four major storms raked across central and southern Wisconsin, each dumping multiple inches of rain. Late in the afternoon of August 20, a record-breaking deluge of more than eleven inches in just four hours hit western Dane County. On August 26-27, parts of Ozaukee and Washington Counties north of
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