Before the ice moved in, the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Community and Wisconsin DNR staff spread more than 400 pounds of wild rice seed on Spur Lake in Oneida County. Part of the strategy with this year’s seeding was how to best protect against waterfowl.

Phytoremediation is the process of using plants to clean up waste.It’s been used across the U.S. on sites like landfills, mines, and urban brownfields.The U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Lab in Rhinelander has become a leader in a specific phytoremediation method. It’s been working to share that method with Forest Service partners around the world.

The Lac Vieux Desert Tribe will begin growing medicinal and culturally significant plants at the J. W. Toumey Nursery in the Ottawa National Forest.It’s a first-of-its-kind partnership in the U.S.

The Ojibwe have long looked to Lake Lac Vieux Desert for its food sources.But there’s been major declines in wild rice and walleye in recent years that impact the Lac Vieux Desert Tribe’s food sovereignty.The tribe is now working with the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest on a project to help improve the two species populations.

Dozens of wildfires burning hundreds of thousands of acres are currently burning out west in both the U.S. and Canada.The last few summers brought smoke from fires just like them to the Northwoods, dropping air quality to some of the worst levels seen in the region in years.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules that will force American coal plants to either close or cut back 90 percent of their carbon emissions.

Just a few years ago, the very existence of Town Line Lake Park was in jeopardy.

Habitat destruction is the driving force behind pollinator population decline.In response, the No Mow May movement started about five years ago to encourage people to leave some flowers for the bees in early spring.

Nearly 70,000 acres in Oneida, Forest, and Langlade Counties are under conservation easements to be protected in perpetuity.The Pelican River Forest is praised by conservationists for protecting increasingly rare contiguous forestland in the state.

The time of year - spring - is but one important factor playing into the intensity of frog calls.

Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River has several invasive species it’s working to remove from its campus.The work happened to align with a new program Blackwell Job Corps in Forest County is piloting.

In northern Iron County sits more than 3,000 acres of a largely undeveloped flowage along the west branch of the Montreal River.The Gile Flowage will remain that way after the county is set to receive more than $4 million in federal funding to conserve it.

For WXPR’s The Stream, Hannah Davis-Reid spoke with environmental experts about how the USDA's land management plan revisions impacts the Chequamegon- Nicolet National Forest.

Emerald Ash Borer has decimated ash tree population in the U.S. since the early 2000s.The invasive species has slowly been making its way north in Wisconsin and Michigan.Researchers with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station are working to get the species under control while also trying to restore ecosystems that have been destroy by them.

The upper Midwest rarely sees the type of high-intensity, destructive wildfires that the west coast sees, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen here.The Ottawa National Forest works to make sure if such a fire happened in the U.P., people and homes have the best chance of surviving.

For more than a decade now, the Lac du Flambeau School District has brought back a piece of Ojibwe culture that had been missing for nearly two centuries. The Winter Games give students a chance to learn about their culture while having some fun. But a growing concern is how climate change may impact the games.

while the higher than average temperatures we’ve been experiencing this winter are because of El Niño, Vavrus says Wisconsin has also been experiencing warmer winters due to climate change, with the last 25 years generally well above normal compared with previous years.

A group of college students from Milwaukee are spending this week at Kemp Natural Resources Station at Woodruff.They’re collecting data and testing their hypotheses.The catch? They’re not science students.

For decades, the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. was home to more than 100 copper mines.One of the byproducts of that is stamp sands, the practice of crushing rock and extracting heavy metals.Remnants of it are still found throughout the peninsula.

There are numerous insects that threaten the health of forests.One of the greatest challenges is finding them fast enough to stop the pests before they do irreversible damage.For WXPR’s The Stream, Katie Thoresen spoke with a Rhinelander-based scientist leading a project to try and meet this challenge.It’s part two of our series highlighting local researchers who have received Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding.