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Snowmobile safety is a focus this week

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A reminder for safe snowmobiling. Captain April Dombrowski, DNR Recreational Safety Section Chief, says smart, sober operation is the lesson of International Snowmobile Safety Week. “It’s really about practicing that zero alcohol,” she said. “It’s a personal choice to refrain from drinking any alcoholic beverage, until you’re done operating any motorized vehicle for the day.”

Staying sober makes it easier to know what you – and your snowmobile – are safely capable of. “Riding within your capabilities, riding at safe speeds for the users’ capability, and the machine’s capability.” The DNR recorded 16 fatal snowmobile accidents in 2019. Eleven occurred on public trails and roads, four were on frozen waterways.

Clean water bills headed to Capitol this week

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A package of bills focused on improving water quality will be introduced in Wisconsin Wednesday. 

Republican State Representative Scott Krug says one big part of the bill will be support for an already successful farm conservation program.

 “Giving folks a chance to locally collaborate on their own watersheds to fix their problems back home, I think is the best bang for our buck.”

Democrat Katrina Shankland says she’s pushing for a state cleanup fund to support best farming practices as well as septic and well remediation.  

“I think if we want for clean water for everyone in Wisconsin, we have to be willing to pay for prevention and enforcement, as well as best practices. And I think the Clean Water Fund is something that we should be able to get behind, but it might take some time.” 

The package of bills comes out of several months worth of public hearings with the state’s Water Quality task force. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos created the task force shortly after Governor Tony Evers declared 2019 as the Year of Clean Water.

Wisconsin’s chief warden retires after 30 years on the job

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Wisconsin’s Chief Warden is stepping down.

Todd Schaller spent more than 30 years in public service with the state, and says working as a warden was his dream. “I wanted to work with the Department of Natural Resources all my life, and I was fortunate to live that and carry it out with a great group of people within the department and also outside the department.”

Schaller says the worlds of hunting and fishing have changed dramatically over the years, and that it’s important to remember that they still remain integral to the nature of Wisconsin’s DNA. He’s also not sure what retirement will hold for him. 

“Gonna explore what that means, and I guess adjust as I learn over the next several months.”

DNR Secretary-designee Preston Cole has named Captain Casey Krueger as Schaller’s replacement. 

“He will step in without a hiccough or pause and move the agency and the Bureau of Law Enforcement forward,” says Schaller. 

Kreuger has been with the wardens for 22 years and currently heads up the wardens in Southern Wisconsin. 

Enbridge buying land for new Line 5 pipeline

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Enbridge Energy has begun buying land, as it prepares to reroute its Line 5 pipeline around a northern Wisconsin reservation. The Ashland Daily Press reports Enbridge has opened an office in Ashland for staff members involved in relocating the line.

A company spokeswoman said Enbridge has purchased “a couple” properties in Ashland County, but declined to provide details.

The Bad River tribe has refused to renew leases with Enbridge for a portion of the pipeline on tribal lands, and has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force its removal because the tribe fears the line poses an environmental threat.

Report finds Wisconsin led states in cuts to pollution prevention

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Wisconsin cut more support from pollution control programs than any other state over the last decade.  State spending for pollution control programs within the Department of Natural Resources was reduced by 36 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to a report from The Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group based in Washington D.C.

Other states have also made significant reductions, while federal funding for science and pollution programs within the Environmental Protection Agency was also been reduced by 16 percent over that past decade. The decline in funding in Wisconsin correlates with former Republican Governor Scott Walker’s time in office.

Deer kills decline for 2019 hunting season

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The number deer harvested during the just-concluded gun-deer season is down sharply compared to a year ago. A preliminary report from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says hunters killed 90,286 deer in 2019, down from 123,090 in 2018. That’s a decrease of 26.7%.

The DNR’s Jeff Pritzl said the drop can likely be attributed to the late start to the season.

“Because of the calendar shift, having the latest possible season opener, that does have an effect when we look at that phenomenon from previous years,” Pritzl told WTAQ.

Hunters have told the DNR the deer have been hard to find. “Deer activity and observations of deer certainly appeared to be depressed and slow compared to what we’re accustomed to or what expectations were,” said Pritzl.

There were no counties in the state that reported increases from a year ago.

We Energies opens first small scale solar plant in New Berlin

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We Energies is partnering with local schools and municipalities to help bring solar power projects online.

The project is called Solar Now, and Spokesman Brendan Conway says the projects are using existing properties to host arrays. 

“We install solar panels on their properties, so often times roofs or other land they’re not using, we pay them some money to lease that land, and then all of that clean renewable energy goes into our grid and is used by all of our customers.”

Conway says the first two megawatts of solar panels are now online. 

“We have partnered with the New Berlin School District to put solar panels on four of their locations: three school buildings and some empty space at one of their schools.” That’s enough power to run 400 homes.

Conway says they’re working out similar plans with the city of Racine, UW Parkside, and locations in Washington County. 

DNR reports opening weekend deer harvest

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The numbers are in, for the opening weekend of Wisconsin’s gun deer hunt. “Things started out a little slower than we were hoping that they would, but still we had over 90,000 deer registered, with a little over half of those, 47,000 being antlered bucks,” said Kevin Wallenfang with the Department of Natural Resources.

“We are down right now, in comparison, about 30 percent, and that was not totally unexpected. When we have years where we go from the absolute earliest opener which we did in 2018 to the absolute latest opener which we had this year, we tend to see usually a 20 to 25 percent reduction in the opening weekend buck harvest.”

The nine-day gun deer season opened Saturday and runs through Sunday. “I would just encourage people, you know we’re only talking about the first two days of the season, and there’s still lots of time out there and lots of deer out there to pursue, so get on out there and enjoy it,” Wallenfang said.

DNR reports four gun injuries in opening weekend of deer hunting

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is investigating four different hunting gun-related incidents that happened over the opening weekend of deer season, including one that is being treated as a criminal investigation. Law enforcement are looking for information after a man was shot Sunday morning in the Washburn County Town of Minong.

Two hunters shot themselves in the left foot with their own weapons, one in Oneida County and one in Marantion County. In Fond Du Lac County, wardens report that a hunter fired at a running deer and instead struck a 19-year-old woman in the hand.

Expect snow and cold to hang around this week, says NWS

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This early blast of winter weather will be hanging around for a number of days.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Taylor Patterson says you’re not mistaken if this seems out of the ordinary.

“Yes, yes, this is quite unusual for early November. As far as temperature wise, well below normal, and then for the snow, both Milwaukee and Madison, we’ve had records set for consecutive number of days with snow on the ground.”

Patterson says we can expect cold temperatures and more snow. 

“Expect Tuesday morning to be really cold with temperatures in the single digits. For the highs on Tuesday, we’re expecting highs to be in the teens or low twenties. As we get into Wednesday, Wednesday night, we could see another round of precipitation and some snow.”

Expect sunshine and temperatures near freezing on Thursday.