Category: WISCONSIN_MN

A decade ago, a blue-green algae bloom had never been reported on Lake Superior. Now, half a dozen blue-green algae blooms have been reported this summer across Lake Superior, including one that formed recently in Superior. But researchers say the blooms were relatively minor.

Rural doctors have a unique view into people’s personal pain and struggles. In our exam rooms, we treat good, kind and hardworking people. Most of them are struggling to get by.

A Wisconsin utility regulator with past ties to the clean energy industry will not participate in the permitting process for a controversial solar farm in southeastern Dane County.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has awarded almost $1 million to study projects designed to keep electricity flowing locally even during major disasters.

A renewable energy company considering construction of a huge solar power array in the town of Morgan received a chilly reception at an informational session Wednesday night. Most of the just over 100 people who attended the meeting in the Oconto Falls High School auditorium appeared to be opponents of the project, including at least a dozen sporting white “Help Stop the Birch Solar Project” t-shirts.

In 2015, Mike Sievert was awarded nearly $16,000 from the USDA to purchase a grain dryer for his farm. “Things are changing fast, the way things are going right now,” he said. “You hear a lot of things, you read a lot of articles about how to get better and stuff like that, and you just start learning from other people and discussing with people from there how to make things better and more practical.”

While Wisconsin may be known for its “frozen tundra,” an increase in hot, humid summer days is bringing attention to Wisconsin’s urban heat islands and their impact on human health. A heat island is an urban area that experiences higher temperatures than the surrounding rural areas because of buildings, roads, and general infrastructure absorbing heat and emitting that heat back into the environment

Water laps against a tangle of weeds at the shoreline of Flambeau Lake in Lac du Flambeau. Thick gray clouds hang overhead, but the weather doesn’t keep the wildlife at bay.

The latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reiterated what we already know: We need to be taking swift, bold action to address climate change.  If we don’t, the consequences are dire.

When Carissa and Nathan Lyle were expecting their first child in 2017, they bought an old farmhouse on about three acres just west of Rockdale. Nathan, a builder, gutted and remodeled the house and added a garage and pole shed. Surrounded by farm fields, but still close to Madison and Janesville, Carissa said it was an ideal spot — within their budget — to raise a family.