Oneida County Land and Water Conservation
Contact Us:
  • Home
  • 2025 Northwoods' Invasive Species Poster Contest
    • 2024 Northwoods' Invasive Species Poster Contest >
      • 2023 Northwoods' Invasive Species Poster Contest >
        • 2022 Northwoods' Invasive Species Poster Contest
        • 2021 Northwoods' Invasive Species Poster Contest
        • 2020 Northwoods Invasive Species Poster Contest
  • 2025 Land & Water Conservation Speaking & Poster Contest
    • 2024 Land & Water Conservation Speaking & Poster Contest >
      • 2023 Land & Water Conservation Speaking & Poster Contest
      • 2022 L&W SPEAKING & POSTER CONTEST >
        • 2021 Land & Water Conservation Speaking & Poster Contest
        • 2020 Land & Water Speaking/Poster Contest!
  • Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Program
    • Report an AIS
    • AIS Identification Fact Sheets >
      • Aquatic Forget-me-not in Oneida County
      • Mystery Snails in Oneida County
      • Rusty Crayfish in Oneida County
    • Clean Boats Clean Waters
    • AIS Prevention
    • AIS Pathways >
      • AIS in Ballast Water
    • What Makes a Species Invasive?
    • The Wealth of Water in Oneida County
    • AIS Outreach >
      • AIS Bait Shop Outreach
      • AIS Boat Landing Signage
      • AIS Ice Angler Outreach
      • AIS Waterfowl Outreach
      • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Lake Monitoring Results
    • Additional AIS Resources
    • Lake Association & Districts
    • AIS Teams Photos from the Field
    • Stewardship Awards Banquet >
      • 2025 Stewardship Banquet Questionnaire
      • 2024 Stewardship Awards Banquet Highlights
      • 2023 Stewardship Awards Banquet Highlights
  • About Us
    • OUR STAFF
    • OUR COMMITTEE
    • LAND & WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (LWRM) PLAN
  • Conservation - In the Know!
    • CONSERVATION CAMP
    • CONSERVATION CLIPS
    • CONSERVATION SUCCESSES
  • Cost Share Grant Program
  • Cost Share Projects
    • DEVELOPING PROJECTS
    • COMPLETED PROJECTS >
      • 2024 Completed Projects
      • 2023 Completed Projects
      • 2022 Completed Projects
      • 2020/2021 Completed Projects
      • 2019 Completed Projects
      • 2018 Completed Projects
      • 2017 Completed Projects
    • CULVERT PROJECTS
  • Creature Feature!
  • Employment
  • Events & Trainings
  • Farm Living
    • FARMLAND PRESERVATION >
      • MAPS
    • MANURE STORAGE
  • Healthy Lakes and Rivers Grant Program
    • HEALTHY LAKES & RIVERS (HLR) PROJECTS
  • Lakes Classification Project
  • Native Plants
    • LAKESIDE LANDSCAPING
    • POLLINATOR FRIENDLY
    • RAIN GARDENS
    • WILDLIFE
  • Other Programs/Services
    • EQUIPMENT RENTAL
    • WELL ABANDONMENT
    • WILDLIFE DAMAGE
  • Pollinators
    • THE PERFECT POLLINATOR GARDEN >
      • "SITES" TO SEE >
        • HEALING NATURE CENTER
        • ONEIDA COUNTY COURTHOUSE
        • THREE LAKES FIRE DEPARTMENT
        • THREE LAKES HISTORICAL SOCIETY
    • NECTAR NOTES
    • POLLINATOR FRIENDLY FARMING >
      • SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
    • RESOURCES >
      • FOR EVERYONE
      • FOR TOWNS, CITIES & COUNTIES
    • ROADSIDE POLLINATOR PROJECT
    • WAYS YOU CAN HELP
  • Protecting Your Shoreline
    • FISH STICKS
    • FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
    • RESOURCES
  • Squash Lake District
  • Crescent Lake District
  • Special Projects
    • NORTHWOODS "LIGHTS OUT"!
  • Special Resource Concerns
    • INSECT DECLINE
    • LINKS TO RESOURCES
    • MINING
    • YOUR GROUNDWATER
  • Stream Crossing Survey Results
  • Terrestrial Invasive Species (TIS)
    • IDENTIFICATION GUIDES
    • CITY OF RHINELANDER BUCKTHORN PROJECT
  • Workshops & Webinars
  • Wetlands
  • THANK YOU
Picture
Updated May 23, 2025   -11:10 a.m.
Picture

​​What's Buzzing Right Now?


The Land and Water Conservation Office will be closed in observance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 26, 2025.  Please call the office at 715-369-7835 and leave us a message.  We will return your call as soon as possible.
Thank you.​

Help us plan our 2025 STEWARDSHIP AWARD BANQUET
Banquet Choices

Save the dates for the Northwoods Lights Out!​
​related events coming in June through August.
Picture
AUGUST 21, 2025
Northwoods Lights Out!
The darker the night, the brighter the stars.

Get all the details on events happening throughout the summer during the Northwoods Lights Out events. Click on the Northwoods Lights Out button!
REGISTER HERE

Mark your calendars for the Bat Monitoring Training ​in May. Call the Oneida County Land and Water Conservation office at 715-369-7835 or REGISTER HERE.
Volunteer Bat Monitoring Training
Picture

     Oneida County Land and Water Conservation Department offered their expertise
on the Natural Resource section of the Oneida County Comprehensive Plan. 
​For access to the 2025 Plan and current changes, please click below on the Comprehensive Plan button.
Comprehensive Plan

 If you would like to watch the Watershed Zoom Workshop that was presented on February 26 at 1:30 p.m., please click on the workshop button below. In addition, the presentation is also just below the workshop button.
​You can download the file to view the slides. 
Watershed Workshop PSA
watershedpresentation2025.pdf
File Size: 7165 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

_____________________________________________

Picture
For Access to our YouTube Videos,
​click on the
​Red Arrow Button
Picture
THE MAP APP
Oneida County has access to several different mapping tools. Click on the Blue Arrow Button 
Picture

_____________________________________________

Picture

____________________________________________

Big Recycling News!

Picture
Green Circle Recycling won a 2024 Recycling Excellence Award for their overall program.
​     In honor of America Recycles Day, the DNR is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Awards.

     Wisconsin’s recycling law bans certain materials from the trash and establishes a statewide recycling program. This year, the DNR is excited to recognize 13 organizations for going beyond what is required by law.

     “This year’s winners successfully implemented robust and sustainable diversion programs within their organizations and communities,” said Jennifer Semrau, DNR waste reduction and diversion coordinator. “The amount and types of waste they have saved from the landfill is truly impressive.”

     In addition to landfill-banned items, which include curbside recyclables and electronics, the winners diverted many tons of food waste, furniture, plastic film and household hazardous waste for reuse or recycling.

​     Read more about the winners and how they are leading the way for Wisconsin in key waste areas like recycling, composting, reuse and innovation.

__________________________________________

Are You Interested in
Helping to Reduce Light Pollution?  

     Did you know that 80% of Americans cannot see the Milky Way; 35% of outdoor light is wasted, costing about 3 billion dollars to literally be lost to space; and fireflies, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, and owls are some of the animals most affected by light pollution?

​     Artificial light can interrupt natural body rhythms in both humans and animals.  An increased amount of light at night can lower melatonin production resulting in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety and other problems.  Studies also show that light pollution can influence animal behaviors like migration patterns, wake-sleep habits, and habitat formation.  Because of light pollution, sea turtles and birds guided by moonlight can become confused, lose their way and die. 
     Insect populations, a primary source of food for birds and other animals are drawn to artificial lights and instantly killed upon contact.

     Safety-related dangers that come with poor visibility at night are caused by glaring lights or bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it is wasted instead of focusing light downward, where it does the most good. There are simple measures we can take to make our use of nighttime lighting most effective.
  • Install useful light only
  • Aim the light down
  • Remember that brighter isn’t always better
  • Choose LEDs wisely – color does matter
  • Use motion sensing lights or timers to help reduce illumination levels and save energy
  • Turn off unnecessary indoor lighting at night, particularly empty office buildings
  • Outdoor light fixtures that shield the light source can minimize glare and help prevent light pollution

​      To watch a presentation on this important topic, go to the INSECT DECLINE page.
Picture
Picture

EPA Recognizes Air Quality
In Rhinelander; 
Entire State Now Meets Latest Sulfur
Dioxide Air Quality Standard

Contact: DNR Office of Communications 
[email protected]
 
MADISON, Wis. –
         The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the Rhinelander area will be formally redesignated to attainment of the most recent federal air quality standard for sulfur dioxide.

         Analyses of air monitoring and modeling data show that air concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the area meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standard set to protect human health and the environment. The Rhinelander area also meets all other standards for all air pollutants regulated under the National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
 
         “People in the Rhinelander area are breathing cleaner, healthier air due to EPA’s partnership with the state of Wisconsin,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore. “Reducing sulfur dioxide pollution in the air is especially helpful for vulnerable populations.”

         This designation officially recognizes that the air quality in the Rhinelander area is meeting this health-based air quality standard. As a result, the entire state of Wisconsin now meets the latest sulfur dioxide air quality standard.

         “Meeting the 2010 sulfur dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standard has been a complex process involving many areas of the DNR’s Air Management Program, EPA and facilities in Wisconsin,” said Gail Good, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Acting Environmental Management Division Administrator.

         Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is an air pollutant regulated under both the federal Clean Air Act and Wisconsin state law. The largest source of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels by power plants and other industrial facilities. Exposure to sulfur dioxide can harm the human respiratory system and make breathing difficult. Sulfur dioxide emissions can also damage foliage and crops, form acid rain and increase haze.

         Based on monitored air quality data, a portion of Oneida County near Rhinelander was designated as nonattainment of the sulfur dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standard in 2013. Following this designation, the DNR’s Air Management program worked closely with the Ahlstrom-Munksjö Rhinelander paper mill, the facility primarily responsible for sulfur dioxide emissions in the area, to identify and implement new emissions control measures. As a result of these actions, the monitored sulfur dioxide concentrations decreased by over 75%, and the area’s air quality began meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standard in 2018.

​         “This widespread improvement in sulfur dioxide levels across the state is an air quality success story,” Good said. “Emissions of sulfur dioxide from Wisconsin sources are approximately 90% lower than 2002 levels, with most of this decline attributable to the use of cleaner-burning fuels at power plants and industrial facilities, along with the introduction of low-sulfur diesel fuels.”


Deer Donation Program

Picture
Photo credit: Wisconsin DNR
 Hunters Encouraged To Participate in DNR's Deer Donation Program, 
"Deer Donations Help Wisconsinites in Need" 


     The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) encourages hunters to donate Wisconsin-harvested deer through the DNR’s Deer Donation Program. The program helps stock food pantries for the upcoming holiday season and supports residents in need throughout the state.

​     Since the program began in 2000, hunters have donated 98,000 deer, totaling over 3.9 million pounds of venison, to help Wisconsinites in need. 

     Wisconsin has a network of venison donation partners, including county land and water conservation departments, food pantries, charitable organizations, USDA - Wildlife Services, and participating meat processors, who all help implement and administer the program. 

     “This is a great opportunity for hunters to showcase their sportsmanship and help individuals in their local communities facing food insecurity,” said DNR program administrator Grace Nugent. According to data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, more than 900,000 Wisconsin residents received food assistance in 2022. “There is a big demand for venison provided through the Deer Donation Program, and we are hopeful hunters will continue to donate their deer and help those in need.” 

     Hunters interested in donating a Wisconsin-harvested deer to the DNR’s Deer Donation Program should follow these steps:
  1. Field dress the deer. 
  2. Register the deer through GameReg. Please note the registration confirmation number and keep it on hand when dropping off the deer.
  3. Test the deer for CWD before taking the deer to a processor if harvested from a CWD-affected county. A list of CWD sampling locations is available on the DNR’s Sampling For Chronic Wasting Disease webpage. 
  4. Call ahead. Contact a participating processor before dropping off the deer to make sure they have space to accept it. More processors may be added later in the season, so check back if you don’t see one currently in your area. 
  5. Bring the deer to the processor. If donating a deer being tested for CWD, inform the processor and provide the CWD barcode number. The processor will not distribute the deer until the results are known.
     Hunters and non-hunters may also support the Deer Donation Program through a monetary donation at any Wisconsin Hunting License sales location or online through their Go Wild account. 

     Visit Wisconsin’s Deer Donation Program webpage to learn more about the program. 

 

"The Perfect Pollinator Garden is
Perfect for Birds Too!"
​Workshop aired Saturday, ​June 26, 2021 - 6:00 p.m.

Make Your Habitat Count: Add To
​Wisconsin's Tally

PictureMonarch caterpillars eat only milkweed. Swamp milkweed, butterfly milkweed and common milkweed are Wisconsin milkweed species known to be used by monarchs and easy to establish. Photo Credit: Becky Roth
     Once you've planted milkweed and other native plants benefitting pollinators, help make that habitat count.

     Enter it into the HabiTally application, now available for smart phones using Android and iOS operating systems. Download it from Google Play* or the Apple* App store. 

     The Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative, of which DNR is a partner, encourages people to add their habitat to HabiTally, so it counts towards the 20-year goal of 120 million new stems of milkweed in a mix of wildflowers.
     That goal is Wisconsin's contribution to restoring Midwestern breeding habitat for the eastern population of monarch butterflies that overwinters in Mexico.  

*Use of brand names is for educational purposes and does not promote the endorsement of one brand over any other.
Picture

​Got Buckthorn?
​Get rid of it!
​Click the button below to find out how.

BUCKTHORN

​_____________________________________________

​Neonictonoids: Toxic Effects On Pollinators

Picture
      In 1962, Rachel Carson published The Silent Spring which was a warning of the dangers of a revolutionary new pesticide DDT. She had noticed that in the 1950's and 1960's it was responsible for, among other things, the crashing of bird populations. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972 but it appears that history is repeating itself and we are fast approaching a time when it might be said, "The summer afternoons are strangely silent when they were once filled with the gentle buzzing of bees."  A film documentary called 'Rachel Carson' produced by American Experience may be seen on Amazon Prime.

      The culprit this time is another revolutionary group of pesticides called neonicotinoids ('neonics' for short). They were first introduced in the 1990's and are currently the world's most widely used insecticide. Over 140 different crops including soy, corn wheat, cotton, legumes, potatoes, sugar beets, sunflowers, rapeseed and flax are treated with neonics.

A Potent Neurotoxin
​      Neonics are neurotoxins designed to attack an insect's central nervous system causing paralysis and eventually death. There were designed specifically to target agricultural pests such as vine weevils, aphids, whiteflies, Colorado potato beetles and termites. The damage they have caused over the last two decades to other insects, including bees, has been devastating. 

Chronic Effects On Bees
​      Scientific evidence collected over the last decade or so proves that neonics produce numerous chronic symptoms in bees such as:

            ☆ Interfering with their navigation systems
            ☆ Disrupting their foraging behavior
            ☆ Disrupting their ability to communicate
            ☆ Impairing their immune systems
            ☆ Reducing reproductive success
            ☆ Residues in nests of solitary bees may be linked to fewer egg cells.

​Read More​

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Here's a step-by-step process
of how we sowed our seed at
​a seed sowing party. 
Watch and Learn!


​​THANK YOU for visiting.

Stay Kind & ​Community Strong!
​       
Picture
Picture
Picture
COURTHOUSE
​1 S. Oneida Ave
P O Box 400, Rhinelander, WI 54501
(715) 369-7835
www.oclw.org 
[email protected]

About Us
News


Staff
Oneida County Homepage
WHIP