News

A Brazilian colleague of mine moved her family to my town for her sabbatical year. The big questions were predictable: where to take English classes; how to get the teenagers … Read more

It’s been almost two weeks since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, and a week since the rains stopped. All told, more than 50 inches of rain fell in Houston … Read more

I recently participated in a two-day workshop, led by future iQ and funded by the University of Minnesota, to explore a 20-year hypothetical future for agriculture. Participants from Minnesota, Iowa, … Read more

Does “Midwest” do it for you? I’ve always struggled with it as a good geographic descriptor. The Census Bureau didn’t even settle on its definition until 1984. Whatever the terminology, … Read more

I felt a bit like Sherlock Holmes when Konrad Schmidt, retired DNR Fisheries biologist, contacted me about when the last known contact took place between two fish populations — the … Read more

You may have seen the photo exhibit by a friend of mine, John White. It was touring the region during the last year (and prints are available for sale here). … Read more

Blueberry, Wild Rice, Hockey, Agate, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady’s Slipper, Morel, Norway Pine, Walleye, Milk, Loon, Lester. Is this some kind of a weird shopping list for a camping trip? If … Read more

I have gone on my share of geology field trips with visiting geologists from around the world. We typically visit exposures of glacial sediment, commonly found in gravel pits, and … Read more

Most of us who spend time on lakes know they can “green up” as they warm up. Excess phosphorus generates that not-so-healthy green bloom. The Yahara watershed is trying something … Read more

…besides the water level that is.  If you’ve been paying attention to the big brown river, or just the weather across the southern part of the state this summer, you … Read more