Category: Outdoor
Getting outside in Door County is a must! While you can always explore a trail or lake shore on your own, the calendar is dotted with guided hikes, wildlife tours, bird watching treks, and cross-country skiing meetups. Find a group bicycle ride, a naturalist session, or paddleboard tour and explore Door County’s natural wonders.
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Permit Available for Stream Habitat Projects
Beneficial stream habitat projects will be easier to undertake in Wisconsin with a new general permit the state Department of Natural Resources has issued aimed at streamlining stream habitat projects. Before the creation of this general permit, many beneficial stream habitat projects were authorized under individual permits, which added time and expense to the permitting […]
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Great Lakes Funding Targets Kewaunee Phragmites
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission nearly $600,000 in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding to manage at least 1,000 acres of invasive phragmites, wild parsnip and Japanese knotweed in Kewaunee County. Angela Kowalzek-Adrians, manager of the program for Bay-Lake RPC, said Kewaunee County was the next logical site […]
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City Authorizes Design Work for Bike and Pedestrian Underpass at Bay View Bridge
The Sturgeon Bay Common Council authorized Cedar Corp to perform design and engineering work for a bike and pedestrian underpass at the Bay View Bridge. The underpass is part of the city’s comprehensive plan and its bicycle master plan, and would connect Ahnapee Trail to Circle Ridge Road, allowing users to avoid crossing the four-lane […]
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The Greater Escarpment Organization of Door County (GEO-DC) now has two homes – one on land and the other in cyberspace. Founded in 2012, GEO-DC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, seeks to “cultivate knowledge and stewardship of the Niagara Escarpment corridor and its geological, ecological, and cultural wonders in people of all ages and from all […]
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Wisconsin Finds 240 More Impaired Waterways
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a list of 240 waterways that it will add to the state’s impaired waters list. The additions will bring the total number of impaired waterways recognized by the state to approximately 1,500. One of Door County’s waterways, Stony Creek, which starts northeast of Maplewood and runs southeast […]
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Aged Trout Shows Value of Fish Refuges
State fish biologists conducting spawning surveys on Lake Superior hauled in a lake trout earlier this month that hatched when Richard Nixon was president. The fish was originally caught and released during Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ spawning assessments for lake trout in 1981. It was caught and released again Nov. 2 in the same […]
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Jacksonport Thanksgiving Day Parade to Benefit Community Member with ALS
The annual Jacksonport Thanksgiving Day Parade & Benefit will step off at 10:30 am from the downtown Jacksonport fire station. Now in its 21st year, this fun-loving, eclectic parade – a labor of love put into motion by Door County residents – continues its mission of neighbors helping neighbors once again in 2017 by supporting […]
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Cure Cabin Fever with Crossroads at Big Creek Hike Nov. 25
The trails at Crossroads at Big Creek will be open on Thanksgiving Day and throughout the hunting season, but the Collins Learning Center will be closed on Thanksgiving. The Friday Film on Nov. 24, 2 pm is Wisconsin Hometown Stories-Door County. This is a repeat screening of the Wisconsin Public Television production so locals can […]
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Hike the Reindeer Trail at Peninsula State Park
Strange tracks have appeared at Peninsula State Park. “I heard the jingle of bells and then felt a whoosh,” said Peninsula State Park Naturalist Kathleen Harris. Come see the tracks for yourself by hiking the Reindeer Trail. The Reindeer Trail, a half-mile woodsy walk, will be ready for young trail trampers on Nov. 25, from […]
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Learn Astronomy Basics at Door Peninsula Astronomical Society Meeting
The Door Peninsula Astronomical Society will meet Dec. 5, 7 pm at Stonecipher Astronomy Center. The program will be “Misconceptions in Astronomy” and the Astronomy Basics session will be “Ask the Amateur Astronomers.” Guests are always welcome and refreshments will be served. The Stonecipher Astronomy Center is located at 2200 Utah Street in Sturgeon Bay. […]
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Door to Nature: The Scrappy Weasel
Which native Wisconsin mammal that remains active throughout the winter could be described with the following set of words: beady-eyed, agile, bold, persistent, energetic, curious, eager, inquisitive, bloodthirsty, mass murderer, fearless, courageous, terrorist, serpentine-like, game hog, assassin, excitable and secretive? I saw the tracks of one of these small carnivores in the soft, newly fallen […]
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Hans Feld: A Deer Hunter for 66 Years, With A Record of Every Hunt
By Door County standards, Hans Feld got a late start as a deer hunter. He was 18 in 1951 when he shot his first buck – an eight-pointer – on his grandfather’s farm near Matchwood, in Ontonagon County, Michigan. But he remembers the day vividly, as well as the 65 hunting seasons since then. “There […]
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Nine-Day Gun Hunt Opens Saturday
Wisconsin’s nine-day gun deer season opens Saturday, Nov. 18, and the Department of Natural Resources staff is enthusiastic about the prospects for 2017. “We are coming out of a third straight mild winter and a good summer growing season, so as expected we are seeing good to excellent deer numbers throughout most of the state,” […]
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Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs Announces 2017-18 Miss Snowflake
More than 500 Wisconsin snowmobilers welcomed last weekend’s colder than average temperatures during the Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs (AWSC) 2017 Fall Workshop in Appleton. Annually, the AWSC’s Fall Workshop serves as the official “kick-off” for the 600-plus Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs who create and maintain more than 24,000 miles of public snowmobile trails in al […]
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Christmas in the Village Comes to Ephraim Dec. 2
Come celebrate the season at Ephraim’s Christmas in the Village on Dec. 2. Festivities include the ceremonial lighting of the village tree, a joyous Christmas sing-along, carriage rides through Ephraim, ADVENTure at Ephraim Moravian Church, and cookie decorating. Children of all ages will be delighted with a chance to visit Santa, enjoy holiday stories at […]
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Crossroads Hosts Beech Drop Hike, Astronomy Viewing Night Nov. 18
In the dark forest of Crossroads at Big Creek’s Ida Bay Preserve, flowers are blooming near Zenith Street. When these flowers called beech drops bloom, most people overlook them. These wildflowers tend to blend in with fallen leaves and the people who do notice them assume they are pinkish-brown twigs on the forest floor. Beech […]
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The Changing Look of Winter Wear
Balaclavas. Earmuffs. Parkas. Stormy Kromers. Galoshes. Moon boots. Mukluks. Union suits. The things we wear to survive winter have changed dramatically since pioneers first settled on this peninsula. Synthetic fabrics have largely replaced the wools and furs of yesteryear, but not completely. We asked the Door County Historical Museum for historic winter photos, and then […]
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Editor’s Note: Welcoming Winter
In these final weeks of autumn, as businesses bid farewell to 2017 and snowbirds head south for the winter, Door County’s landscape has swapped its palette of fiery reds and oranges for muted browns and grays. The peninsula is ready for its winter slumber. It has become a ritual for me to welcome early winter […]
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Door to Nature: How Birds Survive Winter
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, 2016, his nature articles will continue to live on in Door County Living with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the article includes both their names. Biting, […]
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Snowbirds By Sea: Sailing South for Winter
There are three bridges connecting the northern half of Door County to the rest of the country by land and there are three waterways that connect the peninsula’s shores to the sea. The St. Lawrence Seaway, Erie Canal and the Twain-esque Western Rivers have all provided passage from Door County to Florida and beyond for […]