PATRICK DURKIN OUTDOORS

Deer in southeastern Wisconsin are suffering the state’s worst outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease since this viral disease first appeared in 2002, with nearly 900 whitetails likely dead as of early September. Confirmed reports of EHD-killed whitetails as of Sept. 4 put the count at over 700 in Washington County, over 150 in Waukesha and over 30 in Ozaukee counties. Disease specialists at the Department of Natural Resources list only firsthand reports of dead deer

As Wisconsin bowhunters return to the woods Sept. 12 for the season opener, let’s review the 2025 hunts, which toppled 113,620 whitetails, the state’s third highest archery kill on record. Crossbow hunters registered a record 71,387 (63%) of those deer, a 10.6% increase from 64,555 deer in 2024. The previous crossbow record was 65,731 in 2020. The 2025 harvest was also the first time crossbow hunters killed over 70,000 deer since “horizontal” bows were legalized for all bo

A 35-year-old Racine County sheriff’s deputy faces four felony charges after letting his 3-year-old daughter trigger a shot that wounded a 40-year-old turkey-hunting mentor and the man’s 7-year-old son April 12 during Wisconsin’s two-day youth-only turkey season. James D. Lehman of Union Grove was charged Aug. 17 in Racine County Circuit Court with two counts of second-degree reckless injury with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of injury by negligent use of a dangerous

A family friend who loved spending weekends on his motorcycle insisted that safety rested mostly on himself, even though a bumper sticker on his car advised, “Watch for Motorcycles.” As he often said, “You die when you quit fearing them.” He didn’t mean you must be too terrified to ride motorcycles. He worried that complacency would kill you, while respectful caution kept you safe. Such wariness applies to most outdoor recreation we love, whether it’s paddling rivers

Assembly candidate Ben Gruber thinks the Department of Natural Resources has a detached, centralized command structure that ignores an often-toxic work environment for Wisconsin conservation wardens. Since January, Gruber has been on leave from his DNR law-enforcement duties and his role as union president of Conservation Wardens Local 1215. That’s because he’s the Democratic candidate for the 51st Assembly district in southwestern Wisconsin, and will face Republican incum

My dad’s oldest brother, Donnie, worked at Kellogg’s cereals in Battle Creek, Michigan. Each summer, he pulled his boat and its twin 50-horsepower Mercury engines 320 miles to a cabin he and Aunt Jeanie rented for two weeks on Madison’s Lake Monona. That was the early 1960s, when rental cabins bordered the beach at Esther Park. Our family didn’t own a boat until 1968, so Uncle Donnie’s vacations offered us rare treats to waterski and fish from a boat. He especially like

Bob Harris of Oshkosh is my only longtime friend I met through a father. I pause for a sad edit to the past tense: Bob Harris was my only longtime friend I met through a father. He died Saturday, July 25, at age 75. When I read Bob’s obituary, still numb with grief, I recalled meeting him in late fall 1988 when he interrupted my interview with his father, Richard F. Harris, in Dick’s big white house on Oregon Street on Oshkosh’s south side. Dick was a widower, and dy

You’ll always find more otter puns than actual otters if you go looking for either. Just google “otter puns” and you’ll find lists of 37, 40 or even 200-plus otter puns, jokes and one-liners. Some of them aren’t bad: -- What do you tell an otter with a toothache? “You otter see the dentist.” -- Why don’t otters need swimming lessons? It comes to them otter-matically. -- What do you call an otter’s life story? Their otter-biography. -- How do otters rise above c

Few conversations are more futile than trying to persuade someone to eat a fish that’s scarred by a virus, parasite, bacteria or other nasties. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recognizes that challenge, which is why it includes this explanation on its “Fish Diseases” (https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Fishing/fishhealth) web page: “Even though we are reporting on fish disease in Wisconsin, we encourage you to continue to enjoy your fishing experience. … You can

When my grandsons catch a bluegill 7 inches or longer, it seldom swims another day. Catch and release? Save your breath. The boys haven’t yet read stories by the immortal humorist Patrick F. McManus, but their thinking aligns with his comment in “Kerplunk,” one of his 2007 stories: “I remember only one fellow who practiced catch-and-release. He was eventually nabbed, I think, and placed in an institution.” Therefore, I paused July 4 when my grandson Connor Switzer,

What sounds better? Option 1: The gurgling “plop, plop, plop” of a Whopper Plopper bait chugging across the surface of a Northwoods river. Option 2: Your 8-year-old grandson trying to pronounce “Whopper Plopper” when explaining how and why it became his all-time favorite fishing lure during an eight-hour float trip July 2 for muskies and smallmouth bass. I’ll go with the second option, especially after buying two Whopper Ploppers for my grandson Connor Switzer before

You likely missed it, but the Northern Highland Fishery Research Area in Vilas County celebrated its 80thanniversary June 20, making it one of the world’s longest-running fisheries research projects. So, let’s blow our kazoos, pop those champagne corks and twirl our kids’ noisemakers to show we support the Department of Natural Resources’ commitment to research and science-based policy-making. Sure, lawmakers often ignore it all in favor of voter-driven folklore and fossil

Cool, crisp air creeping across the boat’s stern near Sitka, Alaska, raised goose bumps on my forearms. I shivered and considered retrieving my hooded rain-jacket from the nearby cabin. Instead, I rolled down my sleeves. Sarah Farber, the charter boat’s captain, looked up from a fishing knot she was tying and explained the sudden chill without being asked. “The fog’s coming back in,” she said, nodding toward a far-off haze blurring the Pacific Ocean’s western horizon

Wisconsin hunters registered 47,704 turkeys during the state’s six-week spring season, the seventh highest harvest in modern turkey hunting’s 44-year history. Though this year’s kill fell short of the past two spring hunts — with harvests of 50,734 in 2024 and 50,287 in 2025 — it still exceeded the five-year average of 46,040 by 3.6%, surpassing 2022’s kill of 39,035; and 2023’s of 42,439. The state’s most successful turkey seasons remain the three 2007-2009 hunts that

Everyone who visits, passes through or lives in Alaska likes quoting a statistic about Mt. Denali, North America’s tallest mountain. The oft-quoted stat isn’t Denali’s height — 20,310 feet, or 6,770 yards — above sea level. No, the oft-repeated statistic folks love but few verify is that only 30% of visitors trying to see Denali actually do, given the persistent clouds often blocking their view. The region’s humidity is typically high, and Denali is so massive it create

Someday — no time soon, I hope — one of my grandkids will inspect the contents of our backyard shed and say to their grandmother, “I never knew the grumpy ol’ coot was such a serious waterfowler.” “He wasn’t,” Penny will respond. “At least not for long. Maybe 18 months? He spent the summers of 1982 and ’83 making all these duck and goose decoys. He even built a duck skiff in the summer of ’83 and tied 32 feet of wire-grass blinds that fall. Through it all, he spent the 198

While hunting turkeys on public lands not far from Eau Claire in mid-May, I noticed a unique property-boundary sign nailed to a red oak. The old yellow sign read: “WILDLIFE SAFETY ZONE” in bold, black letters on the top two lines. The details followed: “NO HUNTING, FISHING, TRAPPING, OR MOTORIZED VEHICLES. HIKING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATURE STUDY PERMITTED.” The landowners’ names were at the bottom, but my onX Maps app listed a different name for the owner. Apparently, the

If I didn't view wild turkeys as nature’s most fickle, frustrating and fascinating bird, I might have felt guilty for shooting a gobbler May 8 as it stood confused while its buddy flapped its last among my decoys. I suspect that Emily Krumenauer, my hunting buddy and family-friend, frazzled my gobbler’s composure when she shot its running mate seconds earlier with her late father's Model 12 Winchester shotgun. The two big gobblers had spent the previous minute in a murdero

Racine’s Rob Bohmann, longtime chairman of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, will preside over the group’s annual convention for the last time when it meets May 15-16 in Green Bay. But unlike the first time Bohmann yielded that unpaid job a decade ago, he vows to never return to the group’s helm. “It’s time,” Bohmann said in a telephone interview. “I won’t come back a third time.” The WCC, a 92-year-old institution, serves as Wisconsin’s official adviser to the Na

Wisconsin’s outdoors community supports paying more to operate the state’s fish and wildlife programs, but not necessarily at any price. That’s one point to take from nearly 6,900 votes cast during mid-April’s annual conservation hearings, a statewide effort by the Department of Natural Resources and the citizen-based Wisconsin Conservation Congress. This year’s hearings consisted of in-person meetings April 13 in all 72 county seats, which drew 1,268 attendees; followed b