Environment

From the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to the bluffs of La Crosse, the UW System is helping to preserve and enrich the environment and abundant natural resources of our great state. Increasing energy efficiency, purifying the Great Lakes and creating habitats for endangered animals are just a few examples of the environmental goals our institutions are working toward.

  1. UW-Milwaukee Honors College students give back with service trip to New Orleans

    UW-Milwaukee Honors College students give back with service trip to New Orleans

    October 17, 2019

    Every year, students from the Honors College at UW-Milwaukee take a spring break to help others. This year’s destination was the Big Easy, New Orleans. Among many good deeds with influential impact, students sorted Mardi Gras beads to keep them from jamming sewer pipes, cleared vacant lots of trash, and helped with a variety of […]

  2. UW-Green Bay first-year students lend a helping hand

    Photo of UW-Green Bay first-year students volunteering at a local preserve

    October 10, 2019

    Imagine what 1,000 hours of volunteerism can do for a small, local community organization. More than 550 first-year students from three UW-Green Bay campuses pitched in for two hours to help clear area trails, trim invasive species, and pile wood at Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve in Suamico, Wisconsin. Their efforts helped the new students develop team-building […]

  3. UW-Parkside grads helping with new environmental partnership

    Photo of Katie Knoff helping with the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network to improve soil and water quality.

    September 25, 2019

      UW-Parkside graduates Katie Knoff and Chelsea Snowden are working with the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network to improve soil and water quality. Through this project with the cities of Kenosha and Racine, both graduates are helping to protect the endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bee. Both Knoff and Snowden care deeply about connecting their outdoor interests […]

  4. Connecting K-12 to UW-La Crosse Caribbean research

    Photo of Caribbean research made possible by a National Science Foundation grant that allowed UW-La Crosse faculty to partner with K-12 teachers and their students to share UWL research on the cutting edge of marine biology.

    April 18, 2019

    UW-La Crosse faculty hope to inspire students to pursue futures in science. Biology Department faculty members took five K-12 teachers to Belize in January to study bioluminescent ostracods in the Caribbean. UWL alumna and 2018 Wisconsin Middle School Teacher of the Year Maggie McHugh was among those who shared their experiences and data with students […]

  5. UW-Stevens Point selected for only Great Lakes region Sea Grant award for salmon research

    January 8, 2019

    The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was selected for one of 22 federal Sea Grant-funded projects totaling $11 million. It is the only university in the Great Lakes region to be part of the 2018 Aquaculture Research Awards. This award will help UW-Stevens Point’s Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility (NADF) in Bayfield support land-based Atlantic salmon production […]

  6. UW-La Crosse researchers study marsh ecosystem in oil spill scenario

    Photo of UWL graduate student Anna Hilger pulling up marsh water and sediment from La Crosse’s Myrick Marsh. The water will be mixed with crude oil for testing.

    November 19, 2018

    If a train derailed, spilling crude oil into La Crosse’s Myrick Marsh, what would happen to the community? The community of microbes — that is. Microorganisms — such as bacteria — are nearly all invisible to the human eye, which makes them easy to overlook. However, their value in an ecosystem is great, says UWL […]

  7. UW-Stout students researching cyanobacteria in Red Cedar watershed

    Photo of UW-Stout LAKES REU students helping to weed a rain garden on the shores of Lake Menomin in Menomonie. The eight-week program studies issues related to cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, in the Red Cedar watershed and how the compromised water quality affects the area.

    September 11, 2018

    Naomi Albert, a UW-Stevens Point senior majoring in natural resource planning, enjoys the interdisciplinary approach LAKES REU offers to trying to solve environmental problems. Albert is one of eight college students from around the U.S. who took part in LAKES, a summer research experience for undergraduate students at University of Wisconsin-Stout. The eight-week program studies […]

  8. UW-Eau Claire student researchers study nitrate levels in area private wells

    Photo of homeowner Katie Wehling, who is eager to work with Dexter Zebro, an environmental public health major, on a study to determine how nitrates get into private wells. More than 100 samples from private wells — including Wehling’s — in Eau Claire County have been collected.

    June 13, 2018

    When Katie Wehling and her family moved into their hobby farm 10 miles south of Eau Claire, they loved everything about their new home except that the nitrate levels in their water were elevated, which appears to be a common issue in their township. “With young children, we are especially concerned about our drinking water,” […]

  9. UW-La Crosse grad, USGS scientist takes aim at Great Lakes invaders

    Photo of UWL December graduate and U.S. Geological Survey Biologist Nick Schloesser who worked at USGS as an undergraduate student. He began a full-time career at USGS after his 2008 graduation and continued while earning his UWL master’s degree in biology. Through a “career pathways” position, he was able to build his master’s thesis around a project that would be important to protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem and its fisheries.

    April 19, 2018

    Sea lamprey have a nasty bite. This blood-sucking parasite could kill more than 100 million pounds of Great Lakes fish annually if left unchecked, according to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. “If we didn’t have controls, we wouldn’t have a fishery to speak of — recreational, commercial or tribal,” says Marc Gaden, communications director for the […]

  10. UW-Madison graduate student studies how green spaces in cities help control floods, store carbon

    Photo of UW-Madison graduate student Carly Ziter conducting field work in a restored urban prairie in Turville Point Conservation Park in Madison. Photo by Eric Perdersen

    March 23, 2018

    For many ecologists, fieldwork involves majestic mountains or rushing rivers or large tracts of wilderness. At the very least, it means exploring natural areas that aren’t defined by human development. But for Carly Ziter, a research site can be a lot closer to home. In fact, it can be right out your back door. In […]

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