You may have seen news in recent weeks about an American company, Colossal Biosciences, proclaiming to have brought dire wolves back from extinction.
The headlines garnered a lot of attention in early April, even gracing the cover of Time Magazine. The hype around this announcement is understandable. This was quite a claim.
But here’s the thing: that’s not what happened.
Continue reading “Is the dire wolf back?”
Recently, I spent lunch break fishing North Pier in Sheboygan.
I had the good fortune of speaking with a lot of very nice folks, many from out of state, who were out and about enjoying a beautiful day.
The most frequent question I got: what are all those dead fish in the water?
Continue reading “What are those little dead fish in Lake Michigan?”
There is no shortage of anecdotal and scientific evidence that being outdoors is good for your mental health.
The ol’ “getting some fresh air” trick has done wonders for countless people, myself included.
Disconnecting from the day-to-day and experiencing the beauty of the natural world, even for a brief period has a way of re-charging our proverbial batteries and leveling us out, often bringing about feelings of peace, calm, and relaxation.
But as you spend more time alone in nature, you’ll find these experiences can offer up more complex emotions. Some that, on the surface, may not necessarily seem positive.
Continue reading “Unpacking the feelings”
It’s Episode 42 of The Nathan Woelfel Outdoors Podcast!
In this show, I discuss some things I would like all of us to think about on Earth Day and every day. We cover why I believe humans take things for granted and why our environment can’t be one of them.
Continue reading “Nathan Woelfel Outdoors Podcast – Episode 42: The Big Picture”
Before you roll your eyes and go, “Oh great, another Earth Day think piece just like all the rest of ’em,” I hope you’ll hear me out.
Make no mistake, I am going to get up on my soap box. Today seems as good a day as any to do it. But I’m not going to take the cliche path of imploring you to plant a tree or pick up some trash. Though, those are always wonderful things to do.
In fact, even though there are loads of things we need to do to protect our planet, I’m not going to ask you to take any action at all. Not right now, anyway. My only ask of you throughout this entire would-be sermon is to stop and think. Because, unfortunately, I feel our society is in need of a mindset shift before we are capable of meaningful change.
Continue reading “My Earth Day Wish”
When my wife and I bought our first home, I knew I wanted to put a bird feeder in our backyard. I greatly desired having a little slice of nature in the middle of our town.
As someone who tries to be conservation-minded, before I went to the hardware store and bought all of the necessary supplies, I stopped to ponder a question I still ask myself to this day: “Is it OK to feed wild birds?”
Continue reading “Is it ethical to feed birds?”
I am a strong advocate of conservation and caring for our natural resources.
As someone who has released over 97 percent of the fish I’ve caught in the last three years, I am constantly searching for ways to continue to improve the wellbeing of the fish I put back to swim another day. It’s important to remember that releasing a fish and releasing a fish safely are two different things.
Panfish make up a large percentage of my annual catch and, as most anglers can tell you, these fish can sometimes develop a nasty habit of swallowing hooks.
The only thing worse than having to cut lines and re-tie hooks is seeing a fish you intended to safely release splashing about on the surface because it was hooked too deep.
That’s why I was immediately intrigued when I was introduced to the Gill Shield, a product made right here in Wisconsin, that is billed as “a revolutionary way to prevent panfish from swallowing the hook.”
Continue reading “Gill Shield Review”
It’s Episode 40 of The Nathan Woelfel Outdoors Podcast!
Climate change is negatively impacting Wisconsin, especially in winter. Natalie Chin of the Wisconsin Sea Grant is here to chat about what that means for outdoor recreation in our state.Â
Continue reading “Nathan Woelfel Outdoors Podcast – Episode 40: Climate Change in Wisconsin”
I make a conscious effort to keep my content enlightening, thought-provoking, and positive.
But a news story I was alerted to recently about train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio is going to make the latter difficult. Sometimes, we just need to bring the negativity forward and do our damndest to tackle it, however we can.
In my eyes, I couldn’t tell all of you that I care about the environment and our natural resources without at least openly reflecting on this incident.
I will be the first to tell you that I am not a scientist. I am no longer a reporter. I’m just someone trying to unpack a horrific, impactful event that seemingly no one is talking about.
Continue reading “Reflecting on the East Palestine train derailment”
I’ve always been intrigued by the process of banding waterfowl.
In college, I was surrounded with natural resources majors, some of which had the chance to band birds as part of their coursework. That made me jealous.
As a hunter, I just couldn’t get my head around what it would be like to interact with a large number of live birds.
I’ve spent the decade since graduation hoping for the opportunity to give myself that experience.
Continue reading “Banding together”
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