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Mornin’ to everyone wondering about the 84-year-old rock climber who died at Devil’s Lake State Park. This is the Wiscampsin Weekly, the email that gets you in the know on the Wisconsin outdoors in 5 minutes or less. New reader? Subscribe here.

This week’s weekly:

🍂 When will fall colors peak in Wisconsin?

🏔️ Wisconsin journalist survives after being stranded in mountains

 🦌 ‘Rights of Nature’ bill unveiled

🐟 STORY OF THE WEEK: St. Croix Chippewa release sturgeon on its reservation

🍂 When will fall colors peak in Wisconsin? LINK

• Patience, leaf peepers: Northern Wisconsin’s already showing off its fall colors, but most of the state — including Madison, Milwaukee, and La Crosse — won’t hit peak glow until late October.

• Blame it on the balmy fall: This year’s warm temps are slowing down the color show, though a rainy summer means the leaves should still shine — once they finally get the memo.

• A few bright, calm days could turn this year’s palette from “meh” to “magnificent,” so keep your camera (and flannel) ready. See the Fall Colors map here.

🏔️ Journalist survives after being stranded in mountains LINK

• Monarch butterflies are on their epic two-and-a-half-month migration from Wisconsin’s late-summer fields to the mountains of Central Mexico—an awe-inspiring journey that coincides with Día de los Muertos.

• Weighing about as much as a paperclip, only a fraction of monarchs survive the trek, making each fluttering orange wing a small miracle of endurance.

• Wisconsinites can support the migration by planting milkweed and nectar-rich flowers to give these “super generation” butterflies safe pit stops on their cross-continent journey.

🦌 ‘Rights of Nature’ bill unveiled LINK

• Wisconsin Democrats are pitching “rights of nature” laws to give lakes and forests their own legal standing in Wisconsin

• One bill would fine anyone who messes with Devil’s Lake’s right to “flourish and regenerate”

• Another proposal revives the old “prove it first” mining rule — if your last dig polluted water, don’t expect a permit here. Wisconsin’s wild places want receipts.

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WISCAMPSIN WEEKLY POLL

30% of last weeks poll respondents have seen an uptick of Monarch Butterflies in Wisconsin as they migrate South - it seems the migration news is really taking wing…