Here we go again

Plus: six September openers, ginseng season, and 700+ dead deer

Author

Forrest Koslowski
September 03, 2026

Wiscampsin Weekly brought to you by:

Mornin’ to Joe Lord, who was headed out fishing when an albino buck walked across the road in front of him up in the Northwoods. Roughly one in 30,000 whitetails is born white, and in Wisconsin every one of them is protected. He said he hoped it was a good omen for the fishing. Rarest deer in the woods and the man's thinking about walleye.

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:

🏹 September's got six opening days, so check twice

🌿 Ginseng season opens with fewer folks in da woods

🦌 700+ dead deer reported in Washington, Waukesha counties

🌡️ STORY OF THE WEEK: Here we go again

🏹 September's got six opening days, so check twice LINK

  • September's when the whole calendar wakes up. Six separate opening days, starting Sept. 1 with early Canada goose, teal, mourning dove, rail and snipe.

  • Bear goes Sept. 9 over bait. Then the 12th is the one everybody circles: archery and crossbow deer, turkey, squirrels and ruffed grouse. Northern Zone ducks close it out on the 26th. Full date list here.

  • New this fall, the DNR put the regs online with a drop-down filter, so you're not thumbing through a soggy pamphlet in the truck. Grab your stamps before you go.

🌿 Ginseng season opens with fewer folks in da woods LINK

  • Wisconsin's state herb is diggable Sept. 1 through Nov. 1, and fresh root can pull close to $150 a pound. You'd think there'd be a line.

  • There isn't. About 1,000 digger licenses went out in 2016. Last year it was roughly 400. Landowners are stingier with permission and root prices have sagged.

  • Folks who've got ginseng on their land play it close. Trail cams aimed at the treeline, seeds replanted out of every red berry, big plants clipped to the ground so nobody can find the root till a new stem shows in April. Cloak and dagger, over a root.

🦌 700+ dead deer reported in Washington, Waukesha counties LINK

  • The DNR has fielded more than 700 dead deer reports out of Washington and Waukesha counties, and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease is the culprit. Over 600 came from Washington alone.

  • It moves by midges, which are tiny flies, and nothing stops it. A frost will knock them back, but the DNR can't say whether reports keep coming at this clip until then. Most of the deer turn up in or near water, looking otherwise fine.

  • EHD doesn't infect people. Signs are heavy drooling, foam around the nose and mouth, or a deer that lets you walk right up. Found one? Report it here or call 608-267-0866.

Please give our sponsors a click!

Get it while it’s hot! 50% off local coffee shops

Calling all caffeine addicts, coffee queens, or people who simply love to explore local coffee shops: The 2026 Coffee Passport is here, with 50% off a coffee at more than 200 shops!

How does it work? With every stop, enjoy 50% off two coffee or tea drinks. Use one discount today and one later (or treat a friend and use both in a single visit).

Road trip ready. Date-day approved. The perfect gift for the person who has everything.

Valid through December 31, 2026.

🌡️ STORY OF THE WEEK: Here we go again LINK

It's September, so the winter predictions have started rolling in. Usually we'd tell you not to put much stock in them.

This one's worth a look.

NOAA now puts the odds of a "very strong" El Niño this fall and winter at better than 90%. Scientists measured the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded this week. Dan Vimont, who studies this at UW-Madison, isn't hedging much.

"This is likely to be the largest El Niño event in recorded history," he said. "In the tropical Pacific, this is an enormous event, and that definitely weights the dice here in Wisconsin."

We ran a piece back in July about the last super El Niño and the winter it took off us. Canceled sled dog races, bare hills, ice nobody trusted. Hope you didn't just put money down on a sled.

Fair warning though, the record is genuinely mixed. Past strong El Niño falls have come in both warmer and cooler than normal, and Bridgette Mason at the State Climatology Office says the fall signal is weak. Winter is where it usually shows up. NOAA's three-month outlook leans warm, with precipitation a coin flip.

"It's a little bit unprecedented how strong and early this El Niño event is happening," Mason said, "so it could be a little bit of a surprise for what actually comes."

Here's the part that'll actually change your fall.

Most of Wisconsin is abnormally dry and over 42% is in severe drought. Extreme drought came back this month for the first time in two years and sits on eight northwestern counties. Hayward and Ashland are running about four inches short since June. Climbing out of it this fall would take 15 to 16 inches of rain up northwest, close to double what the season normally brings.

Corn for silage came off two to three weeks early in spots because the plants were already dying. Jerry Clark with UW Extension figures yields down about a third.

And Mason says dry ground plus a warm fall tends to turn the leaves early and drop them fast.

So if you've got a color trip on the calendar, go sooner than you were planning.

Now get out 'der!

WISCAMPSIN WEEKLY POLL

Last Week's Trivia Check

We asked why Pacific salmon got dropped into Lake Michigan in the first place. 43% of you had it, and the rest split between depleted lake trout and plain old sport fishing. One reader who was around for it put it plainly in the comments: "I remember the days of dead Alewives stacked on the shores of Lake Michigan."

The Correct Answer: To control an explosion of invasive, beach-clogging alewives.

The Takeaway: Alewives got into Lake Michigan and found nothing that ate them. They boomed, then died off by the billions every season, and the beaches piled up deep enough that towns brought bulldozers down to clear them. Biologists stocked Pacific salmon to eat the problem. It worked. Cleaned up the shoreline and, more or less by accident, built one of the best freshwater sport fisheries anywhere.

This Week's Trivia

Walk the woods this month, or just park under an oak, and you'll hear it. That crack-thud of acorns coming down. Some falls the ground is ankle deep in them. Other falls you can't turn up a single one.

Why do oak trees across entire regions coordinate these massive, unpredictable bumper crops (known as "mast years") instead of dropping a steady harvest every single autumn?

Give it a gut check and click a response below:

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

A review from the trail… Assigned homework by our own readers. Travels with Charley it is.

Well, how'd we do this week?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Reply

or to participate.