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Mornin’ and happies of holidays to everyone interested in the Wisconsin State Park merch gift packages that give you a chance to win a 12-month State Park Pass sticker. 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:

🐱 U.P. cougar cubs still alive, living with mother

🐺 Former conservation officer fined in wolf killing

💰 Room tax funds $370,000 for Door County projects

🦌 STORY OF THE WEEK: WI hunter harvests one of the biggest bucks in state history

🐱 U.P. cougar cubs still alive, living with mother LINK

• Two cougar cubs spotted in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula last winter are officially still alive, now roughly a year old and traveling with their mother — a rare and reassuring sight for big-cat watchers.

• The trail-cam photo marks Michigan’s first confirmed cougar reproduction in more than a century and one of the only verified cases east of the Mississippi, hinting that the species may be quietly reclaiming old ground.

• Despite more than 1,300 DNR trail cameras in the U.P., the family managed to stay hidden for nine months, underscoring both how elusive cougars are and why the DNR is urging people to give them space and let nature do its thing.

🐺 Former conservation officer fined in wolf killing LINK

• A former Wisconsin conservation warden admitted to shooting a collared gray wolf on Christmas Day 2023 at his Bayfield-area home and has now been fined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, though the dollar amount hasn’t been released because the case is still considered open.

• Federal protections for wolves were restored in 2022, making it illegal to kill one except to protect human life — a crime that can carry up to one year in prison and fines up to $100,000, even as Congress considers rolling those protections back again.

• Wisconsin has about 1,200 wolves, with 12 illegally killed in the past year, no recorded modern-era wolf attacks on humans in the state, and only two fatal wolf attacks across North America in the last 20 years — numbers that continue to fuel debate over management, enforcement, and coexistence.

💰 Room tax funds $370,000 for Door County projects LINK

• More than $370,000 in room-tax dollars landed with seven local projects, funding everything from safer park access and beach mats to theater tech, museum exhibits, and water bottle refill stations.

• Since launching in May 2023, the Community Investment Fund has now delivered $3.1 million to 59 projects across 11 grant cycles, with individual awards in this round ranging from $11,150 to $150,000.

• All of it comes from a slice of the county’s 8% room tax, meaning visitor dollars are paying for trails, beaches, culture, and infrastructure that locals use year-round — tourism that actually sticks around after checkout.

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DEAR SANTA—we want the Ultimate Old Fashioned Basket

Hey, isn’t it a little late to be thinking about Christmas gifts? It’s friggin’ Christmas Eve!

We’ve got a motto here: It’s never too late for Old Fashioneds.

The Ultimate Old Fashioned Bundle from Venture Wisconsin is a homerun for anyone who loves making Old Fahioneds or even exploring Old Fashioned-purveyors (AKA bars). Inside you’ll find:

• 2026 Old Fashioned Passport

• Two Supper CLUB pint glasses.

• Dehydrated Old Fashioned cocktail (fun, makes 2-4 cocktails)

• Old Fashioned Flavored lip balm (60% cherry, 40% orange and a dash of real bitters)

• Old Fashioned Muddler (While supplies last)

• Wisconsin Supper CLUB Bitters, 5oz (Premium, built for old fashioneds, made in Wisconsin)

Check it out HERE!

WISCAMPSIN WEEKLY POLL

27% of poll voters got last week's trivia right:

The correct answer was C) about 35 minutes is how much more daylight Northern WI has during the Winter Solstice compared to Southern WI.

Explanation: Latitude matters! Beloit (near the IL border) gets roughly 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight on the solstice. Superior (near Lake Superior) gets only about 8 hours and 30 minutes. That extra half-hour of darkness in the north is significant for winter depression and solar energy production!

This Week’s Poll: The Audubon "Christmas Bird Count" is the world's longest-running citizen science project, with thousands of Wisconsin volunteers counting birds this week.

MEME OF THE WEEK 😆