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Mornin’ to everyone interested in the wolf packs eating moose on remote Lake Superior islands. 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:

🐟 Lake sturgeon returns to Ozaukee after a century

🐚 Lawsuit aims to protect rare Wisconsin mussel

🐦 Bird declines accelerating in Midwest farm country

🐟 STORY OF THE WEEK: Wisconsin fisheries, stocking in trouble

🐟 Lake sturgeon returns to Ozaukee after a century LINK

• For the first time in over 100 years, a lake sturgeon has been spotted in Ozaukee County—a 50-inch male detected at the Mequon-Thiensville Dam in March, just 10 river miles from prime spawning habitat near Grafton.

• The fish is part of the Return the Sturgeon Project, a 20-year partnership between Riveredge Nature Center, the Wisconsin DNR, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that's released 22,000 sturgeon into the Milwaukee River.

• Even cooler: this exact sturgeon was released as a fingerling back in 2011 by a 3-year-old kid at the Thiensville dam—and 15 years later, it found its way home. Holy cry-yiy!

🐚 Lawsuit aims to protect rare Wisconsin mussel LINK

• The Center for Biological Diversity is suing federal regulators for missing a 2024 deadline to finalize protections for the salamander mussel, a threatened species found in 24 Wisconsin counties.

• The proposed designation would cover about 400 river miles of critical habitat in Wisconsin—including stretches of the St. Croix, Chippewa, and Wisconsin rivers—at a national price tag of around $120,000 a year.

• Mussels are the canary in the coal mine for water quality, filtering up to 15 gallons a day. Lose the mussels, and the health of the rivers themselves starts sliding right along with them.

🐦 Bird declines accelerating in Midwest farm country LINK

• A new Ohio State University study published in Science found that bird populations are dropping faster in areas with heavy agriculture—and the Midwest is one of the worst-hit regions in North America.

• Researchers tied the accelerated decline to pesticide use, fertilizer, and cropland coverage. Of the 120+ species in decline across the continent, more than half are now disappearing at an increasing rate.

• The good news? Comeback stories like the bald eagle and peregrine falcon prove recovery is possible—if we get strategic about habitat and work with farmers, who researchers say are the real field experts.

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WISCAMPSIN WEEKLY POLL

Last Week's Trivia Check

We asked what primary biological advantage the Common Loon gains from having dense, solid bones. You guys know your northwoods birds—69% of you correctly identified this evolutionary trick!

The Correct Answer: It acts as "scuba weights," allowing them to sink and swim underwater with minimal effort.

The Takeaway: While hollow bones make flight easy for most birds, a loon's solid, dense bones drastically reduce their natural buoyancy. This acts just like a scuba diver's weight belt, allowing them to effortlessly sink below the surface and pursue fast-moving fish without constantly fighting the urge to pop back up to the top like a cork!

This Week's Trivia

This coming weekend is a sacred holiday in Wisconsin: the General Inland Fishing Opener. As thousands of boats hit the water to chase the state's top gamefish, let's look at the ruthless biology of our apex aquatic predators—the Northern Pike and the Muskellunge.

A review from the trail… Aye aye, cap’n!