One of World War II's most decorated submarines will be docked in Wisconsin over the next several months so it can undergo millions of dollars in repairs.
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Wildfire smoke engulfs the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin on July 16, 2026 (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
For the second time in three years, noxious clouds of wildfire smoke are smothering Wisconsin, dangerously degrading air quality and restricting people’s ability to go outside. In Madison, smoke began drifting in during the early morning hours on Thursday. By sunrise, the stench of burning forests had settled in and coated the Badger State’s capitol city in a gray smog, compounding a multi-day heatwave bringing temperatures to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The smoke originated from 17 wildfires in the Superior National Forest caused by lightning strikes in far northeastern Minnesota. Severe drought and heat fueled the fires, threatening a 1.1 million acre forest that is the most visited wilderness area in the U.S. Rangers are searching for 6,000 to 10,000 people who might be in an area that has been evacuated because of the fires, PBS reported. Officials have cancelled all Boundary Water canoe permits, and closed public access to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as part of a 3.9 million acre closure covering the entire Superior National Forest.
In Wisconsin, the fallout has been far-reaching. A statewide air quality advisory has been issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), with the air expected to remain unhealthy until at least Friday.
Local health departments from Milwaukee to Kenosha are warning residents to avoid the outdoors as much as possible, especially children, older people, pregnant women and those with respiratory ailments like asthma and heart disease. Even healthy people may experience eye irritation, coughing, sore throats or shortness of breath due to exposure to the smoke.
“While breathing problems and respiratory health dangers are often considered the biggest health impact from wildfire smoke, it’s important to recognize the impact on cardiovascular health as well,” said Dr. Art Coffey, a board member of the Milwaukee American Heart Association and a ProHealth Care cardiologist. “Wildfire smoke contains a lot of pollutants including fine, microscopic particles linked to cardiovascular risk. As these fires continue to burn, that contaminated smoke is traveling many miles beyond the immediately affected area.”
A press release from the American Heart Association warns that smoke exposure can increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest and increase burdens on local emergency services. One study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that heavy wildfire smoke exposure increased the risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by 70%, with that risk elevated among both men and women, particularly in adults from 35-64 years of age and those in high-poverty communities.
In a new analysis, the environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin estimated that 250 premature deaths occur each year in Wisconsin due to wildfire smoke exposure. The environmental group warns that these trends are likely to worsen. From 2010 to 2020, Clean Wisconsin stated, wildfire smoke caused unhealthy air quality conditions in the state for less than one day per year. Since 2020, however, wildfire smoke has caused unhealthy air in Wisconsin for an average of nine days per year. The smoke also carries particulate matter which is so small that it can penetrate the lungs deeply and cross into the blood stream, potentially leading to heart disease, cancer, dementia, blood clots, stroke and early death.
Milwaukee’s health and public works departments have suspended or modified some services. Garbage and recycling collection is suspended until further notice, and the city’s drop-off centers are also closed. The city tow lot closed Thursday afternoon. Air quality in the Milwaukee area is considered dangerous, and people are advised to stay inside, run air conditioning, use portable air cleaners or air filters, wear N95 masks or similar protection if they have to go outside, and to check on their neighbors and loved ones.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement that this has become “the worst air quality on record for our community,” adding, “I encourage everyone to take this situation seriously, limit time outdoors when possible, and follow guidance from public health officials.”
All beer gardens, splash pads, outdoor and indoor pools and wading pools have closed in Milwaukee County parks. Residents rely on some of these services to cope with the high temperatures, but the smoke makes their continued operation unsafe. The Milwaukee County Zoo has also had to move some animals inside and cancel attractions and programming.
The Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Pool in Madison in Madison is also closed. In Kenosha, two park pools have closed as well as a municipal golf course, bulk and recycling and compost drop-off sites. A local “Peanut Butter & Jam concert” has also been canceled until further notice.
Experts and advocates stress the connection between repeated wildfire smoke emergencies and climate change, which creates the heatwaves and extreme drought conditions which set the stage for massive blazes.
“Increasingly smoky skies underscore the importance of a rapid transition to clean energy rather than building more polluting fossil fuel infrastructure that further contributes to climate change,” Dr. Paul Matthewson, science program director for Clean Wisconsin, said in a statement. “The faster we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, the more summer days we will be able to enjoy outside without worrying about whether the air is safe to breathe.”
“The wildfire smoke blanketing Wisconsin is a reminder that climate change is not a distant threat,” said Peg Shaeffer, spokesperson for Midwest Environmental Advocates. “It is already harming public health and disrupting our daily lives. While no single fire can be attributed solely to climate change, we know that a warming climate is making large wildfires more frequent and more severe.”
Chelsea Chandler, Clean Wisconsin’s climate, energy and air program director, said, “This is hurting everybody — our kids on the playground, farmers, construction workers.” Chandler added, “The public health threat we are all enduring must be a wakeup call…Wisconsin is moving in the wrong direction. Our energy companies are doubling down on burning dangerous fossil fuels to meet soaring AI data center demand, adding to the hazardous air pollution we breathe and damaging our climate. Wisconsinites are paying the price.”
Chandler said that Wisconsin needs to rapidly employ several policies including:
“These ideas are not new; in fact, many other states are already taking action,” said Chandler. “For example, Wisconsin is last in the Midwest when it comes to wind energy production, far behind our neighbors…We’ve got to realize that Wisconsin is not an island. No community is safe from the impacts of climate change. The question is, what are we — and our state leaders — doing to help?”
It’s a question young people, especially those who have grown up in an era of climate emergency, ask their elders with increasing audacity. Last year, a group of young Wisconsinites attempted to take the government to court, asking the state to eliminate laws that worsen the climate crisis and accusing those in power of robbing them of their right to a safe and stable future due to policies which contribute to climate change. In April, a Dane County judge dismissed the case, saying that although she was sympathetic to the children, that what they demanded was a political question beyond judicial review.
“Needless to say, we strongly disagree,” said Shaeffer. Midwest Environmental Advocates, which represented the children in the court action. “These kids deserve more than sympathy. They deserve to have their day in court.”
The children involved in the case had suffered the effects of wildfire smoke exposure in recent years, Shaeffer said in an emailed statement to the Wisconsin Examiner. One 18-year-old girl named Madeline has asthma, and must stay indoors and avoid the smoke to avoid flare-ups, preventing her from biking, hiking or running outdoors. Another 16-year-old named Indy must stay indoors for weeks on end due to his asthma. Caroline, a 9-year-old girl, said she feels “trapped” when heat and smoke prevent her from playing outside. Those kinds of experiences were also shared by 18-year-old Lucy, who quit the cross-country ski team because practices were cancelled due to a lack of snow in the winter and smoke in the summer. 16-year-old Ted must do farm chores when smoke is heavy in the air. And 12-year-old Elia suffers migraines which are worsened by the heat and smoke.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax and a scam. Under both his administrations, climate policies ground to a halt as fossil fuel companies were given carte blanche to “drill baby drill,” as Trump is fond of saying.
“These are the real, lived experiences of Wisconsin young people whose health and wellbeing are being harmed by state laws that exacerbate climate change,” said Shaeffer. “We believe the court has both the authority and the obligation to address that harm.”
The 15-foot long white pine canoe likely dates back to the late 1700s.
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A sign acknowledging Stewardship program support at Firemen's Park in Verona. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program, established in 1989 to help Wisconsin obtain and maintain its natural areas expired Tuesday. Cause of death, according to advocates, was legislative obstinance.
Initially created through a bipartisan piece of legislation, the program has helped local governments build boat launches, playgrounds, bike paths and hiking trails in every corner of the state; helped land trusts and non-profits obtain and conserve thousands of acres of forest land and helped the Department of Natural Resources grow and manage Wisconsin’s state parks.
“Every single community has a boat launch, or a playground, or a neighborhood park, or a bike path that was funded with Knowles Nelson dollars,” said Charles Carlin, the director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, an alliance of 40 land trusts around Wisconsin. “So, the state just looks a lot different than it would if we didn’t have Knowles Nelson, and we all have more opportunities to get outside and enjoy all these places that make Wisconsin special than we would have without the program.”
Since its inception, the program has enjoyed broad support from voters and been seen as a national model for land conservation systems. However, in recent years, a handful of Republican legislators — largely representing the northern parts of the state — began to sour on the program’s aims.
This group has argued that too much land in northern Wisconsin has been conserved, leaving struggling local governments without enough of a property tax base to fund their budgets or grow their communities. An analysis by the Examiner found that most of the public land in northern Wisconsin is national forest land and that land purchased through Knowles-Nelson is a tiny portion of Wisconsin’s public lands portfolio.
Opposition to the program was supercharged after the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee was unconstitutionally exercising its power by allowing members to anonymously hold up any proposed land acquisitions through Knowles-Nelson.
The decision angered legislators who had previously been able to quietly stop projects in their districts, and the program suddenly faced energized opposition. Proposals that aimed to bring together bipartisan support to continue the program from Gov. Tony Evers, a handful of Republicans and the Legislature’s Democratic caucus failed to gain traction during the most recent legislative session.
“Scoring a few political points in the Capitol at the expense of your community and of your voters just encapsulates what people hate about politics right now,” said Carlin. “What happened this session is a very small number of Republican senators decided that political retribution inside the Capitol in Madison was more important than good policy for their constituents. That’s bad governance. It undermines their own communities, and I would hope that they are questioning that choice, perhaps regretting it. I think we’re all going to be looking to see what happens in November, and to see, gosh, are there consequences for choosing to govern like that?”
With the program’s expiration this week, legislative Democrats have stated that if voters elect Democratic majorities in the Legislature and a Democratic governor next year, re-authorizing the program will be among the first priorities.
Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at an event Tuesday morning at Governor Gaylord Nelson State Park in Waunakee that with trifecta control of government, Democrats would bring the program back.
“Senate Republicans … have ensured that towns and cities across our state do not have the money to repair boat launches or keep our trails safe,” she said. “They have made it impossible for the state to preserve more of our landscape, giving developers free rein. They have decided to disregard the will of the residents, and no wonder why the Republican party is losing so much at the polls. The expiration of this program today is just another example of Republican failures, but my message to Wisconsin is very simple: Vote for Democrats in November, and we promise, especially with the Democratic trifecta, we will bring the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program back in full force, so people can enjoy nature regardless of their zip code, every single place in the state of Wisconsin.”
Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay), one of the authors of the failed Democratic bill to reauthorize the program, told the Examiner Monday that the expiration was just a “pause.”
Habush Sinykin said that she’s working on ways to get a Knowles-Nelson bill through the Legislature no matter the result of the November elections.
“We’ll find out just in a matter of months what we have to work with,” she said. “But we have quite a bit of give with regard to how we can keep the program going forward productively, in terms of funding and for oversight mechanisms. And again, I would be certainly grateful to be able to work across the aisle and with legislators in my own party to come up with the Knowles Nelson reauthorization program that makes sense for Wisconsin. It contributes so much to our state and local economies and quality of life. It really is a wise investment.”
Even if a bill to restart the program is introduced immediately at the start of the next session and fast tracked to the governor’s desk, it could be close to a year before the program is back on track. Carlin said that because of the long-term planning required for the type of land acquisitions funded through Knowles-Nelson, the “ripple effects go way beyond that 12-month period of time.”
“Every single land trust and every single local government is cash strapped, and they are strained for capacity as well. There’s more to do than there is people and money to get it done,” he said. And so, as the future of Knowles Nelson became more and more uncertain, you know, land trusts, they really ramped down their land acquisition planning. Because if they don’t have a sense of how the heck they’re going to fund a project, they don’t pursue it. And so what that means is, is fewer conversations are happening with prospective landowners, that fewer negotiations about land purchases are happening. And that’s not an on/off switch; it takes a while to ramp that up and to get going again.”
Carlin added that the state knows there’s a growing maintenance backlog for the state’s outdoor recreation facilities and a need to help communities across the state build infrastructure to manage the effects of climate change.
“By pulling the rug out from under ourselves to make those investments for a year, we’re causing delays that might wind up lasting three years or five years until we get ourselves back on track, even when Knowles Nelson is fully funded,” he said. “So you know what’s done is done, and now we’ve just got to figure out how to fix it and get back on track as quickly as possible.”
Lake Superior had not seen an established population of the invasive bloody red shrimp until now. A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and University of Wisconsin-Superior show there's a self-sustaining population in the Duluth-Superior harbor.
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Marinette and Peshtigo area residents told regulators Monday that they want the state to use a recent $10 million settlement over PFAS contamination to fund a health study and safe water for community members.
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Superior Water, Light & Power is the only privately owned water utility in Wisconsin. The city's mayor would like to change that.
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