Wisconsin | Good Nature Travel Blog

Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary: An Encounter with its Founder

“There was a special adventure to being a young boy in northwestern Wisconsin. There was the adventure of exploring a deep green pine forest, crunching...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Put Your Fears on Ice, and Travel to the Cold Places

A small ice rink, created by flooding a flat piece of ground in front of the elementary school that was just two blocks from my home when I was a child, never...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Learning from Libby Lightning in Yosemite National Park

You can’t help but have a big adventure in the amazing Yosemite National Park. But doing small things here sometimes makes for the most lasting impressions.

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Creating a New National Park: Possible or Pipe Dream?

Today, in the current political climate, with national parks falling into disrepair because of budget cuts and parks and monuments threatened with downsizing,...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Videos: Whooping Cranes and a Bold Experiment

In 1942, there were fewer than 20 whooping cranes left alive in the world. Their habitats were vanishing, and they had been hunted almost to extinction. If we...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Videos: White Deer, the Ghosts of the Forest

Throughout history, people have been fascinated by wild animals that are all white. True to tradition, in Wisconsin, where I live, residents have a special...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

White, Wild Animals and Why Difference Shouldn’t Be Wrong

A framed photo that hung on a wall of my grandfather’s large dining room is one of my earliest memories. Sepia-toned, it depicted a herd of deer, taken in...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Rushing into a World without Gray Wolves or Grizzly Bears

Grizzly bears and wolves. Other than bison, does America have any mammals more representative of our nation? Unfortunately for them, grizzly bears and wolves...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Science-Based Conservation under Attack in 2017

We’ve closed the books on 2016. It’s natural to want to assess the past year, now that we’ve made it through to the end. In the past 12 months, there has been...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Privatizing Wildlife: Dangerous Trend or Economic Necessity?

Fall in Wisconsin, where I live, is colorful. Leaves in our forests turn vivid purple, red and yellow; and deer hunters in our woods dress in vivid orange. As...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Missing Winter: the Iditarod and the American Birkebeiner

In January 1925, the children of Nome, Alaska, were dying. They were suffering from diphtheria. The town’s only physician, Dr. Curtis Welch, feared the...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Five Recent Gains for Endangered Wildlife Species

There has been a lot of good news for endangered and “missing” wildlife lately, which seems like a breath of fresh air amid all the dire headlines about rapid...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Protected Areas Bring in $600 Billion, So Why Cut Funds?

Across the United States, more than 715 million acres of wild lands in thousands of holdings are protected, thanks to measures such as the Wilderness Act of...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Should Nonnative Species Be Introduced as Biocontrols?

For decades now, climate change has been altering habitats and causing a major shift of ecosystems northward. Unable to adjust quickly enough, some...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Endangered Species List May Not Be Best for Animals at Risk

Gray wolves in the Great Lakes region received some good news last month. In a surprise, unusual ruling on December 19, 2014, United States District Judge...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Bison and Wolves: Is Culling Once-Threatened Species Justified?

As many as 900 Yellowstone National Park American bison may be exterminated in winter 2014-2015. It’s estimated that our nation’s last, pure herd of...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Smokey Bear: Overachiever or Climate Change Clairvoyant?

Smokey Bear turned 70 years old this past Saturday, August 9, 2014. I feel a special kinship with the old bruin and forest-fire-prevention representative for...

Candice Gaukel Andrews

Does Our Language Regarding Wolves and Bears Shape Our Attitudes?

In Wisconsin where I live, we call three large predators “neighbors”: the black bear, the gray wolf and the occasional mountain lion. Because of this, you...