The Northwoods Ledger exists to track the history, environment, and government of Oneida, Vilas, and Lincoln counties. We document Northwoods history, write about the ecology of our woods and waters, and translate dense municipal budgets into plain, verifiable facts.
Real investigative reporting begins with Wisconsin Open Records requests filed under Chapter 19 of the state statutes. It means waiting out statutory delays, pushing back against improper redactions, and paying reproduction fees out of pocket.
Then comes the unglamorous labor. Combing through hundreds of pages of raw check registers, internal staff emails, and zoning maps line by line late into the night.
Our September edition is now live, along with the complete archive of our August investigative audits and field reporting.
Here is what is inside the new issue and a summary of our stories from the past month.
Inside the September Edition
September in the Northwoods: A seasonal look at cooling waters, active deer movement, aggressive late-season muskies, and black bears feeding before winter.
Northwoods Wilds (Peak Mushroom Season): Where and how to locate prime edible fall fungi, including Hen of the Woods, Honey Mushrooms, Lion's Mane, and King Boletes.
Root Cellars (Storing Food the Old Way): Low-tech food preservation techniques to keep potatoes, sand-packed carrots, cabbage, and onions fresh without power.
Northwoods Curiosities (Why Leaves Turn): The science of the autumn canopy, showing how declining daylight exposes bright yellow pigments and cold nights create deep reds and purples.
Northwoods Traditions (The First Frost): Practical steps to harvest remaining crops, cover sensitive plants, inspect chimneys, and stage woodpiles before the ground freezes.
Looking Back (The 1895 Timber Boom): The history of the logging surge, river drivers, and round-the-clock sawmills that built the city of Rhinelander.
When a developer divides land into home lots, the biggest expense is usually not buying the land. It is building the road.
Clearing trees, digging drainage ditches, and paving a standard public road costs between $150,000 and $300,000 per section. Under Wisconsin law, that bill is supposed to be paid by the private developer who profits from the project.
In Oneida County, however, developers have found a way around these rules. By utilizing a local waiver clause (Section 15.31(2) of the county subdivision code), developers are bypassing state mandated infrastructure costs and deferring them to the taxpayer.
When Oneida County approves a waiver, it allows a dense residential development to be treated on paper as a minor split, instead of a full subdivision. That wipes out the requirement for paved public roads and financial guarantees entirely.
Late in the summer, homeowners in Oneida, Vilas, and Lincoln counties often see a strange, neon-green bug spinning a tough web against their houses. It has an accordion-like body with shiny orange bumps. This is the final caterpillar stage of the Polyphemus moth, a giant silk moth native to our northern Wisconsin woods.
The life of a silk moth is all about extremes. Over about 50 days, this caterpillar eats up to 86,000 times its starting weight in leaves from local oak, birch, and maple trees. It has to eat this much to build up the fat it needs to survive. Once it becomes an adult moth, its mouth does not work, so it can never eat again.
After it finishes feeding, the caterpillar empties its stomach and spins a tough, weatherproof cocoon. It uses liquid silk made of strong proteins held together by a natural glue. Inside this shell, the insect stops growing and makes its own natural antifreeze, called glycerol. This stops ice crystals from destroying its cells, letting it survive Northwoods winters that drop well below negative 20 degrees Celsius.
Thursday night at 11:12 PM, Earth's shadow will swallow 96.2 percent of the full moon. That is as close to a total blackout as you can get, leaving only a hairline sliver of bright white light on the top edge while the rest of the moon turns a dark copper red. You do not need an observatory, a telescope, or special eye protection. You just need a south-facing view over open water, a heavy jacket against the midnight damp, and the patience to stay up late.
The Field Timeline (Central Daylight Time)
9:33 PM: The First Bite. Earth's dark inner shadow touches the lower edge of the moon. To the naked eye, it looks like a clean, curved notch carved out of the bottom rim.
11:12 PM: Peak Eclipse. Earth's shadow covers almost the entire disc. That tiny sliver of direct sunlight remains on top, while the rest glows a bruised, dusky orange.
12:51 AM (Friday): The Shadow Clears. The hard shadow exits completely, returning the moon to its usual blinding white light.
Most birds of prey eat whatever they can find, but the osprey is a rare exception. It is nature's ultimate fishing machine, built for a single task: hunting live fish underwater.
Hovering fifty to eighty feet above the surface, it locks onto a moving target, compensates for light bending through the water, and folds its wings into a sharp "M." It punches feet-first through the surface at over forty miles per hour, often plunging up to three feet deep to strike.
This is Part 2 of our watchdog series on Oneida County shoreline zoning. Catch up on Part 1- which details the initial 2023 courthouse showdown and early DNR warnings—[read Part 1 here].
The Origin: Public Pushback on Two Sisters Lake
In 2020, an aggressive clear-cutting project on Two Sisters Lake sparked public calls for tighter rules.
Oneida County officials spent nearly four years reviewing a proposed shoreline zoning amendment that would have altered how building footprints are calculated near lakes and streams.
The Core Debate: Redefining "Building Footprint"
Under state rules, structures built close to the water before modern zoning laws are called legal nonconforming structures. Current laws limit expanding these buildings within the 75-foot shoreline setback zone to protect nearby lakes and rivers.
The proposal created a new legal definition for "building footprint." It counted open outdoor structures, such as wooden decks, covered porches, eaves, and roof overhangs, as part of the main building footprint. Under this rule, a property owner could enclose an open deck or porch into indoor living space without technically increasing the structure's legal footprint.
(We believe that informed voters are the only defense against fiscal mismanagement and the erosion of local resources. If you are a paid subscriber, thank you for making this work possible.)
This month’s dispatch brings you three major public-record investigations alongside the features, recipes, and seasonal guides from our latest monthly print issue.
🗞️ In the Archive: Public Records & Local Governance
A tri-county breakdown of how town boards and county committees are navigating route expansions, ordinance enforcement, and local infrastructure impacts.
An inside look at the Skanawan gravel pit dispute, detailing how Wisconsin’s Act 67 constrains conditional use permit authority and restricts town-level control.
When state lawmakers passed 2023 Wisconsin Act 12 banning local advisory referendums, they stripped Northern Wisconsin of a tool for gauging community consensus on off-road vehicle routes. Previously, local boards relied on non-binding ballot votes to guide major road decisions, such as when Manitowish Waters voters rejected opening town roads by a 369 to 176 vote in 2020.
Opening paved public roads to off-road vehicles brings tourism dollars and connected trail networks, but it also introduces noise, safety concerns, and neighborhood friction.
Vilas, Oneida, and Lincoln counties have chosen three different ways to manage the use of off road vehicles.
When the Lincoln County Land Services Committee approved Conditional Use Permit CUP-96-1075 in mid-2023, they gave Milestone Materials the green light to operate an 80-acre sand and gravel pit off County Road S. That vote triggered a multi-year legal fight in the Town of Skanawan.
The decision gave the 36-square-mile rural township its third active heavy extraction site. More importantly, it exposed the legal reality small towns face across Oneida, Vilas, and Lincoln counties under Wisconsin's modern zoning laws.
What started as an advisory vote against the pit by the Skanawan Town Board escalated quickly. It moved from administrative appeals to a circuit court lawsuit (Case No. 23CV146), culminating in a court-ordered hearing before the Lincoln County Board of Adjustment in December 2024.
On June 30, 2026, Wisconsin's biggest conservation fund expired. This fund, called the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship Program, provided matching money for local trail, park, and land projects in Oneida, Vilas, and Lincoln counties.
In November 2025, lawmakers were looking at a compromise bill to keep the stewardship program running for ten more years. The bill had rules to increase control over state land purchases. It also set aside money for public trail systems and county park maintenance.
During a committee review of the bill, local Northwoods Representatives Rob Swearingen and Calvin Callahan both voted 'no.' This caused a 6-to-6 tie. This tie vote was a critical blow. Because the committee deadlocked, the bill lost its momentum and moved to the full Assembly without the committee's support or recommendation to pass it.
July brings the peak of the summer season to the Northwoods. While residents and property owners enjoy the lakes, town and county boards continue to make critical policy and financial decisions.
Below is our latest reporting on the events shaping our communities.
Presque Isle's $377,000 Tax Error and the Vilas County EMS Crisis: A detailed breakdown of the math behind a major tax calculation error, and how the resulting funding gap is placing immediate pressure on local emergency medical services. [Read the Full Article]
Tourism Taxes: How State Law Starves Northwoods Infrastructure: An analysis of how Wisconsin's shared revenue limits and tax allocation structures leave local property owners footing the bill for heavy seasonal traffic on municipal roads. [Read the Full Analysis]
Oneida County Zoning Changes: Ordinance 13-2025 and the Lark Road Impact: A close look at proposed zoning adjustments on Lark Road and what they reveal about changing shoreline development standards in our area. [Read the Zoning Breakdown]
Northwoods Tick Management: Best Practices and Data: A review of current tick data and evidence-based prevention strategies to protect your family this summer. [Access the full article]
As shrinking volunteer pools force communities to hire full-time paramedics, rigid state tax laws make paying for them, a legal mine field. The town of Presque Isle stepped on one of those mines.
The Legal Ceiling
Wisconsin caps municipal budgets using a strict rule under Wis. Stat. § 66.0602. The state blocks towns from freely raising property taxes, tying any budget increase directly to physical growth. A town can only raise its total tax collection by the exact percentage of new buildings constructed within its borders that year.
Northern Wisconsin relies on its tourism industry. Seasonal visitors and second-home owners bring in millions of dollars. This money supports local businesses and creates jobs. Yet, this influx of people comes at a cost to infrastructure. This article traces the history of Wisconsin Room taxes and how they apply to our communities.
The Oneida County Planning and Development Committee finalized draft language for Ordinance Amendment 13-2025 on April 29, 2026. The measure permanently extends standard county zoning permits from 24 to 36 months. It also arms the county with aggressive new enforcement tools. The policy shift stems directly from a contentious residential development at 8168 Lark Road in Lake Tomahawk.
The full Board of Supervisors have not yet cast a final vote. The next scheduled meeting is June 16, 2026, marking the earliest opportunity for a final vote. This gives residents a critical window to submit public comments before the rules become law.
The Lark Road Catalyst
Michael and Nicole Gerdin purchased a closed shoreline resort to build a massive residential lodge. Adjacent landowners objected immediately. Bruce Forsberg warned the town board that the proposed footprint would double county impervious surface limits and cause severe runoff. The proposed peak height reached 49 feet and six inches, exceeding the 35-foot county limit.
