Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers increases Wisconsin’s commitment to plant 100 million trees by 2030

Published

2 years ago

April 22, 2024

Gov. Tony Evers increases Wisconsin’s commitment to plant 100 million trees by 2030

WAUNAKEE — On the shore of Lake Mendota at the state park named for the holiday’s founder, Gov. Tony Evers on Earth Day signed an executive order pledging that the state will plant 100 million trees by the end of 2030 — an increase from the state’s initial commitment of 75 million.

Wisconsin first joined the global Trillion Trees Initiative, led by the World Economic Forum and American Forests, with an Evers executive order in 2021. The order also included a pledge to conserve 125,000 acres of forestland by 2030.

The governor told cabinet members and state employees gathered at Governor Nelson State Park on Monday that he was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 — a result of Wisconsin’s former governor and senator Gaylord Nelson’s advocacy.

“We actually, at the UW-Madison campus, had a full day of Earth Day, and professors and others had teach-ins, and it was really extraordinary,” Evers told reporters after planting a tree with a group. “It’s something I still remember to this day.”

Here’s what to know about Earth Day and the governor’s tree-planting pledge.

How many trees have been planted since the 2021 pledge?

The state has planted more than 32 million trees since Evers issued his 2021 executive order.

According to an annual report from the state Department of Natural Resources, more than 9.8 million trees were planted and more than 3,000 acres of forestland were conserved last year. More than two-thirds of seedlings were provided by the DNR. About 22% were planted on private lands. and about 19% were planted on DNR, federal, tribal and other public lands. About 100,000 were planted in county forests, 31,000 in school forests and more than 37,000 were given to elementary school students last Arbor Day.

Since the early 1900s, the DNR’s reforestation program has supplied landowners in the state with more than 1.6 billion seedlings.

Private nurseries partnering with the DNR supplied more than 3 million tree for conservation purposes, in addition to trees supplied by private nurseries for landscaping.

What will 100 million trees do for the environment?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a mature tree can store and exchange about 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in one year. That means 100 million mature trees could store and exchange an expected 4.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

The state’s updated goal will also contribute to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers’ bipartisan pledge to plant 250 million trees by 2033.

How many trees did Wisconsin plant in a normal year?

In the years before Wisconsin joined the Trillion Trees Initiative, the DNR nursery had distributed about 2.5 million to 3 million seedlings per year.

Why do we celebrate Earth Day?

While in the Senate, Nelson was frustrated by the lack of federal action on pressing environmental issues during. He advocated for “environmental teach-ins” at schools to prompt change, and on April 22, 1970, 20 million people, showed up at events across the country in support of a cleaner environment.

In the following years, Congress passed the Clean Water Acts, Clean Air Act, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Federal Pesticides Act, the Environmental Education Act, the National Hiking Trails and the National Scenic Trails Acts. Under President Richard Nixon, the federal government also created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Earth Day has since become an international event celebrated in more than 180 countries.

What does Evers hope will come from the tree-planting effort?

“Certainly all the stuff that the trees do is right on target. They take carbon dioxide and release oxygen to the air and sequester the carbon into the ground. So they are doing their part,” Evers said when asked about his hopes for the new tree-planting commitment. “I think we as human beings can do a little bit better. We’re working on it. We have (electric vehicle charing stations) going now, and as people participate in purchasing those vehicles, that’s going to make a difference as well as, obviously, our big, big issues around making sure that we’re getting enough solar energy in our system and making that happen. So, we’re on the right track, but we have a long, long way to go.”

Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed.

Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Most Wanted: Anthony Schaap on the run ahead of sentencing

Published

6 hours ago

February 15, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin’s Most Wanted: Anthony Schaap on the run ahead of sentencing

MILWAUKEE – U.S. Marshals are on the hunt for a Milwaukee man accused of seriously injuring his crying infant. Investigators say rather than comforting the 3-month-old, he became abusive.

Search for Anthony Schaap

What we know:

Authorities say 29-year-old Anthony Schaap didn’t act like much of a father in April 2024.

“Kind of at a loss for words with that type of cruelty,” the marshal said. “I’ll never understand it.”

Investigators say Schaap was supposed to be watching his 3-month-old girl and toddler daughter when he got abusive.

What they’re saying:

“At some point he becomes frustrated either with a crying baby or just not willing to do the things a father needs to do,” the marshal said.

Police say Schaap lied to the girls’ mother, and said the baby fell off the couch. She took the infant to the emergency room after finding bruising, and learned the injuries were much worse.

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“A doctor examines the baby, finds the skull fracture, the fractures in the tibia and other bruising on the baby’s head,” the marshal explained.

After time, police said Schaap confessed and admitted to hurting the child.

“Eventually he explains he has anger management problems,” the investigator said. “He’s frustrated and that he threw the baby at some point.”

Now on the run

Dig deeper:

Court records show Schaap pleaded guilty to a child abuse charge. While he was awaiting sentencing, he went on the run. The 29-year-old also has an outstanding domestic violence charge. He’s believed to be in the Milwaukee area.

“This is someone who needs to answer for what they’ve done,” the marshal said.

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Schaap stands 6’2″ tall and weighs 260 pounds.

Call with tips

What you can do:

Anyone with information about Schaap’s whereabouts should call the U.S. Marshals Tipline at 414-297-3707. You will remain anonymous.

The Source: Information in this post was provided by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.

Wisconsin’s Most WantedMilwaukeeNews

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Wisconsin

WI voters want a say on issue of online sports betting | Opinion

Published

18 hours ago

February 15, 2026

Press Room

WI voters want a say on issue of online sports betting | Opinion

Wisconsin cannot gamble with sports betting. As former attorney general, I join the people of Wisconsin who have real concerns about the constitutionality of this plan.

JB Van Hollen
| Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As the Assembly and Senate get ready to adjourn session in Madison for 2026, state legislative leaders are working behind closed doors on a deal to legalize online sports betting and give the Indigenous tribes exclusive control.

New polling shows Wisconsinites are skeptical of the Legislature’s current plan, and for good reason. While voters aren’t uniformly opposed to online sports wagering, they strongly oppose a framework that grants exclusive control to tribal nations, limits competition, and bypasses direct voter approval. Sixty percent of likely voters oppose giving tribes a monopoly, and 86 percent believe a decision of this magnitude should be decided by the people through a constitutional amendment or referendum. (Note: Polling figures cited are from The Tarrance Group.)

The legislation under consideration would create an unfair monopoly on online sports betting in Wisconsin. Rather than allowing well-known operators like FanDuel or DraftKings to compete in an open marketplace, the state would grant Native American tribes exclusive control as a way to try to circumvent the constitution. This approach stifles competition, limits consumer choice, and allows the monopoly holder to operate without meaningful oversight, a setup that is neither fair nor economically responsible.

Wisconsin stands to lose money on this

Beyond the monopoly problem, the current bills bypass the benefits free-market online sports betting can bring to states. In other states, competitive frameworks have strengthened local economies and generated tens of millions in revenue. Instead, Wisconsin could lose an estimated $400 million over the next five years because the legislation attempts to skirt our constitutional limits rather than address them directly.

Most importantly, as the former Attorney General of Wisconsin, I join the people of Wisconsin who have real concerns about the constitutionality of this plan. Legislators should never endorse or attempt to undermine Wisconsin’s Constitution, the foundation of our state. Article IV, Section 24 of the Wisconsin Constitution broadly prohibits the Legislature from authorizing gambling outside specific, voter-approved exceptions. The people of Wisconsin have repeatedly reaffirmed this principle through amendments over decades, making clear decisions of this magnitude rest with the voters, not the Legislature or the governor.

Wisconsin has seen the consequences of concentrated authority before. In the 1990s and 2000s, the state granted Democratic governor Jim Doyle broad authority to reopen and amend tribal gaming compacts. These decisions ultimately created perpetual privileges for tribes and limited the state’s ability to regulate gaming in line with constitutional and public interests. Later court rulings upheld some expansions despite weak legal grounds, leaving Wisconsin with a system that prioritizes a single party’s contractual interests over the people’s sovereign will.

Legislators seem ready to repeat mistakes

Today, legislators appear ready to repeat that mistake by relying on unsettled legal comparisons, such as Florida’s compact litigation, to justify extending tribal betting privileges statewide. But Florida’s situation is not Wisconsin’s. Using it as cover to bypass our own constitutional limits is legislative overreach, plain and simple.

The push to legalize online sports betting nationally has grown, but the stakes in Wisconsin are too high to get this wrong. The numbers don’t lie, the voters want a say in this matter. This backroom deal being dealt in Madison is bad news. The first rule of gambling is remembering the house always wins. In this case, the “house” should be the people of Wisconsin, and the state must ensure it remains in control of its own policy.

JB Van Hollen is the former Attorney General of Wisconsin.

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin DNR gives February 14, 2026 sturgeon spearing harvest update – KFIZ News-Talk 1450 AM

Published

1 day ago

February 14, 2026

Press Room

Spearers couldn’t ask for much better conditions this sunny Valentine’s Day for the opener of the sturgeon spearing season. A flyover counted 3,019 shanties across Lake Winnebago. With reports of fairly good ice conditions and water clarity throughout the lake, these spearers were pretty evenly distributed across the water.

A total of 479 lake sturgeon were harvested on Lake Winnebago, with 53 juvenile females, 239 adult females and 187 males. This puts us at about 36% of the adult female harvest cap. Most of the harvest was coming from the east side of the lake, with the Stockbridge registering the most fish with 148 registered.

A considerable number of fish were also harvested on the Upriver Lakes, with spearers harvesting 175 fish (24 juvenile females, 49 adult females and 102 males). While the 90% harvest cap for the Upriver Lakes hasn’t yet been reached, we are only 17 adult females away from that number. This means the Upriver Lakes season will likely close in the next few days as fish continue to be harvested. Upriver Lakes spearers, please make sure you are checking the daily updates for season closures as we near the harvest caps.

View the full details in today’s harvest report.

It was great to see so many families out on the ice and at the registration stations today. While it is a thrill for spearers harvesting fish, many families in the area also use this time of year to get together, reminisce about great stories and share their own traditions. This includes Jay Plonsky and Jeff Wagner, who have started to create their own stories and traditions over the last few years. This tradition includes Jay’s daughters, Scarlett and Devin, who were able to help pull the sturgeon out of the hole after their dad speared it.

There is also young Abigail Derksen. At age 13, she is proving she has what it takes. It was her second year spearing, and her second fish, a respectable 53.6 in, 34.0 lbs, M2 male. We hope we keep seeing her at registration stations for years to come.

Another notable stat was that 17 fish over 100 pounds were harvested throughout the system. Today’s largest fish was a 148.9-pound, 75.4-inch F4 female speared Upriver by Christopher Inda.

For those who couldn’t make it out today, there will likely be just as much excitement tomorrow around the lake. Pair that with the forecast calling for another nice, mild day, and it is a recipe for a great family adventure to see these incredible fish and the passionate people who target them. Congratulations to all successful spearers on a great opening day!

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