CALUMET, Mich. (WLUC) – Goats grazed in Calumet’s Swedetown Recreation Area forests on Saturday morning,

The Keweenaw Invasive Species Management Area (KISMA) works with the Houghton, Hancock, and the Keweenaw tri-county area to stop invasive species from growing. Families were invited to greet the goats from a Wisconsin farm. The goats are part of the Regenerative Ruminants service, which provides a group of goats that clear brush. People could also learn about the invasive glossy buckthorn. Researchers said the plant can take over a native forest habitat.

KISMA coordinator and Michigan Tech University researcher assistant professor Sigrid Resh said native species don’t eat the plant. She also calls the glossy buckthorn a “woody invasive” species, she also mentions how it displaces the native hardwood forests. Her team is in its second year of the research project, deciding whether goats can eat buckthorn. Resh hoped to find a different way to combat invasive plants instead of using chemicals like pesticides. She said even the plants people bring into their gardens impact the woods.

“Japanese barberry, that’s used as a landscaping species, can still be bought at places like Walmart,” Resh said. “Those are escaping your yard and coming into our forests and changing the habitat.”

She said people can help at home by replacing invasive plants with native ones.

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WISCONSIN — Hundreds of thousands of dollars are headed to Wisconsin to help curtail issues tied to elder abuse, as the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay works with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and other agencies to strengthen the Elder Justice Coalition in Wisconsin.

“[We’re] working to protect older adults from financial exploitation and from abuse and neglect,” said Laura Nolan, the executive manager for business and government outreach at UW-Green Bay. “There’s a variety of programs that we are utilizing our resources for to really help strengthen what we have here in Wisconsin, bringing together the people who care about helping older adults — law enforcement, banking entities, our state resources — and really trying to tackle a problem that has a huge impact on our older adults.”

According to UW-Green Bay, data from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed nearly 26% of Wisconsin’s population will be 60 and older by 2030, and scammers aim to pounce.

“The scammers are really good,” Nolan said. “We shouldn’t feel embarrassed if we fell for a scam. The most important thing to do is to actually get that help right away: Report it to the police, talk to your financial institution [and] the FBI has a hotline where you can report it and get extra help — so there are a lot of resources and help out there.

Watch the full interview above.

BAYFIELD, Wis. (Northern News Now) – On the southwestern shore of Lake Superior sits a county with a population of less than 20,000.

But that same county brought in $93 million in tourism to Wisconsin last year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, the total economic impact in the state hit a record-breaking $25 billion in 2023.

The growth has come with the help of national events like the American Birkebeiner, Book Across the Bay, the Bayfield Apple Festival, and local events like; the Iron River Blueberry Festival, Cable Fall Fest, and Cornucopia Days.

“We have so many small rural communities and not a lot of industry to support our economy. So tourism really is woven into the fabric of our lives up here. To have that outside money coming in to help boost our economy is critical,” said Director of Bayfield County Tourism Mary Motiff.

Tourism is very important to those rural communities in the county with one in five jobs involved with the tourism industry according to Travel Wisconsin.

“This is just an amazing place and it’s hard to get people to make the leap to come here if they haven’t been here before. But once they get here they are hooked and they fall in love with it just like we did,” said Motiff.

Motiff also said national and local partnerships help to build the industry. This includes the local group Native American Tourism of Wisconsin (NATOW).

NATOW’s focus is to promote tribal lands in the area so tourists can learn more about the cultures that are native to the area.

“We come together to help others learn about some of the things that they might not know about. We had a panel today on routes and roots and it was about our history,” said NATOW Executive Director Kimberlee McGeshick.

On Friday NATOW held their annual conference at the Legendary Waters Casino and Resort in Bayfield to celebrate 30 years of being committed to sustaining tourism for tribes in Wisconsin.

“Working with all 11 tribes in one state is, overwhelming and it’s beautiful. It’s probably the best job I’ve ever had. Being able to help and promote brothers and sisters. I’ve come and grown into an amazing family, a tourism family,” said McGeshick.

Those partnerships that have helped build Wisconsin tourism have also helped tourists respect the history of the land.

“We have so much to learn from our Indigenous partners who were here long before we were in this area, there’s a lot to show off but we need to do it in a respectful way,” said Motiff.

The 11 tribes NATOW works with include the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Ho-Chunk Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, Oneida Nation, Forest County Potawatomi, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, St. Croix Chippewa, Sokaogon Chippewa (Mole Lake), and Stockbridge-Munsee,

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