IT'S STILL WINTER THROUGHOUT WISCONSIN

WISCONSIN RIVER VALLEY NORTH OF WAUSAU

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  28 degrees F at the Ferry Dock, 26 on the back porch. The day dawned dark and shapeless, but has become partly cloudy and promises to be a nice day.  Wind NW with moderate gusts.  The humidity is 74% and the barometer is trending downward, and now stands at 29.89".  We are heading into a warm spell over at least the next week.
   The trip to Madison was cold, quick and productive.
   The subject of the emergency Urban Forestry Council meeting was to respond to an unexpected and unexplained change in the State of Wisconsin proposed biennial budget that would  eliminate all grants to municipal governments except to replace and remove trees killed or damaged by insects, diseases or storms.  After much discussion it was decided that a subcommittee be charged with responding via a letter to the Department of Natural Resources Secretary making a case for more flexibility in the grant budget, and particularly for continuing grants for municipal tree inventories and planning purposes.
   We looked for hints of spring in our trip from the north to the south of the state on US 51/I39, and can report that we are still locked in winter statewide.  It was very cold and wintry in Madison, and  the Wisconsin River, which criss-crosses the north/south route a number of times, is still frozen except for a stretch below Wausau that has some open water, probably because of paper mills in the area.  Otherwise. rivers and lakes are frozen solid.
   We did notice some lowland areas along the Wisconsin River near Wausau that were beginning to have a faint reddish hue because red maple buds are beginning to swell; and some places where gray dogwood branches are coloring up very faintly.  These changes are very subtle and not able to be captured on camera.
   We saw no deer, which I thought unusual, but did have a large bobcat cross the road about two hundred feet in front of the truck, just north of Mercer, yesterday.
   All things considered, it's still winter throughout Wisconsin.