Given the number of human pharmaceuticals and hormones that make their way into wastewater, some people are concerned about how well treatment plants that turn sewage into reusable water remove these chemicals. New research shows that wastewater treatment plants that employ a combination of purifying techniques followed by reverse osmosis do a good job of removing chemicals that may elicit health effects.

Road density in northern Wisconsin has doubled during the last 60 years, but forest managers have a time window to fight the non-native plants that often come with construction and overwhelm native plant life.

While a rapidly changing climate may alter the composition of northern Wisconsin’s forests, disturbances such as logging also will play a critical role in how these sylvan ecosystems change over time.

Bugs have gotten a bad rap, says Jenny Jandt, coordinator of the UW-Madison Insect Ambassadors. That’s why her cortege of student ambassadors is willing to take their show on the road to spread good will for animals dear to their hearts: insects.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist is one of the few who eagerly await the year’s first yellow jackets. He studies how communities of wasps behave, interact and communicate.

The 19th North American Prairie is returning to Madison, Wis. Aug. 8 to Aug. 12 with the theme

To help federal agencies and local authorities manage fire risk, a team of College and USDA Forest Service researchers has analyzed census and vegetation data to gain a new understanding of wildland/urban interfaces across the country, and a map that reflects congressional policymakers’ definitions of at-risk communities

Spring is

Forestry cooperatives are experiencing a revival in the United States, and Wisconsin is leading the way. As of April 2002, the nation had nine fully established forestry co-ops, six of them in the state of Wisconsin. Can Wisconsin’s new forestry cooperatives learn from those that came before them?

What is the solution to urban sprawl? Some say, tongue in cheek, it’s moving to the city. But others, like Gary Green, a rural sociology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are evaluating the effectiveness of exclusive agricultural zoning laws and smart growth initiatives, balancing the aesthetic of open space with the practicality of denser, more orderly development.