‘I had to speak up’: Two Northwoods friends push Wisconsin DNR to protect lakeshore forests

John Schwarzmann, a retired Wisconsin state forester, leans on a tree trunk along the forested shore of Whitney Lake in Vilas County, Wis., on June 27, 2022. Schwarzmann and friend Ardis Berghoff accuse the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of violating its own water quality standards for timber sales along nine of 15 lakes that the friends surveyed in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest in 2021. The DNR denies having violated its standards. <br/>