MADISON — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Recycling Excellence Awards. The nomination period is open until Sept. 15.
The Recycling Excellence Award showcases and celebrates outstanding recycling efforts, innovation and performance for communities, tribes, nonprofits, schools and businesses throughout Wisconsin. Food waste recovery or diversion programs are also eligible.
“Organizations that put exceptional effort into reducing waste or diverting materials from our landfills deserve recognition,” said Jennifer Semrau, DNR waste reduction and diversion coordinator. “Please consider submitting a nomination if you know of an organization going above and beyond with its waste reduction efforts.”
Awards are offered in four categories: overall program, projects and initiatives, innovation and special events. Organizations can self-nominate or apply on behalf of another program. Supporting materials such as outreach materials, data/graphs and high-resolution photos should be included in the nomination.
Past winners have provided new collection and clean up services for their communities, implemented waste reduction practices within their organization and diverted impressive amounts of compostable and recyclable materials. Organizations managing food waste are eligible and encouraged to apply.
Winners of the award will be featured on the DNR’s website and social media accounts. The nomination form, information about the categories and profiles on past award winners can be found on the DNR’s Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Awards webpage.
Snapshot Wisconsin Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary And The Collection Of 100 Million Photos
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)’s Snapshot Wisconsin is celebrating two major milestones: the project’s 10-year anniversary and the collection of 100 million photos.
Snapshot Wisconsin is a community-based science program that utilizes a statewide network of volunteer-managed trail cameras to monitor Wisconsin wildlife. Anyone can help classify the species spotted in these photos by visiting the Snapshot Wisconsin webpage on Zooniverse, a global crowdsourcing platform. The data collected from these efforts helps the DNR monitor wildlife populations throughout the state and informs management decisions.
Snapshot Wisconsin was born from a DNR initiative to involve community members in wildlife monitoring throughout the state. Initially supported by a NASA community science grant received by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, Snapshot was to be overseen by the DNR and was launched in 2015. The DNR placed its first several hundred trail cameras across newly established elk reintroduction areas before expanding to county-wide pilots in Sawyer and Iowa counties the following year.
Ten years later, Snapshot now operates in every Wisconsin county, boasting over 2,000 active trail cameras, more than 20 scientific publications utilizing project data, 25,000 volunteers contributing on Zooniverse and now 100 million photos collected. Through these efforts, Snapshot has made significant contributions to wildlife management in the state.
Over the last 10 years the project has also expanded to offer multiple publicly-accessible resources:
● Snapshot Data Dashboard, an interactive tool which allows users to view trail camera data for 22 Wisconsin species.
● Snapshot Wisconsin Photo Library, a frequently-updated collection of standout photos.
● Snapshot in the Classroom, a resource which offers wildlife-focused K-12 lesson plans, flash cards and activities for parents and educators.
In honor of everyone who has made Snapshot and these tremendous milestones possible, the Snapshot Wisconsin team put together an interactive photo collection featuring one trail camera image from each county in Wisconsin. Viewers can scroll to explore our state, county by county, through the lens of the Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera project.
