BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Some will cheer. Others will complain. But no matter your opinion of snow, there’s no denying its positive impact on Wisconsin.
“Here in Brown County, $177 million is spent in the fourth quarter,” said Brenda Krainik of the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Krainik tells FOX 11 a snowless winter can leave man businesses struggling.
“We are known across the country as one of those four-season destinations, so for us to not have snow would be a terrible thing.”
Jerry Van Elzen of Apple Valley Orchard and Landscaping switches gears in the winter. With the snow-covered apples announcing the end of the growing season, there’s an entirely separate side of how he makes a living that now plows forward.
“Bring it on. We love snow. We need snow in the winter — it’s what we’re out there for,” he said. “It’s huge. It is big business for us.”
Van Elzen tells FOX 11 he spends his winter offering snow removal, with some big-time customers.
“We’ve been with Lambeau Field for 19 years, PMI: Resch Center, Shopko Hall.”
His winter work often accounts for the majority of his annual income.
“Fifty to sixty percent — every event we have to go out, whether it’s salting, shoveling. We rely on this for the wintertime.”
And it’s not just people and their pocketbooks that the snowfall is helping. Nature needs it, too.
Jason Petrella, a naturalist with Brown County Park and Rec, tells FOX 11 many little creatures, native to Wisconsin, thrive in our winter wonderland. Such as the weasel.
“They change their fur color to match the snow, so they’ll go fo from a brown this summer to a white fur in the winter. Same thing with the snowshoe hare. So if there’s no snow in the winter, these guys are going to still be white and they’re going to stick out like a sore thumb — and be easy pickings for a predator.”
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of activity going on just below that snow’s surface.
“Animals like mice and voles, they thrive under the snow,” Petrella said. “Six inches of snow and beneath all that snow it can actually stay about 32 degrees — so, pretty warm, even on the coldest days. These animals live right in the grass layer, beneath the grass and snow, and it makes a little insulated roof. It’s safer from predators, it’s warmer, they can get to all the food: seeds, grass and stuff like that.”
The Brown County Parks Department also says that the busiest time of the entire year on their trail system is during the winter when there is a good snowpack on the ground.
