A Northwoods Almanac for 3/17/17

A Northwoods Almanac for 3/17 – 30, 2017  by John Bates

March

            Definition: a fickle, capricious, conning, disloyal, mercurial, unfaithful, volatile, scamming, betraying, whimsical, double-crossing, two-timing, double-dealing, coquettish, arbitrary, deceiving yo-yo.

Seed Catalog Mania

It’s that time of year when winter drags you down like a waterlogged pair of coveralls, and seed catalogs become a source of nearly biblical inspiration. So, what to plant? Cathy Logan-Weber sent me a short list of native plants she is considering planting as part of a new pollinator garden at the community center in Presque Isle.

She writes, “For spring, I will plant nursery-purchased native bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) instead of crocus. I have blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) to plant in place of non-native forget-me-not. For summer bloom, I love the beautiful Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) and the lavender wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). One of the gardeners has started cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) by seed, and I will start anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) by seed. We will encourage nearby common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) for the heavenly fragrance. For fall, I would consider false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoids) and native goldenrods (Solidago speciosa). Native grasses give shelter for insects, so I’ll try big and little bluestem (Andropogon gerardii and Schizachyrium scoparium) for fall and winter interest.

            She also recommends reading The Midwestern Native Garden: An Illustrated Guide by Adelman and Schwartz for its emphasis on regionally native Midwestern plants as alternatives to popular non-native flowers. The book offers additional notes on wildlife attracted to the particular native plants, and the flowers are grouped by seasons.

            For the many reasons why we all should be planting native species rather than non-natives, please also consider reading Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas Tallamy.

Spring Migrations

            If you want to follow the progress of spring migration for species like ruby-throated hummingbirds and monarch butterflies, go to www.learner.org/jnorth/ for maps showing up-to-date movements for each species.

Sightings

            I traveled to Madison last weekend and saw many sandhill cranes in fields along Highway 51/39. Cranes come back early to the Northwoods, sometimes as early as late March, so keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.

            Waterfowl are returning to whatever open water can be found, and often the first duck to return is the common goldeneye. Bev Engstrom shared a beautiful close-up of one from 3/3.

common goldeneye photo by Bev Engstrom

Trumpeter swans continue to return to our area. Sharon Lintereur sent a fine photograph on 3/4 of three trumpeters on the Wisconsin River off Hwy. D near Lake Tomahawk.

trumpeter swans photo by Sharon Lintereur

            On 3/11, Linda Johnson reported seeing the FOY (first-of-the-year) belted kingfisher on a little creek on Lower Kaubashine Road in Hazelhurst.

Sandhill Crane Hunt?

Once again, a state sandhill crane hunt is being put to a vote. On Monday, April 10, the Wisconsin Conservation Congress will hold hearings in each county to discuss a multitude of DNR-related conservation issues, one of which is whether to open a hunting season on sandhill cranes in Wisconsin.

The issues/concerns that I see are the following:

First, twenty-five percent of the world’s wild and federally endangered whooping cranes now summer in Wisconsin. Many people are concerned that whooping cranes could be accidentally mistaken for sandhill cranes during a legal hunt in poor light or bad weather conditions. In these conditions, or conversely in very bright light, the silhouette of a whooping crane is nearly identical to that of a sandhill crane. Whooping cranes also frequently associate in the same flocks with sandhill cranes, while young whooping cranes, which have some brown plumage, can also be mistaken for sandhill cranes.

             Second, while a total of 15 states have hunting seasons for sandhill cranes, all of these states except for two harvest from the most abundant regional populations – the Mid-Continent population and the Rocky Mountain population. Both of these populations are made up of lesser sandhill cranes, not greater sandhill cranes, which are the only cranes found in Wisconsin. The total Eastern Population of the greater sandhill crane, including the greater sandhill cranes in Wisconsin, is estimated to be between 60,000 and 70,000 individuals. The Mid-Continent Population of least sandhills has a population estimate between 500,000 and 600,000 individuals.

            Third, it’s true that sandhill cranes cause agricultural damage, primarily to field corn and potatoes, and it’s a legitimate problem. Currently, shooting of sandhill cranes is granted to farmers with demonstrated crop damage via agricultural damage shooting permits. These permits are typically issued in the spring and early summer, when crop damage is most likely. Although some proponents of a sandhill crane hunt have suggested that a fall harvest might provide a partial solution to the crop damage issue, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the International Crane Foundation have determined that even a carefully regulated autumn hunt would not be an effective deterrent to cranes causing spring crop damage.

Further, researchers have been investigating non-lethal methods to reduce agricultural damage by sandhill cranes and have found one method that works – a chemical repellant known as Avipel® which contains a naturally produced biochemical found in some plants. Corn seeds treated with this compound are unpalatable to cranes. When cranes first encounter Avipel-treated seeds, they learn that all germinating seeds have been treated. Cranes then move on to other food items, such as soil insects, earthworms, and waste grain, but remain in the corn field.

            So, as with most management issues, there’s a cost/benefit analysis that needs to be done. Wisconsin’s current population of 14,000 sandhill cranes has grown from an estimated 25 in the 1930s because of protections from hunting. And for me, while a closely monitored, low quota hunt could potentially be sustainable, the gain for the few hunters who would get permits doesn’t begin to equal the risks to the endangered whooping crane population. Nor, I would argue, is there any sport in shooting a crane standing in a field, or flying low and slow overhead , neck outstretched in all of its beauty. 

Early Spring for Us?

For the entire continental United States, February 2017 was the second warmest on record since climate tracking started in 1895, and mean temperatures were especially high east of the Rockies: as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Overall, the country recorded its 6th-warmest winter. Sixteen states experienced their warmest February ever recorded. The average U.S. temperature last month climbed 7.3 degrees above average (NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information). Cities and towns across the nation tallied 11,743 record highs compared to 418 record lows in February

More regionally, the ice went off Lake Mendota in Madison on March 7. This date is tied with the second earliest ice-off in recorded history which spans from 1855. It is nearly a month earlier than the median ice-off date of April 4th.

The first day of spring arrives March 20. But spring tree leaves arrived in mid-January in some parts of the South, and spring has since spread northward like a wave. The attached maps, one of January and one of February, plot the date of “first leaf,” a temperature-based calculation of when vegetation that has been dormant starts to show signs of life. This year, with the exception of a few small areas, spring has arrived much earlier than the 30-year average. The light green on the maps represents the 30-year average, and the dark green shows this year.

Whether spring will arrive early in our area is a question we’ll have to wait a month or

more to answer.

Celestial Events

            The official spring (vernal) equinox occurs on 3/20, but in the Lakeland area, we’ll achieve equal lengths of day and night today, 3/17. This will be the first day since 9/24 when the day was longer than the night.

Eliminate EPA?

            I avoid politics in this column, but clean air and clean water really aren’t political – they’re a fundamental right for all life. I was born in Gary, Indiana, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (I fell in love with a Wisconsin girl when I was 20 – a blessing!). My father worked for U.S. Steel, and we all knew, knew in every sensory way possible, what polluted rivers looked and smelled like, and what polluted air smelled and tasted like, even felt like when you could wipe black particulate matter off your windows. My father knew where to park his car near one of the steel mills based on which way the wind was blowing that day – park it in the wrong lot, and the paint on your car would be pitted by the end of the day. Drive into a tunnel in Pittsburgh and get caught in a traffic jam, and honest to God, you thought you might die from the fumes. Head up to Lake Erie to take a swim, or swim in the Allegheny River? You’d be literally out of your mind.

My father knew all of this as a child, too. He was raised in Cleveland not far from the Cuyahoga River, famed for catching on fire. A Federal Water Pollution Control Administration official told Time magazine in the 1960s, “The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms that usually thrive on wastes.”

So, when folks say let’s scuttle the EPA, I am literally stunned. I don’t have any “good old days” fantasy about an unregulated natural world. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act to control hazardous chemicals, the “Superfund” Act enacted after the events at Love Canal, on and on. These were moments of celebration, of wisdom, of moral elevation and justice.

Most folks don’t know what the EPA actually does, so here’s a very brief summary: Permit mines, industries, pipelines, chemical plants via environmental impact statements; monitor facilities that pose environmental risks like all of the above; clean-up the sites where corporations cut and run – as of 2014, there were 1322 Superfund sites with 53 additional proposed sites (55 Superfund sites are currently being cleaned up in Wisconsin); evaluate the safety of chemicals in food, cleaning compounds, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, paints, et al – each year, 2,000 new chemicals come on the market; regulate, limit, and monitor air pollution from engines, coal-fired generating plants, chemical plants, et al; set minimum water quality standards and enforce them from point and non-point sources including industries, sewage treatment plants, CAFOs, mines, et al; develop standards for nuclear waste disposal and protect human health from exposure to harmful radiation at health facilities, military operations, industrial sites, et al.

And, importantly, it’s Congress that dictates EPA’s responsibility in all of these federal acts. They wrote them – not the EPA. If any of these acts are too burdensome in some egregious manner, Congress should amend them appropriately after full public review. But to throw this baby out with the bath water? We’d be turning back the clock to the 1950s, and there’s a whole lot of us who remember in our very blood what that was like.

Quote for the Week

            [Because spring is coming]: The earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com