A Northwoods Almanac for 8/18/17

A Northwoods Almanac for August 18, 31, 2017  by John Bates

Porkies

            In a December, 1942 essay, Aldo Leopold advocated for the conservation of the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which was slated to be cut. He wrote, “Sometime in 1943 or 1944 an axe will bite into the snowy sapwood of a giant maple. On the other side of the same tree a crosscut saw will talk softly, spewing sweet sawdust into the snow with each repetitious syllable. Then the giant will lean, groan, and crash to earth, the last merchantable tree of the last merchantable forty of the last virgin hardwood forest of any size in the Lake States. With this tree will fall the end of an epoch . . .

“There will be an end of cathedral aisles to echo the hermit thrush, or to awe the intruder. There will be an end of hardwood wilderness large enough for a few day’s skiing or hiking without crossing a road. The forest primeval, in this region, will henceforward be a figure of speech.

“There will be an end of the pious hope that America has learned from her mistakes in private forest exploitation. Each error, it appears, must continue to its bitter end; conservation must wait until there is little or nothing to conserve.”

Leopold’s efforts, along with many others, led to the establishment of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in 1945. Now 60,000 acres in size, with 35,000 acres of old-growth forest, the “Porkies” represent the largest block of old-growth hardwood-hemlock forest left in North America.

Because of the vision and conservation ethic of people over 70 years ago, Mary and I were able last weekend to lead a group from the North Lakeland Discovery Center on a 9.5-mile hike through continuous old-growth. We followed the Little Carp River for 7 miles to its mouth at Lake Superior, then the Pinkerton Trail 2.5 miles back to South Boundary Road where we had parked.

Leopold wrote, “When we abolish the last sample of the Great Uncut, we are, in a sense, burning books. I am convinced that most Americans of the new generation have no idea what a decent forest looks like. The only way is to show them.”

Show them we did, though our “showing” was little more than simply walking along with people who were willing to see. We did discuss the forest ecology of old-growth, keeping the knowledge derived from the “books” Leopold spoke of alive. But the beauty is what we came for, and we couldn’t have asked for more.
(I'm unable to find an online version of Leopold's "The Last Stand," but I have it photocopied. Please send me an email - manitowish@centurytel.net - and I'll email the pdf.)

photo by Licia Johnson

Bald Mountain – UPLC

            The day after our hike in the Porkies, Mary and I hiked to the top of Bald Mountain in the U.P. with members of the Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy (UPLC), and with landowners Mark and Chris Troudt. The rock bald on top of Bald Mountain stands at nearly 1300 feet, about 700 feet above Lake Superior which is only two miles to the north. Thus, it affords panoramic views in all directions of the rest of the Huron Mountains and the lands lower in elevation. We had some heart-pumping rocky terrain to climb, and a nearly impossible road to drive in on, but it was worth the effort – spectacular!

            The Troudt’s are working to place a conservation easement on their property with the UPLC, which now protects nearly 6,000 acres in the Upper Peninsula, with 10 dedicated preserves, 24 experimental working forest reserves, and 19 conservation easements with private land owners and partnering organizations.

            In northern Wisconsin, the Northwoods Land Trust in Eagle River has conserved over 11,000 acres of land, 26 miles of lakefront, and 33 miles of riverfront. A conservation easement is a voluntary land protection agreement made with a land trust to provide long-term stewardship of the protected land so the resource values are preserved in accordance with the landowner’s wishes.

I know of no better vehicle by which landowners can see their vision for their land legally maintained for future generations while still keeping it in private ownership. Property rights are a hot topic in the Northwoods, and I can envision no better right to protect than what you’ve worked so hard to create, maintain, and preserve.

UPLC group on Bald Mountain

Migration Is On!

            If you’re wondering why the woods are so quiet these days, songbird migration has already begun. Many of our insect-eating, neotropical migrants are already winging their way to their wintering grounds in Central and South America. We often speak of these birds as “our” birds. In reality, they are only here from mid-May to mid-August, and thus spend 9 months of the year, the majority of their life, far to our south. I suspect the folks in Central and South America would argue that these birds are really “their” birds. Neotropical migrants represent the majority of Northwoods nesting songbirds, so it’s truly a mass exodus.

            Of the few birds still singing, many are juvenile birds striving mightily to learn their songs before their departure south. Thus, incomplete songs are commonplace now, much like young children learning their language – they get most of it right, but there’s a lot of errors along the way.

Look for Nighthawks!

Common nighthawks should be winging southward by now, too, though their migration often lasts into early September. Their numbers can be huge – the largest flight ever recorded in the Upper Midwest was 43,690 nighthawks tallied on August 26, 1990, in Duluth, Minnesota! However, an occasional flock of 10 to 20 is far more common in our area.

Nighthawks aren’t hawks, nor are they most active at night, so the name leaves a lot to be desired. They do require a constant supply of flying insects, so to stay at least one step ahead of the first killing frost, they leave before what most of us consider the end of summer.

Look for nighthawks before dusk, flying over open fields, near airports, and along highways. They fly erratically as they try to capture insects on the wing, twisting and turning in a bat-like flight pattern. Their pointed, angular wings, each with a broad white line, help to quickly identify them.

photo by Bee Engstrom

Mushroom of the Week

            Mushroom maniacs are a gleeful bunch this time of year with mushrooms springing up everywhere in remarkable abundance. We’re still learning our mushroom species, which I suspect will be a life-long endeavor, but one of our favorites is the diminutive eyelash cup. Bright red or orange, these tiny mushrooms are ringed by stiff black hairs. Cora Mollen and Larry Weber write in their excellent book Fascinating Fungi of the North Woods, “Any fashion model would be lucky to have eyelashes as fine as this fungus.” Look for them alongside mosses on decaying wood. And don’t forget to take along a hand lens to see the eyelashes.

eyelash cup photo by Mary Burns

Sightings

            Sarah Krembs in Manitowish Waters sent me two fine photos of white-lined sphinx moth caterpillars. The caterpillars come in a wild array of colors from yellow and black to lime green. The adults are what many people call “hummingbird moths” because they hover over flowers probing for nectar with a retractable proboscis that they roll out like a party favor. Look for them now in your garden flowers along with other species of sphinx moths. 

white-lined sphinx moth caterpillar photo by Sarah Krembs

            Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is also in flower now. This pure white flower is in the blueberry family and contains no chlorophyll, so it can’t photosynthesize. Instead, it parasitizes trees via their mycorrhizal fungi. It does this by extracting nutrients from the fungi which have colonized the tree’s fine roots. The fungi trade water and mineral nutrients with the tree for the tree’s photosynthetic carbohydrates and sugars. The Indian pipes then tap into the mycorrhizal fungi and steal some of those carbs and sugars, making for a nice living if you can get it.

Indian pipe photo by John Bates

Invasive Watch: Glossy Buckthorn

            Mary and I recently explored a trail along McNaughton Lake and found large patches of glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus/Rhamnus frangula), an invasive species that is a relative to common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). We were unfamiliar with it, having only seen common buckthorn in our area. The glossy smooth leaves stand out, as does the proliferation of dark purple fruits the size of blueberries. And whereas common buckthorn often has sharp thorns at the end of its twigs, glossy buckthorn is thornless.

In looking at a 2013 DNR range map, glossy buckthorn had not been reported in Vilas or Forest counties, but it is in Oneida County. If you don’t know this plant, take a moment to familiarize yourself, and then if you see it, tear it out as soon as possible.

Late Nesting Loons

            In his latest blog posting (https://loonproject.org/2017/08/13/are-late-chicks-doomed/), Walter Piper notes that on July 28 a pair of loons hatched two chicks on North Nokomis, a very late date for loon chicks! The presumption has always been that later hatching chicks would have less time to mature physically and behaviorally, and thus be less likely to return the following year.

            Dr. Piper has been capturing and banding loon chicks since 1991, and so he looked at his data set to determine if this presumption was true. And surprisingly, he found that chicks hatched in early to mid-June, the “normal” time, were no more likely to make it back than young hatched a month later (between July 6 to 19). He concludes, “In short, hatching date does not appear to strongly influence survival to adulthood.”

            It’s unclear how well the very late hatchers like the North Nookomis pair will do, because Dr. Piper has too few cases from which to draw a conclusion. But they will clearly have their work cut out for them.

Celestial Events

            While the solar eclipse is rightfully getting all the press, you might also look at dusk on 8/24 and 8/25 for Jupiter near the waxing crescent moon. And look at dusk on 8/29 and 8/30 for Saturn near the first quarter moon.

Quote for the Week

            “The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day.” Diane Ackerman