A Northwoods Almanac
for 9/1-14, 2017 by John Bates
Wood Turtle Sighting!
It’s been a busy two weeks! On 8/16, I led a paddle down the Bear River to the Turtle-Flambeau
Flowage. We had the river all to ourselves, and along the way we were
exceptionally lucky to see a wood turtle basking on a log. Wood turtles are
currently listed as a threatened species in Wisconsin, and bestowed an “S3”
ranking, which means they are “vulnerable
due to a fairly restricted range, relatively few populations or occurrences,
recent and widespread declines, threats, or other factors.” Federally they
are listed as a species of concern and designated
“G3,” which is defined similarly to Wisconsin’s S3.
This was only the second wood turtle
I’ve ever seen, and I was thrilled. Fortunately, wood turtles are easily
identified, or we may have just paddled by thinking it was a common painted
turtle. The carapace (top shell) has
a central keel or ridge running down its middle, and it looks like it’s been
imprinted with sea shells. These bony plates, called “scutes,” are actually concentric
growth rings which give the shell a sculpted appearance. In younger turtles,
the rings are produced roughly once a year up to age 15 or 20, but after that,
the rings are of little use in estimating age.
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| wood turtle photo by John Bates |
Wood turtle hatchlings are
now, or will soon be, emerging from their nests and navigating to water. However, winter poses a major problem for all our
native turtles, and wood turtles are no exception. They’ll spend November
through March in hibernation alone or in a group buried in the mud of a small,
flowing river, and won’t emerge until ice-off in April.
Old-growth Hikes
From 8/18-21, I led hikes for the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin (http://www.wisconservation.org) into four old-growth stands in Oconto, Forest, Vilas,
and Iron counties. We were accompanied by archaeologists Mark Bruhy and Katie
Eagan-Bruhy on two of the hikes, and at the Cathedral Pines State Natural Area.
We were also briefly joined by Jeff Seefeldt, District Forest Ranger for the
Nicolet National Forest who was able to answer the question of how old the
pines were – 368 years!
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| 48" diameter white pine at Cathedral Pines |
Nearby, Mark and Katie showed us
the Archibald Lake Mounds and Village site which was first located by archaeologists
in the late 1980s. The location includes remnant garden beds, storage pits and
mounds (burial structures), and an apparent community plan. The site’s
significance was formally recognized in 2011 through placement onto the
National Register of Historic Places.
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| Archibald Lake mound photo by John Bates |
At the 1,548-acre Franklin and
Butternut Lakes State Natural Area, Mark and Katie told us of evidence they had
uncovered of Native people living in the area for at least 9,000 years. The
Butternut-Franklin Lakes Archaeological District contains 20 archaeological
sites including the Butternut Lake village site which was seasonally occupied
between around A.D. 700 and 1600. Another site, the Hemlock Cathedral site, was
situated along a rocky terrace on Butternut Lake’s north shore. This site was used
seasonally as a fishing station from A.D. 500 to 1300. Archaeological
excavation recovered evidence of fish processing with tools such as copper
harpoons and knives, and stone net sinkers.
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| old-growth white pine on Butternut Lake |
A third site, the Butternut Lake
Inlet site, was first occupied around 1500 B.C.
Excavations revealed the foundation of the oldest dwelling thus far
recorded in northern Wisconsin, along with evidence of hunting, fishing, gathering,
and domestication of dogs.
The Eclipse – Annie Dillard’s View
During the solar eclipse, I paddled with a group on Frog Lake
within the Frog Lake and Pines State Natural Area. While our area only
experienced a 75% eclipse, the light still dimmed significantly, the mosquitoes
clearly thought it was dusk and time to begin biting, and it became
dramatically quiet. We didn’t hear an increase in bird song given that we’re no
longer in the breeding season, but if it had been May or June, the birds would
have begun their early evening chorus.
Several local people traveled south
to be in the path of the full eclipse and sent me dramatic photographs. For a
marvelous description of witnessing a full solar eclipse, I recommend Annie
Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse”:
Identifying Trees and
Shrubs
Last weekend, Mary and I taught a
3-day class for Nicolet College on identifying trees and shrubs. Every student
pressed 57 species of trees and shrubs that we collected, and each will
hopefully make a permanent plant collection that they can refer to for years to
come.
We certainly noticed numerous red
and silver maples that had already turned color. Given how much rain we had
this spring and early summer, I’ll be curious to see if autumn colors come
earlier or later, and are duller or brighter. It’s hard to believe it’s already
September, but autumn is here.
The Deerskin River
Last week, I joined a paddle
sponsored by the Northwoods Land Trust on the Deerskin River, just northeast of
Eagle River. This little river is a gem! Cold enough to support brook and brown
trout, and wild enough along most of its banks to make you think you were far
from anyone or anything, it’s absolutely worth exploring.
I was most
intrigued by the recovering wetlands that are still taking shape after the
removal of the Deerskin dam in 2000. Acres and acres of young cattails are
pioneering much of the area, but there’s a good diversity of other wetland
plants as well.
The
Deerskin River originates at Long Lake and ultimately flows into Scattering
Rice Lake on the Eagle River Chain of Lakes. The river supports 34 species of
fish, and has an overlap fishery, meaning that there are warm water, cool water,
and cold water fish population all using the same stream. On the upper cold end
of the stream are native brook trout and brown trout while the lower end is
dominated later in the year by warm water and cool water species coming out of
the Eagle Chain including muskies, walleyes, northerns, and bass.
There
are some beautiful old-growth white cedars along the river, too, and I’d love
someone to core a few so we could know how old they are. Records from parcels
owned by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands along the river show no
history of cutting.
Mussels on the
Manitowish
Mary Jenks sent me the list of mussels her North
Lakeland Discovery Center class found on July 14 while canoeing the Manitowish
River with Jesse Weinzinger, Conservation Biologist with the WDNR Wisconsin
Mussel Monitoring Project. I’m impressed by the diversity! Here’s the list:
plain
pocketbook
fatmucket
mucket
elktoe
wabash
pigtoe
fluted
shell
spike
black
sandshell
three
ridge
fingernail
heelsplitter
cylindical
papershell
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| plain pocketbook mussel |
I love the creative names given to mussels, but I
particularly love their astonishingly creative process of reproduction. Once a
female mussel’s eggs are fertilized, she must find a way to transfer the larvae
(called “glochidia”) to a fish. Here the microscopic mussels will live
parasitically in the fish’s gills, fins or body for a few days to a month
before dropping off as juveniles and beginning their independent lives.
Some species of mussels have an
extension of their mantle tissue that has evolved to look strikingly similar to
a small fish. The mussel displays the fish like a lure to attract a predator
fish that will act as a host for the mussel’s larvae. When the fish bites the
lure, the fertilized eggs burst out and attach themselves to the startled fish.
It may take two to nine years before juveniles mature and can reproduce as an
adult, and then they may live 60 to 70 years if conditions are right.
You owe it to yourself to watch a
video of this process, because it’s amazing – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0YTBj0WHkU
Celestial Events
For planet
viewing in September, look after dusk for Saturn low in the southwest. Before
dawn, look for Venus brilliant and low in the east, and Jupiter very low in the
western twilight. Jupiter is lost from our sight by mid-month, while Mars comes
into view by mid-month in the east.
Full moon
occurs on 9/6. Called the “Harvest Moon,” it also goes by the “Acorn Moon” and
the “Leaves Changing Moon.” 9/6 also marks the last day this fall that we will
have 13 or more hours of daylight – we’ll have to wait until April 4 to receive
this much sunlight again.
Mushroom of the Week
– Crown-tipped Coral
Numerous species of corals
inhabit our northern woodlands, but most are found growing on the ground. The
crown-tipped corral grows instead on decaying hardwood stumps and logs. It’s
relatively easy to identify particularly with a hand lens – look for the tips
of the coral branches to form rings with branchlets that look like tiny crowns.
 |
| crown-tipped coral |
Quote for the Week
“Beauty
and grace will occur whether or not we are there to see them. The least we can
do is to try and be there.” Annie Dillard
Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call
715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net,
snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com
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