NWA 1/10/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 1/10 – 1/23/14  

albino buck photo by Jeff Richter

Bring on the Cold!

It’s -40°F this morning (1/6) in Manitowish. This is the actual temperature and not the wind chill. Call me crazy, as I’m sure you will, but I’m quite happy to see this extreme low temperature. Not happy from a personal comfort standpoint, mind you, but from a “this is the way it’s supposed to be in Northern Wisconsin” standpoint. In Manitowish, we haven’t hit -30°, much less -40°, since the winter of 1996-97. And while all of us have cheered thanks to our personal decrease in suffering, extreme cold is – I’m compelled to say it – what makes the North the North. It’s desirable, and yes, NECESSARY. That is, if we don’t want our landscape and associated wildlife to look like what those sissies in southern Wisconsin, or Iowa, or God forbid, Illinois have (just poking a little fun here – no nasty letters, please).

Extreme cold has its benefits. Here’s a quote to think about while you’re shivering: “Climate restricts the range of infectious diseases, while weather affects the timing and intensity of outbreaks . . . Warmer and sometimes wetter weather may already be extending the range of infectious diseases beyond regions where they are endemic and inhabitants have some immunity . . . As temperatures increase, these carriers are likely to spread into new areas and may have potentially devastating effects on wildlife populations that have not been previously exposed.”

Here’s another: “It seems possible to make several generalizations for farmers in the northeastern US: a) increased winter temperatures will likely mean higher populations of pathogens survive to initially infect plants; b) increased temperatures will likely result in northward expansion of the range of some diseases because of earlier appearance and more generations of pathogens per season.”

All of this is to say the obvious – extreme cold restricts the population of many species, from various bacteria to large mammals, from minute mosses to redwoods, from tiny insects to condors.

Gardeners know this via the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones. Each zone is thus a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing. For example, a plant that is described as "hardy to zone 4" means that the plant can withstand a minimum temperature of −30°F. A more resilient plant that is "hardy to zone 3" can tolerate a minimum temperature of −40°F. Our area of the Northwoods has always been zone 3, at least until the last 15 years when our winter temperatures failed to reach -30°F, thus changing our status to zone 4.

It’s important to note, however, that temperature never tells the whole story. The USDA hardiness zones have a number of drawbacks. The zones do not incorporate summer heat levels into the zone determination; thus sites which may have the winter minimums, but markedly different summer temperatures, will be accorded the same hardiness zone. A great example of this phenomenon is seen when comparing the Shetland Islands and southern Alabama, which are both on the boundary of zones 8 and 9 and share the same winter minimal temperatures. In the summer, however, Alabama is about 30°F hotter than the maritime climate of Shetland, and there are very few similar plants that can be grown at both locations. Users need to combine the hardiness zone with the heat zone to gain greater understanding of what can be grown in a particular location.

Another issue is that the hardiness zones do not take into account the reliability of the snow cover. Snow acts as an insulator against extreme cold, protecting the root system of hibernating plants. If the snow cover is reliable, the actual temperature to which the roots are exposed will not be as low as the hardiness zone number would indicate. An ecology professor of mine used to say that white pines don’t do well in southern Wisconsin because it’s too cold compared to northern Wisconsin, by which he meant that there wasn’t enough snow cover in the southern areas to protect the root systems compared to up north.

Lastly, it’s said that in the real world, we garden in microclimates, not hardiness zones. A microclimate is the climate of a small area that is different from the area around it. It may be warmer or colder, wetter or drier, or more or less prone to frosts. Microclimates may be quite small - a protected yard next to a building, for example, that is warmer than an exposed field nearby. Or a microclimate may be extensive - a band extending several miles inland from a large body of water that moderates temperatures. Think Lake Superior. The classic microclimate for our area is our bogs, where nighttime temperatures often are 10 degrees colder than adjacent upland areas.

So, while I know virtually no one will agree with me, hip-hip-hooray for -40°! It’s just the medicine the Northwoods needs to regain its ecological identity.

WinMan Trails

Mary, Callie, and I have been skiing and snowshoeing on the new WinMan Trails which are located four miles north of Manitowish Waters. The trails span over 1300 acres of private and public recreation lands within the Northern Highland State Forest, offering opportunities for summer hiking, mountain biking, and trail running, and winter skate and classic skiing, and snowshoeing. The project was made possible through funding from The Gering Foundation, as well as in-kind volunteer time and donations from area businesses and individuals. Credit for the development and maintenance of the WinMan Trails goes in large part to North Lakeland Discovery Center staff.                                                            The main trailhead and parking lot are across from the intersection of Highways W and J. Skate and classic skiing includes 6 miles for skate skiing and 7.4 miles for classic. Groomed and ungroomed snowshoeing include 5 miles of double-wide, groomed trails and 6.5 miles of ungroomed, traditional snowshoe trails.

What To Do If You Go Through The Ice

Please watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysnKtuUTt8k

Where Are the Birds?

I commented in my last column about how few birds seem to be in the woods this winter. Here’s another example. Ryan Brady and Tim Oksiuta, two expert birders, ran the Clam Lake Christmas Bird Count on 12/27/13, and this is what they found: “If you want a good example of just how poor the winter birding scene is in the north woods right now, then this it. We spent 8 hours in the field and tallied 39 birds - not species, individual birds. On 3 snowshoeing hikes totaling nearly 4 hours we tallied ZERO birds of any kind. Overall we tallied 11 species on the day, the highlight being a pair of Gray Jays.”

Earth at Perihelion

On Jan. 4, another in a string of very cold January days, the earth reached its closest orbital point in its annual trip around the sun. Since the orbital shape is elliptical, not circular, we were actually about 3 million miles closer to the sun on this date than we are in July. That makes very obvious the fact that our seasonal changes are due to the inclination of the earth's axis, not our distance from the sun.

Full Moon

On January 15, the full moon occurs. Called “The Wolf Moon” by some Native American tribes who named this moon for how often they heard wolf howls in the frigid nights of January, the Ojibwe called it “The Great Spirit Moon,” and the Lakota Sioux named it “The Moon of Strong Cold.”

Celestial Events

Tonight, 1/10, look left of the Moon at nightfall for the Pleiades.  As the night progresses, the Pleiades can be seen straight above the Moon.

Jupiter is very bright on NE horizon at sunset and rises as the night progresses, dominating the evening sky throughout January. Jupiter is easy to spot — it shines at magnitude –2.7. This means it appears more than three times as bright as the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, which shines some 40° south of Jupiter. Jupiter’s four largest moons, discovered by Galileo in 1610, are also easy to see even through small telescopes – we can see them with our bird spotting scope as 20x magnification.

Sightings – A Snowy Owl and Otters Eating a  Musky

Jim Burger sent me six pictures he took on 12/18 of otters eating a large musky on the channel between Stone and Spider Lakes on the Manitowish chain of lakes. He noted, “The musky was alive when he [the otter] started and there is one picture when he did share with a second otter and in total I think there were five. You can also see the blood on the ice as they pulled the fish on the ice. This went on for 2 to 3 hours before he took it back into the water and I did not see the fish again.”

photo by Jim Burger

I asked Jim if he thought the otter had actually caught the musky, something I would think is extremely unlikely, or whether it was injured. He replied, “I had the same thought about an otter catching a musky, but it did not appear to be injured. It was also alive since I did see it flopping on the ice in the beginning. I also have about 20 min of video and again it did not appeared to be injured. So is it possible that as the otter goes under water for well over 2 min at times he could get close enough?  Guess we won't know for sure but it was an interesting few hours.”

            On 12/27, Luke and Jessica Kuckkahn and their daughter Brooke of Lake Tomahawk were treated to a visit from a snowy owl. The email noted, “The bird sat at close range in a large tree just outside their home and stayed for the better part of a half hour. It allowed them to approach quite closely and only left when they tried to get a better picture at short range.”

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.