A Northwoods Almanac for 12/22/23 – 1/4/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 12/22/23

 

Big Pines

            Last week, daughter Callie and I bushwhacked to a site southern Iron County that supports some old white pines. The largest one we found had a diameter of 46.5 inches, which is in the top range for white pines on our current Wisconsin landscape. A smaller white pine, “only” 41.5 inches, had a very large fire scar. None of the other trees nearby, however, showed any signs of fire.

46.5" dbh white pine

            Three observations: One, both trees had stubs of lower branches, which indicates they were open-grown trees. Therefore, they did not grow in a competing stand of similar-aged pines, because if they had, they wouldn’t have lower branches near to the ground. Pines competing for light in a dense stand of trees seldom invest energy in growing lower branches – they have to put most of their energy into reaching the canopy before other trees can get there. So, they grow straight, tall, and with very few, if any, lower limbs.

            Two: Both pines became double-stemmed about 15 to 20 feet up. I call these “goalpost” trees, but I suppose you could call them “pitchfork” trees or “wishbone” trees, too. What has happened to these pines is that the leader stem was broken off, and two of the lateral branches then bent upward over time to take over the role of the leader stem. Often the breakage of the leader stem is due to a porcupine nipping it for food, or because of white pine weevil larvae chewing and burrowing completely around the stem causing the leader stem to die. My bet would be on a porcupine because the weevils usually attack younger trees, and these two trees were already nearly 20 feet tall.

            Three: The large fire scar – about five feet from the base of the tree to the top of the scar – says that a fire came through here at some point likely killing most of the other trees since there are no others nearby with fire scars. But this pine survived. 

41.5" dbh white pine with fire scar

            I’d be fascinated to core both of the trees to determine their ages. My bet is that they’re not all that old – perhaps 130 to 150 years. White pines grow fast when, without competition, they’re given all the nearby nutrients and sunshine. I remember Mary and I stopping a decade ago at a home near Bayfield that had a massive, open-grown white pine in its yard (see the photo). We measured its diameter at nearly 50 inches, but when we asked the property owners about the tree, they showed us a picture of when it was planted in the mid-1890s. So, the tree was only around 115 years old at that time.

open-grown white pine in Bayfield County

            On the other hand, given how large the fire scar is, the tree could be 200 years old, or much older yet. White pines can live up to 400 years, so maybe I should take back my bet. 

            Age and size don’t always correlate in trees – so much depends on the conditions and the context.

            No matter the age of the trees, we were delighted to find such large “grandmothers,” and can only hope they’ll continue to stand up to the ravages of high winds and potential fires.

 

Ice-up: Foster Lake Ice Dates

            Ice-up on our lakes was a bit late this year. The date for every lake varies significantly based on water depth, surface area, amount of fetch (distance the wind can carry across the lake), the direction of the fetch, and the surrounding landscape. On 37-acre Foster Lake in Hazelhurst where Woody Hagge has been keeping records for 48 years, the lake iced over on 11/30, three days later than the average date for the lake which is 11/27. Earliest ice-up on Foster over all those years was 11/7/1991; the latest ice-up was 12/28/2015.

            If you’re already counting the days until ice-out (God bless you, but you’re going to soon need a vacation in the south), here are Woody’s stats: Earliest ice-out in the spring was 3/20/2012; latest ice-out was 5/7/1996. Average date is 4/17.

            So, taking the average ice-up and ice-out dates, using Foster as an “average” lake, we can look forward to around 141 days of ice-cover, or about 39% of the year.

 

Wisdom Returns!

Wisdom, a wild female Laysan albatross and the world’s oldest known wild bird, returned on December 4 to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific Ocean. This latest sighting means her estimated age is now at least 72 years old. 

Her long-time mate, Akeakamai, has yet to be seen and was absent the last two nesting seasons. 

Jonathan Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at the national wildlife refuge, said he doesn’t expect Wisdom to nest this year, but he did witness the seabird participating in mating dances.

Biologists first identified and banded Wisdom in 1956 after she laid an egg. The large seabirds aren’t known to breed until at least age 5.

It is estimated that Wisdom has produced 50 to 60 eggs and as many as 30 chicks that fledged, according to Plissner.

Each year, millions of seabirds return to the wildlife refuge to nest, and Wisdom has been doing this since the Eisenhower administration. 

 

Solar Panels

            Mary and I installed 22 solar panels four years ago, and to date, the panels have produced 30.6 MWh (megawatt hours) of energy, which has amounted to $3,647 off our utility bill. This is almost exactly what the solar company had estimated we would receive, and we’re quite happy with this result – every time the sun is out, we’re making money!

22 solar panels on our home in Manitowish

A number of people have asked us about our panels, but we have no idea how many folks have taken the next step to actually install them. 

So, what convinces people to take that next step? Well, researchers in the March Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined data from 430 individual studies to see what factors influenced people’s environment-related behaviors, from recycling to switching modes of transportation to installing solar.

Researchers found the most important factor that determined whether someone installed panels on their roof wasn’t subsidies, geography or policy. It was whether their neighbor had them. A single solar rooftop project increases installations by nearly 50 percent within a half-mile radius.

In other words, what we do or don’t do is contagious – we are profoundly influenced by how others act.

You’d think providing data or facts would matter the most, but the researchers found facts ranked last, persuading an average of only 3.5% of people to change their behavior compared to a control group. 

            Appeals to act more sustainably, more morally, fared better, but were still middling.

            Financial incentives such as subsidies or savings performed relatively well, persuading about 12%.  

            But leading the pack were what scientists called “social comparisons” where  people observed the behavior of others and compared it with their own. This persuaded more than 14% of people to change their behavior in experiments from around the world. 

            The upshot? Well, it supports the old saying that actions are stronger than words. If we want to create change, we have to be the change.

            

Hottest Summer on Record in the Arctic

This past summer was the hottest on record in the Arctic, which is warming nearly four times faster than any other location on the planet. 

According to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, key data points show that the Arctic continues to become less icy, wetter and greener. The trends, all linked to a warming climate, have been observed for decades.

The report, from 82 authors in 13 countries, makes clear that the Arctic continues to change, with the past 17 years accounting for the 17 smallest annual minimum sea ice covers in the 45-year satellite record.

 

Endangered Species Act Anniversary

            This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. President Richard Nixon signed the law on Dec. 28, 1973. The conservation law grew out of a simple concept: to protect endangered and threatened species from extinction and protect their habitats. The ESA has proven to be one of the world’s most effective wildlife conservation laws, credited with saving 99% of the species it protects. 

            The Endangered Species Act currently protects 1,662 U.S. species and 638 foreign species, from iconic species like the whooping crane to the Apache trout in the Colorado River Basin.

 

Celestial Events

            On 12/22, look before dawn for the rather modest peak of the Ursid meteor showers – expect about 10 meteors per hour. Later in the evening, look for Jupiter about 3 degrees below the waxing gibbous moon. 

            As of 12/23, our days begin growing longer by the tiniest of amounts – 0.05 seconds. But hey, you have to start somewhere.

            December’s full moon – the “Little Spirit” or “Popping Trees” Moon – occurs on 12/26, and will be our year’s northernmost moonrise and highest altitude moonrise.  

            Sunsets have been growing later since 12/12, but as of 12/30, we will hit our latest sunrise of the year at 7:40 A.M. The sun will stall here for 5 days, but on Jan. 6, the sunrise will come one minute earlier. 

            And though it seems counterintuitive, in 2024, Earth's perihelion, its closest point to the sun, is on January 3. We’re 3.1 million miles closer than we will be in July when we’re the farthest away from the sun. 

            You’d think the closer we are, the warmer it would be . . . but no. It’s all about the tilt of the Earth to the sun, not the distance of the earth from the sun. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun in the winter, and tilted toward the sun in the summer.

 

Thought for the Week

            “The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” –  Robert Pirsig

            

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/8-21/23

 A Northwoods Almanac for 12/8-21/23  

USFWS Recreation Survey

Every five years the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a survey to help gauge outdoor activity in the nation. More than 100,000 Americans responded to the 2022 survey in households across America.

The survey found 148 million U.S. residents watched wildlife in 2022, 40 million went fishing, and 14 million hunted.

This means that roughly 57% of Americans 16 years of age or older participated in wildlife watching, 15% fished and 6% hunted last year.

Monetarily, this translated in 2022 into $250 billion spent on wildlife watching, $99 billion spent on fishing, and $45 billion spent on hunting.

No specific breakdown was available by state. 

See https://www.fws.gov/program/national-survey-fishing-hunting-and-wildlife-associated-recreation-fhwar

 

Marcescence

As winter descends upon us, nearly all hardwood trees have dropped their leaves. However, a few species have retained many of their leaves, and the rattling of those dried leaves on a winter morning somehow adds to the chill in the air. Pin oak and red oak, ironwood, and beech trees all have evolved this strategy, a process called marcescence (pronounced “mar-CESS-enss”), derived from the Latin marcescere (“to fade”). 

The question then is why? What advantage is there for a tree to hang onto its dead leaves? The most fitting theory I think is that leaf retention helps to limit herbivory of developing buds. The shriveled leaves hid the buds, and thus they are likely to be browed by deer and other herbivores. A study conducted in Denmark demonstrated that ungulates like deer avoid browsing branches of beech and hornbeam in part because of the low nutrient value of the leaves – they are low in protein and nitrogen and high in lignins which are difficult to digest. Ungulates generally are unable to avoid eating the dead leaves when they’re trying to browse for stems and buds. Thus, marcescent leaves act as a defense mechanism against browsing.

Others theorize that dropping ones’ leaves in the spring provides a fresh layer of mulch around the tree to hold moisture and add nutrients. Fallen leaves in the spring also absorb heat from the sun – we’ve all noticed how leaves sunken into the snow increase snowmelt. Perhaps these advantages allow a tree’s sap to begin flowing earlier, which is advantageous in an evolutionary sense. 

Beats me. All I know for sure is that on utterly quiet winter days, the rattling of those dessicated leaves often offer a welcome sound in an otherwise silent world.

 

Wildlife Species in Wisconsin

            In preparing a recent talk, I tried to quantify the abundance of wildlife we have in our state. The numbers I found were these:

75 species of mammals

235 species of nesting birds

160 species of fish

37 species of reptiles

19 species of amphibians

81 species of mussels

And somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 species of insects

            Every one of those species has to account for the impacts of our winters, or else they won’t survive. Each one has a story regarding its adaptations to winter. Some are simple – they leave, though that has its own complexity! Those that remain have to go to great lengths to make it to spring. Over the 33 years I’ve written this column, I’ve told you many of these stories, but there’s always more to tell. 

Let’s start with the lowly meadow vole.

            

Reasons to Love Voles

            I recently read an article on voles in the Upper Peninsula, and I thought I would do best to simply excerpt from the article (posted in “U.P. Native Plants”):

“We are currently working to keep voles out of our winter plant storage areas where we will be overwintering thousands of plants. Last year voles hit us hard – nesting in the storage yards and eating the roots of the plants in the pots and plug flats under the snow. Experiences like this are probably why most vole discussions focus on how to deter or kill voles. But here are four reasons everyone, especially native plant enthusiasts, should love voles. 

“Reason number one is that voles improve your soil.  Voles are short-tailed rodents that live on or near the surface of the ground . . . Voles are not mice. Mice have long tails and a tendency to live in houses. Nor are they moles. Moles live underground and tunnel to eat insects. Voles make a nest in a shallow burrow or under logs or debris. In winter, their nests in the UP are on the surface of the ground under the snow. Snow-melt will reveal soft balls of grass that lined the nests and feeding trenches leading out into surface vegetation . . .

From Northern Woodlands magazine, illustration by Adelaide Tyrol

“Their life on and just under the ground surface means voles are constantly mulching grass stems and plant leaves into the soil, either on the floor of their feeding paths or in their shallow nests. As they nest and dig for roots, they aerate the soil, leaving behind little fertilizer deposits, too! This disturbance also helps with water absorption. Humans seeking the carpet-lawn look can find the visuals annoying, but disturbance of the ground surface and the recycling of plant nutrients into the soil helps keep soil alive and nutritious for our plants. 

“The second reason to love voles is pest control. Voles are omnivorous, opportunistic feeders and will dine on many insects, including slugs! Last summer was wet and the slugs had a great time at the nursery, coming out at night to eat our plants down to the ground, often damaging the crown so badly the plant did not recover. It’s hard to hate voles when they are allies in keeping the slug population in check. 

“. . . Reason three to love voles is that they are the base of the animal food chain. Their rapid reproduction means a steady supply of prey for foxes, martins, snakes, owls, hawks, and many other interesting predators . . . if we want interesting predators in our world, we have to tolerate voles. 

“Finally, the best reason for native plant enthusiasts to love voles is that they disperse seeds. Voles stockpile food for the winter, and seeds of native plants are on the menu. Voles gather seeds and move them to winter storage areas, Because of vole activity, these areas are slightly disturbed, aerated, fertilized, and have good water absorption. The storage areas are also free of many insects that might eat the seeds. For a seed that gets dropped, overlooked, or left behind, the voles have created a perfect planting bed. In the spring, the seed will have an ideal place to grow – spreading native plants for next year’s voles, and for us.”

They also may gnaw on tree bark under the snow, so be sure to wrap your orchard trees.

Next spring when the snow is finally gone and you see pathways cut into your grass, these are the likely culprits. Despite any minor harm they may have caused, try to feel good about them. Maybe even get a little crazy and thank them for the overall good that they do.

 

Blame the Acorns

In 1989, the DNR estimated Wisconsin had about 9,000 bears, but by 2022, the population had increased to over 25,000. Nevertheless, this fall Wisconsin hunters registered 2,922 black bears, the lowest kill since 2008 and 64% below the statewide goal. The hunter success rate fell to 23%, down nine points from 2022. 

            Why? Well, it wasn’t due to too few hunters. The DNR issued 12,760 bear kill permits for the season, third-highest in history. Instead, blame a bumper crop of acorns statewide. Nearly all bear hunters hunt over bait, and if there’s abundant natural food like acorns available, the bears often choose that over bait. 

A controversial practice, every year over four million gallons of bait are dropped in the woods to hunt black bears, most often donuts, gummy bears, and cereal. A 2017 study in the Journal of Wildlife Management (“Consumption of intentional food subsidies by a hunted carnivore,” Rebecca Kirby, David M. Macfarland, Jonathan N. Pauli) estimated that over 40% of a black bear’s diet now comes from bait loaded with sugary, white flour foods.

So, while the some may lament the low hunt success this fall, I’m wondering if we should be celebrating the bears actually eating what nature intended them to eat.

 

Christmas Books

            Here are some suggestions on natural history books that you might consider giving as Christmas presents:

Taking Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America – Michael Edmonds

White Pine: The Natural and Human History of a Foundational American Tree – John Pastor

The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think – Jennifer Ackerman

And though this book has been out for many years now, it continues on many best seller lists: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer

 

Celestial Events 

            The big news, of course, is that winter solstice is two weeks away, occurring 12/21. The sun will be the furthest south of the equator, so we’ll have our year’s southernmost sunset. The sun will also be at its lowest altitude above the horizon – about 21 degrees.

And we’ll have our shortest day – 8 hours and 39 minutes (which also means our longest night – 15 hours and 21 minutes). 

            Between now and then, our year’s earliest sunsets actually occur from 12/9 to 12/12 at 4:13 p.m. 

            The new moon takes place on 12/12. 

            The peak Geminid meteor shower, an event averaging 50 to 100 meteors per hour, occurs in the predawn of 12/14.

            Look after dusk on 12/17 for Saturn a couple degrees above the waxing crescent moon.

 

Thought for the Week

“How, in our modern world, can we find our way to understand the earth as a gift again, to make our relations with the world sacred again?” – Robin Wall Kimmerer