A Northwoods Almanac for June 21 – July 4, 2024

 A Northwoods Almanac for June 21 – July 4, 2024  by John Bates

LDF Bans Wake Boats

            On May 28, the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Council voted unanimously in favor of an emergency rule to ban wake boats. Here’s the resolution:

RESOLVED, by this Council . . . that it shall be and hereby is unlawful for any person to operate a wakeboat, as defined above, upon any portion of any lake situated within the exterior boundaries of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation; and it is further

RESOLVED, that this Emergency Rule shall apply to members, non-member Indians and non-

Members . . .; and it is further

RESOLVED, that any violation of this Emergency Rule shall constitute a Class A Forfeiture, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.00. This Emergency Rule shall be enforced in accordance with Chapter V (Enforcement and Penalties) of the Lac du Flambeau Boating Safety

Ordinance, Chapter 27 of the Lac du Flambeau Code of Tribal Ordinances.

            Why ban these boats? Here’s what the emergency rule outlined prior to the resolution:

WHEREAS, the Tribal Council has been advised by the Tribal Natural Resources Department that proliferation of wakeboat use on lakes within the exterior boundaries of the Lac du

Flambeau Reservation represents a significant and increasing threat to shoreline integrity,

fish and wildlife, native plants, human safety, and the health, security and general welfare

of the Tribe; and

WHEREAS, a "wakeboat" is a motorboat that has one or more ballast tanks, ballast bags or other

devices or design features used to increase the size of the motorboat's wake. Wakeboats

are typically designed to create large, specially designed wakes for wakeboarders to jump

from side to side, doing aerial tricks. Some wakeboats are capable of causing wakes so

large that they mimic waves in an ocean; and

WHEREAS, ballast compartments in wake boats, filled with up to 1,000 pounds of water, help create the large waves needed to wake surf or wakeboard. The ballast compartments are

typically drained when not in use and prior to trailering. However, it is difficult to clean and

drain ballast water compartments because as they are currently designed, they do not

drain completely and risk spreading Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS). Incomplete draining

can lead to the harboring of viable aquatic invasive plants or animals, some of which are

as small as a grain of sand and remain viable for several days, and can spread to and

wreak havoc in Reservation lakes; and

WHEREAS, the design of wakeboats can impact aquatic environments by resuspending sediments, increasing transfer of total phosphorous and orthophosphate into the water column, and increasing oxygenation; and

WHEREAS, wakeboats can have a devastating effect on wildlife and habitat. Wakes and waves

caused by them have been known to flood loon nests, disturb fish spawning beds, uproot

wild rice during key stages of life, and disturb fish habitat. Wake boats create further

disturbances in the lake bed, impacting water clarity and plant abundance; 

WHEREAS, very large wakes caused by wakeboats present a risk for fishing boats, canoes, kayaks, sailboats, paddleboards, swimmers, and water skiers; and

WHEREAS, studies have evaluated the impacts of waves created by wakeboats and have discerned that they have significant erosive effects upon shorelines. This phenomenon is evidenced locally by the increase in Applications submitted to the Tribal Natural Resources

Department for placement of rip rap as a shoreline erosion control method.

            I have quoted this at length first in appreciation of the Tribe’s common sense in banning these boats, and second to provide a template for other townships to proceed as well.

 

Turtles Laying Eggs

            Snapping turtles should be nearly done laying eggs by now, and it isn’t as easy an experience for them as it may look. 

            Female snappers have been observed to walk many miles before they find the desired spot – the maximum round trip distance measured for a nesting migration was 10 miles. Nests have also been found almost a half mile from the closest water. 

            Once the site is found, she then scrapes out a deep a hole with her claws, lays roughly 30 one-inch eggs, and then covers the hole and abandons the site.

Snapper laying eggs - photo by John Bates

            Her major parental responsibility is to select the right spot for the eggs to hatch – an underground environment that will remain between 70 to 72 degrees to produce about half male and half female young. If the nest is too warm, the hatchlings will skew female; too cold, and they will be male.

            Since the females can retain sperm in their body for many years, they do not need to find mates every year to reproduce. In northern areas, females take approximately 11 to 19 years to become large enough to reproduce, with age at first nesting being generally around 19 years.

            An estimated 90 percent of snapper nests are destroyed by predators such as foxes, skunks, mink, and raccoons before the eggs even hatch.

 

Eastern Gray Tree Frogs

            That incredibly loud, brief staccato burst of sound many of us repeatedly hear as it grows dark emanates from a tiny frog, the eastern gray tree frog. Lots of folks don’t associate this call with a frog because it often is given from up in a shrub.

eastern gray tree frog - photo by Diane Steele

            Many books refer to the call as “melodic” and “birdlike.” I’m sorry, but to my admittedly not highly musical ear, there’s nothing melodic or birdlike about it. It’s a loud hammering sound – google it so you know what it sounds like.      

 

Slugged

            My good friend, Bob Kovar, called me early one morning last week to ask me what I knew about slugs. After a windy rainstorm the previous evening, he had picked up fallen branches and found them lined with slugs. He had wanted to know how had they gotten there so quick? And why were they there? 

            This is what I love about Bob – his eternal curiosity. Rather than asking the normal gardening question of how do I get rid of the slimy things, he wanted to know their life history – their personality, their role in the natural world. 

gray garden slug

            Well, this opened a true can of worms, or slugs, because neither of us knew much at all. Did the slugs somehow communicate to one another overnight to move en masse to these branches? Bob had put his ear to the ground but hadn’t heard any slug bugles or rallying cries.

            How fast did they move to get there? Bob had watched a branch for 15 minutes and never saw a single one move or do anything discernible.

            Where had they been that night prior to the rain? 

            Were they eating something on the branches?

            Puzzlement was all we could muster.

            Then I tossed in that I read they were hermaphroditic and wondered how that worked.

            So, off we went on a merry chase through the wonderful world of Google. And right away I found this perfect quote regarding how slugs move by inching along upon a road of slime that they produce:

            “Slug slime is an unusual compound, neither liquid nor solid. It solidifies when slugs are at rest, but liquefies when pressure is applied – in other words, when the slug starts moving . . . 

Slug mucus even works as a kind of slimy GPS. Land slugs can find their way home over good distances by tracking their own slime trails. We’ll just call it ‘goo’-gle earth.”

            Gotta love that. 

            And that’s not all their slime is good for. Slugs must avoid exposure to drying, and, therefore, keep their bodies covered by a second kind of protective mucus, the same stuff we produce in our noses. Just as it protects our most sensitive tissues from drying, it protects the slugs from dehydration, as well as protecting slugs from the invasion of harmful microorganisms.  

            Slime not only greases the path ahead and protects slugs from death by drying, but slugs release pheromones into their slime to signal they’re ready to mate, which I’ll bet is way more effective than wearing Channel #5.

            Which brings us to slug sex, and here’s where the squeamish among you may wish to move on to the next topic. As noted earlier, they’re hermaphroditic, meaning they function both as a male and a female. Once they’ve found each other through the slime, the slugs will maneuver their reproductive pores together, penetrating each other with their penises to deliver sperm to the other’s vagina. But here it gets complicated, because both the penis and the vagina are within the same sexual pore. So, attempting to deliver sperm without receiving some at the same time must mean – well, I don’t know what that must mean! Who chooses which role? Bottom line: Each partner can inseminate or be inseminated. 

            The slug we most commonly see in our gardens is the grey garden slug (Deroceras reticulatum), a native of Europe and North Africa, and one of eight introduced species found in Wisconsin. We only have one native slug, the Carolina mantleslug (Philomycus carolinianus), which prefers forested habitat where it hides under bark of trees or in rotting logs.

            Slugs are snails minus the external shell – they’re gastropods (which basically means “walking on your stomach”) – and they’re typically vegetarians. Their mouthparts work like miniature chainsaws, grinding and shredding green shoots. 

            Remember that slugs belong in the natural world despite their eating your tomatoes. They're part of an army of decomposers that break down plant material, fungi, lichen, and corpses, turning it all back into soil.

            

Fireworks and Wildlife

            We’re always told how important it is to walk in another’s shoes, and I think that goes for “walking in the shoes” of wildlife as well. We need to ask what is their experience of a particular event; how does it impact them? Right now, I’m thinking about fireworks. Fireworks are disruptive to wildlife, plain and simple, if the fireworks occur near where they nest or forage or utilize cover. Imagine trying to raise chicks in a nest, whether on water or on the ground or in a tree, with constant explosions occurring nearby.

            So, first of all, fireworks don’t have to be stunningly loud. My hope, however, is that for those who revel in loud detonations that they take their practice to a town park or somewhere where very little wildlife resides. If you’re living or visiting here, you’re here likely because of the wildlife we are blessed to see. Why not give them a break?

            

Celestial Events – Summer Solstice

            Summer solstice officially occurred yesterday, 6/20, giving us the year’s longest day – 15 hours, 44  minutes, and 8 seconds. Our days now start growing shorter by 0.2 seconds.

            The full moon – the “Strawberry Moon” – rises tonight. It will be the year’s lowest, by altitude, full moon.

            On 6/27, look before dawn for Saturn just below the waning gibbous moon.

 

Quote for the Week

            We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.– Albert Einstein

 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at johnbates2828@gmail.com, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com