A Northwoods Almanac for 11/26/21

 A Northwoods Almanac for 11/26 – 12/9 /21   

Sightings – First Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls

            November usually ushers in the first winter finch visitors from Canada, and this year has been no different. We saw our first pine grosbeaks feeding in one of our highbush cranberries on 11/18, and then saw our first common redpolls on 11/20 at our seed feeders.

female pine grosbeak feeding on crabapples, photo by John Bates

            For those of us who feed birds throughout the winter, these birds are eagerly awaited and deeply appreciated, because they are not a guaranteed thing every winter. A “Winter Finch Forecast” is put out annually by Tyler Hoar, from the Finch Research Network in Ontario, Canada, and his bottom line is that this should not be an irruption year though some southerly movement of most of the finches will occur. Along the southern edge of the boreal forest, a belt of good to bumper food crops are reported from Lake Superior eastward through Central Ontario, southern Quebec Atlantic Canada to Newfoundland, southward to Northern New England, and New York state.

            West of the Great Lakes, however, extreme drought and record-setting high temperatures this summer have played a significant part in their winter forecast. With over 2000 forest fires stretching from Northwestern Ontario to British Columbia, and severe droughts in wide areas westward from Lake Superior, food sources have been significantly impacted. 

             So, further west, many northern birds are going to have to move south to find food. But here in the Midwest and further east, most can stay put. For instance, with the excellent spruce, hemlock and eastern white cedar crop across southeastern Canada and Northeastern border states, most pine siskins in the east should remain in this area for the winter. Likewise, given that the seed crops on birches, alders and spruce are average to good,  most redpolls will likely stay north. 

common redpoll, photo by Bev Engstrom

And since there is a widespread good to excellent crop of mountain ash berries from Lake Superior eastward, most pine grosbeaks and bohemian waxwings will likely stay closer to home. 

bohemian waxwing, photo by Bev Engstrom

            Still, I bet we’ll get a smattering of all these species this winter, just not dozens at everyone’s feeders. When they do appear, their relative rarity will make their presence all the sweeter.

 

Snowy Owls – A Non-Irruption Year So Far

            Every few years, large numbers of snowy owls move into the state, an event known as an “irruption.” One of the largest irruptions in recent history was the winter of 2017-18, when 280 snowy owls were documented in Wisconsin. This winter the numbers look slimmer, according to Ryan Brady, Conservation Biologist for the WDNR’s Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation: “As of November 15, only three snowy owls have been documented in Wisconsin this season, including the first in Burnett County on October 23, another in Sawyer on November 9, and the latest in Kewaunee on November 13. These low numbers are reflected elsewhere as eBird only shows three reports from Michigan, two in North Dakota, and none in Minnesota, as well as only a handful in New England and none in the western United States.

            “Such low totals by this date suggest an irruption is unlikely this year. For example, in the irruptions of 2014, 2015, and 2017, our statewide totals were already 28, 79, and 41, respectively. Meanwhile, in non-irruption years like 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020, our totals were 2, 14, 3 and 2. The outlier, for those still hopeful of a big year, was 2013, which featured a huge irruption across Wisconsin and the eastern U.S., was also late to unfold and had only one owl in the state as of this date.”

             

snowy owl, photo by Bob Kovar

            If you want to see a snowy owl, you’ll almost certainly have to depart our forested lands for treeless places and wide-open landscapes that mimic the snowy owls’ nesting areas in the Arctic tundra. Airports, shorelines, and farm fields are typically the best areas. To track sightings around the state, visit the eBird website at ebird.org/wi and click on “Explore” to search a customizable map for sightings in Wisconsin.  

 

November Subtleties

            I wrote this 15 years ago, but I think it bears repeating:

            Appreciating the post-fall colors of November is for the most part an exercise in developing appreciation for the multiple shades of yellow and brown. The burgundy of red oak leaves and the deep greens of conifers offer some background contrast, but they play second fiddle during this brief snowless period to these yellow-browns that take on dozens of muted hues. 

            Sounds grow muted as well. The wind interprets what is left on the landscape, raspily singing in a brittle voice. It rushes through dry stems that no longer allow the summer wind to almost purr in its passage through green leaves.

            It’s easy to feel a deep melancholy in the threadbare skeleton that November presents. The decreasing daylight, the chill that comes through your coat, the heavy frosts, the gray skies—all of these carry some emotional weight for those of us who think about mortality. I think some of us run south for the winter not just to escape the cold, but to escape the feeling of loss that November exhales. 

But there’s cause for celebration, too—it’s just not as easy to find as it was in the overindulgence of summer. Buds have formed and are alive in every perennial plant, bristling from the tips of every branch, and embedded with all the life created in the biological storm of summer. Most mammals have put on fat, glossed up and thickened out their fur, while some, like male moose and deer, stumble exhaustedly into winter after a month-long hormonal rut that would make the writers of grocery store tabloids go faint. Arctic owls and songbirds glide in and take up residence in what to them must appear mild weather. Sunsets and sunrises seem more intense, the last blue on lakes more startling. Billions of seeds lie under leaves, awaiting the cycle of freezing and thawing to break open into new life. 

You can walk with regret or with gratitude in the brilliant leaves lining every trail; watch with sullenness or appreciation as the squirrels and chipmunks steal your bird food; hear the rattle of dry seeds as the death of the year or the promise of a new one; scowl at the cold or enjoy the warmth of the woodstove and the smell of oak fires.

Despite November’s somber tone, remember we’re alive, still part of it all, and hopefully, still wide open to the grace of every new day. 

 

Recommended Books for Christmas

            Here are my annual unsolicited, but at least free, thoughts on five great books to give for Christmas:

            Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence and has written a wonderful book on her path of discovering that trees actually communicate between one another.

            The Democracy of Species by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This slim 88-page book is part of the Penguin series “Green Ideas,” a collection of 20 short books on the environment. This series also includes similarly short books by Terry Tempest Williams, Wendell Berry, Jared Diamond, Edward O. Wilson, and others. I just learned about the series, so – full disclosure – I haven’t read any yet. But I’m betting the series is exceptional given the all-star team they’ve assembled.

            Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World by Kathleen Dean Moore. One reviewer said this, “Every essay is a sortie into deep engagement with the natural world . . . Earth’s Wild Music is a lamentation, an exaltation, an impassioned indictment and most definitely a call to action.” I love the writing of Kathleen Dean Moore, so I recommend any of her earlier books as well.

            The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas Tallamy. I’m always drawn to any writer who can tell the deep and complex stories of the lives of trees. Read Tallamy’s 2009 book Bringing Nature Home, too.  

            And Wisconsin’s Wild Lakes: A Guide to the Last Undeveloped Natural Lakes by John Bates. I rarely indulge in self-promotion in this column, but I’ve just released this book, today as a matter of fact, and I’m genuinely proud of both its quality and its exceptional color illustrations by Manitowoc artist Rebecca Jabs. If you enjoy paddling or sitting by a peaceful, wild lake, I think you’ll find this guide truly useful.   

 

Celestial Events

            We missed the lunar eclipse on the early morning of 11/19 due to complete cloud cover, which was unfortunate given the next two nights were crystal clear. Hopefully wherever you were the skies were clear and you got up to watch it.

            Marshes and lake shoreline edges are icing up now. According to Woody Hagge’s 45-year average ice-up date for Foster Lake in Hazelhurst, 11/27 should be the magic date. But lots depends on the size of the lake, wind speeds, the shape of the lake, and of course, the severity of our temperatures. Foster Lake now averages 140 days, or about 20 weeks, of ice-cover annually.

            We’re down to nine hours of daylight as of 11/29 as we continue our journey toward winter solstice on 12/21 when we will bottom-out at 8 hours and 39 minutes.

            The moon will be at perigee, its closest to the earth in 2021, on 12/4. If you live on an ocean coastline, this means bigger tides.

            Planet watching in December is mostly all about what’s visible after dusk. Look for Venus low in the southwest and setting after 7 p.m., Jupiter in the south-southwest and setting by 10p.m., and Saturn in the southwest and setting after 8 p.m.

            Mars can be seen before dawn very low in the southeast. Look for Mars just below the waning crescent moon on the morning of 12/2.

            The new moon occurs on 12/4. 

            Look for Venus nearly 2 degrees above the waxing crescent moon on 12/6.

 

Thought for the Week

            I love science and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it. – Robert M. Sapolsky

 

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

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/12/21

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/12 – 25, 2021  by John Bates

 

Moose and Wolves on Isle Royale

            You may recall the controversy from 2015 regarding whether wolves should be reintroduced to Isle Royale National Park  in Lake Superior. After three years of evaluating various alternatives, wolves were finally reintroduced beginning in 2018. Recently, I was able to tune into a talk given by Dr. Rolf Peterson, who has studied Isle Royale’s wolves for 40 years, that summarized the current status of the reintroduction effort. If you want the official story from the NPS, check:

https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/NPS-SUNY-ISRO_Web_Accessible_Isle-Royale-Wolf-Summary-Report-2018-2020_Compressed.pdf

            But here’s a much shorter synopsis. Wolves used to be able to cross the winter ice bridge from mainland Minnesota to populate Isle Royale. But an ice bridge now only occurs one year out of ten compared to eight years out of ten historically. The lack of mainland wolves to continually repopulate, and thus bring genetic variability, to the island led to genetic inbreeding, which led to the nearly complete demise of the wolf population on the island. The long-term average number of wolves was 22, and by 2015 there were just two, both related and unable to successfully breed new young. 

            The loss of the apex predator, the wolves, on the island led to an astronomical increase in moose. In 2005, moose numbered less than 500, but by 2015, their population had soared to over 2,000, or about 2 per square mile. The moose quickly began to overharvest balsam fir, their favorite browse, and decimated the fir, creating what was termed a “moose savannah” for its lack of fir trees. Ecologists estimate that the island can only support 500 moose before the island’s trees are negatively affected.

            Concurrently, beavers, another prey item of wolves, also began a population spurt, and increased fivefold between 2010 and 2020. The moose, meanwhile, proceeded to also decimate populations of watershield, a high protein aquatic plant, which created a host of problems in and around the ponds and lakes on the island by reducing shorelines to muddy pulps. By 2018, the ever-increasing beavers, who love watershield, too, began to run out of food, which resulted in a dramatic decline. Their numbers plummeted, causing the dams they usually maintain on ponds and lakes to fail, which led to water levels falling. The resultant mud pits left behind led to four moose getting stuck in the mud and dying. 

            All of this shows the need for an apex predator on the landscape to maintain population balances among prey species. Prey species need predators, just as predators need prey.

            So, what about the wolves? Nineteen wolves were eventually introduced: four from the Grand Portage Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota, three from mainland Ontario, four from the U.P. of Michigan, and eight from Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior which had an overabundance of wolves (another fascinating story altogether). All the wolves were ear-tagged and radio-collared, and then released.

            The first female from Michipicoten had two pups in 2019, and in 2020, two other packs produced an unknown number of pups, because now Covid entered the picture, and research on the island ground to a halt. Likewise, Covid prevented adequate research to take place in 2021, but it’s believed another two or three litters were produced.

NPS photo

NPS photo

            And what of the 19 adults that were introduced to the island? Half have died – the average lifespan of an adult wolf is after all only four years.

            Fast forward to the present now that the wolves have arrived, and moose numbers are declining, and balsam fir is regrowing. How quickly the beaver population will rebound, however, is still unfolding.

            The primary lesson in all this, said Peterson, was that animal populations are self-regulating. The density of a population is regulated by its food supply, both for prey and predator species. It all comes down to an ever-fluctuating balance.

            Peterson also was asked about the wolf harvest in Wisconsin. He noted that wolf depredation on farm animals is real, but that the broad harvest of wolves doesn’t address the actual problems.

            

Camp Mercer CCC Interpretive Trail

            On 11/5, an event was held to celebrate the opening of the Camp Mercer CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) Interpretive Trail, a collaborative project of the Northern Highlands American Legion (NHAL) State Forest, the Wisconsin Historical Society and state archaeologists, the Manitowish Waters Historical Society, and ICORE (Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts). The new trail includes 23 interpretive signs along a 2.5 mile trail loop, which can be accessed from the Mercer Bike Trail near the Highway 51 wayside or from the west side of Manitowish River Access Road.

            Camp Mercer was established in 1933 along the banks of the Manitowish River as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 660th Company. At its peak, the camp housed over 200 men, and over its nine years represented individuals from 190 different Wisconsin communities. The camp served as one of 14 Wisconsin forestry camps that fought forest fires, planted trees, worked on soil erosion and conservation, improved lake and stream habitats, built bridges and roads, and much more. 

            President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) launched the CCC in the New Deal’s famous “First 100 Days” where he proposed to recruit thousands of unemployed young men into a peacetime army and send them into battle against the destruction of our natural resources. At its peak in 1935, the CCC enrolled 500,000 men at 2,600 camps across the country. 

         By the time the CCC program ended at the start of World War II, Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” had planted more than 3.5 billion trees on land made barren from fires, natural erosion, intensive agriculture or lumbering. In fact, the CCC was responsible for over half the reforestation, public and private, done in the nation’s history. They also constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks nationwide, helping to shape the modern national and state park systems we enjoy today. In total, there were 194 CCC work camps in 94 national parks and 697 camps in 881 state and local parks across the US.

         They also fought fires. The total number of hours logged by CCC firefighters from 1933 to 1942 was the equivalent of 6.5 million days. During the nine years that the CCC was operational, the annual acreage of U.S. forest lost to fire sunk to its lowest point ever, because tens of thousands of young CCC enrollees were employed as either full-time or emergency firefighters. Plus, CCC workers constructed more than 3,000 fire towers, many of which are still in use today. 

         Their work not only improved the land and water, it helped the men become more employable once they finished their service. Many corpsmen received supplemental basic and vocational education, and it’s estimated that some 57,000 illiterate men learned to read and write in CCC camps.

            As for the Mercer Camp, only one intact structure remains on the site – a dynamite shack – but visitors to the trail will see remnants of Camp Mercer’s roads and foundations as well as evidence of earlier logging camps and other activity. The superb interpretive signage helps visitors learn about the history of the site with photos and narratives describing life at Camp Mercer and the people who lived and worked there. 

            ICORE has entered into a land use agreement with the NHAL, and with help of  the Mercer Cross Country Ski Association (MECCA), will maintain the new Camp Mercer trail.

            The closest CCC camp to Camp Mercer was the Lac Du Flambeau CCC Indian Division Camp on Pokegama Lake. Wisconsin had six Ojibwa and one Ho Chunk Indian Division CCC camps during the New Deal.

 

Black Bear Dens

            Most black bears are denned-up by mid-November with only a few males still occasionally wandering around. Black bears’ favorite denning sites are in standing hollow trees, but few trees are allowed to reach the mature stage at which the center rots and becomes hollow. Such trees can be found in portions of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area in northeastern Minnesota, especially where they were fire-scarred a half century or more ago.

            Rock crevices and caves are also used as dens, and can remain useable for centuries. Interestingly, they’re usually not used again by the same bear and usually not in successive years by any bears. The den that researchers in one study found being used the most during four decades of research was used three times, each time by a different bear, and each time after an interval of six years.

            Dens are also dug into hillsides or under the root system of a tree. The problem with dug dens is that they often collapse after use and therefore are seldom reused.

            Bears also may den under the crown of downed trees or in brushy slash piles, while some bears just rake up a bed on the ground near a windbreak. And a few males occasionally just lay on top of the snow and get covered by new snows.

            Lynn Rogers, well-known bear researcher, says that bears often make insulating beds by raking leaves, grass, moss, and other ground vegetation into the dens and arranging it to their liking. When those materials are unavailable, they may bite small branches off trees, strip the bark off cedar trees, or chew rotten wood into chips.

 

Celestial Events

            The peak Leonid Meteor Shower occurs during the predawn of 11/17 – expect around 15 meteors per hour. 

            The full moon – the “Ice is Forming” moon – occurs on 11/19. That same morning, a nearly total lunar eclipse – 97% covered by the earth’s shadow – takes place, with only a sliver of the moon outside the Earth’s shadow. Most of the moon is expected to turn a ruddy color. The partial eclipse begins at 1:18 a.m., and achieves its greatest eclipse just after 3 a.m. The show will end at 4:47, and will be the longest of this century at 3 hours and 28 minutes.

 

Thought for the Week

Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent. To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men. –  Rachel Carson in a letter to her closest friend Dorothy Freeman ninety days before the release of her 1962 book Silent Spring. 

 

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

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/15/21

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/15 – 28, 2021  by John Bates

 

Sightings –Great Horned Owls and Blue Jays

            Carne Andrews sent me a note on 10/5 saying, “About 10 PM last night we heard two great horned owls exchanging their deep-throated hoots back and forth across Echo Lake for the first time since last January!” In Manitowish, we’ve been hearing a great horned owl as well. This fits what we should expect every fall, because the male typically begins what is called “advertisement hooting” in late September or early October. What’s most interesting to me about his advertising is that great horneds are believed to be monogamous. The literature says no polygamy has been observed: “Pairs may mate for at least five years and perhaps for life . . . monitoring by telemetry provided no evidence for extra-pair copulations,” which is the fancy way of saying neither the male or female is stepping-out on the other. 

            So, who’s he advertising for if he’s monogamous? 

            Beats me, though it may just be a way of shoring up the existing pair bond, sort of like a redo of your wedding vows, or maybe they’re just romantics.

            If you’re hearing them at night, you can tell the difference between the male and female calls. The male vocalizations are more prolonged and deeper, likened by one writer to the sound “of a distant foghorn, soft, somewhat tremulous, and subdued with little or no accent,” while the female vocalizations are higher in pitch. Despite the fact she is larger in size, she has a smaller syrinx.

            The paired couple often synchronize their songs, which is known as duetting, and the crooning can last over 60 minutes. The male begins calling during or within a few seconds after the female's song. In Wisconsin, territorial hooting ends in mid-February, in keeping with the laying of the first eggs, which typically occurs in late February and into March. 

            Great horneds don’t just make lovely mellow hootings. I hope you’ve had the chance to hear their various shrieks, hisses, soft cooing notes and tremulous cries, sounds that famed ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent described in 1938 as “weird, hollow-toned and idiotic laughter.”

            Well, that’s not all. Courting pairs are also known to indulge in high-pitched giggling, screaming, and bill-snapping, as well as much bowing and bobbing and posturing and bill-rubbing and preening, all leading finally to copulation, which usually lasts about seven seconds, thus concluding the courtship in little more than a few heartbeats. 

            As a last note, great horneds are adapted to survive in all climates, from deserts to grasslands to suburbs to forests, all that is except arctic-alpine regions. No other American owl has anywhere close to their extensive range and their variation in nesting sites – see the attached range map.

great-horned owl distribution map

            As for blue jays, on 10/3, a friend in Lac du Flambeau witnessed an interesting phenomenon. “It was around 7:30 on Friday a.m. and I looked up to see several blue jays fluttering around in the tops of oak trees, hopping from branch to branch, and shaking the leaves. I heard many acorns dropping to the ground as they did so, and it seemed they were intentionally shaking branches to make the acorns drop. It puzzled me as to why they would do this – do blue jays eat acorns? I didn't see any fly to the ground after dislodging so many acorns. Were they perhaps feeding the squirrels? I wondered if this is some kind of symbiotic relationship between blue jays and squirrels, with the birds feeding the squirrels – but to what purpose? Was it altruism, or do they depend on squirrels to help them somehow survive?”

            Well, I’d be surprised if blue jays had any altruistic feeling for squirrels, given that squirrels are known to raid bird nests, not to mention that both are very aggressive to other species when it comes to food.

photo by Bev Engstrom

            Rather, I think the blue jays inadvertently feed squirrels that are quicker to get to the acorns. Blue jays love acorns and cache thousands of them prior to winter. They prefer pin oak acorns over red oaks, apparently due to the red oak’s higher concentration of tannins. In one study in Virginia, a community of 50 blue jays moved and cached about 150,000 acorns harvested from 11 pin oak trees during one season. Each bird thus cached an average of 3,000 acorns by selecting and hiding an average of 107 acorns per day. 

            Blue jays typically bury seeds so that the seed is protected from drying. Of course, they don’t find them all, and their seed dispersal has often been discussed as a major force in the rapid movement of trees northward following the last glaciation of North America. Thus, when blue jays make choices about which tree nuts are harvested, they become the Johnny Appleseed’s of the bird world, often determining in part what our future forests look like.

 

Butterfly Strategies to Survive Winter 

            Winter is a true Armageddon for insects. I’ve often wondered how many insects die during the first hard frost of the fall – it must be millions/billions! But every insect species has had to evolve a strategy to make it through to spring, and dying, strange as this may sound, is actually one of the most commonly employed options! Think of mosquitoes, dragonflies, mayflies, and hundreds of other species that lay their eggs in or on the water, or on land in the leaf litter, in wood piles, or in cracks in tree bark and rocks. And then the adults die. The entire adult population dies, leaving the continuity of the species to their unborn young. Quite an act of faith!

            Let’s look at butterflies in particular. Most everyone knows that monarch butterflies are unique in utilizing a two-way migration to their overwintering sites in Mexico, many traveling 3,000 miles or more. 

            A few others, however, may make a partial migration south, species like common buckeye, American lady, red admiral, and question mark.

            A small number choose instead to overwinter in hibernation as an adult butterfly, like painted ladies, some questions marks, Compton tortoiseshell, and mourning cloaks, utilizing chemical compounds known as glycols to prevent ice crystals from forming in their body. 

            Others overwinter in hibernation in a chrysalis, like Canadian tiger swallowtails, American coppers, and spring azures.

            Still others overwinter in hibernation as caterpillars, like great spangled fritillary, Baltimore checkerspot, northern crescent, viceroys, and white admirals.

            Those that lay eggs that then must survive the winter include hairstreaks, bog coppers, and the European skipper.

            You can help overwintering butterflies in whatever form they take by not cutting down plants in your garden where they may already have formed their chrysalis, laid eggs, or are tucked in as a caterpillar or adult. Most folks want to “put their garden to bed” for the winter, but some butterflies, and other insects, may already be in bed in your garden. So, if you can withstand the need to tidy everything up, the insect world would be appreciative.

 

2020 Iowa Derecho – 7.2 Million Trees Damaged

            An update: The Iowa DNR released a new report last month on the August 10, 2020, hurricane-force derecho (da-ray-sho) that roared through cities in Iowa like Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Davenport. Winds reached 140 mph in some counties, damaging thousands of homes, businesses and vehicles, along with millions of acres of cropland. The state cumulatively sustained $11.5 billion in damage, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which calls the derecho the “costliest thunderstorm in U.S. history.” Cedar Rapids alone lost 669,000 mature trees, roughly 70% of its urban canopy.

 

Frost?

            What frost? As of 10/12, we’ve yet to experience a frost in Manitowish. We’ve come close – we’ve had a couple nights where temperatures fell to 33° – but that’s the closest.

            So, we still have ripe tomatoes coming. Others tell me of still harvesting green peppers and other hot-weather plants.

            From a gardener’s point of view, this is pretty great. For a longer term perspective, however, we’ve lived in Manitowish for 37 years. For the first 15 years or so that we lived here, we always had a frost around August 20^th, and we were never able to plant hot weather vegetables until after June 12, which unfailingly seemed to be when we’d have our last frost of the spring. So, we had a 70-day growing season. That is, until the last decade. Now frosts hold off until mid-September, or in the case of this year, until at least mid-October. This isn’t just a local phenomenon – see the graph for the increase in the number of frost-free days nationally.   So, here’s climate change in motion – longer growing seasons. Of course, this benefit comes at a cost, and the balance sheet shows the negatives far outweighing the positives.

increase in number of frost-free days

 

Celestial Events

            The full moon (the “Hunter’s,” “Ice is Falling,” or “Falling Leaves” moon) occurs on 10/20. The moon will rise north of east for the first time since February.

            The peak Orionid meteor shower takes place in the predawn on 10/21, but the light of the full moon will make viewing difficult.

            Beginning 10/22, the average low temperature drops below 32° for the first time since April 22. Minocqua averages 183 days with low temperatures below freezing. 

            We’re down to 10 hours and 31 minutes of daylight as of 10/23.

 

Thought for the Week

            “The best and biggest benefits of water are all emotional . . . We love being in, on, under, around, or near it . . . Try as we might, no amount of scientific data, MRI scans, EEG readings, or carefully designed research projects can really show us exactly what we feel at those moments.” – Wallace J. Nichols, Blue Mind

 

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

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/1/21

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/1 – 14, 2021  

Anniversary of the Great Peshtigo Fire 

            “Thus sped the days – fearful days – but they brought no relief. The sky was brass. The earth was ashes.” – Frank Tilton, 1871, Sketch of the Great Fires in Wisconsin. 

            America’s deadliest firestorm, the Peshtigo fire, occurred on October 8, 1871, 150 years ago next week. It was the first of many enormous fires that were to ensue over the next 50 years in northern Wisconsin and other areas of the Upper Midwest. Stephen Pyne, author of Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland Rural Fire (1982), wrote “Fires of unprecedented size and intensity rampaged over small villages and towns of moderate size and thereby earned names as historic events. Half a dozen holocausts achieved special notoriety because of damages to property and loss of life. Any one of them could qualify as perhaps the worst fire disaster in American experience. The fires were the product of a particular set of conditions: wholesale logging, which made the Lake States from 1880 to 1900 the chief source of timber and an unrivaled tinderbox of abandoned slash; farmers looking for cheap, easily cleared land and not adverse to using fire for landclearing, and railroads, whose transportation potential made both logging and farming economically feasible, and whose brakes and smokestacks were a frequent source of ignition.” 

These massive fires occurred throughout the Upper Midwest, and despite the variation in names, dates, and locations, they mimicked one another closely enough to offer a single blackened story. Only with the exhaustion of virgin timber, the abandonment of agricultural settlement, and the statewide commitment to fire control did the fires cease in the 1930s. Here’s a sampling of the fires of that era:

            1871: “The Black Year” (Pyne) saw fires burning simultaneously in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Minnesota, culminating in the Peshtigo Fire, which eclipsed all other fires of the era. Of Peshtigo’s 2,000 residents, over 1,800 died, though many sources estimate that the number throughout the region totaled 2,500.

            1886: “The forest fires which are now raging in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan promise a repetition of the calamity which happened 15 years ago . . . North of Wausau and Phillips the fires are reported as very fierce, and the cities are so enveloped in smoke that it is dark at midday. On the south between Wausau and Mosinee the woods are one sheet of flames. In the pine forest north, the fires have damaged the timber to a great extent . . . Reports from Colby say that the town will be burned tomorrow unless the wind changes. Marquette, MI, on the shore of Lake Superior is afire tonight.” (New York Times)

            1889: “Furious forest fires are raging in northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, and an immense amount of damage has been done. For miles on three sides of Duluth the fire rages . . . On the Hermantown road, near Duluth, every dwelling for four miles has been destroyed . . . South of Ashland for 150 miles the forests are ablaze . . . Cumberland, WI, is almost wholly surrounded by fire . . . North of Grantsburg, WI, the fire has swept the country, destroying everything in its path.” (Bridgeport, Connecticut Morning News)

            1893: “The towns of Virginia and Iron Mountain in Michigan have been destroyed by forests fires . . . There are 2,000 people homeless in Virginia . . . Women and children are housed in box cars, but have nothing to eat and no engine to move them. Forest fires are raging all through northern Wisconsin and Michigan . . . It is likely to burn millions of feet of standing pine. Only a year ago Iron River was entirely destroyed by fire.” (The Columbian)

            1894: The Minnesota (Hinkley), Wisconsin (Phillips), and Michigan fires occurred this year. In the Hinckley fire, 126 people took refuge in a marsh, and then the fire converted the sedges into a crematorium. In the Phillips fire, the city of 2500 persons lay in ruins. More than 400 homes, the business district, a new tannery and the large sawmill were totally destroyed. Thirteen lives were lost, all in attempts to escape the flames by crossing the lake.

            1896: “Big Mills and Lumber Burn at Ashland. Estimated Property Loss Is Half a Million Dollars. Workingmen Driven by Heat Jump Into the Lake. One of the most destructive fires in the history of Northern Wisconsin . . .” (Chicago Tribune)

            1898: Filibert Roth in his report on “The Forestry Conditions of Northern Wisconsin” wrote, “During forty years of lumbering nearly the entire territory has been logged over . . . In addition to this, the fires, following all logging operations or starting on new clearings of the settler, have done much to change these woods. Nearly half of this territory has been burned over at least once, about three million acres are without any forest cover whatever, and several million more are but partly covered by the dead and dying remnants of the former forest.”

fire twisting a railroad track

            1906: “Serious fires are sweeping three sections of Wisconsin and upper Michigan. A track 30 miles square has been swept by forest fires near Escanaba, Mich. . . . The city of Stanley, a town of 5,000 in Chippewa county, is reported to be in flames. The village of Auburndale, Wood county was swept by fire . . . The forest fire is sweeping four counties in northern Wisconsin. The area embraces 200 square miles.” (The Middletown News)

            1908: “Only Ash Heaps Are Left . . . Forest fires which have been burning for three days closed on several towns and small settlement near Duluth this afternoon, wiping them out . . . Chisholm, MN, a town of 4,000 people on the Mesaba Iron Range ninety miles north of Duluth is completely wiped out. Hibbing, five miles from Chisholm is surrounded by forest fires tonight . . . The entire northern portion of Douglas county, WI, is on fire . . .” (The Telegraph-Herald)

            1910: Baudette, MN fire: There were apparently four main fires to start with, which then grew, merged and raced quickly towards the towns in the area. The settlements burned in less than two hours . . . By the end of the day the villages of Cedar Spur, Graceton, Pitt, Baudette and Spooner lay in ruins. Four hundred thousand acres were blackened. Homesteads across the county were destroyed and 43 lives were lost. 

            1911: The Au Sable, Michigan fire is considered the most devastating fire in the history of Michigan. The neighboring cities of Oscoda and Au Sable burned to the ground. A sudden fifty mile-per-hour wind swept the fire into Au Sable. Meanwhile, one mile west of Oscoda, a passing locomotive threw sparks which ignited, spread quickly, and swept across a river valley destroying over three-fourths of the city of Oscoda. 

            1918: “With a toll of probably 500 persons dead, thousands homeless and without clothing, and property damage amounting far into millions of dollars, whole sections of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota timber land tonight are smoldering, fire stricken wastes, with the charred ruins of abandoned towns to accentuate the general desolation.” In the Cloquet, MN, fire alone, 453 died. “The scene at the station was indescribable. There came a rush of wind and the entire town was in flames. The trains pulled out with the fires blazing closely behind them . . . The flames licked at the cars. Windows in the coaches were broken by the heat.” (New York Times)

            Remarkably, despite all their ruination, land-clearing fires furnished instant progress toward the pastoral dream. A homesteader had five years to “improve” his land in order to meet the conditions of the Homestead Law, and the forest was in his way. The eternal smoke riding on the wind conjured the smell of an advancing culture. One writer said, “Fire was the necessary investment required to pay a future interest.” 

Thus, on the whole, the fires were lauded, invoking what some referred to as the Holocaust Era, The Great Barbecue (Pyne), or The Dragon Devastation (Gifford Pinchot).

The fires were often spun by boosters as positive, even those that killed hundreds, because a constant influx of settlers was needed to feed the intended transformation from forest to farm. 

The Detroit Post saw the 1881 fires as: [a] “chance for new settlers . . . where the fires have raged, the forests have been killed, the underbrush burned and the ground pretty effectively cleared. There are square miles and whole townships where the earth is bare of everything except a light covering of ashes; and other square miles where all that is needed to complete the clearing is to gather up a few scattered chunks per acre and finish burning them.             

“These lands are now in such a condition that they are all ready for seeding to whet, merely requiring the harrow to be used upon them, in case there is not time to plow. The rich salts of the former vegetation are preserved in their ashes . . . The trees, the underbrush, and all the impediments to agriculture, it usually costs so much in toil for the pioneer to remove, have been swept away, and the rich land lies open and ready cleared for the settler . . . 

“There are other great advantages too. The insects and forest pests of the farmer are nearly all extinct. There will be no potato bugs, no weevils, or army worms, no curculio, very few birds or squirrels for several years to come on these lands . . . There can be no more fires, because there are no more brush or swamps to burn.”

The local chamber of commerce could not have spun the story into a better promotion. Devastation by fire became a highest good – a bright road to prosperity.

The holocaust fires had very different effects from those prehistorically since their intensity was heightened by the accumulation of so much fuel left on the ground. They radically changed the forest biological communities because of the removal of the conifer seed trees. After the fires, huge areas became covered with pin cherry, aspen and white birch rather than young pines.

With unintended but unmistakable irony, the lumber industry argued they had no choice but to cut as fast as possible because of the danger of fire: “Pine must be cut speedily to save it from being destroyed by forest fires. It is a question whether this valuable timber shall be saved to be used for the convenience of human beings, or be wasted by destructive forest fires. If it is to be saved, it must be cut as fast as possible.” (Detroit Post in 1881 discussing a piece in “The Lumberman’s Gazette”)

It was a positive feedback loop – the more the forest was cut, the more farmers came in, the more fires were set to clear the land, the greater the hazard then of holocaust fires, and thus the more the forests needed to be cut before they were burned.

The fires often devastated the topsoil. On sandy soils, the fires could completely consume the organic soil. “In some places many feet of organic matter were stripped off, leaving only barren stretches of sand or rock. Such fires did not benignly recycle nutrients; they irreversibly vaporized them.” (Pyne) 

Stumpland and soil erosion - Wisconsin Historical Society

The fires blazed well into the early 1900s. Hundreds of thousands of acres of forest continued to burn throughout the Upper Midwest, and smoke often closed the Great Lakes to navigation. In 1925, 1.4 million acres in WI, MI, and MN burned. The fires continued into the early 1930s during the drought years, but by 1936 with the coming of rains, the CCC, the acceptance of forestry on state and county lands, and a host of laws that were finally being enforced, the massive fires were over.

Botanist John Curtis wrote, “The desolation of much of the pine area in the 1920’s and early 1930’s is difficult to describe to anyone who did not see it. In many places the entire landscape as far as the eye could see supported not a single tree more than a few inches in diameter. Only the gaunt stumps of the former pines, frequently with their root systems fully exposed as a result of the consumption of the topsoil by fire, remained to indicate that the area was once a forest rather than a perpetual barrens.”

            

Sightings – Moose!

            On 9/18, Mary and Stu Guenther sent me this note along with several photographs of a young bull moose: “Driving to church this morning turned out to be anything but ordinary! My husband spotted this amazing animal in a farmer’s field on Blue Lake Rd. near the Tomahawk River. We couldn’t believe our eyes! It was thrilling to us!”

photo by Mary and Stu Guenther

            Young bull moose occasionally wander our way from northeastern Minnesota and the western U.P. of Michigan, going on “walk-abouts” that sometimes cover hundreds of miles.

            Minnesota’s moose has been relatively stable for nine years, but suffered a decade-long steep decline in the early 2000s. The state has the largest population with about 3,150 animals; however, that’s still down more than 50% since 2006.

            The most recent biennial survey conducted in the U.P.in early 2019 counted 509 moose. 

 

Celestial Events

            For planet watching in October, look after dusk for Venus low in the southwest, Jupiter in the south-southeast, and Saturn in the south. On 10/9, look for Venus 3° below the waxing crescent moon. On 10/13, Saturn will be 4° above the moon.

 

Thought for the Week          

            “If you quiet your mind, then you actually get to see what else there is around you besides yourself.” – Greta Ehrlich

 

 

 A Northwoods Almanac for 9/17-30, 2021  

            

Sylvania Old-Growth

            Last week, Mary, Callie, our friend Licia, and I spent three and a half days camping in the Sylvania tract of the Ottawa National Forest, taking long walks through the 15,000 acres or more of remnant old-growth still presiding over the area. We walked slowly, looking for mushrooms, slime molds, and anything unusual of note, while measuring the biggest sugar maples, hemlocks, yellow birches, white pines, and basswoods that we came across. And there were many. Our biggest diameter tree was a fire-hollowed yellow birch, 52 inches in diameter, and still living despite being hollow for its first 15 feet or more. 

yellow birch hollowed by fire

Close behind in size was a 51-inch diameter white pine, and then a 45-inch diameter grandmother sugar maple. One basswood topped 42-inches in diameter, while numerous hemlocks were three feet or more in diameter. 

white pine 50" dbh

            The question always arises of how old these trees might be, and the only thing one can say in these shade-dominated woods is that size doesn’t equal age. Some eastern hemlock and sugar maple saplings less than 2 inches in diameter have been aged over 100 years old. As small seedlings and saplings, both species possess extraordinary capabilities to wait a century or more in the forest shade for a windstorm to topple the tree above them and open up the canopy. The young trees live in a steady state of metabolic balance, gathering just enough light to survive photosynthetically, but not enough to grow upward or outward. A one-foot diameter, 30–foot-tall hemlock can easily be over 200 years old, having endured, suppressed by shade, until its moment arrives to shine in the sun. 

            To give you a recent example of this, good friend Rod Sharka recently carefully counted the rings of a large yellow birch that was blown down in the Guido Rahr Sr. Tenderfoot Forest Reserve, not far from Sylvania. Here’s how he described it: “I finally sanded down that yellow birch cookie I cut from the big yellow birch that came down on the Tenderfoot Reserve this past June, oiled it to accentuate the rings, and counted them the best I could. I'm reasonably certain that my count is accurate. Would you believe 373 years? And that was from a cookie that was cut about 20 feet above the base and measured about 25" in diameter. The first 15 feet or so were mangled, twisted, and dry rotted. That tree could possibly be over 400 years old. Note in the photo [see the attached picture] that I started counting from the cambium layer to the center pith. The first three straight pins are marking 100-year intervals with the last section to the center being 73 years. The rings in the first 100-year section counted were extremely tiny and required the 10X magnifier to even see, suggesting that this tree was basically loitering during the last century of its life.”

tree cookie photo by Rod Sharka

             When I talk about tree seedling waiting in the shade, I’m talking about a lot of trees waiting in the shade, sugar maples being the best example. Besides their ability to live in shade for decades, sugar maples also produce enormous quantities of seeds, varying in one 12-year study from 40,000 per acre to over 5 million per acre on the same site (an acre is 208 feet on a side, or about 2/3 the length of a football field). The result is huge numbers of young seedlings occupying the forest floor, commonly 20,000 less than 12" tall per acre. One researcher estimated that 4,000 young seedlings spring up every year under one mature sugar maple, totaling over one million seedlings in the life of a 350 year old tree. Out of those only about 5% (about 50,000) last into the second year; maybe 1,400 live to 10 years; perhaps 35 grow over 20' tall; two may reach 150 years old; and one may be lucky enough to reach maturity.

sugar maple sea

            One other factor to consider in what trees will ultimately make it into the canopy is the impact of deer browse. Deer eat on average about 5 pounds of woody browse per day in the winter. Hemlock really struggles to survive deer browse, but sugar maples can withstand being browsed for many years. Thus sugar maple is almost certain to dominate forests like Sylvania when the current old-growth declines.

 

Cedar Waxwing Gluttony on Mountain Ash Berries

            We’ve planted a dozen mountain ash trees on our property, two of which are large enough now to be producing a good crop of berries. One of the trees was absolutely loaded with berries, that is until a flock of at least 20 cedar waxwings descended on it on 9/11 and ate every last berry. A few robins joined in the merriment, as did some yellow-rumped warblers and purple finches, but they were far outnumbered by the waxwings. 

            Now, I love cedar waxwings. They and their cousins, bohemian waxwings, are the most nattily dressed of our songbirds, elegant in their plumage in the manner of someone wearing a  tuxedo to a ball. And we planted the mountain ashes specifically to feed birds – the berries aren’t edible for humans. But we planted the trees to support birds visiting us in the winter, like pine grosbeaks and the aforementioned bohemian waxwings, not to feed birds in the autumn on their migration.

            Well, no one told these cedar waxwings. First come, first served, I guess. We’ll not be an attractive restaurant to visiting birds from Canada this winter, but we’ll still have helped some birds on their transitioning into winter. I’ll fuss about it more in January, but for now, it was quite amazing to watch the gluttonous appetites of a large flock of cedar waxwings. 

 

Ironwood Seeds

            Over the last few weeks, Mary and I have seen many ironwood trees – or hop hornbeams – absolutely loaded with seeds. What’s unique about ironwood seeds is that they’re encased in what looks like little inflated papery bags, which some folks see as similar to hops, thus the alternative name. The small seeds are shed in winter and blow along the surface of hard packed snow, “snow skittering” being just another in a series of clever adaptations plants employ to distribute their seeds away from home.

Ironwood seed "pods"

            Why ironwoods are so successfully producing seeds this year is beyond my ken, but I’m pleased to see their abundance. Ironwoods are modest in all ways, from their lack of importance as a wildlife food (the literature says the tiny seeds feed deer, rabbits, ruffed grouse, red squirrels, purple finches, and perhaps others, but only to a minor extent at best), to their size in the forest understory (up to 30 feet), to their non-distinctive leaves that turn a subtle soft, gold in autumn. Donald Culross Peattie writes, “Everything about this little tree is at once serviceable and self-effacing. Such a member of any society is easily overlooked, but well worth knowing.”

            What ironwood does excel in is strength. At 51 lbs. per cubic foot (compare to hemlock at 20 lbs. per cu. ft.), ironwood is heavy and extremely hard, considered 30% stronger than white oak. In the pioneer times of wooden equipment, ironwood was the choice for tool handles and wheel axles and spokes. And as a firewood, it’s only real rival is shagbark hickory. If you want the firewood that gives off the most BTUs in our area, this is your baby. 

 

Sightings – Baby Snappers, Chestnuts, and Yellow-rumped Warblers

            On 9/2, Mark Westphal spotted a baby snapping turtle in an area of his yard. He sent a photo of it and noted, “In an effort to save the little snapper from our curious canines, I carefully picked up the turtle and placed it into an official turtle transportation device, better known as an empty ice cream container. I walked it down several hundred  yards to the edge of a nearby pond where I gently released it, hopefully giving it a slightly better chance of surviving. The photo of the turtle makes me smile and wonder. It brought to mind the William Shakespeare quote. ‘The eyes are the windows to your soul.’ The look in the baby snapping turtle's eyes is so ancient, so determined for such a tiny young creature.”

            Susan Aiken sent me photos of American chestnuts that are growing on a golf course in Bayfield, many, many hundreds of miles out of their range. She noted, “There are three locations, each with a couple of trees, separated by several hundred feet.” 

            In the 1800s, one in every four hardwood trees in North America's eastern forests was an American chestnut. Together, chestnuts and oaks dominated nearly 20 million acres of forest from Maine to Florida and west to the Ohio Valley. Every spring so many chestnut trees erupted in white blossom that, from a distance, the hills appeared white with snow. But none of this happened in Wisconsin, or Michigan, or Minnesota for that matter. The natural range of American chestnut barely reached the border of Ohio and Indiana, so seeing some chestnuts anywhere in Wisconsin is unusual and a sign that someone planted them.

            Lastly, yellow-rumped warblers were moving through our area in good numbers over the weekend and into the start of the week. Most warblers are insect-eaters and have left already, but yellow-rumps have a more diversified diet employing a variety of foraging techniques, from fly-catching to foliage-gleaning for insects, and they’re also able to expand their diet to include a substantial amount of fruit. So, they can stay a bit longer in the North Country before heading south. 

 

Logging Near Water

            A number of people have said to me that they feel the DNR has been logging too close to lake and river shorelines. Here’s an article looking at the issue: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/09/07/a-hike-and-a-fight-northwoods-residents-say-dnr-is-violating-its-logging-rules/.

 

Celestial Events

            Tonight, 9/17, look in the southeast after dusk for Jupiter about 4° north of the waxing gibbous moon.

            The full moon, the “Harvest/Acorn/Leaves Changing Color” Moon, occurs on 9/20.

            The autumn equinox takes place on 9/22. The sun is now directly above the equator, and for us that means a brief moment when our days and nights are nearly equal to one another in length.

 

Thought for the Week

Beauty is not an extra luxury, an accidental experience that we happen to have if we are lucky. Beauty dwells at the heart of life . . . To recognize and celebrate beauty is to recognize the ultimate sacredness of experience, to glimpse the subtle embrace of belonging where we are wed to the divine. –  John O’Donohue

 

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