Farmers Know, Maybe: Remember the annual Farmer's Almanac and how we old-timers would look forward to its weather predictions for the coming year? Well, the 202-year-old publication has announced its Winter 2020-21 Forecast online for the United States and Canada. First, it summed up the coming season thusly: "Cold and snowy in the north. Drought in the west. And everything crazy in between!" which aligns nicely with the rest of 2020, we think. "If you love the cold of winter, you’re going to love our forecast if you live in the northern half of the country," according to the site. "Our long-range forecast is calling for a cold winter with normal to below-normal temperatures in areas from the Great Lakes and Midwest, westward through the Northern and Central Plains, and Rockies." As to our part of Ontario, it predicts, "farther west, over western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and eastern British Columbia will experience much colder than normal winter temperatures. … If you like snow, then you should head out to western Quebec and Ontario, where snowier-than-normal conditions are forecast." A video narrated by Managing Editor Sandi Duncan sums up the coming season with a few nicely placed plugs for the publication. What do we most appreciate about the Farmer's Almanac? That it actually looks back at its predictions for last winter and owns up to what went right and what went Arctic Oscillation awry. Could weather nerds get any happier?
It's Official: As of Thursday this week, the St. Louis Estuary National Water Trail got official designation from U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt. Within this major tributary to Lake Superior, the trail covers 16.5 miles and more than 12,000 acres of the St. Louis River and sports 11 distinct routes (loops) logging 73 miles. The designation is part of a broader national announcement that establishes 30 new national recreation trails in 25 states, adding more than 1,275 miles to the National Trails System. The St. Louis River Alliance is a manager of the trail and posted the story of the trail in a Vimeo video. “We are grateful for this national designation, and we, along with our partners, are celebrating this milestone that will help people rebuild their relationship to this amazing treasure,” says Kris Eilers, executive director of the alliance. “What is most exciting to me about the SLRE National Water Trail is that it is a direct result of decades of work that has been done to clean up the River. It has been a unifying project to collaborate on and I know it will make our River communities an even greater place to live and work.”
Far in Time If Not in Distance: "MYSTERY SOLVED!!" Lynn BeBeau of Ashland, Wis., announced on her Facebook page recently. What was the mystery? Lynn and her husband, Mike, had discovered a small red-white-and-blue wooden boat buried in the sand of a remote Lake Superior beach. On the bottom was this message: "I am traveling to the ocean. Please put me back in the water. Will you send information on your whereabouts to: Lakewood School Room 116 & 118" and the school's Duluth address. After relaunching the little boat with its cargo of children's hopes, they posted photos with a note, "Sail on, little boat, sail on." But social media being social (and thanks to some darn nice photos and sleuthing by Lynn), word got around and the original launching of the wooden vessel came to light along with a photo of teachers Bonnie Fritch and Brenda Schell handling the, well, I guess you could call it a "side launch." Soon after, Lynn posted: "This little boat started its 'journey to the ocean' 27 years ago after a teacher read Paddle to the Sea to her class❤️ With the help of the Duluth school administration and social media, the teacher who launched this boat was located this afternoon. Hope you all enjoyed this wonderful unexpected feel good story." Three teachers toss boats into the Lake that day, though only the red-white-blue one has turned up again. The Holling C. Holling's classic Paddle story, of course, follows a little toy canoe launched from Lake Nipigon that travels the Great Lakes all the way to France. "This little boat has already reached the ocean and beyond!!" Lynn tells us, and that is true given the wide national coverage the story received, including this story by Miriam Marini in the Detroit Free Press. We also asked Lynn about the lovely sunset shots, and she admits to capturing great images on hikes, but modestly adds, "the sunset on this particular night was fabulous … and I can’t take credit for that!! … So amazing. I’m so glad the little boat found us, and we get to be a part of something that puts a smile on people’s faces. The world needs that now more than ever❤️🌊⛵️." So true and we hope those smiles sail on!
The Last Mainland Caribou: Caribou, once prevalent within the Big Lake neighborhood, had diminished to a few smatterings in Ontario on the mainland and the Slate Islands. Migrating wolves, taking advantage of ice bridges in 1994, 2014 and 2015, first decimated the caribou of the Slates, which were moved to Michipicoten Island, and then a few years ago, wolves arrived on that island. So the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry decided to move those caribou back to the Slates (now wolf free) and then, because their main food source had been airlifted out, participated in a transfer of a few wolves from Michipcoten to Isle Royale as part of that island park's reinstating of the wolf population. Now John Myers of the Duluth News Tribune writes that while the Slate Islands 'bou may be thriving (doubled from 15 to 30), the mainland caribou seem to have disappeared. There is hope that 10 or so remain, but they need government intervention, researchers told John. “These last Lake Superior mainland caribou are now at the point where they need urgent help,’’ Gordon Eason, a retired MNR biologist, told John. “Otherwise they will be eliminated from this area which has been their home since the glaciers left.” In 2015, Cheryl Lyn Dybas did a story for Lake Superior Magazine anticipating the caribou decline called "The Last of the Gray Ghosts" with this photo by Brent West of one on the Slates. According to Cheryl's story, "Woodland caribou were extirpated from the Michigan mainland by 1912 and from Isle Royale by 1928. Caribou disappeared from Minnesota in the 1940s, save for sightings of two animals in northeastern Minnesota near the border during the winter of 1981-82." She also shared the origin of its name: "The Anishinaabe people call it adik, but most know it by its Anglicized Mi’kmaq name, qalipu – caribou." It's a name we hope we can claim as woodland residents into the Big Lake's future.
Rounding the Corner: Minnesota's North Shore along "the All-American Highway 61," presented some logistical problems for him, notes Lake Superior Circle Tourer Andy Kaknevicius – mainly that he didn't have enough time there. "This Lake Superior Circle Tour series only had 3-1/2 days to cover the North Shore and Duluth. It can't be done in such a short time. There is so much to explore and enjoy along Minnesota's North Shore Coast that it would take weeks and/or several trips to truly appreciate it," says Andy. "AND the same goes for the City of Duluth, an incredibly charming little big City. The major Port of Duluth and Superior, and the related industries, are dovetailed with tourism in a very unique way. Hopefully Episode 6 will give you a small taste of this exciting section of the Lake Superior Circle Tour. This series is bent on returning to the North Star State as soon as possible." So enjoy this section's whirlwind tour … and hope for an open border and fresh visit soon from Andy, our Circler from Canada.
A Big Lake Community Loss: We sadly mark the passing of Capt. Donald "Donny" Robert Kilpela, 66, of Copper Harbor, Mich., who died on Oct. 15 from the complications of a stroke. Donny was born October 21, 1953, in Coronado, Calif., grew up in Detroit and eventually moved to the Upper Peninsula, where he attended Michigan Technological University. As his obituary notes on the Erickson-Crowley-Peterson Funeral Home website: "Donny was a natural athlete who excelled in many sports. He was a varsity tennis player in high school, and his bullet-like Frisbee throw called a 'thumber' made him an All-American Guts Frisbee player in 1973. He was an exceptional golfer specializing in deadly putting and getting out of the woods of the Keweenaw Mountain Golf Course. For 25 years he ran the Black Fly Golf Open during the most virulent black flies in late May each year. Capt. Don began his career as a 17 year old deckhand on the passenger ferry Isle Royale Queen II in 1971 when his parents bought the ferry service from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale National Park. In 1975, he became a U.S. Merchant Marine Officer and served as a captain and partner in his parents' firm until his death. He sailed the open waters of Lake Superior in all 49 seasons that the Isle Royale Ferry Service operated. Though he was a fun-loving eccentric, Capt. Don was a skilled and courageous mariner. He safely brought tens of thousands of people to and from Isle Royale during his years of service on the greatest and most dangerous of the Great Lakes. He faced some of the most challenging conditions Lake Superior can present to the mariner. It is a great sadness that Capt. Don never retired to receive his deserved recognition as one of Lake Superior's greatest passenger ferry skippers. During his off-seasons, Donny discovered his talent for and creativity in drawing and painting. He published a daily cartoon strip about his witty gang of ecologically-minded friends, the Earthlinks. He then started painting abstracts that have attracted wide admiration. He was also widely known across the Copper Country as a humorous storyteller, an enthusiastic promoter of Copper Harbor and Isle Royale, and later a passionate thimbleberry picker. In December, with Copper Harbor’s exceptional snows, Donny launched and worked tirelessly on Copper Harbor's annual tradition of a large display of Christmas lights across the village's community park." Among the list of surviving relatives are his parents, Capt. Donald and Elizabeth Kilpela of Copper Harbor, brothers Capt. Ben (Marsha) of Mason and Copper Harbor, Capt. John (Karma) of Calumet, sisters Susanne of Hancock and Jocelyn and Lisa (Cormac) Ronan, both of Arvada, Colo., and his best friend and longtime companion Tammy Jo Cloutier of Copper Harbor. The obituary goes on to note, "Donny was also survived by the tens of Copper Harbor residents who loved him, fought with him, worked with him and were in turn loved by him because it was where he just wanted to be." The family invites mask-wearing, social distancing friends to join them for an Oct. 27 evening coffee social anytime from 4-9 p.m. in the Siskiwit Reception Hall on Pine Street in Calumet. There will be a memoriam in Copper Harbor in the summer of 2021. Donations in Donny's memory may be made to the Copper Harbor Improvement Association to fund the Christmas Lights.
Wolf Man: Researchers have called Lake Superior “an ocean in a test tube,” referring to how its massive size creates some ocean qualities, but contained by four definitive shores making it a more manageable study. If this is true, one might call Isle Royale, largest island on Lake Superior, a test tube within a test tube. For coming up on six decades, Isle Royale has proven an amazing “test tube” for the study of how interactions between a major predator and its prey affect both populations and the environment around them. L. David Mech, then a graduate student researcher who first flew over Isle Royale in 1959 to witnessed the moose hunting techniques of a pack of island wolves, would later launch the famed Wolf-Moose study on that island, now a U.S. national park. It is the longest-running study of prey-predators. In a newly released book, Wolf Island, Discovering the Secrets of a Mythic Animal, Dave (whose last name is pronounced “Meech”) writes about his first three years living and studying on the island, laying the foundation of that ground-breaking study. This research memoir gives a snapshot of the island as it existed some 60 years ago and helps us better see the progression of time on the isle woodlands and shorescapes for those who know the island today. It also lets us join in the adventure of this early research, allowing a taste for the excitement of Dave’s own hunt for knowledge alongside the hunts of his research topics. That adventure wraps in the intellectual discoveries along with the physical challenges, like snowshoeing to a wolf kill (with the pack close by). Covered in the book is another Isle Royale tradition started by Dave – taking his family to stay on the island in summers, living in the home site of a commercial fisherman. Wolf Island is written with outdoor author Greg Breining and is dedicated to pilot Don Murray, who flew Dave, as well as many of the researchers who would follow. He literally gave wings to the research and an ability to witness what otherwise may never have been seen. Dave would go on to become one of the world’s best-known wolf experts, recognized for spending time with the wolves of Ellesmere Island in the Arctic and for founding the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn., where he continues as a board member. It is via the International Wolf Center that Dave will be officially launching his book in a virtual presentation next Tuesday (Oct. 27) 5-6 p.m. Both Dave and Greg will speak and those wishing to join in can register online. You can find more info about Dave and his research online, too. One interesting research modification we found on Dave's website is the concept of the “alpha male,” which he traces to his 1968 book The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, a book he writes is “currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it.” While many of the observations in it remain valid, Dave says, he holds a more refined, knowledgeable take on the “alpha male.” “‘Alpha’ implies competing with others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle,” he writes. “However, most wolves who lead packs achieved their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely breeders, or parents, and that’s all we call them today …”
Photo & graphic credits: Farmer's Almanac; St. Louis River Alliance; Lynn BeBeau; Brent West; Andy Kaknevicius; Erickson-Crowley-Peterson Funeral Home; L. David Mech; University of Minnesota Press