U.S. Coast Guard
Copper Harbor Light
Seth Honemann from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation team in Duluth helped repair Copper Harbor Light this winter.
Coast Guard keeps a light on
Justin P. Hicks, writing for MLive:
Kevin Desautels and Seth Honemann were in Duluth, Minn. when they received notice that the Copper Harbor Light had gone out.
Despite heavy snowfall from the night before, the petty officers for the U.S. Coast Guard set out to restore power at the lighthouse located in northeastern Keweenaw County.
The mission took place in December, but the Coast Guard just posted about it this week. The officers, from the Aids to Navigation team in Duluth, found the access road unplowed when they arrived. They hauled their gear more than a mile through 3 feet of fresh snow to reach the light. (That task might have been a lot easier this weekend, with a forecast of partly cloudy and temps in the 40s at Copper Harbor.)
Recovery options for the Nemadji River
After a heavy rain, it’s a common sight at Lake Superior tributaries – the plume of red-brown water. But some waterways discharge more sediment than others, often with big impacts on water quality. John Myers writes for the Duluth News Tribune:
The U.S. Geological Survey reported years ago that the Nemadji has the highest sediment load of any Lake Superior tributary in Minnesota or Wisconsin — more than 100,000 tons each year. That's like backing up 21 dump trucks and unloading clay into the lake every day, all year.
It wasn't always like this. In the 1800s, the Nemadji and its tributaries ran much slower and clearer. Past reports have credited the problem to intensive logging, farming, road construction and development.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency just released a set of reports on the watershed and ways to reduce the flow of sediment and pollutants into Lake Superior. Public comments will be accepted until March 15.
No ice road or ice caves, but winter fun remains
Dan Kraker of Minnesota Public Radio checks in with the still-running Madeline Island Ferry Line:
There ought to be a road here, made of ice. Lake Superior should be frozen solid, and the Island Queen should be snug in dry dock for the winter.
But there's no road this winter, nothing's solid and though it's February, the Island Queen is still working in open water, making the 25-minute trip between Bayfield and the town of La Pointe on Madeline Island eight times a day.
Over at the Apostle Islands mainland ice caves, there’s some pancake ice along the shore, but it’s nowhere near solid – and temperatures might climb to 50 degrees today and tomorrow. Over-the-ice access to the caves looks very unlikely this winter.
Despite the warmup, local ski hills still have plenty of snow. In Duluth, all of Spirit Mountain’s runs remain open. Other ski areas report the same.
Tettegouche State Park expands its naturalist programs: The Minnesota park has offered enrichment activities for seven years and continues to grow with offerings like survival skills and snowshoe making, reports Jamey Malcomb of the Lake County News-Chronicle.
Thunder Bay is now an asteroid: Locals successfully lobbied the International Astronomical Union to name an asteroid after the city, Leith Dunick of TBNewsWatch reports.
Young naturalists start group in Grand Marais, Minnesota: The Nordic Nature Group, whose members are ages 9 to 14, picks up trash, organizes hikes and speaks about climate change. WTIP Radio spoke to three of the members.
Supporters hope to save Thunder Bay’s wildlife exhibit: “Friends of Chippewa Park are still collecting signatures for a petition to save the wildlife exhibit. As of Wednesday, the petition has collected more than 750 signatures. Thunder Bay city council voted in favour of closing the wildlife exhibit at Chippewa Park as part of budget deliberations last week,” Doug Diaczuk reports for TBNewsWatch. Unless the council changes its mind on Tuesday, this weekend will be the last for the exhibit.
Two rescued after plunge through ice in the Keweenaw: They were snowshoeing where the Portage Lake Ship Canal meets Lake Superior and couldn’t pull themselves from the water, writes Kurt Hauglie of the Mining Gazette.
Photos: Paul Sundberg captured dazzling ice formations on the Minnesota shore. Will they survive this weekend’s near-record warmth?
Ontonagon officials hopeful for new business life in former shipyard, reports WLUC-TV’s Rachel Droze.
Wildlife video: The beaver who didn’t plan ahead, filmed at Minnesota’s Sax-Zim Bog by naturalist Sparky Stensaas.