’Tis the season: To apply for artist-in-residence programs. Todd Marsee, a watercolor artist and graphic designer for Michigan Sea Grant, recently completed a three-week tour-of-residence duty at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and was featured in that Sea Grant’s Upwellings publication. He took more than 1,200 photos and produced nearly two dozen paintings during his National Park Service artist-in-residence time. “The residency gave me the time, space and focus to work diligently,” Todd says, recalling especially the blissfully limited access to internet and cellphone service. Todd also blogged about his life at Sullivan’s Cabin. Two of the five U.S. national parks around Lake Superior offer residence programs. Applications for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore must be postmarked no later than Dec. 31, 2017. The application period for Isle Royale National Park is until Feb. 16, 2018; Isle Royale also has a Teen Artist Exploration program with the same application deadline.
This Time It Was Personal: It’s no secret that the Northland and much of the Great Lakes region is in the midst of a snowy owl irruption this year, that cyclical larger-than-average southern migration of the impressive white raptors when their usual lemming and vole prey have their own cyclical decline. The local irruption has resulted in several injured or killed birds in the area and an uptick in wildlife rescues. A couple of weeks ago, one snowy owl was rescued from a steel vat at Alakef Coffee Roasters in Duluth and sent first to the local Wildwoods wildlife rehab center and then to the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota to have the oily coffee residue properly removed. This week the coffee snowy (fondly nicknamed “Mokka” by the Alakef staff after master roaster Ezra Bennett found it in a roasting vat) got a chauffeured drive back north this week in the car of a couple near and dear to our Lake Superior Magazine hearts – the sister and brother-in-law of our publisher, Cindy Hayden. Bonnie Reyers joined her husband, Jan, on the trip to the Twin Ports. Jan has volunteered several years with the University of Minnesota Raptor Center and does “flights” (exercising the birds on a tether) and transportation of birds. He did the flight for this owl and offered to release it, glad it had recovered while many of the snowy owls have not been as lucky. It is the only one released so far, according to a story by MPR about the irruption and the challenge for wildlife rescuers. It featured a video of Jan releasing the owl near Billings Park in Superior (filmed by Bonnie). For the trip up, Jan was instructed to drive with as few stops as possible, without music or loud chatter and, if possible, with the heat off because owls overheat easily. The bird was contained in a ventilated box surrounded by ice. The release was short, sweet and without memorable incident, just the way a good release should be. Nice work, Jan and Bonnie, Raptor Center and Wildwoods staffs and the Alakef crew. It took a lot of folk to get this young raptor back on the wing.
Speaking of Spectacular Migrations: This shot titled “Pancake Migration, Superior, Wisconsin” is one of photographer John Heino’s favorite snaps this year. Each day this month, John’s posting his 2017 favorites on Facebook, encouraging his social media followers to vote for their top picks. He’ll make a print of the winning image for one of the lucky folk who voted for it. In 2016, readers of Lake Superior Magazine got to meet John Heino and fellow photographer John Kay Alexander through their images on a photographic circle of Lake Superior.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s … Hey Where Is It? It was a meteorite, striking near Thunder Bay this week and caused a loud boom that shook nearby houses, reports the CBC. Police responded to the area, finding a hole about a metre wide and collecting a bag of dirt. It looks like a meteorite strike, according to Lakehead University geology professor Stephen Kissin, called to visit the site, but the hurtling space object is missing. “This would be the first recorded meteorite fall in northern Ontario, because this is a terrible place to look for meteorites,” Kissin told the CBC, because the size of the region, its harsh terrain and sparse population makes it rare for anyone to actually see a meteorite landing. Thunder Bay CBC reporter Jeff Walters posted this photo of the hole on his Twitter feed and included a video in his report.
Keeping with Our Bird Themed Edition: Just one more quick bird note. Meet Grip, the newest addition to Duluth’s Lake Superior Zoo family, whose coming out debut was this week. Grip, named for a raven in Charles Dickens' historic novel Barnaby Rudge, was a wild bird rehabilitated at the Wildwoods center in Duluth. Unfortunately, Grip is unable to fly and has been deemed unfit to release back into the wild. He should lead a comfortable life in the zoo, though, with plenty of people watching in his future.
Of Sun & Steel: After removing some 20 surplus buildings, Essar Steel Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, reports it has plenty of space to cultivate a solar farm as one of three sustainable energy projects along with a turbine to recover energy from its #7 blast furnace and a low-pressure steam turbine tapping its steam facility, according to SooToday.
An Oldie But a Goodie: Friends of the Superior Carnegie Library have announced acceptance of a purchase agreement with Osterlund Architects of Superior, Wisconsin and Raleigh, North Carolina. Osterlund plans to renovate the historic Superior building and open it to lease for offices and business startups, reports Shelley Nelson of the Superior Telegram. “Superior has the distinction of being home of the first and oldest of 63 Carnegie Libraries built in Wisconsin,” Friends of the Superior Carnegie Library reported in its announcement. “Andrew Carnegie gave the City of Superior a grant to build the library in 1901 and the building was completed in 1902. The Library served the people of Superior from its completion until 1991 and then stood empty when the Library relocated.” Since the library relocated, multiple others have purchased the building but for various reasons were unable to rehabilitate it. When the Superior City Council voted to condemn the building in 2006, the friends group formed with 80 citizens from Duluth, Superior, Minneapolis and even Eagle River, Wisconsin, pooled their own money to buy it, says Bob Swanson, executive director of the group. They replaced broken windows, cleaned around the structure, removed graffiti and stayed the condemnation order. The group then focused on selling the building to a developer who would preserve the building’s architectural and historical character. Based on rehabilitation of similar historic buildings elsewhere, the group believes Osterlund is that perfect fit and will give back to Superior the treasured gift Carnegie once also gave the city. “It just has a presence,” Bob says. To see photos of the current condition link here.
Saving Buffalo Reef: Storms earlier this month postponed a public meeting about the long-term recovery of Buffalo Reef off the eastern waters along the Keweenaw Peninsula. The reef, a critical spawning habitat, is in danger of being covered by the migration of stamp sands from past mining operations into the Lake. Stamp sands are the waste material from the copper ore-crushing process. “Nearly a quarter of the annual lake trout yield from Lake Superior’s Michigan waters comes from within 50 miles of Buffalo Reef. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission estimates the annual economic benefit of the reef at $1.7 million,” the Michigan DNR reported in advance of a postponed Dec. 5 public meeting. The public meeting, organized by the multi-entity task force concerned with the recovery, has been rescheduled for 6-8 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Lake Linden-Hubbell High School in Lake Linden. Emergency dredging in November, done by Marine Tech of Duluth, moved 9,000 cubic feet of sand from the reef to a beach farther north and helped to buy time as a $3.1 million cleanup effort begins. John Pepin of the Michigan DNR did a history of the stamp sands problem stemming from copper mining. “By the end of the copper mining boom, the operation of various mines in the region deposited a total of roughly half a billion tons of stamp sands throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula,” John writes. The wave action of the Lake has drifted the gray sands southward.
A Little Lights Update: The Duluth News Tribune’s Brady Slater visited with Marcia Hales to chat about what motivates her to turn on those 300,000+ lights each year. Lyanne Valdez of KBJR also dropped by Marcia’s for a visit.
Rob Karwath/North Coast Communications
Lake Superior Magazine Publisher Paul Hayden and Editor Konnie LeMay (on the ends) deliver the 2017 Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award to Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation President Holly Sampson and Board Chair Jim Zastrow.
An Honor Delivered: The board of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation welcomed LSM Publisher Paul Hayden and Editor Konnie LeMay this week to deliver the 2017 Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award. The foundation was announced as the winner of the award in the October/November issue of the magazine. The award itself is a new design this year and we were pleased to present it to the worthy foundation, which last year reached a landmark $50 million in grants and scholarships since its founding. Every good award deserves a posed picture and this one features, from left, Publisher Paul Hayden, DSACF President Holly Sampson, DSACF Board Chair Jim Zastrow and Editor Konnie LeMay.
Photo & graphic credits: Todd Marsee; Bonnie Reyers; John Heino; Jeff Walters/CBC Thunder Bay; Rob Karwath/North Coast Communications; Friends of the Superior Carnegie Library; Michigan DNR; Rob Karwath/North Coast Communications.