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A brief history of the Ontario shore caribou and their status as of 2022 Read more

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SPARKY STENSAAS

Most would not call these birds lovely. For that, we have warblers. Few would consider their caws and quorks melodious, either. The calls of the Common Raven and American Crow just seem raucous. Read more

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Minerals of the Lake Superior Region

Courtesy A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum

Iron and copper are far from the only commercial minerals around this vast lake. Gold, platinum, silver, nickel, and gemstones such as amethyst, agates and even diamonds have been found here. Read more

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Second Place, 11th Annual Photo Contest

David L. Kohne

Lightning is a powerful subject, as these photographers showed in their entries from past Lake Superior photo contests. Read more

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Peregrine Falcons Return to U.P. Bridges

MDOT

Peregrine falcons have returned to the Portage Lake Lift Bridge between Houghton and Hancock again this year, and area students built nest boxes for them. Falcons have also successfully nested on the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge this year. Read more

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Finding Fabulous Fungi

Sparky Stensaas

Dead Man’s Fingers, Tree Ear, Velvet Foot, Toothed Jelly, Bear’s Head Tooth, The Blusher, Brain Fungus, Fuzzy Foot. Revel in the staggering shapes and colors of our North Woods fungi – and their evocative names. Read more

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How Did You Get Here? A Naturalist’s View of Isle Royale

Larry Stone

By air, by water or by ice, it’s fascinating to imagine how such a diversity of seemingly fragile organisms came to colonize the largest island on the world’s largest freshwater Lake. Read more

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Oh, Deer: The Buck-Naked Truth about Our Local Cervids

Paul Sundberg

It seems white-tails have always been in our North Woods, but they are immigrants. Until the mid-1800s, moose and caribou outnumbered deer in the mature forest surrounding the Big Lake. How did that flip? Read more

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Lake Superior Journal: Everything Will Be Owl Right

Mike Mikulich

The owl didn’t move much as I photographed it in the tall grass. Did it have something in its talons that made it stay put? I shifted angles. The owl spooked and flapped awkwardly, settling only a few feet away. Something was definitely wrong. Read more

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Farewell Pine

Molly Hoeg

Waking in the early morning hours to blinding lightning, constant thunder and howling winds did little to prepare us for the devastation that we would find when dawn came – including the loss of a favorite pine tree. Read more

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Our National Parks

John McCormick

We celebrate our Lake Superior national parks, from Apostle Islands to Pictured Rocks, with these brief introductions. We encourage you to “Find Your Park(s)” all around the Big Lake. Read more

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Last of the Gray Ghosts

Brent West

In the boreal forest north of Thunder Bay, two researchers begin their search for a mysterious North Woods denizen, a pale being sometimes called the gray ghost that passes silently through the black spruce and jack pines. Read more

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Lake Superior Journal: A Moose in the Rearview Mirror

Diane Larson

We had traveled a little more than a quarter mile from the intersection when I happened to look in my rearview mirror. A large dark animal stood in the middle of the road a good distance behind us. I let out a squeal and hit the brakes. Read more

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As you marveled at the beauty of the night sky, have you ever wondered why you – of Scandinavian, Ojibwe or Irish descent, perhaps – are seeing Greek guys up there? A Duluth art exhibit examines the constellations of the region's indigenous people. Read more

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Come Over, Come Over, Piping Plover

Ted Gostomski

Historically, hundreds of piping plovers made nests beside the Great Lakes, but those numbers plummeted after decades of habitat loss and human disturbance. Nearly wiped out 30 years ago, the small shorebirds have made a Big Lake comeback. Read more

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Ruffed Grouse

David Brislance

A familiar sound echoes over the ridges of Minnesota’s Sawtooth Mountains – muffled, rhythmic thumps of wings beating against soft-feathered bodies. Male ruffed grouse are ready to rumble, showing off their stuff to catch a female’s eye and ear. Read more

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Rolf Peterson

A solid ice bridge over Lake Superior has formed between Isle Royale and the mainland, an increasingly rare link that could bring new life – quite literally – to an isolated and inbred Isle Royale National Park wolf population facing extirpation. Read more

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High Falls on the Pigeon River

Paul L. Hayden

The High Falls on the Pigeon River, on the border between the United States and Canada in northern Minnesota, experienced almost double its normal flow after heavy rains during the week of May 20, 2013. Read more

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John Shibley / LSSU

Recent senior thesis projects by Lake Superior State University biology students. Read more

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John Shibley

Biologists from Lake Superior State and Algoma University have been guiding a team of students conducting surveys and monitoring and protecting piping plover nests. The project aims to help the endangered bird’s survival. Read more

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