North Shore Morning

The Violence Prevention Center in Grand Marais will be offering a fall support group for survivors of sexual harm. WTIP volunteer Yvonne Mills spoke  with the Center's Marybeth Wilkes and Anna Sorensen on North Shore Morning.
 

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Even though there have been late summer days, we’re transitioning into autumn. WTIP’s Jay Andersen talks with naturalist Chel Anderson about autumn around the corner.

(Photo by peupleloup on Flickr)

Zebra mussels, curly-leaf pondweed and faucet snails are some Minnesota aquatic invasives that so far haven’t made their way to Cook County. WTIP host Jana Berka spoke with aquatic invasive species coordinator Amanda Weberg about these threats, and what can be done to keep them out of our area.

For more information contact Amanda Weberg at 218-387-2792.

(Photo by Eyeweed on Flickr)

Last summer a group of students and adults from Bayfield, Wisconsin, traveled to Lake Baikal in Russia. The trip was part of a program to learn about each other’s ‘Great Lakes.’ Recently, a group from Lake Baikal visited Bayfield to experience the culture and landscape of Lake Superior. High school teachers Rick Erickson and Sergei Baikov along with students Katya and Vennessa spoke with WTIP's Martha Marnocha about their observations.

To learn more about the Lake Superior-Lake Baikal connection, go to bayfieldbaikal.weebly.com/.
 

Chapter 23: Birthday Balloons

(Photo courtesy of Loren Kerns on Flickr)

Public Health and Human Services has back to school safety tips for students, parents and community members. WTIP volunteer Sherrie Lindskog spoke with Sara Hadley of Cook County Public Health and Human Services on North Shore Morning.

Field Notes with Molly Hoffman can be heard every Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning between 8:00 and 10:00.  Support for Field Notes comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

 
My, oh my, where has August gone? Entering this last weekend, it seems like we just started chapter eight.

Our planet celebrates this passing monthly segment with the full, “blueberry” moon Saturday night, before we head off into the last calendar days of summer.

With the warm season recreational time winding down, the Trail is busy, busy, busy. Visiting wilderness enthusiasts are eagerly trying to grab just a little bit more of this peaceful paradise before school and other activities begin to reconsume their lives. In the meantime, while our seasonal neighbors are starting to bring in boats, docks and closing the cabins, those of us residing here full time are engulfed with the sudden thought of checking items off our “getting ready for winter” list.

Yours truly still has a couple of pressing items on my late summer “to do’s” with one more building side to stain and firewood, and although split, yet to stack. Then the usual “close down” winterizing tasks commence, remembering tolerable days in September and October whiz by pretty quickly.

Our past week up the Trail has been seasonally comfortable. In fact, the Wildersmith neighborhood experienced a first taste of fall with a couple mornings slipping into the high 30s. To confirm that atmospheric things are beginning to change, winds were howling cold cries like those of a winter storm as I started scribing the local scoop this past Sunday night and into Monday.

We were issued some moisture over the past weekend, although accumulation around this place was nothing to write home about. The area did, however, receive a good soaking of at least an inch and one-half a few days after our last radio meeting, thus wetting down the crispy forest landscape.

There has been at least one positive consequence in regard to the hot time this territory experienced a couple weeks ago. Perhaps we can blame it on the “global warming thing,” then again maybe not. For whatever reason these northern border residents have already picked ripened tomatoes. If the sun returns to hold off an early nipping, the projection is we’ll be having several more by the time this broadcast column comes your way. The scarlet fruit happening is highly unusual for us as there have been only a couple times over our first 16 years where our lonesome plant escaped frost and cold to provide harvest opportunity. So BLTs will now be possible with a home grown flavor!

Air traffic at our hummer feeding station is continuing at an unrivaled pace. If air traffic controllers had to deal with such unguided landings and departures like we have, they’d surely be going stark raving mad! By the way, final hummingbird departures should have occurred during the past few days according to the Farmers’ Almanac.

Recently, another active avian gathering was shared by a lady residing down the road. It was a golden day at her feeder when the unit was a sudden stop-over for a flock of goldfinches. She sent me a digital of the flashy lemon-colored birds having lunch, which I share with you on my website column at WTIP.org - dropping down under “community voices.”

Gathering is on the increase at ground level in our yard, too, as neighborhood squirrels and their distant cousins, chipmunks, are packing away their own harvest. Seeds and morsels of all kinds are being stashed here and there. They are constantly underfoot seeking a hand-out whenever I step out the door, no matter how quiet I try to be.

I read sad commentary in the local paper recently of an orphaned bear cub in the county which escaped a feverish rescue effort by local law enforcement only to succumb to a tortuous shore side run-around by a bunch of rowdy people. The chase panicked the little critter to take to the lake, where it ran out of energy and drowned.

Living in this wild area, we are often found to be dealing with what authorities call nuisance bears. I often contemplate there are probably not nuisance bears at all, just nuisance people setting them up for a bad rap. Have we no common sense or conscience?

This is Fred Smith, on the Trail, at Wildersmith! Leaf peeping fortunes are just around the next curve along the Gunflint Trail, be on the look-out!
 
 

It’s a small spider that hides in plain view -- it can because it changes color. WTIP’s Jay Andersen talks with naturalist Chel Anderson about crab spiders.

(Photo by John Flannery on Flickr)

There’s a lot happening at the Cook County YMCA this fall. WTIP volunteer Mark Abrahamson talked with the YMCA’s Emily Marshall and Betsy Blaisdell on North Shore Morning. 

COOK COUNTY COMMUNITY YMCA
105 W 5th Street
Grand Marais, MN 55604
Phone: 218 387-3386