North Shore Morning

Dr. Seth Moore is Director of Biology and Environment with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. 

The Grand Portage Reservation is located in the extreme northeast corner of Minnesota, on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Cook County. Bordered on the north by Canada, on the south and east by Lake Superior and on the west by Grand Portage State Forest, the reservation encompasses a historic fur trade site on beautiful Grand Portage Bay.

Dr. Moore and the staff at Grand Portage Trust Lands engage in fisheries and wildlife research projects throughout the year, working with moose, wolves, fish, deer, grouse, and environmental issues.  Dr. Moore appears regularly on WTIP North Shore Community Radio, talking about the band's current and ongoing natural resource projects, and other environmental and health related issues of concern.

In this segment, Dr. Moore talks with WTIP's Carah Thomas about wild rice.  Produced by Carah Thomas.

Wild Rice photo by Eli Sagor via Google Images

Construction is winding up at Birch Grove School and Community Center in Tofte.  The new playground is mostly done, thanks to the efforts of many volunteers.  The wood fired bread-baking oven is also nearly done, except for a few finishing touches.  The warming house has a little way to go, but won’t be needed until the rink freezes.  The way it’s felt lately around here, that could be next week, but more likely in early December.
 
All the Birch Grove projects will be celebrated at a grand opening on Saturday, September 29, starting at 2 p.m.  There will be wood- fired pizza served along with the cutting of the ribbon.  The Cook County Community Fund will be holding their board meeting at Birch Grove at the same time.  The Community Fund has long been a generous supporter of Birch Grove, along with many other important community efforts.  The Fund will be announcing their latest grant recipients at the celebration.  Again – it starts at 2 p.m. and you can call Patty at 663-7977 if you have questions.
 
There will be another grand opening celebration in Tofte the same day, September 29, at 4 p.m., for the new single-track mountain bike trails at Britton Peak.  Meet at the Sugarbush parking lot, two miles up the Sawbill Trail.
 
West End residents, remember that there are some interesting courses being offered soon by Cook County Higher Education.  Mark Abrahamson will be leading a course in outdoor emergency care.  This 100 hour course is offered through the National Ski Patrol and is a combination of online lecture and onsite skill training.  The course begins on October 12 and takes place on Fridays and Saturdays.  Classes will be held at the North Shore Campus and at Lutsen Mountains Ski Area.  
 
Don Hammer will be teaching his excellent Basic Welding course.  I took his course a couple of years ago and can personally vouch for Don’s skill as a welder and a teacher.  I passed the course, but when Don was critiquing my finished project, he asked that when I showed it to people, I not mention that I made it in his class.  I think he was kidding…
 
The Minnesota Office of Tourism has confirmed the feeling we’ve had here in Cook County that tourism business was up a little bit this year.  Their research is showing that lodging is up 3 to 5 % statewide.  Most of the other tourism related businesses are reporting a strong year as well.  A couple of other positive indicators include increased visitor counts at the tourism information centers across the state and increased inquiries to the Office of Tourism.  My own indicator of statewide tourism related to fishing is that the DNR ran out of fishing regulation booklets, that are handed out with each fishing license sold, about a month ago.
 
I’d like to add my condolences to the Pavelich and Burmachuk families for the tragic and untimely loss of the wonderful Kara Pavelich.  Kara was a life-long resident of Tofte and Lutsen and had roots in the county that go back to the pioneer days.  She made many contributions to the community, but a whole generation of West End residents of a certain age will always remember her as their talented, patient and lovely piano teacher.  She will certainly be missed and remembered fondly by all who knew her.

The trees and birds and everything are getting ready for winter. In this edition of North Woods Naturalist, Jay Andersen of WTIP North Shore Community Radio spoke to local naturalist Chel Anderson about autumn.

Deane Morrison is a science writer at the University of Minnesota, where she authors the Minnesota Starwatch column. In this edition of Northern Sky, Deane explains some of the autumn constellations and other objects that we can see this time of year: the Great Square of Pegasus, the Andromeda galaxy, the circlet of Pisces, and the Y-shaped "Water Jar," an asterism in Aquarius. There's also the Harvest Moon, Venus & Regulus in the morning sky, and much more.

Read this month's Starwatch column.

Photo courtesy of Eric Magnuson via Flickr.
 

It’s sports galore at CCMS! This week on Cook County Middle School News, teacher Pam Taylor gives the lowdown on all the great things happening with Cook County Athletics. We hear from John Muus on CCHS Varsity Tennis, April Wahlstrom on CCMS/CCHS Cross Country, Jen Sutton on 7^th Grade Girls Volleyball and others!

There’s so much going on at Sawtooth Elementary! Kara Ramey of the Youth Radio Project brings us this edition of Sawtooth Elementary School News. This week, she fills us in on the first edition of Viking Voice Monthly which will be going home with students soon, International Peace Day events, the 100^th year anniversary of the Cook County Courthouse, and much more.

The past is never that far away. Everything that has happened in this tiny corner of the world is present today. In this edition of Moments in Time, Rick Anderson shares a story that cuts to the heart of how the people who came before us live on in memory and in spirit.

It’s official, the calendar says that our fall excursion is on schedule along the Gunflint Byway. For a day now, east is truly east and west is west with our daytime luminary, Sol.
 
Although autumn has been elbowing its way up the Trail for a few weeks, it seemed that we'd never run out of summer. I've had so much warm and sticky that I'm happy to finally see that equinox come to fruition. We should be able to really get on with this wonderful season! It's leaf peeper time!
 
Fire- and dragonflies are gone, a few hummingbirds are in their last sweet stop approach and murders of crows are caw-cussing throughout the territory as they begin to head wherever they head for the winter.
 
I've noticed a couple of the four-legged furry beings have been tending to the tick of the natural clock too. Several white tails have already started the exchange of their sleek copper-tone warm weather slickers for that cedar-bark gray of colder days ahead.
 
And a fox or two have shown themselves along the byway sporting thickening coats and those lush plumes trailing from their posteriors. With a few almost cold nights of late, I can just imagine them all curled up inside a den somewhere with that cuddly wraparound stole insulating their lanky bodies.
 
Another autumnal apparel quirk is showing up throughout the forest. The blaze orange of the shoot-'em-up crew is now drawing their bead on some unsuspecting wild thing. With bear, grouse and moose hunting season at hand, let's hope that the only statistics are counted in bag limits. Everyone is encouraged to be safe by being properly attired, including the unarmed folks that also trudge nature’s paths.
 
I sound like a broken record as I reaffirm that the rain gods continue with their border country work stoppage. A mere seven one-hundredths is all that has been measured over the past seven days at Wildersmith.
 
It is amazing that we had many timely rains during the summer extending through the first week of August. Since then, the faucet has been shut down to barely a few drips for the better part of the past six weeks.
 
Hope springs eternal that this gets turned around sooner rather than later. Streams and rivers are bone dry in most up-the-Trail locales. Meanwhile, lake levels that depend upon huge watershed infusions are declining at an alarming rate. The DNR Gunflint Lake level gauge at the Wildersmith dock is about one week from dropping off the scale, much the same as it did last year.
 
Temperatures have been unconditionally good during the same time period. We even had some near frost around here on a couple occasions. That "near frost" definition means close to crystal rooftops, but no cigar. There have been some serious reports of frost in other places and even an unconfirmed report of snowflakes in the Pine Mountain Road area.
 
"Getting ready for winter" chores are in full swing around the territory. Yours truly has been busy putting the finishing touches on the summer list of things to do.
 
A number of lakeside docks are on shore and the few remaining in our sky blue waters have seen their usual watercraft headed for winter storage. Inventorying the woodshed is the name of the game for all of us year-round folks, along with cutting and splitting whatever can be found for the '13/'14 season.
 
Another task for many of us is putting deer protection around succulent shrubs and adolescent trees. I've even given thought to mounting my snow blade, checking out snow blower operations and trying to decide when would be the best time to put on my winter wheels. The beat goes on and on.
 
One pre-winter job that should be put on hold for as long as possible is winterizing those wild fire sprinkler systems. Our extreme fire danger makes closing these down right now pretty risky! There'll be some time for this in October.
 
Keep on hangin' on, and savor this awesome place!

Airdate: September 21, 2012

Red Lake Anishinaabe Robert DesJarlait is a writer, journalist, artist, a co-founder of the group "Protect our Manoomin" and a member of the University of Minnesota Council of Elders.  He recently told the story of the spiritual connection between the Anishinaabeg and the wolf (ma'aingan). It is a cautionary tale of man and animal's intertwined fate. Robert signs his works of art with the symbol of a wolf's paw to honor this historic and ancient connection.