West End News: June 19

Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center in Schroeder has a few cool things happening soon.
 
Mysterious mushrooms will be explored in a free program Saturday, June 21, starting at 10 a.m.  Charlie Danielson from Up North Fungi will be presenting on our fascinating local mushroom population.  He will cover how they fit in a sustainable food system and how they function as protectors of the environment.  You will learn how mushrooms retain water, feed the soil, increase yields and create resiliency in your garden or woodland.
 
Sugarloaf Cove has also recently opened their Community Forest Restoration Shed.  The shed houses a variety of tools, including backpack sprayers and herbicides that you can use to control non-native species.  You can borrow the tools and receive the herbicides free of charge.  However, if you want to use the herbicides, you must take a two-hour training on herbicide application, safety and invasive plant identification.  The training will be held once a week throughout the summer, so call Sugarloaf for times.
 
If you are a Minnesota Master Naturalist, Woodland Advisor, Forest Pest First Detector, or Master Gardener, or just really interested in the north woods, there is an advanced invasive species training that will also be held at Sugarloaf Cove Friday, June 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The training will qualify you to identify and remove or treat selected problem species, as well as learning follow-up management and monitoring techniques.
 
This is an intensive course and qualifies for continuing education credits.  There is a tuition fee, but scholarships are available.  Registration is required through www.minnesotamasternaturalist.org.
 
Sugarloaf Cove is located near Schroeder, at milepost 73.3 on Highway 61. You can contact them through their website, sugarloafnorthshore.org or call 218-663-7679.  As always you can contact WTIP for more information.
 
The big annual Schroeder rummage sale is coming up at Temperance Traders parking lot, just west of Temperance River State Park on the upper side of Highway 61, Saturday, June 28 from 9 a.m. through 3 p.m.  Pizza will be sold to benefit Birch Grove Community School.  There will also be a Birch Grove rummage table where all sales benefit the school.  You can bring donated items to the table if you would like to support the school.  Contact Peggy Anderson at 663-0111 or Sarah Somnis at 370-9884 for more info.
 
April Knight, the nurse from North Carolina who is paddling from Sawbill to Hudson Bay this summer, checked in from just north of Keewatin, Ontario a few days ago.  She should be well into Manitoba by now as she winds her way toward Lake Winnipeg on the Winnipeg River.
 
She reported departing Keewatin with a fully loaded canoe as she had just taken her stomach to visit the large grocery store in that town.  She strives to be on the water each morning by 4:15 a.m. to avoid the winds that often kick up later in the day.  She has been forced to modify her route a bit because of unprecedented high water on the Winnipeg River, which is a side effect of the flooding we’ve been hearing about in northwestern Minnesota.  She expects to reach Lake Winnipeg in time to celebrate the solstice there.
 
Her update concluded by saying,  “I cannot imagine being anywhere else but here and I feel made for this adventure.”
 
We had an emergency in the Sawbill Lake Campground this week.  A family from was camping here all week with four of their children, including a set of 9-year-old twin girls.  The twins had an unfortunate head-on collision with each other on their bikes while riding pretty fast.  One of the girls got her leg caught in her bike frame and broke her leg.
 
It was hard to see a little girl in so much pain, but gratifying to see how people pitched in to help.  A group from Wilderness Inquiry, a nonprofit that specializes in leading wilderness trips for people of every ability, happened to be nearby, so one of their leaders with Wilderness First Responder certification pitched in to apply an air splint to the girl’s fracture.  Nearby campers ran to call 911, while others fetched the parents and reassured the very frightened twins.  Several volunteers stood for an hour holding a tarp to keep the girl out of the sun while waiting for the ambulance to arrive from Grand Marais.
 
Most of all, the members of the Tofte Rescue Squad and the Cook County Hospital Ambulance crew arrived as quickly as humanly possible and handled the serious situation with the utmost professional care and concern.  These people are the heroes of our community and help us all in our hour of most desperate need.  They renew my faith in humanity, especially here in the beautiful West End.