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the Outdoors
Notes from the North Country
On the eve of his retirement, an old coach remarked that he found it increasingly difficult to teach the basics of his sports to young athletes:
“These kids were born on third base...and they think they’ve hit a triple.”
Why is it so hard for a new generation to acknowledge their path is easier because they ride on the shoulders of pioneers who came before them....in so many areas of learning and life?
No one is asking for a bow or even a genuflect, just a bit of recognition that we are where we are because someone smoothed the way for us. No one makes a life from scratch.
Nowhere is the effort of our forebears more evident than in protecting our natural world. What would our nation be like without national parks and forests? John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot worked tirelessly, often defying powerful forces, because they had a vision...a vision they were able to articulate clearly and simply. We celebrate them every time we visit the Hiawatha and Ottawa National Forests and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
When we see an eagle soaring over Lake Superior, we think of Rachel Carson, a shy, scholarly woman who had the courage to show how we were damaging the earth and water with DDT and other so-called wonder chemicals. Despite the abuse she endured from the agriculture and chemical industries, she persisted in her efforts and, almost single-handedly, initiated the modern environmental movement.
Margaret (Mardy) Murie, as a young bride, joined her husband Olaus in the far north, and continued to assist in his wilderness research trips even with their babies and toddlers. Together they were instrumental in passage of the national Wilderness Act, founding of the Wilderness Society and establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 1998, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in protection of our wild places.
Here in the Upper Peninsula, we also are fortunate to have dedicated and caring individuals who took initiative and rallied residents to clear and present dangers:
Verna Mize, a native of Houghton, led the charge to stop Reserve Mining Company from dumping 67,000 tons of waste material every day into Lake Superior, north of Duluth. Although the company insisted the tailings were safe, analysis showed tons of heavy metal and, perhaps more ominous, trillions of asbestos fibers being discharged into the water. Before the mine tailings finally were stopped, these fibers traveled throughout the lake and were detected in the waters off the Marquette shoreline.
Little Presque Isle and Wetmore Landing, now part of the Escanaba River State Forest, are the pristine jewels they are today because Dorothy Maywood Bird, Marquette resident and distinguished lady of letters, rallied a group of concerned citizens to defeat plans to build a coal-fired power plant and deep water harbor at the very tip of the point, with coal slurry pipes extending back into the Harlow Lake area.
Jim Rooks of Copper Harbor saw trucks carrying huge white pine logs out of the Estivant Pines area and sounded the alarm. Public outcry halted the logging; today everyone can enjoy this remnant of towering pines that once covered the Upper Peninsula. For years afterward, Jim conducted trips and tours to share his beloved Copper Country with residents and visitors.
Cynthia Pryor, resident of the Yellow Dog River country, at great personal sacrifice and frequent absence from the quiet backcountry life she loves, continues to lead and inspire others to see the dangers in proposed mining projects there, and spreading across the Upper Peninsula. Nickel extraction from sulfide rock under the Salmon Trout River on the Yellow Dog plains, numerous test borings for uranium deposits, copper mining proposals near Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. These are not our grandfathers’ mines; Lake Superior is at risk.
We give thanks to all of these pioneers—past and present—whose work has given us a better, more beautiful, and safer land.
—Lon and Lynn Emerick
Editor’s Note: Comments are welcome by writing MM or e-mailing marquettemonthly@marquettemonthly.com
Lon and Lynn Emerick’s Upper Peninsula books: The Superior Peninsula, Going Back to Central Mine, Lumberjack—Inside an Era, Sharing the Journey, You Wouldn’t Like it Here and You STILL Wouldn’t Like it Here are available at area book and gift stores or by visiting their Web site at www.northcountrypublishing.com
KBIC helps indigenous plant restoration with greenhouse
Restoring pollinator-friendly indigenous plants to the Upper Peninsula is the goal of a sixteen-foot tall solar-powered geodesic dome greenhouse built in the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
The volunteer greenhouse builder was Rich Trudell, owner of Trudell Construction in Ishpeming. The KBIC greenhouse is believed to be one of the first of its kind located on a Native America reservation.
The greenhouse will grow a wide-range of plants indigenous to the Upper Peninsula, starting with the most “cooperative” native plants, according to Jan Schultz, regional botanist for the United States Forest Service (USFS).
“The new native plant greenhouse at KBIC provides additional tools to help restore damaged lands, offers new educational and recreational opportunities to members of all ages, and hands-on experience in the very important tasks of healing the earth,” Schultz said.
The greenhouse has three solar-powered cooling fans attached to two PVC solar panels on the dome to keep the inside temperature constant in the summer by blowing in cooler outside air, said Allan Werthan, crew supervisor for Growing Spaces. The dome’s exterior is covered with translucent polycarbonite panels and the north side has additional Reflectix insulation to keep it warm in winter.
The greenhouse is designed for plants to grow year-round with solar energy by storing the heat of the day in a 2,000 gallon water tank that dissipates that heat slowly at night, Werthan said.
Invasive species plants and human-designed nonreproducing cultivars are often dangerous and sometimes deadly to pollinators like bees and butterflies. The USFS has identified numerous invasive species plants in the U.P. like purple loosestrife, garlic mustard and phragmites australis (common reed). These plants often muscle out native species plants and threaten tree growth.
The greenhouse is one of several pollinator protection initiatives of the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project, founded by the nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette. In Anishinaabemowin, Zaagkii means “that which comes from the earth.”
The Zaagkii Project was created in response to the deaths of billions of bees worldwide, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and the disappearance of millions of monarch butterflies. The reasons for CCD include pollution, pesticides and mites. This spring, researchers reported that millions of monarch butterflies did not show up as usual in Mexico and California. One of the flight paths in the annual Monarch migration is through the southern Upper Peninsula.
“These native plants are part of a pollinator cycle in the inner fabric of a natural ecosystem,” said Rev. Jon Magnuson of Marquette, Zaagkii Project founder. “Once they are gone, the system is always, always threatened with collapse.”
The teens planted and distributed tens of thousands of native species plants and seeds including at two organic farms, the Borealis Seed Company owned by Sue Rabitaille in Big Bay and the Dancing Crane Farm owned by Natasha and David Gill in Skandia.
An update on the KBIC greenhouse and the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project will be delivered by Magnuson on July 14 at the Cedar Tree Institute annual Mid-Summer Celebration at the Presque Isle Pavilion in Marquette. A two-day grand opening, dedication and naming ceremony will be held August 31 and September 1.
—Greg Peterson
Editor’s Note: For details, visit http://zaagkiiproject.wordpress.com
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