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NPS's Paul Brown on Isle Royale's Biogeography
At a public meeting in Duluth about wolf management, Paul Brown, chief of natural resources at Isle Royale National Park, talked about the island's wildlife and how it has changed over time.
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Isle Royale Superintendent Phyllis Green on Wolf Management Options
At a public meeting in Duluth, Phyllis Green, superintendent at Isle Royale National Park, talked about the wolf management options at the park as the species struggles with the effects of inbreeding and, possibly, faces extirpation.
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Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Isle Royale Public Meeting on Wolf Management
Isle Royale National Park Superintendent Phyllis Green fields questions after the wolf management meeting in Duluth. The meeting was part of an ongoing public scoping process to help officials decide what to do – or not do – about the island's struggling wolf population.
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Konnie LeMay / Lake Superior Magazine
Isle Royale Cultural Resources Meeting
After the wolf management meeting, Isle Royale officials hosted a meeting at Duluth's Great Lakes Aquarium about the Cultural Resources Management Plan. Public comments are due by Dec. 4.
Last week in Duluth, Isle Royale officials hosted their fourth meeting about managing the island’s wolves – preceded by gatherings earlier this month in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Chelsea and Houghton, Michigan – soliciting feedback from the public on a policy conundrum: Should the park service let nature run its course, even if that means extirpation for a dwindling population of wolves plagued by the malignant effects of inbreeding? Should the park service await extirpation and then reintroduce wolves? Or should officials attempt a genetic rescue and bolster the current population with new wolves (and their fresh genes)?
Paul Brown, chief of natural resources at the park, opened the meeting with a presentation on the island’s biogeography – how the biological landscape of Isle Royale has changed over time. You can listen to his fascinating talk – including a detailed history of wolves on the island – just above.
Wolves and moose, Paul says, are very recent additions to the island ecosystem: moose in 1908 and wolves in 1949. The archaeological record for caribou and lynx, meanwhile, dates back some 3,500 years. Some animals, like white-tailed deer and coyotes, have come and gone. Others, most recently peregrine falcons and tri-colored bats, have returned after a long absence. The island, Paul points out, is always changing. Are wolves just another Isle Royale species that won’t last?
“I want you guys to walk away out of this room with at least these two messages,” Paul said. “One, that islands are dynamic ecosystems and are relatively unstable, and we expect change to occur over time. … And the other thing I want you to recognize is that humans do affect the landscape. Whether that’s going to be climate change or management actions on the island, what we do matters in how we manage the island, so we need to think about how we want to see the island in the future and what we want to see out on the island.”
Phyllis Green, superintendent of Isle Royale National Park, followed Paul at the meeting and discussed many of the management quandaries raised by that second point. (The audio, a highly recommended listen, is available above.) What do visitors want? Do those wants clash with the park service’s mission and what’s best for the island? Moreover, researchers have used the island for 50-plus years as a 132,000-acre lab, studying the predator/prey dynamics of Isle Royale’s wolves and moose. (Andrew Sorenson wrote a feature about the study for us during its 50th anniversary year, in 2008.) That study would necessarily end – though Paul points out that researchers could learn much from wolves' disappearance, too.
The park service as of yet has no answers to many of these questions. For now, NPS will continue to solicit feedback and ponder the future of a species that has in recent decades become one of the island’s public faces. There’s no timetable for a formal plan, Phyllis says, and the birth of pups this summer gives NPS more time, but they’d like to make their decisions soon, before nature eliminates an option for them.
The National Park Service has posted a few good primers on wolf management and the island’s biogeography. (Paul and Phyllis discussed much of it in their talks, the audio of which is available above.) Comments can be submitted to isro_wildlife@nps.gov.
– PB
Managing Isle Royale’s cultural resources
Another phase of the process to develop the Isle Royale Cultural Resources Management Plan is wrapping up after a series of meetings in Michigan and Minnesota in November. The public comment period of the initial 5 alternative plans will be open until next Wednesday, December 4.
Here is a helpful link for those interested in the plan and how the National Park Service manages the cultural resources of the park – how it will (or may not) preserve aspects of the human history on the island archipelago.
Near the bottom of this NPS webpage, you can find “CRMP Newsletter 2,” where you can download a newsletter that outlines the five alternatives, which include the option of doing nothing different.
That link also can be used to access the public comment survey.
– Konnie LeMay
A Winning Taste of the Lake
A Marquette woman with a flair for fantastic food concoctions has earned yet another accolade, winning Minnesota Sea Grant’s “Hooked on Fishing Recipe Contest” using salmon in her Chipotle Grilled Fish Tacos with Cilantro Slaw.
Brenda Washnock has been entering and placing or winning recipe contests around the nation. A story about Brenda in this week’s Mining Journal in Marquette talks about her entry into the World Food Championships in Las Vegas as well as her winning recipes for the Duncan Hines 2013 Spring Bake Recipe Contest and her original win in the Mining Journal Cook-Off.
+ Laura Jacobs, longtime keeper of the Lake Superior Maritime Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has been named interim director of the Jim Dan Hill Library at UWS.
+ The Telemark Lodge’s new owners will cut the power to the historic Wisconsin resort, which needs extensive rehabilitation. The Ashland Daily Press has the story.
+ The Star Tribune: “Lutsen Mountains bets big that skiing in Minnesota stays hot.”