U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Callaway and Munson at the Soo Locks
Ice-slowed convoy reaches Sault Ste. Marie
The first commercial vessels of the season finally reached the Soo Locks today. The locks opened on March 25, but had seen no laker traffic until this morning, when the Cason J. Callaway and John G. Munson arrived. The ships needed nine days – and the help of two icebreakers – to cross Lake Superior, a trip that should take about 28 hours.
Significant ice remains on Lake Superior; about 87 percent of the Lake was ice-covered on Friday. The U.S. Coast Guard expects ice-breaking efforts to continue well into May.
+ The Presque Isle, forced to leave the convoy last week and return to Duluth for hull repairs, is back on the Lake.
+ Ice conditions remain challenging in Marquette and the Keweenaw.
Isle Royale moose continue to boom
Researchers on Isle Royale have posted their final blog entry of the winter:
Four kills in 47 days was our final tally for the West Pack, while the Chippewa Harbor group of three wolves (no longer a “pack” as they’ve ceased to reproduce) made two kills in that time. All told, this amounted to an estimated predation rate (proportion of the moose population killed through the year) of about only 2%. This was the third year in a row that wolf predation has been so low, almost absent.
The moose population, meanwhile, has doubled over the last three years.
+ The Sault Star: “Thousands of people descended on Essar Centre Thursday night to honour local athletes and coaches who made their mark in Sochi, Russia, at the Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games.”
+ A sign of spring: Gordy’s Hi-Hat, the beloved drive-in restaurant in Cloquet, Minnesota, has reopened for the year.
+ In Superior: The story of a Wisconsin bar – which you can’t get to from Wisconsin.
+ Musher Nathan Schroeder, three-time Beargrease champion and the top rookie in this year’s Iditarod, spoke with students in his hometown of Warba, Minnesota. The WDIO story.
+ Paul Sundberg’s Photos of the Week star a drumming ruffed grouse.
+ A honey company in Duluth is vying for a grant that “will allow us to encourage our neighbors to convert portions of their lawn to pollinator-friendly food and flower gardens.” Voting ends on April 21.
+ An award-winning Michigan license plate features the Mackinac Bridge, which links Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas, reports MLive.
+ Photos: Early spring in Wawa, Ontario.
+ The Sault Star: “Officials across the district are starting to keep an eye on watershed conditions as the spring thaw begins.”