Tuesday, 7:30 AM. 46 degrees, wind SSW, calm. The channel is wrinkled from even a light wind coming across 20 miles of open water from the southern end of Chequamegon Bay. Pictured here because of its pretty red berries is false Solomon’s seal, Smilacina racemosa, in the lily family. This is a pretty common woods plant throughout mush of eastern and Midwestern North America. The European species and probably this one as well were formerly much used in folk medicine for its healing effects on broken bones, bruises and skin problems. In Italy it was used as a cosmetic for its effect on the skin. I have no personal experience with it.We have a local controversy over a proposed development project in the very rural Town of Russell, a few miles northwest of the city of Bayfield and on the border with the Town of Bayfield. A change from agriculture, forestry and residential zoning has been approved to permit the building of condos, town homes, a hotel and landing strip for private airplanes on 380 acres. It would be a gated community next to County Forest land and orchards and berry farms, and certainly not in keeping with the rural character supposedly protected in the Town’s comprehensive plan. Last night, at a packed meeting of the Bayfield Town Board, that board passed a resolution to ask the County to delay review of this development for one month, to allow more public input. The area is littered with failed developments large and small, which have a very negative effect on the landscape and character of the region. There are political, economic, environmental and philosophical issues herein which are difficult to address, and much more will be heard of this and similar developments in the future. When the dust settles a bit I will write more about these matters.
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