LOCAL STREAMS STILL ICED UP

LITTLE SIOUX RIVER AT JUNCTURE WITH THE BIG SIOUX
STILL FROZEN TIGHT

SIOUX RIVER ABOVE BIG ROCK FALLS...JUST A TRICKLE

Friday,  8;30 AM.  27 degrees F, wind SW, calm.  The sky has a high overcast and it is very hazy, with limited visibility to the east.  We are evidently in for a number of days of melting, which will be welcome to reduce the snow levels but will be messy, slippery and ultimately produce  flooding on ice-choked streams.

   Yesterday was mostly just above freezing so I thought I would see what effect the warmer weather  was having on some nearby streams.  Not much yet, as evidenced by views of the Little Sioux River where it joins the  Sioux below the bridge on Friendly Valley Road, and the Sioux upstream from the Big Rock falls.  The area streams are all fast runoff streams, and some quick snow melting can make them roaring cataracts in no time.  I'll take a look at some others over the next few days.
   I haven't seen many eagles lately, I think they are busy mating, but I did see a mature bald eagle making lazy hunting circles high over Old San Road yesterday while Buddy and I were out for a walk.
   Venezuela continues to be in turmoil, it is a prime example of what happens when class warfare is encouraged by the left.  Jealousy, hatred, violence and no economic or social progress for anyone except the oligarchs and the cronies of the government.  Divide and conquer is the route taken by all oppressors, and that is the road President Obama would lead us down.  I heard that Jimmy Carter was going to Venezuela to "mediate" but he seems to have disappeared.   I am sure he is among friends, and hopefully he will stay a while.

COUNTDOWN TO SPRING, AND THE PERILS OF PAULINE

STILL A LONG WAIT FOR THE FERRY

PIKE'S CREEK CHEATS A BIT

Thursday, 9:00 AM.  15 degrees F, wind SW,  light to moderate.  The sky is partly overcast, the humidity is 75% and the barometer has dropped to 30.24".  It feels colder than it is.

   As of today it is only two weeks until the spring equinox, March 20th. I'm going to start crossing off the days on the calendar.
  Down at the ferry dock, it looks like the vehicles are already lined up for the first ride of spring, but it will be a bit longer, I am afraid.
   Pike's Creek, at the Hwy. 13 bridge, is running pretty free...but it cheats, since it gets a constant flow of water from the adjacent fish hatchery.  But in two months there will be some lunker trout lurking under those tag alders.
   So, Putin will annex Crimea from a hapless Ukraine and there will be no consequences. Next he will do the same to its eastern provinces and and as he strengthens his hand move on to the tiny Baltic states, and then we will be obliged to finally stop him in Finland.  What has been lost through weakness is gone.  Now, will the US and Europe finally regain the strength and confidence to prevent World War III?  This begins to look like a rerun of an ancient The Perils of Pauline episode, except it is deadly serious.

FROZEN, EITHER WAY

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, CAUGHT IN PUTIN'S HEADLIGHTS

WAITING FOR SPRING

Wednesday,  6 degrees F, up from 0 earlier.  The sky is clear, the wind variable and mostly calm.  The humidity is 80% and the  barometer very high, now at 30.64".  There is perhaps a hint of spring in the air.   

   The trolling tugs wintering at the Bodin Fisheries dock beg the question: are they fast frozen, or frozen fast? Meanwhile Putin has the Obama Administration frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights.

REPORT ON PUSSY WILLOWS AND COMMON REED

PUSSY WILLOW CATKINS, STILL DORMANT

PHRAGMITES (COMMON REED ) AT THE BEACH

Tuesday,  9:30 AM.  10 degrees F on the porch, 2 degrees at the ferry dock.  The sky is blue with a few high, thin clouds.  The wind is calm.  The humidity is trending up at 72%, and the barometer trending down at 30.28". Buddy and I had a fine morning walk.
   I stopped at the Sioux River Beach yesterday to see if the pussy willows, Salix discolor, are showing signs of spring.  They are not.  I don't really blame them.
   The common reed, Phragmites australis, is very evident at the beach, last year's canes with their now-seedless flower heads reaching far above the waist-deep snow.  Now considered a foreign invasive, it was once used to control beach erosion, which is probably why it is growing along the beach road.  It is very aggressive, and does its job so well it is almost impossible to get rid of it.   It is  circumpolar, and probably world-wide in distribution, much like the Russian Empire.  Maybe it should be called "Putin Reed".
  There is a native subspecies, americanus, that perhaps should be called "Obama Reed", since it is weak and can't compete with the invader,  and is ultimately forced from its territory.

GOLDFINCHES AND PEAS

GOLD FINCHES ARE BEGINNING TO TURN YELLOW

SNOWBOARDERS STILL MAKING THE BEST OF IT SUNDAY AT MT. ASHWABAY

PASSED ON WITHOUT COMMENT

Monday, 9:30 AM.  -9 degrees F, wind SW, light to moderate.  The sky is cloudless, the humidity is 72% and the barometer is steady, at 30l.55"
   Joan and I have been noticing that the goldfinches have been getting more and more yellow-gold, right along with the willow branches.  Before the snow melts they will be in their full mating plumage.
   Sunday afternoon a few intrepid snowboarders were out in the bitter wind and cold at the Mt. Ashwabay ski complex south of town; but mostly the lift chairs made their shuttle trips from bottom of the hills to the top in futile emptiness.
   Meanwhile, Libby Larsen posted the above on her Facebook page, which I pass on with pleasure.  Maybe it is time to plant the peas.

STONES IN THEIR SHOES, AND FROZEN ASSETS

BUSY BAYFIELD

EMERGENCY SIGN ON HWY. 13

DITTO

 TWO MILES OF PARKED CARS

DEPUTIES DIRECTING TRAFFIC

THE ICE CAVES ARE THE REASON

Sunday,  8:30 AM.  -14 degrees F on the back porch, -18 degrees downtown.  Wind SW, moderate, increasing the effect of the bitter cold.  The sky is cloudless, the humidity is still trending down, now at 61%, and the barometer has risen to a very high 30.57".
   I chickened out on walking Buddy this morning. I will take him for a walk/run down Old San Road later when it is bound to warm up some.  If there had been no wind I would have put his jacket on him and taken a walk at least around the block, as my flannel lined jeans are warm even in this extreme cold, but I see little reason to challenge the windchill.
  The winter economic boom in the Bayfield area is definitely continuing.  Bayfield was very, and uncharacteristically, busy yesterday.  Asking around, the easy conclusion is Ice Cave tourists.  One acquaintance said she and her husband went to Maggies for a pizza Friday night and fell into conversation with a Japanese couple who had just flown into Duluth from Tokyo, rented a car and were going to visit the caves on Saturday.  Another friend said a tour bus from Minneapolis with a group of Asian tourists was at the Bayfield Inn.
   We decided to see what the conditions were like at the Park Service Myers Beach Road entrance (Ice Cave access) and drove out Hwy. 13 a bit before noon.  Traffic was lined up on the north side of the highway a full mile on both the east and west side of the Myers Beach entrance.  Crowds of people were walking the roads and shuttle busses were delivering more.  The actual beach parking lot and road were parked full.  Sherrifs cars with flashing lights slowed traffic and  deputies kept a semblance of order.
   Two miles of cars parked on the north side of Hwy 13, plus parking on another quarter of a mile on the park road, plus the parking lot, add up conservatively to about 500 cars.  Figuring three cohorts of cars for the day, that's 1,500 cars.  At an average of 3 persons per vehicle, that's at least 4,500 visitors to the caves yesterday, and probably more like six thousand including those using the shuttles.
   And its not a short and easy hike.  For most it would be a mile to the lake, and then at least another mile and a half to the caves.  Round trip that is around five miles.   I assume most make it all the way and I haven't heard any real horror stories, but have heard of broken legs and sprained ankles. And it has been brutally cold. In any case it is quite an unexpected challenge for the Park Service and the community, which have responded well it seems.
   This  phenomena seems more and more like filling some sort of  sacred obligation, like climbing Mt. Fiji, visiting Mecca or, as Joan's German Catholic grandparents did, walk up southern Wisconsin's Holy Hill (with stones in their shoes).  Interesting.
   But it has certainly been an economic boomlet in a tough winter economy.  The big question now is, will the once-in-a-lifetime publicity and visitation have a lasting economic effect.  If visitors thought it all worth the trip and the trouble, if they had a good time and were treated well, perhaps they will be back at another time and another season.  The Ice Caves are open only sporadically because of changing ice conditions.  You might say we are a community with frozen assets.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

BAYFIELD SUGAR MAPLE

Saturday, 9:30 AM.  -4 degrees F, wind WNW, constant and biting. The humidity is low at 69% and the barometer is quite high, now at 30.41".  It is a chill but visually glorious winter day
   Aa volunteer forester for the City of Bayfield, I wrote a grant request proposal to the US Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative well over a year ago.  I heard nothing about it for months and when I finally contacted the grant authorities last summer I was told we did not make the cut.  So I was amazed a few days ago to receive a phone call telling me that our proposal would be funded after all, due to another grantee being unable to continue.  The project overview is as follows:
  The Chequamegon Bay Urban Forest Restoration Project is a joint effort between four communities located directly on the shores of the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin.  The cities of Ashland, Washburn, Bayfield and the village of Red Cliff on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation all have seriously challenged or depleted urban forests due to the effects of late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century logging, then Dutch elm disease, and now extreme budget constraints.  The Emerald Ash Borer infestation will undoubtedly have adverse effects in the future. For all these reasons the urban forest canopies of these communities are greatly in need of restoration. 

   Challenged and inadequate urban tree resources of these communities have a direct negative effect on the quality of water running off into the bay and Lake Superior.  This project will plant 142 new trees in parks and along city boulevards where they will directly intercept and ameliorate contaminated road water runoff before it enters storm drains and ravines discharging water directly into the lake.  The three cities all have recent tree inventories and management plans which will direct the restoration process, and Red Cliff will take a first step towards creating an urban forestry program.

   The grant proposal was submitted as a joint request by the four communities of Lake Superior's  Chequamegon Bay.  It is a non-matching grant, so it puts no additional strain on the budgets of the participants.  The total dollar amount will be nearly $50,000 and will significantly improve the urban forests of these small communities on Wisconsin's North Shore.  I am particularly pleased that these separate communities could cooperate in this worthwhile environmental effort, and that the Rez was able to participate.

   Better late than never!