Happy Halloween! or, Samhain! or, El Dia de los Muertos!

One of the books we bought recently at Piragis Northwoods Company is Creating Minnesota by Anette Atkins. (We love the fact that Piragis' entire second floor is a book store.) Officially it's being read by the Better Half. Unofficially, we snuck a long peek at the book today. Serendipity strikes again. The new prologue makes a point about how much Minnesota is changing, including our ethnic composition. That sort of aligns with an interest we develop about this time each year, the similarities, if any, between Native Americans and the Celts in end of harvest time traditions.

ghosts? goblins? haunts?

Photo by J. Harrington

Halloween has sort of antecedents in Samhain in Ireland and El Dia de los Muertos, but, as written in Indian Country Today:

"Halloween was born of fear, and the customs around it involved placating the spirits of the dead for the safety of the living.

The indigenous American tradition was born of celebration, a reunion with those who have walked on, and recognition of death as part of a natural cycle, nothing to be feared.  The tradition is much older than the Aztec Empire, which is where the Spanish found it.

Day of the Dead celebrations are moving up from the Mexican border, like tacos, conjunto music, tequila. Culture seldom observes lines on a map, but meanings are often diluted."

Given a choice, we prefer celebration to placation. We also strongly support recognition of death as part of a natural cycle, although we confess to an abysmal amount of ignorance about what comes next. In our youth, we went to more than a few Irish wakes and remember well phrases such as "He's better off this way!" or "She was too good for this world." We think our favorite, as we got a little older, was, and still may be, “May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”

fear whitetailed gray ghosts with strong teeth

Photo by J. Harrington

In all the 20+ years we've lived on our rural, gravel road, we don't recall getting visited by trick-or-treaters once,not county the times local whitetail ghosts have come and eaten our Jack-O-Lanterns. Perhaps this year will be different. Perhaps not. The pumpkins remain uncarved this year, but still vulnerable to being nibbled on. If we get visitors, we'll share some of our iced buttercookies decorated as ghosts and pumpkins. We're guessing we won't have to share.

                     All Hallows

By Louise Glück

Even now this landscape is assembling.

The hills darken. The oxen

sleep in their blue yoke,

the fields having been

picked clean, the sheaves

bound evenly and piled at the roadside

among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness

of harvest or pestilence.

And the wife leaning out the window

with her hand extended, as in payment,

and the seeds

distinct, gold, calling

Come here

Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.

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Nice to travel, nice to be home, MN Nice?

We're back home in the South end of the North Country. The snow showers stopped a little South of Cloquet but the clouds continued to precede us and are still hanging around. A few of the wolf photos from the International Wolf Center turned out well. Many others show a wild animal's desire to avoid eye contact. The ravens look like ravens feeding on roadkill or the equivalent. We're still frustrated at an ongoing inability to readily identify ravens compared to crows. It's one that we'll just have to keep working on / at?

ravens feeding on carcass

Photo by J. Harrington

Something we've neglected to report on before this are the swans we saw on our drive North Saturday. One pair South of Cloquet, flying in the low clouds, crossing the road, and two pair flying plus a flock on the water North of Cloquet. We don't remember ever seeing swans in the vicinity of Duluth / Cloquet in all the times we've visited. In addition, other wildlife observations include one whitetail beside the road near Embarrass, one or two bald eagles, multiple ravens and / or crows [see preceding paragraph] and several flocks of small birds.

wolf stalking raven

Photo by J. Harrington

As is often the case, it was nice to travel and visit places rarely seen or never seen before and also nice to return home to familiar surroundings. We remember reading that the typical home range for a whitetail deer is about one mile square. We noted maps of the ranges of several wolf packs (see p. 3) during our visit to the International Wolf Center. Do we humans have a home range and if so, what is it? Would it be established by our average commute? Our shopping radius (not counting mail order)? How much of a sense of community among adults depends on having children in the same schools? Christopher Alexander, in A Pattern Language writes about a Community of 7,000 and about Community Networks. We're overdue for a relook at his descriptions of Community and at thinking about the relationships among community, rural life and wilderness.

Raven’s Last Dream

Red Hawk

Raven was in a deep sleep,
dreaming the world. He saw things
and they happened, He dreamed things
and they came to life. He hardly knew 
where to begin or what to do 

once the world was. At last He understood 
Fodder’s dilemma. It troubled Him, 
made Him restless, disturbed His sleep. 
Then the terrible thing happened:
He had a thought.
 
Everything dream? He wonder.
Then the worst thing happened:
He had another thought, one thought
following the other.
Who dreaming Raven? He wonder and
 
this woke Him up.
He looked up, He looked down, He
looked all around.
Don’t know, He say and
He couldn’t get back to sleep.

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Wolfing down the North Country

We spent much of the day in and around Ely. Since we neglected to pack the cables that let us download photos from any of our cameras to our laptop, and we're too lazy to email ourselves some photos, new pictures will be available during the upcoming week.

Our visit to the International Wolf Center didn't disappoint. Although we arrived about mid-day, not the best time for viewing the wolves, most of the members of the resident pack presented themselves for observation and photos. Local ravens added alternative subjects and acted as expected when members of the pack approached them. (We've got our fingers crossed that our lens' troubles with focus through a window were minimal or nonexistent. Time, and access to the proper cables, will tell.)

can you guess where in Minnesota, and in which month, this was taken?

Photo by J. Harrington

We also visited Piragis Northwoods Company and after inspecting their other departments (camping, canoeing, hiking, gifts, etc.) made a pleasant discovery that their entire second floor is a book store. Yes, we bought more books, but only a few, just part of our efforts to support local businesses and local economies, you know. (We now wonder if Amazon will ever find it advantageous to try drone delivery in Minnesota's North Woods.)

Another aspect of support to local businesses involved an extended stay at a table in Northern Grounds. The cappuccino was delicious, once it cooled enough to taste, and nicely accompanied the ghost-frosted sugar cookie we munched our way through.

 Meeting Wolf 

by Mary Oliver

There are no words

inside his mouth,

inside his golden eyes.

So we stand, silent,

both of us tense

under the speechless but faithful trees.

And this is what I think:

I have given him

intrusion.

He has given me

a glimpse into a better but now broken world.

Not his doing, but ours.

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Greetings from the Iron Range

This is coming to you from snow-covered Embarrass, MN, on the Iron Range. We've already had lunch in Ely, shopped at Wintergreen and Steger Mukluks, and then headed for the B&B we're staying at for the weekend. The Better Half intends to enjoy a sauna this evening and many of the local road names have a Finnish tone to them.

Speaking candidly, we've noticed that snowed-on pines, spruce, tamarack, aspen and birch look a pretty much the same no matter where in Minnesota they're growing. There's just lots more acres of them growing up here than down near The Cities. The snow cover isn't likely to start melting until tomorrow. Weather for the next week or so up here is going to be cloudy, slightly snowy with temperatures in the mid-30's.

Iron Range in October or Chisago County in December?

Photo by J. Harrington

Looking at the empty storefronts as we drove through Biwabik and Gilbert, it's clear that those local economies are hurting. "Downtown" Ely looks healthier and some building renovation was evident. We're wondering how Paul Wellstone's concept, that "We all do better when we all do better" can be made to work effectively throughout Minnesota. As farms have gotten fewer and bigger, rural agricultural centers have faded, some completely away. Mining has been boom and bust for a long, long time. Cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul are prospering in part because they've created their own critical mass. Better high speed internet could help substitute for the physical proximity cities offer, but that's only part of the answer.

South St. Paul used to have an economy dependent on stock yards. They're gone. Wales, in England, once had an economy based on coal, as had Appalachia in the U.S. The world and its economies keep changing. Is Amazon the new Dayton's? What will replace Amazon in a generation? Can a multitude of smaller businesses like Steger Mukluks and Wintergreen clothing begin to replace mining jobs? Our county has solar farms sprouting like weeds. Wind farms and solar farms need to be built, maintained and operated. How much metal recycling is being done in northern Minnesota? How much could be done? How many conferences have been organized at Giants Ridge to explore these and related questions?

North Star

by Sheila Packa

In Hanko, Finland
a young woman boards
the vessel in the Baltic
for a ship across the Atlantic.
The North Star shines in the sky.
She’s carrying in her valise
a change of clothes
a packet of seeds
and the sauna dipper.
Distance pours between constellations
between English words on her tongue
through storms and sun.
In New York City, she buys
a one way ticket
boards the train going
across the continent
arrives on an inland sea.
The winter ground underfoot
is familiar with frost
as she transfers to a northbound
along the Vermilion Trail
in Minnesota.
Ahead of her waits a man
a house to be built
and a fire that burns it down.
Ahead, eleven children
to bear, a few she must bury,
the cows in the barn
needing to be milked.
Unbroken ground only hers to till.
Above her, the North Star
inside the aurora borealis, northern
banners waving welcome —

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Snow season 's now #phenology

It's not the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, but 'twill do, 'twill do. We've adjusted our travel plans to the North Country in hope that roads will be plowed clear tomorrow. We much prefer a gentler easing into snow season, ideally sometime during the first week of December. Most years around here, Winter greatly anticipates our readiness and willingness to enjoy The Quiet Season. On the other hand, the Daughter Person becomes very anxious if we haven't had some amount of snowfall by early December, for fear that we might miss a white Christmas. Where we live, the odds are 85% to 90% that Christmas will be white.

first snowfall, mid Autumn

Photo by J. Harrington

Before the precipitation started, we had dug up and pot-planted some rosemary and some thyme. Seeds, several years old, we once received as a kitchen herb garden "pet" all developed mold/fungus after we planted them a few weeks ago, so they became trash. We now have basil, rosemary and thyme growing on South and West facing windowsills. (If we add some parsley and sage might Simon and Garfunkel magically appear at our door?)

Yesterday we picked up our first shares box from our Winter Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] membership. Foxtail Farm is a little bit down the road from the barn in the picture below. Western Wisconsin is a very pretty part of the world, as is the rest of the St. Croix River watershed, and we probably don't write often enough about how grateful we are to live in this area, even though it subjects us to "premature" snowfalls.

Standing Cedars Barn

Photo by J. Harrington

We were almost certain that, several times yesterday and the day before, we saw a few bluebirds still hanging around. Today, the yard is full of juncos and snow. The adjustment from bluebirds to snowbirds within a single day is disconcerting, to put it mildly. But, to listen to some, there's no proof that this sudden, volatile change of seasons and the arrival of unseasonable snow amounts has anything to do with global warming. What can snow have to do with warming? Remember Senator Inhofe's snowball? The fact that climate scientists told us to anticipate more volatile and intense storms as climate change progresses, and we've had a number of volatile, intense storms the past few months is just a coincidence, right? Right? RIGHT? Yah, right!

                     First Snow, Kerhonkson

By Diane di Prima

for Alan

This, then, is the gift the world has given me

(you have given me)

softly the snow

cupped in hollows

lying on the surface of the pond

matching my long white candles

which stand at the window

which will burn at dusk while the snow

fills up our valley

this hollow

no friend will wander down

no one arriving brown from Mexico

from the sunfields of California, bearing pot

they are scattered now, dead or silent

or blasted to madness

by the howling brightness of our once common vision

and this gift of yours—

white silence filling the contours of my life.

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Owl be seeing you #phenology

The trees in our neighborhood are about 75% or 80% bare of leaves, enough so that the mylar aluminized balloon that appeared late last Spring is visible again. The flashing on a sunny day is a real irritation so we'll tend to that next week when we get back from our weekend "Up North." Lack of leaves made it easier to notice one of our favorite neighbors stopped by for a visit. Return of a barred owl to the trees on the North side of the house made my day yesterday.

barred owl on bur oak

Photo by J. Harrington

Owls are among our favorite birds. We're not sure why, although the eyes, the facial expressions, the swiveling heads, the quiet flight and the consumption of small rodents may have something to do with it. It's been too long since we last reread Laura Erickson's Twelve Owls, illustrated by Betsy Bowen or Intriguing Owls, by Stan Tekiela. We'll put those on the stacks to be read this Winter, while we're curled up nice and warm. (As an aside, we're looking forward to Winter and the turning of the year because we already have Betsy Bowen's 2018 calendar to hang.)

"who-cooks-for-you?-who-cooks-for-you?"

Photo by J. Harrington

For the record, the fact that Harry Potter's owls (real ones, not the Ordinary Wizarding Level [O.W.L.] exams) have been written about by Laura Erickson, as Professor Mcgonagowl, doesn't hurt our continuing affection for and fascination with owls.

In the process of taking the photos above, we also made some limited progress on a seasonal chore. We removed a window screen so we wouldn't have the screen distorting any pictures. We did the same the other day in one of the windows of the room where we often write. Wild creatures are much less troubled by photographers inside a house than by those that try to sneak up outside for a better "shot." No screens and clean glass help compensate for skittishness on the part of subjects.

                     A Barred Owl

By Richard Wilbur

The warping night air having brought the boom

Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,

“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

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A balanced view?

We're having one of those days when we're not sure if the cup is half empty or half full. Here's some examples:

• Governor Dayton claims he now supports the proposed PolyMet NorthMet project but not the Twin Metals proposal. Duluth for Clean Water wonders why the Governor "has said that he believes copper sulfide mining is inherently too risky for the Boundary Waters, but of Lake Superior and our drinking water, he says "it's a very different watershed."


• First the Iron Rangers got the Legislature to give money to the Pollution Control Agency and ordered more scientific research to be done on the long-established sulfate water quality standard intended to protect wild rice. Now a new standard has been proposed and both some Iron Rangers and some environmental organizations are claiming the old standard, if enforced (environmental organizations insist) would be better. Meanwhile, the proposed PolyMet NorthMet project claims that meeting the old standard is no big deal.


• It seems to us that the work done so far, and the proposed new standard, appear to miss or downplay the relationship between sulfate levels and mercury bioaccumulation in fish. PoylMet's discharges would be to the St. Louis River, an already impaired water for fish consumption.


• Meanwhile, in Washington, DC.... NO! we won't go there.

without night, would dawn be as beautiful?

Photo by J. Harrington

Years ago (last millennium) one of the books we read was A Moment on the Earth. (If memory serves, that wasn't the book that pointed out that most environmental claims that life as we know it will soon end were about as accurate as industry's claims that environmental regulations will bring about a world-wide economic depression. Although perhaps it was that book, or maybe we're thinking of the skeptical environmentalist.) In the years since Moment's publication, we don't seem to have developed any better penchant for rational, or even reasonable, commitments to solving our mutual problems. We all need clean air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and some feeling of security. The problems always seem to belong to those who are our "others." Let us here acknowledge our own level of guilt on that front, but our point is that, given the choice, we choose a cup that's half-full. We doubt that human-perceived and human-caused problems will ever be fully resolved in our little corner of an exceedingly dynamic universe. If it's not sabre-tooth tigers or an atmosphere full of ammonia, it's global warming or nuclear war or terrorism. This isn't paradise and wouldn't a life without any significant challenges be really boring? It would be like a Halloween with all treats and no tricks, nor ghosts, nor goblins. We think we're now advocating for one of the most difficult of all goals to attain: BALANCE!

would Jack-O-Lanterns glow in daytime?

Photo by J. Harrington

                     Balance

By Alice B. Fogel

Balance is everything, is the only

way to hold on.

I've weighed the alternatives, the hold

as harbor: It isn't safe                                                                             

to let go. But consider the hover,

choices made, the moment

between later and too late.

Hesitation is later, regret

too late. You can't keep turning

and turning, or expecting

to return. This earth

is not a wheel, it is a rock

that erodes, mountain by mountain.

And I have been too soft,

like sandstone, but there is a point

where I stand without a story,

immutable and moved, solid

as a breath in winter air.

I have seen my death and I know

it is my neighbor, my brother,

my keeper. In my life

I am going to keep trying

for the balance,

remembering the risks and the value

of extremes, and that experience

teaches the length of allowable lean;

that it is easier — and wiser —

to balance a stone as if on one toe

though it weigh a hundred pounds

than to push it back against the curve

of its own world.

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Bluebirds of Surprise! #phenology

We're going to bet you've heard of the Bluebird of Happiness, whether or not one's flown up your nose. We had bluebirds nesting in a couple of houses this Summer past. They disappeared a couple of months or so ago. We figured all bluebirds had migrated South. Seeing a handful at the front birdbath this morning was a delightful surprise. We're even more surprise, and grateful, that we managed to get an in focus photo of at least some of them, else we might not even believe ourselves, although, according to this map, we're either located near the Northern boundary of the year-round range, so, with global warming, we may see more bluebirds in the future.

there are three bluebirds in this photo, can you find them?

Photo by J. Harrington

The winds today have shifted around and are now Northerly. We're guessing that some very hardy bluebirds had been Summering somewhere North of us and finally decided it's time to catch a tailwind South to warmer climes. One of the real treats in phenology is the occasional surprise that nature throws at us to demonstrate that, indeed, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." (Thank you, Ralph Waldo E.)

Bluebird skies have arrived along with the change in winds. We'll enjoy them for a day or so, Then, we're scheduled to go "Up North" over the weekend and hope against hope that the snow currently included in the forecast goes away. Now, we admit we'd feel differently if we were going duck hunting instead....

The Last Word of a Blue Bird

by Robert Frost

As told to a child


As I went out a Crow
In a low voice said, "Oh,
I was looking for you.
How do you do?
I just came to tell you
To tell Lesley (will you?)
That her little Bluebird
Wanted me to bring word
That the north wind last night
That made the stars bright
And made ice on the trough
Almost made him cough
His tail feathers off.
He just had to fly!
But he sent her Good-by,
And said to be good,
And wear her red hood,
And look for the skunk tracks
In the snow with an ax-
And do everything!
And perhaps in the spring
He would come back and sing."

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Autumn's starting to look peaked #phenology

More and more trees are bare of leaves. The storms that came through over the weekend and the winds continuing through tomorrow have denuded almost all the maples, aspens and birch. Tamarack needles/leaves are dropping. The stubborn oaks are still reticent to drop any more leaves than absolutely necessary. Skeleton branches grasping for the moon will make for a more scary Halloween.

when will snow flakes cover bare branches?

Photo by J. Harrington

Weather forecasts keep changing, but it looks like, for the first time this season, we may have snow by Friday. As soon as we finish this posting, we'll go plug in the bird bath heater, after checking to be sure no gray tree frogs think it's their Winter home. Overnight temperatures have started to consistently drop below freezing. Even the mums are starting to look a little Autumn-worn. Will deer hunters have "tracking snow" this year?

sandhill cranes migrating

Photo by J. Harrington

We saw a small family of sandhill cranes in one of the wetland / weed fields today. They'll probably start to move South, as will some of the Canada geese, when the wind shifts around out of the North, instead of the Southerly direction it's been blowing for the past several days. This is peak transition season it seems. It includes a new moon cycle that started a few days ago. We've now a waxing crescent moon that will be close to full on Halloween. We certainly don't intent to rush the season. It's doing a fine job of that all by itself. To be honest, we won't mind taking an extended break from pulling buckthorn, but we're not quite there yet.

                     October

By Jacob Polley

Although a tide turns in the trees

the moon doesn't turn the leaves,

though chimneys smoke and blue concedes

to bluer home-time dark.

Though restless leaves submerge the park

in yellow shallows, ankle-deep,

and through each tree the moon shows, halved

or quartered or complete,

the moon's no fruit and has no seed,

and turns no tide of leaves on paths

that still persist but do not lead

where they did before dark.

Although the moonstruck pond stares hard

the moon looks elsewhere. Manholes breathe.

Each mind's a different, distant world

this same moon will not leave.

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Do we "trust" Nature?

Today's Star Tribune has a fascinating commentary, This is your brain on politics. [Since yr obt svt. is of the Gemini astrological sign, it's not that hard to understand why most days he acts as though he has both a "larger right amygdala" and a "larger anterior cingulate cortex." Go check the commentary. We'll wait.]

You're back? Good. Which part of the commentary struck you the most? For us it was the last frame's note that "...there is only one way we'll change another person's mind: FIRST, they must actually like and trust us." This made me wonder about the fears of nature expressed by many of us. There are many things in nature that trigger our fears: ticks? snakes? mice? lions? spiders? tornadoes? hurricanes? floods? The list goes on ad nauseum. Many of us have very different lists of fears.

storm clouds don't always bring lightning

Photo by J. Harrington

That's the same nature that brings us birds and bees and butterflies and eggs and honey and beauty and this list goes on ad infinitum. We often fear less what we are familiar with. Did we overcome our fears to gain familiarity or did we become familiar before we had enough sense to be afraid? We vaguely recall, from our younger days, reading an interview with a race car driver. The interviewer asked the driver how he could possibly face death every time he raced or practiced. How could he get into the car's cockpit? The driver, in response, asked the interviewer if his hope was to die peacefully in bed. The interviewer's answer was "Yes, of course." The driver then asked how the interviewer could face the prospect of climbing into bed each night.

Is it the unknown that we fear? Many times we ignore what we are told will harm us. (Full disclosure: we continued to smoke cigarettes for years after the first Surgeon General's warnings.) Something like 97% of qualified scientists tell us that climate change is happening, we're much of the cause, and we won't like the consequences, whether they're intended or not. The United States recently elected a Denier-In-Chief. Was that fearless, stupid, both?

We destroy wetlands, develop and pave floodplains and then complain about the destruction of property by floods. We're coming to the quite unpleasant conclusion that perhaps the preponderance of the human race neither likes nor trusts nature. That help's explain why we continue to exploit natural resources and ignore warning flags that should cause us to change both our minds and our behaviors.

Where Honey Comes From

Maggie Smith

When my daughter drizzles gold
on her breakfast toast, I remind her
she’s seen the bee men in our tree,
casting smoke like a spell until
the swarm thrums itself to sleep.
She’s seen them wipe the air clean
with smoke, the way a hand smudges
chalk from a slate, erasing danger
written there, as if smoke revises
the story of the air until each page
reads never fear, never fear. Honey
is in the hive, forbidden lantern
lit on the inside, where it must be dark,
where it must always be. Honey
is sweetness and fear. I think
the bees have learned to embroider,
to stitch the sky with warnings
untouched by smoke. Buzzing
is the sound of bees perforating the air,
as if pulling thread through over
and over, though the thread too is air.

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Urge for Going #phenology

The drive is covered with pin needles, oak leaves and scatterings of yellow, oversized, grape leaves. Mother Nature is now adding rain drops to that mixture. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources tells us that our county is at peak color while most of northern Minnesota is past peak. Because nature is nature, there are exceptions, plus, the wind over the past few days has stripped many leaves from the branches. Last year about this time nearby woods looked really pretty.

peak Autumn color, 2016

Photo by J. Harrington

[UPDATE: via @RobGMacfarlane    Word of the day: “anthocyanins” - pigments responsible esp. for the vivid red colours of autumn leaves, synthesised as chlorophyll degrades.]

We've noticed local aspens and birch have reached peak yellow this year. The tamaracks, not so much yet. Roadside aster plants have all lost their blooms but so far, we've avoided the kind of killing frost that would do in the chrysanthemums along the driveway. If most of the flowers continued to bloom as leaves changed colors in Autumn, would that be too much of a good thing, or could we handle it?

Last night's and this morning's cloud cover did in our view of the Orionid meteor shower. Perhaps we'll get lucky tonight and the clouds will clear early enough for a better look. Soon Jack-O-Lanterns will be getting carved, bug season will be over(?), Thanksgiving will be on our time horizons, and snow will start to appear in our forecasts and on our property. The local Drive-In restaurant and the distant Harbor View Cafe will be closing for the Winter. Yet another year will have reached its own Urge for Going. We're sort of looking forward to once again wearing our heavy, warm sweaters.

                     Autumn

By Joan Mitchell

The rusty leaves crunch and crackle,

Blue haze hangs from the dimmed sky,

The fields are matted with sun-tanned stalks —

Wind rushes by.

The last red berries hang from the thorn-tree,

The last red leaves fall to the ground.

Bleakness, through the trees and bushes,

Comes without sound.

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North to sustainability?

Long, long ago (2010), in a country far, far away, it came about that

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines sustainability as the satisfaction of basic economic, social, and security needs now and in the future without undermining the natural resource base and environmental quality on which life depends. From a business perspective, the goal of sustainability is to increase long-term shareholder and social value, while decreasing industry’s use of materials and reducing negative impacts on the environment.4" 

"4 U.S. EPA, Sustainability, Basic Information, http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/ basicinfo.htm#sustainability (last visited Apr. 2, 2010)."

We learned this from a paper by Jane Kloeckner titled Developing a Sustainable Hardrock Mining and Mineral Processing Industry: Environmental and Natural Resource Law for Twenty-First Century People, Prosperity, and the Planet. If it's not clear yet, we're strongly in favor of people, prosperity and the planet, but without the latter, the first two don't do very well. In fact, although we reserve the right to revise our opinion at some future time, we prefer the cited EPA definition to that of the oft quoted Brundtland Commission [p. 41]:

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

• the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

All of the preceding has been triggered by our continuing and growing interest in the possibility of helping Minnesota become a world leader in sustainable mining. [We'll pause here so you can either recover and catch your breath or finish laughing uproariously.] Canada, our friend and competitor to the North, has been working for some time on an approach called Toward Sustainable Mining. We like to believe that the "Toward" may be in recognition that an extractive industry may not ever get to be truly sustainable. Perhaps not, but we can certainly do better in Minnesota in increasing long-term shareholder and social value while we further reduce negative impacts on the environment. (See why we like the EPA definition?)

Duluth harbor, steel hulls and taconite pellets

Photo by J. Harrington

Even the steel industry itself is getting into the "sustainability business." Unfortunately, they seem to have missed the significance of the early parts of their supply chain, the entire mining sector. Fortunately, others are busy helping the industry focus on such concerns and offering strategic guidance. For example, from "Steel Available ... a data-driven supplier relationship management and sourcing platform that connects buyers and suppliers while ensuring compliance and visibility in the heavy industry." we learn:

"Often required by different sustainability advocates nowadays, companies need to adopt ‘ethical sourcing practice’. Therefore, they have to select suppliers with high economic, social, and environmental value and work with them. Recall a principle from operations management: a stable partnership with only a few suppliers is usually more favourable. Along the process of selection, suppliers with similar values and operation systems can be relied on and even grow together in the long term. This pushes for mutual reliance of supplier and buyer, achieving a better power balance in the buying process as well."

While the world is changing around us, some folks are pursuing what seems to be a least cost commodity tactic for Minnesota's mining industry, reducing or eliminating or not enforcing environmental requirements. It doesn't have to be like that. For example, did you know that "Today, DNR is the largest single FSC-certified land manager in the U.S." (Forest certification is a voluntary third-party process that identifies and recognizes well-managed forest land. It takes into consideration the ecological, economic, and social components of forests and surrounding communities.)

solar panels on a northern Minnesota farm

Photo by J. Harrington

We now live in a world where engagement rings need to hold blood-free diamonds in fair trade gold settings. Next thing we know, companies like Ford (you can buy any color you want as long as it's black) will have lots that look like rainbows and will be advertising fair trade steel in their EVs. Take a look at their sustainable materials strategy.

Wouldn't you think Minnesota would want a piece of that kind of action? To get it, we'll need healthy communities in a healthy environment with mines that meet stringent requirements, won't we? Or else Chinese steel from Canadian ore might be a more sustainable source, because Minnesota failed to value and use its assets to increase shareholder and social value. We have most of the necessary tools, but that's a posting for another day or two (or three).

Prayers of Steel

Carl Sandburg, 1878 - 1967

Lay me on an anvil, O God.  
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.  
Let me pry loose old walls.  
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.  
  
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.  
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.  
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.  
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.

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Tired of seeing red?

The areas in red indicated rivers and lakes that have been classified as "impaired." These waters don't meet the standards necessary to support the uses, such as swimming, designated for them. About 40% of Minnesota's waters fail to meet required standards, and the amount of red (not counting Lake Superior) generally increases from north to south and east to west.

impaired waters, 2018 draft

Western and southern Minnesota are where agricultural land use predominates. Public waters in Minnesota are required, as of the beginning of next month, to have a 50 foot buffer (or alternative conservation measures) to reduce the amount of pollutants getting into our public waters from farm fields. The map below shows, in shades of blue, the estimated percent of parcels in each county meeting buffer requirements. Lighter shades denote lower/lesser levels of compliance. The degree of blue is sort of the inverse of the amount of red. The press release noted that the total compliance is estimated at 94%. Unfortunately, many of those counties where agriculture predominates are also those with the lowest percentage compliance.

estimated compliance with buffer requirements

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has proposed a revised water quality standard for wild rice waters. Public comments can be submitted until November 22 and public hearings start next week. (If you're an activist advocate for water quality and/or wild rice, you're entitled to wonder if there's a conspiracy, since hearings for Enbridge's proposed "Line 3" pipeline are going on now.) The proposed standard, if adopted, will be more complex and labor intensive to establish for each wild rice water.

Since the Agency is already under review by the US Environmental Protection Agency because

"The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the EPA agreed in 2013 that Minnesota had a significant problem with expired and out - of - date NPDES permits that failed to control pertinent parameters. Despite a formal Metallic Mining Joint Priority Agreement with EPA, MPCA has made virtually no progress in addressing the backlog of out - of - date mining permits that provide inadequate control of pollutants."

we're hesitant to assume the Agency would have the staff and other resources needed to implement an more complex version of a standard that's been on the books for years, but wasn't enforced until recently. The intent of federal legislation enacted in 1972, with a Minnesota Congressman as a chief author, was that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts would cease by 1985. Forty-five years after enactment, more than three decades after the 1985 deadline, are we still moving backwards? Some of us, but, we hope, far from the majority, wonder if this philosophy means we should post speed limits, but eliminate all traffic cops, and then see what happens. Maybe we can turn more of northeast Minnesota's waters red on the maps. Is that what we really want?

Let Muddy Water Sit and It Grows Clear

Ted Mathys

It’s clear when, in membranous
              predawn blue
I enter pines, mind on
              embryo in amnion,
my tracks preceded
              by those of the dog,
his by a doe’s, hers by six
              hours of snow, it’s clear then
the distance between
              my affections and ability
to touch their sinuosity
              is itself a felt silence
called sun. Sun rises
              without provocation
over a frozen stream that frustrates
              reflection, but will
by the time a pulse is palpable,
              have thawed and grown
clear again, permitting me to see
              a tree surface, distort, flow.

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All this and syrup too! #phenology

The surrealistic first stanza of Dylan's fantastic My Back Pages could nicely describe a walk along our country road today.

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Maple leaves are in florescent flames of tiger and pineapple. Oaks in spice, sangria and scarlet. If you disagree with these choices, select your own at the color thesaurus. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” exclaimed Anne of Green Gables. We concur, heartily.

roadside maple in Autumn

Photo by J. Harrington

The maples in front of the house have, in the past day or two, turned chartreuse and tangerine. The maple on the ridge behind the house is brilliant crimson. Over the next week or two, much of this beauty and vibrancy will be gone. Isn't it important to enjoy what we have while it's here?

Fall

Edward Hirsch, 1950

Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season 
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples 
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves 
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition 
With the final remaining cardinals) and then 
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last 
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground. 
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees 
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever 
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun 
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance, 
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud 
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything 
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s 
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment 
Pulling out of the station according to schedule, 
Another moment arriving on the next platform. It 
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away 
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet, 
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving 
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us, 
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets. 
And every year there is a brief, startling moment 
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and 
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless 
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: 
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; 
It is the changing light of fall falling on us. 

'Tis a day for seeing spots #phenology

This morning, the waters of the Sunrise River near County Road 36 were full of American Coot. Unfortunately, the photo's not enlarged enough to clearly see their white bills. It's been several months since we've seen any so we're guessing they're migrants, but it could just be local families flocking up pre-migration. There's certainly nothing in this week's weather to trigger any local migrations.

American coot at Carlos Avery WMA

Photo by J. Harrington

Further confirmation that it is that time of year:

• We noticed box elder bugs crawling around the doors and siding of some nearby houses. If you've never experienced Bill Holm's Boxelder Bug Variations, see if you can get your hands on a copy. Try it, you'll like it!

• While walking the dogs, we were surrounded by and inundated with Asian Lady Beetles, AKA harlequin, multicolored. Their bodies are dotted with spots and the air was full of them, creating flying spots with spots before our eyes. Despite constantly brushing them off as we walked, when we came inside we were crawling, quite literally, with them. The ones that made themselves known when we were still close to the door were flicked off outside. A few didn't appear until later, when we were busy in the kitchen. They suffered a terminal fate.

Clearly, our understanding of nature is more limited than we would like. Hatches of mayflies or caddisflies in numbers comparable to the flying beetles we experienced today would have drawn great numbers of trout to feed on them. The Asian Ladies are reported to have few predators.  Late season dragonflies seem to have disappeared. We're not sure about bats, but this flight of beetles was in bright daytime sunlight. There are still a number of songbirds around. Why were no birds trying to feed on them? The same kind of situation seems to prevail with box elder bugs, although Mr. Holm offered an alternative approach to the latter, it might also work on the Asian beetles.

Though Difficult, it is Possible to Kill Boxelder Bugs

By Bill Holm

Though Difficult, it is Possible to Kill
Boxelder Bugs.  If You are Interested,
You Might try This Method
Take two bricks.
Creep deliberately up
Behind the boxelder bug,
Being careful not to sing –
This will alert him.
In a graceful flowing gesture,
Something like a golf swing
Or reaching for your lover in the dark,
Gather up the boxelder bug
On the surface of the left brick
Bringing the right brick
At the same time firmly down
Together with the left brick.
There will be a loud crashing,
Like broken cymbals.
Maybe a breaking of brick, and
If you are not careful,
Your own voice rising.
When the brick dust has settled
And you have examined your own hands,
Carefully,
You will not see the boxelder bug.
There is a small hole in the brick
And he is exploring it,
Calmly, like a millionaire
In an antique shop.

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No jobs on a dead planet!

The New York Times magazine recently published an article that touched on one of our (many) hot buttons: In Northern Minnesota, Two Economies Square Off: Mining vs. Wilderness. Today, the Star Tribune published Enbridge pipeline replacement divides DFL. We live in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District, home to the Iron Range and the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. Once upon a time, back when we also believed in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, we believed the Democratic party was a leading supporter of both labor (good jobs) and environmental protection (clean water to drink and swim in, clean air to breathe). Not so much anymore.

Our Congressman, Rick Nolan, has introduced legislation that would undermine environmental protections and current governmental process to expedite mine development of a new type, primarily for copper. It's what we would have expected from a Republican, such as Congressman Emmer, who is aiding and abetting Nolan's effort to exempt some mine proposals from full governmental review and approval.

Two environmental organizations, [full disclosure: we have contributed funds to each] have seen fit to respond to the Times' publication as follows:

It seems to us that a large part of our current problems derive directly from the extent to which we are a nation of laws, not men. Years ago we tried working with representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers, at a time when their strategy on projects seemed to be to "Design, Announce, Defend." Finding middle ground when each side feels it needs the "best advocate" to defend its interests is a sometimes impossible challenge.

There is, or at least could be, a different way. The Nation has published some suggestions on how to bring labor and the environment together. Today's Daily Yonder has comparable thoughts on how the Democrats can  better reach out to rural voters (most of Minnesota's CD-8 is rural). We've mentioned before how much we've been taken by the stories in Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman and the outstanding job some predominantly rural folks are doing in maintaining and creating jobs while conserving the environment. We bet if you stop back here from time to time, you'll see more references to efforts such as those touched on today, because, as much as we believe anything, we believe there are no jobs on a dead planet. We may even drag in the old "Bert & I" joke about which way to Millenocket? to see if we can find a way together to get there from here.

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