Would you know a timberdoodle if you saw one?

While driving to the Granddaughter’s this morning, so we could read some books, I saw something at the roadside in the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area that has me questioning my vision. I’m pretty sure I saw a woodcock (timberdoodle) right at the edge of the pavement. Why such a bird would be in such a location is beyond me. I got but a quick glimpse although the rotund body profile is mostly unmistakable.

driveway puddle woodcock

Photo by J. Harrington

Some years ago, in the spring, we had a woodcock visit the puddle in the driveway. In all my years of grouse and woodcock hunting, I reduced to possession only one woodcock. It was a real treat to see one this morning.

The reading session went well, although there’s a certain amount of tension between a Granddaughter’s interest in flipping though a book to look at pictures and a Grandfather’s inclination to read from page to page in an orderly fashion. We settled on taking turns flipping and reading.

This afternoon, our unseasonably warm temperatures are being tempered by a 20 mph breeze. The purple love grass hasn’t produced nearly the amount of tumbling seed heads we had last year so the breezes are blowing smoke and some early fallen leaves but not much more.

The Woodcock

By Terry Blackhawk

Weary of the daily terror I turn
to the mystic body of the bird.  A woodcock
I found crackling the twigs and ivy,
barely escaped from a cat’s clumsy claws.
I feared for the odd angle of its wing,
the surprised flopping it made there,
but I did not fear the extreme length
of its beak or the eyes popping diametrically
on either side of its head. I loved the feathers’
deckled edges and the light weight it made
as I scooped it up and put it, limpsy and weak,
into an old canvas book bag, and when I
released it from that soft safe space
some time later, out on the island, I missed it
at once, as one would miss a friend.
It whirred straight up, explosively,
toward freedom on the other side of the river,
its pulse now gone from my hands.

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Minnesota's climate failures

Today, briefly, we enjoyed some blue skies and a little bit of sunshine. It made an amazing improvement in our general outlook on life. In case any of you are beginning to wonder, in our neighborhood we look forward to average daily highs above freezing in a little more than a month, in late February, just a bit before meteorological Spring begins. Funny how that works.

There are a couple of recently released reports we think you should be aware of, and even strongly recommend you read:

• Nature and Climate Solutions for Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy


• Soil Health, Water & Climate Change, Land Stewardship Project

We are well past the time we need to take climate breakdown very, very seriously. We're also, in our opinion, well past the time agriculture should be overproducing row crops like corn and soy beans to be used as feedstock for ethanol or biodiesel or as animal feed. Perhaps we should be considering permanently retiring some row crop acreage rather than papering over environmental issues by subsidizing cover crops for row crops. At a minimum, don't we need to have a serious conversation about why and how much we want to continue to subsidize a major source of environmental pollution? Farm sizes continue to increase. The number of farms continues to decrease. Many farmers can't even break even without public subsidy. Meanwhile soils continue to erode, nitrate continues to pollute surface and groundwater, and CAFOs continue to pollute their neighbors' airsheds with manure aromas. These days we're not really talking about grandpa's self-contained crop and livestock farm, are we?

how much field corn do we really need?

Photo by J. Harrington

That brings us to a third report we think you need to become familiar with. It documents how Minnesota is failing to come close to meeting it's greenhouse gas reduction targets, and agriculture is a major reason for that failure. It's right here in Greenhouse gas emissions inventory 2005-2018. Wendell Berry lets us know what we can expect as results of our current behavior, and suggests alternatives.

The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

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is inspired by the Mad Farmer poems of Wendell Berry. His poems call us to live at the margins, use deep imagination, be radical, and do all things in love. What we do at Mad Agriculture is only 'mad' because the world has gone insane.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head. 
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer. 

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know. 
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord. 
Love the world. Work for nothing. 
Take all that you have and be poor. 
Love someone who does not deserve it. 

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands. 
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed. 

Ask the questions that have no answers. 
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias. 
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant, 
that you will not live to harvest. 

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years. 

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come. 
Expect the end of the world. Laugh. 
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts. 
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men. 

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child? 
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth? 

Go with your love to the fields. 
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts. 

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind, 
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. 

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary, 
some in the wrong direction. 
Practice resurrection. 

- Wendell Berry

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Getting perspective, shifting focus

We learned something new this morning. Perhaps you already know about the air quality images of the Boundary Waters available online. We didn't. If you're interested, here's a screen capture showing the area of coverage. (Use the preceding link to visit the site.)

This is one of the nicest discoveries we've made on social media (Twitter) in quite awhile. For the autumn, it will be interesting to compare, from time to time, the current image with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Fall Color Finder. Then, this winter, we can watch for snowfall and, maybe?, Northern Lights?

Once again the ruby-throated hummingbirds seem to have disappeared but, so far this month, every time we thought they were gone, one showed up at one of our feeders with 12 to 18 hours. We'll see what happens this time. [UPDATE: 15 minutes after posting, a hummer arrived at the front feeder.]

hummingbird perched on dead branch

Photo by J. Harrington

Recently, we've been trying to figure out whether, and how much under what circumstances, we should be removing dead branches from our trees and whether we should remove some of the oaks that have clearly died. It is less than a straight-forward exercise in decision making. A lot depends on a lot of other things. Folks who are focused primarily on the health and appearance of trees lean toward removal. Those with more of an ecological systems bent point out all the roles dead branches and trees serve. We are going to spend some time studying permaculture to see if we can establish a framework within which we can assess the pros and cons of different approaches. Our primary objective at the moment is to avoid being guilty of the dictum "when your only tool is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail." In our case, substitute saw for hammer and dead wood for nail. Plus, to be honest, we've often felt deprived by the lack of design courses in our education. Studying permaculture design may help rectify that deficiency.

Speaking Tree 

Joy Harjo - 1951-

I had a beautiful dream I was dancing with a tree.

                                                                   —Sandra Cisneros

Some things on this earth are unspeakable:
Genealogy of the broken—
A shy wind threading leaves after a massacre,
Or the smell of coffee and no one there—

Some humans say trees are not sentient beings,
But they do not understand poetry—

Nor can they hear the singing of trees when they are fed by
Wind, or water music—
Or hear their cries of anguish when they are broken and bereft—

Now I am a woman longing to be a tree, planted in a moist, dark earth
Between sunrise and sunset—

I cannot walk through all realms—
I carry a yearning I cannot bear alone in the dark—

What shall I do with all this heartache?

The deepest-rooted dream of a tree is to walk
Even just a little ways, from the place next to the doorway—
To the edge of the river of life, and drink—

I have heard trees talking, long after the sun has gone down:

Imagine what would it be like to dance close together
In this land of water and knowledge. . .

To drink deep what is undrinkable.

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Here comes Summer! #phenology

With less than a week to go until Summer solstice, it's time to take a look at what once was thought to be "normal" for that season. Back in January, the National Weather Service Twin Cities Office shared the following chart (ignore the "You Are Here" message from January). Starting Saturday, we will be entering a Summer season of 93 days, 15 hours and some odd minutes. During that period, our normal daily high temperature should be 70℉ or above. In fact, the actual daily high is likely to be much more variable than the average daily high. Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be 90℉ or more. Either or both of those days are up for consideration of standing  in a cool trout stream for several hours if the wind ever stops blowing.

Summer sunflowers in bloom

Photo by J. Harrington

Greta Kaul at MinnPost has created some delightful seasonal guides for Minnesota. Her signs of Summer include:

• wild prairie rose blooms
• showy lady's slipper blooms
• Canadian service berry fruit
• harebell blooms
• brown-eyed Susan blooms
• orange day lily blooms
• sunflower blooms
• bee balm blooms
• prairie blazing star blooms
• rattlesnake master blooms
• Virginia strawberry fruit
• New England aster blooms

The Summer months are prime time for seeing most of our dragonflies of the North Woods. June is also the month when our local black bears begin to check yards and trash barrels for snacks. Our compost tumbler was tipped over last night or the night before. We didn't see the culprit, but I doubt anyone but a bear is likely to and capable of tipping over the mostly full compost tumbler. We learned the hard way to bring in bird feeders during Spring, Summer and Fall but, a couple of years ago lost our patio screening to a bruin that wanted to be sure there was nothing to eat on the deck. Country living has its annoyances, but, so far, the rewards greatly outweigh them.

Summer in a Small Town

By Tony Hoagland

Yes, the young mothers are beautiful,

with all the self-acceptance of exhaustion,

still dazed from their great outpouring,

pushing their strollers along the public river walk.

And the day is also beautiful—the replica 19th-century paddle-wheeler

perpetually moored at the city wharf

                with its glassed-in bar and grill

for the lunch-and-cocktail-seekers

who come for the Mark Twain Happy Hour

which lasts as long as the Mississippi.

This is the kind of town where the rush hour traffic halts

                to let three wild turkeys cross the road,

and when the high school music teacher retires

after thirty years

the movie marquee says, “Thanks Mr. Biddleman!”

and the whole town comes to hear

                the tuba solos of old students.

Summer, when the living is easy

and we store up pleasure in our bodies

like fat, like Eskimos,

for the coming season of privation.

All August the Ferris wheel will turn

                           in the little amusement park,

and screaming teenage girls will jump into the river

with their clothes on,

right next to the No Swimming sign.

Trying to cool the heat inside the small towns

                                               of their bodies,

for which they have no words;

obedient to the voice inside which tells them,

“Now. Steal Pleasure.”

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'Tis time dragons fly! #phenology

I'm guessing it will be a couple of weeks (midish-June) before we see flowers, but the beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) is growing nicely. Not to get too technical, but we got a bunch of rain overnight. The mosquitos are as thick as flies so the hatch of dragonflies now hovering over our  fields is more than welcome. As they move quicker than we can see, we're again guessing that many of the recent arrivals are four-spotted skimmers.

look for beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) in bloom late next month

Photo by J. Harrington

We took the emergence times from our dragonfly field guide and plotted them on a chart. (There's a Phenology Flight Chart in an appendix but we haven't yet organized ours that way. Maybe that's a project for a rainy Summer day.) It's been our experience that knowing who might be flying around helps narrow down the options to check for the names of the dragons we see flying around.

The guidebook is organized by Family rather than chronologically.  Dragonflies of the North Woods includes these families:

• Darners (Family Aeshnidae) 
• Clubtails (Family Gomphidae)
• Spiketails (Family Cordulegasteridae)
• Cruisers (Family Macromiidae)
• Emeralds (Family Corduliidae)
• Skimmers (Family Libellulidae)

ruby meadowhawk, Family Libellulidae

Photo by J. Harrington

It's been six months or so since we've given any serious thought to dragonflies. Now it's time to refresh our memory by reviewing  the field guide again. This type of knowledge, like so many other types, falls into our category of use it or lose it and, much as we're fascinated by and enjoy dragonflies, we have too many interests for our own good. There are few dragon flies to observe in Minnesota for about half the year. We're really happy they're back in numbers.

Fly, Dragonfly!

By Joyce Sidman

Water nymph, you have

climbed from the shallows to don

your dragon-colors.

Perched on a reed stem

all night, shedding your skin, you dry

your wings in moonlight.

Night melts into day.

Swift birds wait to snap you up.

Fly, dragonfly! Fly!

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North Woods Winter #phenology

Monday will be the Feast of the Ephipany, the celebration of the arrival of the three wise men to visit the infant Jesus and the end of the Christmas season. Monday or Tuesday we'll start to take down our Christmas decorations and pack them away until next December. To replace the Christmas greenery and ease the transition, the Better Half has wisely and kindly added a pot of "Spring bulbs" to join the amaryllis and orchids on the windowsills. Watching the emerging green shoots brightens the dreariest Winter's day.

Now that we're well into January, it's time to share part of a Christmas present my son gave me. The present is a book by Janine M. Benyus, the same person who wrote Biomimicry. It's titled Northwoods Wildlife, A Watcher's Guide to Habitats. The shared information comes from a section headed "Wildlife Events Calendar."

results of a pileated's drumming

Photo by J. Harrington

Although January, near the end, is close to the nadir of Winter in our North Country, hints of the upcoming Spring season begin to appear this month in the form of:

• pileated woodpecker's drumming to proclaim a pair's territory


• chickadees start to sing their Spring song


• crossbills may start to nest


• great horned owls begin to hoot to proclaim nesting territory

never mind the snow, listen for a chickadee's Spring song

Photo by J. Harrington

We'll no doubt have to clear the driveway a number of times more before we can take a "let it melt" attitude. We may even have to confront a polar vortex or two before a returning sun and lengthening days bring longer term respite from cold and snow. I know that I find it encouraging to pause the snowblower and listen to a "dee-dee-dee" or a "who-who-who" or a "rat-a-tat-tat," to be reminded that those who live closer than I to our North Country weather patterns know that, for anyone not relying on the subnivean zone, better days are just a little ahead.

January 6

By Vicki Hearne

We must stop bragging. There are limits

For us to the cold and the twelfth night

Marks them all. Just off the coast of Maine

The lobster boats pass, dragging their nets.

Capsize once in a while, in water

Like that you die, that’s all, that water

Isn’t even frozen. Not even

Frozen, and that’s as cold as it gets.

The hearts of birds beat voraciously

So they keep warm, so if you put out

A feeder, keep it full of the seeds

Their hearts feed on, then it is only

When their food runs out that you find them

Inexpressibly taut in hollows,

And that’s as cold as it ever gets.

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Why don't Minnesota's trout streams have a sulfate standard?

If one is to judge based on historic reports, once a water body has been sufficiently polluted for long enough, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency [MPCA] is willing to consider reclassifying some existing "use classification" for that water body as unattainable. At least, that is how it appears in the case of the Dark River in northern Minnesota. At the moment, the Dark River is designated as Class 1B (drinking water), 2A (aquatic life and recreation), Class 3 (industrial consumption), and Class 4A (agricultural irrigation), Class 4B (use by livestock and wildlife without inhibition or injurious effects), Class 5 (aesthetic enjoyment and navigation) and Class 6 (other designated public uses and benefits). The Classes with strikethrough, 1B, 3, and 4A would be eliminated and Classes 2A (aquatic life and recreation), 4B (use by livestock and wildlife without inhibition or injurious effects), 5 (aesthetic enjoyment and navigation),  and 6 (other designated public uses and benefits) designated uses will remain unchanged if a petition is granted.

The petition has been submitted by US Steel Corp. Consequently, MPCA is may permit continuing pollution of the Dark River by "considering removing the uses based on the fact that the uses do not currently exist and are also not reasonably expected to be attainable uses in the future." We're not sure how you may feel about it but we see this type of response from a regulatory agency as akin to rewarding bad behavior instead of enforcing existing standards. If you've ever raised children given to tantrums, you'll understand.

a trout stream in the North Country

Photo by J. Harrington

The Timberjay noted several years ago that "discharge from the Minntac tailings basin that has increased the sulfate levels in Sandy Lake and the Sand River,..." has had negative consequences for water quality and wild rice beds in those waters.

Additional background on these issues, and a clear indication of the location of the Dark River, can be found in this MinnPost article, also from 2015 (Despite pressure to lower Minntac sulfate emissions, status quo could last awhile).

Here's some of our preliminary thoughts on the proposed elimination of three designated uses for the Dark River:

1. Jim Humphrey and Bill Shogren, in their “Fly-Angler’s Guide” reference a Trout Unlimited chapter report that refers to the Dark River as “the premier trout stream north of Chisolm.” (Some research seems to indicate that sulfates can cause problems for fish, especially trout.)

2. Given the state of information via MPCA and MnDNR, it’s difficult to impossible to ascertain which, if any, downstream resources might be negatively affected by the proposed change. The precautionary principle suggests that’s a good reason to not support any change.

3. The MPCA reports that it has "Insufficient data for use assessment” regarding aquatic life. This represents another reason to oppose reclassification. Lack of information isn't a good reason to assume non-existence.

4. Finally, for now, it’s unclear what MPCA's proposed “use and value demonstration” represents, whether it’s the same as a use attainability analysis and how it may adversely affect protection of the resource since the 2A (trout stream) classification doesn’t include any sulfate standard that we could find and MPCA has been working for several years to revise the existing water quality standard for sulfate to protect wild rice.

The Peace of Wild Things

Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Frost on the punkin? #phenology

Earlier this week we had a morning or two of clear, sunny skies following cold nights. Frost didn't show up well (at all) on the "punkins" lining the driveway, but it was beautiful on the grasses in the fields, until the sun climbed high enough to warm the stems and melt the frost. We could use more days like those before the snow flies.

Autmn's frosted grasses

Photo by J. Harrington

Mice, crickets, and spiders have been creeping and crawling into the house looking for Winter shelter. We've manage to catch and release the crickets and spiders. The mice, and one mole / shrew, didn't fare as well.

While we were visiting Duluth yesterday, after an enjoyable lunch at Fitger's Brew House, we stopped by the Bookstore at Fitger's, where we picked up a book titled Natural Connections, exploring northwoods nature through science and your senses, written by Emily M. Stone and published by Cable Natural History Museum, where Ms. Stone is the Naturalist/Education Director. We started reading with the Fall section, since we're in the middle of that season. It's enjoyable, entertaining and educational. You should at least check it out [previous link] if you're interested in North Woods phenology.

North Country loon

Photo by J. Harrington

According to some phenology sources, we've reached the time of year when our North Country loons will be heading South for the Winter. Except for the howl of a wolf, we can think of no sound more evocative of the North Woods than the ululations of a loon.

When the Frost is on the Punkin

By James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,

And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,

And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,

With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,

As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,

And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;

The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still

A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;

The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—

O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps

Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;

And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through

With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...

I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be

As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—

I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

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Winter, watching woodpeckers #phenology

Goldfinches, in Winter (non-breeding) colors are coming to the feeders. Is that a sign of Spring? Probably not, although it is now only 57 days until the start of meteorological Spring, but who's counting? As befits the weather circumstances, suet and sunflower seeds are disappearing rather quickly with all our below zero temperatures. For reasons we don't begin to fathom, since there still is suet in the front feeder, one of our local pileated woodpeckers was foraging on the ground yesterday. We don't recall ever seeing that before.

pileated woodpecker, ground feeding

Photo by J. Harrington

The Naturalist's Notebook we mentioned the other day suggests that we learn as much as possible about the most common species around us. We think we'll start with woodpeckers, since there are representatives of several species that show up regularly at the feeders. That also seems like a reasonable way to ease into learning about the relationship between woodpeckers and trees whence we can learn more about our local trees. Our beginning list includes:

• Pileated


• Hairy


• Downy


• Red-bellied

which woodpecker worked this wood?

Photo by J. Harrington

There's a wide variety of guides to woodpeckers, including this listing of the seven woodpeckers native to Minnesota, so we won't be short of reference material. There, we bet you're glad we've settled that. This is one more small piece of our never-ending efforts to bring focus to our activities and interests. We've become too much like the descriptions of the Platte River, “too thick to drink, but too thin to plow.”

Birds Again

Jim Harrison, 1937 - 2016

A secret came a week ago though I already
knew it just beyond the bruised lips of consciousness.
The very alive souls of thirty-five hundred dead birds
are harbored in my body. It’s not uncomfortable.
I’m only temporary habitat for these not-quite-
weightless creatures. I offered a wordless invitation
and now they’re roosting within me, recalling
how I had watched them at night
in fall and spring passing across earth moons,
little clouds of black confetti, chattering and singing
on their way north or south. Now in my dreams
I see from the air the rumpled green and beige,
the watery face of earth as if they’re carrying
me rather than me carrying them. Next winter
I’ll release them near the estuary west of Alvarado
and south of Veracruz. I can see them perching
on undiscovered Olmec heads. We’ll say goodbye
and I’ll return my dreams to earth.

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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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Magic water words

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
                      Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Governor Dayton has been holding a series of Town Hall Meetings around Minnesota to call attention to our water pollution problems. He's asking for suggestions on how we can make a 25% improvement in Minnesota's "water quality" by the year 2025. We have three suggestions that we'll make here. One, or perhaps two, we've referred to in prior postings, but we want to be unequivocal and explicit here. We think these suggestions are not only helpful, but essential, so we've included a bit of background and commentary to go with them.

Minnesota's waters flow to the Arctic, Atlantic and Gulf

Photo by J. Harrington

• First, mandate that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (for state roads) and each Minnesota county (for all other roads) install signs, where needed, identifying each watershed boundary and river being crossed by the road. In rural Minnesota we often see signs that say "Leaving So & So Soil and Water Conservation District," followed, a few hundred yards later by a sign that says "Entering So & So Soil and Water Conservation District." Each watershed needs similar identification, so folks will know who or what they're polluting when they throw empty cans, other litter, or cigarette butts from their vehicle windows. More hopefully, it will help us be aware of the beauty of the landscape and waterbody we're traversing. Many, but not all, river crossings are already identified. Few, if any, watershed boundary signs link landscapes to water bodies so folks know where they are in natural, bioregional instead of political boundary terms.






Sunrise River road crossing sign


Photo by J. Harrington



• Second, support creation of a Minnesota Waters' Lexicon of Water Words [MWLWW], including words old and contemporary, indigenous and immigrant, that refer to names and places, processes, persons and paraphernalia that give us a vocabulary we can use to talk about what makes our waters what they are. Take a look at this example using some English nature language that "highlight's what is being lost," or this one helps us talk about our food systems in sustainable terms.






• Next legislative session, undertake a major effort to complete full implementation of the Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework, first published in 2011. The Framework includes nicely organized table(s) of recommendations that can be used to keep track of progress.

[UPDATE: Submit your comments online if you wish at this link.]

Having spent much of our working life practicing and promoting water quality at a national, state, regional and local scale, starting with the development of pilot plans for managing water quality and land use relationships, we've been thinking about these issues for a long time. Then, a short while ago, we started to compile a list of "water words" from the wonderful Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, edited by Barry Lopez. More recently, we learned of the flap about the elimination of some nature words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary to "make room" for 21st century terms. People have long been fascinated by the potential power associated with naming (cf. Book of Genesis, 2:19), but are often dismayed by the complexity and bureaucratic terminology that has become a substitute for "ground truth" (liquid truth?) used by public agencies to describe Minnesota's waters and "stressors" that affect them. Here's an example from our own local watershed, the Sunrise River. We suppose a MWLWW will need to find a way to accommodate and translate such jargon (gorgon language?) into plain language. It will also need to look again at Thomas F. Waters two great books, The Streams and Rivers of Minnesota and Wildstream, A Natural History of the Free Flowing River. What else do you think needs to be included?

                     Eschatology of the Lexicon

By J. Allyn Rosser

They come down to us

rounding the corners of centuries

at an innocent jog, shedding letters

and most of the grand old meanings

to take on the sleek new hide

our day demands, a snappier

nap that can repel the stare

of a rather less tactful sun;

they come down to us com-

pounding, bounding in idiot

joy, they come with that trustful

tired old mutt look, that soft woof,

warm doggie sigh on the knee,

hoping for what? Some reason,

no doubt, to continue sounding.

Give me one good reason,

they come down to us saying,

as if we could have one without them.

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Where British soldiers live

Exactly one year ago there was still snow cover in the nearby woods. Not this year.

last year's late Winter woods

Photo by J. Harrington

The walk I took last February 27 led me to discover British soldier lichen growing in the field between the house and the wet woods to the West. That led me to want to know more about lichens. According to the Minnesota Seasons web site, British soldier lichens can be found throughout our North Woods. I had previously picked up a Lichens of the North Woods field guide by Joe Walewski, because I wanted to identify some orange lichens growing on the rocks at Lake Superior's shore line. Walewski's reference didn't specifically include British soldier lichens so I finally took my photo to the good folks staffing Wild River State Park and they got me pointed in the right direction to identify my "discovery." The St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain Guide to Native Habitats mentions British soldier lichens as being native to but unusual in Barrens Prairie habitats whereas Minnesota Seasons notes their status as "widespread and common" (your mileage may vary). Presumably because lichen are neither plant nor animal(?), the USA-NPN Botany Primer doesn't mention lichen at all. A few other interesting facts, including their use as a fabric dye, can be found here.

British soldier lichen surrounded by snow

Photo by J. Harrington

True confession time: I haven't yet hiked out to see if the skunk cabbage is up yet. I'll try to get to that this week. That's what I was checking for a year ago when I literally stumbled over the British soldier lichens. I suppose my origins in Boston and Plymouth give me a stronger affinity for uncovering British soldiers of one kind or another than searching for smelly plants. That's my story and I'm sticking to it (for today).

Springtime in the Rockies, Lichen

By Lew Welch

All these years I overlooked them in the

racket of the rest, this

symbiotic splash of plant and fungus feeding

on rock, on sun, a little moisture, air —

tiny acid-factories dissolving

salt from living rocks and

eating them. 

Here they are, blooming!

Trail rock, talus and scree, all dusted with it:

rust, ivory, brilliant yellow-green, and

cliffs like murals!

Huge panels streaked and patched, quietly

with shooting-stars and lupine at the base. 

Closer, with the glass, a city of cups!

Clumps of mushrooms and where do the

plants begin? Why are they doing this?

In this big sky and all around me peaks &

the melting glaciers, why am I made to

kneel and peer at Tiny? 

These are the stamps of the final envelope. 

How can the poisons reach them?

In such thin air, how can they care for the

loss of a million breaths?

What, possibly, could make their ground more bare? 

Let it all die. 

The hushed globe will wait and wait for

what is now so small and slow to

open it again. 

As now, indeed, it opens it again, this

scentless velvet,

crumbler-of-the-rocks, 

this Lichen!

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Peak color coming late #phenology

Once again the Better Half and I spent a few days incommunicado in a cabin off the Gunflint Trail, no cell phone service, no WiFi, no TV, just restorative peace and quiet. That's why there were no postings last week. If you missed us or we worried you, we're sorry. We also highly recommend the practice of becoming disconnected from time to time. Spending a number of days not learning about the latest inanities of the presidential contest did wonders for blood pressure and out look on life.

Ham Lake fire area

Photo by J. Harrington

One of the things we learned this trip is that the Gunflint Trail is so named because of the access it provides to Gunflint Lake, whose shoreline has lots of chert, used as "gun flint" to strike sparks in the old flintlock rifles of the Native Americans and Voyagers in the area. We also go a much better impression of how much area was covered by a 70,000 acre forest fire. The sense of the forest differs markedly between the western (burned) and eastern (unburned) termini of the Gunflint Trail, although the resilience of forest regrowth in the burned area is astounding.

South end of North-bound moose

Photo by J. Harrington

Colors, according the the MNDNR's typical peak color map, were supposed to be nearing peak the week we were Up North. This year the peak seems tobe running almost two weeks or so behind averages. It's only 25% to 50% on its way to peak this weekend. What's there is beautiful but not fully developed. Probably that could be turned into a good reason to try again next Autumn. That and the fact that the moose we saw as we were leaving didn't hold still and let me get a decent portrait.

There are still lots of asters in bloom, mountain ash berries are bright red everywhere, and, if you get lucky, the constant cloud cover that accompanied our stay will be gone by the time you get there. Enjoy.

Gunflint Lake: Sunset          

by Franco Pagnucci

the truth is the light and light is the truth
from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

A fiery sun
made a path toward us
on the rippled water
and scattered pink shavings
over the rest.

Night was falling.
Our differences encircled
us and a chill air.

But the light. It gathered us
at the edge of the lake,
and we stood.
We were pilgrims of the light.

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Please be kind to each other while you can.

Travel "Up North" to anticipate Autumn's #phenology

cabin-side creek

Photo by J. Harrington

We're back from the North Woods, where we spent several days in an old (built 1930's?) log cabin on a lake, right beside the outlet brook, away from cell phones and Internet service. Once I got over some initial twitchiness, I noticed that my equanimity started to return as my digital exposure to politics and economics was replaced by immersion in nature. We had fun exploring around the Gunflint Trail and discovered many new "public access" locations where fishing from shore was either difficult, because a stream was overgrown with trees, inaccessible due to canyon depth and/or lack of safe parking, unproductive of fish, the cobble rock bottom made wading dangerous, or all of the above. On the other hand, the woods and waters are pretty and the weather was a marked improvement over the Twin Cities' heat and humidity that we thankfully left behind. Daytime temperatures rarely broke into the 70's and the mist burned off the lake by 9:00 or 10:00 am. Now that we're back I need to see if I can manage my addiction to wifi, Internet and cell phones by practicing more Zen attitude and behavior.

Cadence River

Photo by J. Harrington

One way we confirmed we were "Up North" is that asters [Canadanthus modestus (Modest Aster)] are blooming in Cook County, and some roadside shrub leaves have turned bright yellow. I spent time wondering if I lived among so many different trees, if I would have a perspective that wanted to be able to distinguish each of them or if all those trees just turn into forest. I think and hope the former, but the forest mixes we saw had many more species than I anticipated, in mixtures that were less segregated than I expected. We have previously taken several trips up the Arrowhead, usually limited to the area right along Highway 61. This revisit up Hwy 61 to cooler climes took us inland to where the forest seems less shopworn than it does along some of the North Shore Scenic Drive.

Modest Asters in bloom

Photo by J. Harrington

Tomorrow August begins. Summer is beginning its downward slope. We've acquired a never before seen (by us) species at the feeder. I think it's a flicker, a female Gilded Flicker, which belongs in Arizona, not Minnesota. I haven't yet seen any signs of red anywhere in the feathers so we'll keep watching to see if we can tell if it's an immature something or other. Traveling is nice and so is coming home from the North Woods to the Big Woods. My Better Half did a great job of finding a fun, comfortable place to relax for a few days. She did the job so well that we're planning on going back toward late September. There's at least one spot we never did get around to trying to fish. Leaving someone, something or someplace to come back to seems like a worthwhile way to travel, don't you think?

North of Childhood

By Jonathan Galassi

      FOR B.

Somewhere ahead I see you

watching something out your window,

what I don’t know. You’re tall,

not on your tiptoes, green,

no longer yellow,

no longer little, little one,

but the changeless changing

seasons are still with us.

Summer’s back,

so beautiful it always reeks of ending,

and now its breeze is stirring

in your room commanding the lawn,

trying to wake you to say the day is wasting,

but you’re north of childhood now and out of here,

and I’ve gone south. 

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.