It’s ice out time in our neighborhood

Sometime during the past few days, local lakes have reached ice out; if we consider ice out to mean 80% or 90% of the lake is open water. Last night’s storms have left many ditches full of water and some local streams running bank full. Now all we need is sunshine and warmth for spring to burst out all over. Maybe next week, or the one after it?

I don’t remember the last time we saw as much thunder and lightning as we did last night. SiSi gets anxiety attacks when it thunders, so we spent lots of time reassuring her that she’d be okay if she just settled down near us. It sort of worked but we’re both pretty sleepy today.

Sunrise River marshes: sandhill cranes

Photo by J. Harrington

Earlier, watching sandhill cranes flying agains a cloudfilled sky made us think of Klingon war birds or pterodactyls. Their haunting calls seemed to echo off the cloud bottoms. This is not how we usually think of spring weather, but that probably means the issue isn’t the weather but our expectations. At least we’re not living on Hoth, the ice planet, for the next six or seven months, although having a nice warm house remains high on the list of things for which we’re grateful. With all the dreary, depressing news these days, it would be wonderful if the weather provided an antidote. Soon?

The Sandhills

By Linda Hogan

The language of cranes

we once were told

is the wind. The wind

is their method,

their current, the translated story

of life they write across the sky.

Millions of years

they have blown here

on ancestral longing,

their wings of wide arrival,

necks long, legs stretched out

above strands of earth

where they arrive

with the shine of water,

stories, interminable

language of exchanges

descended from the sky

and then they stand,

earth made only of crane

from bank to bank of the river

as far as you can see

the ancient story made new.

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Beware November’s gales and other storms

On this, the 46th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, we offer for your consideration

• The National Weather Service’ story of the aftermath of the tragedy


• Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting rendition of his song about the sinking


• Previous postings on My Minnesota about the Edmund Fitzgerald


• A reminder that the Split Rock light will be lit this evening in memoriam

Split Rock light house

Photo by J. Harrington

Although not a November gale, today’s weather forecast brings a threat of the season’s first local snowfall sometime during the next several days with significant snowfall forecast for northern Minnesota and Canada. We’re hoping that whatever we get will melt shortly after it falls. We’d be happy if we got lasting snow on Christmas Eve that melted about New Year’s, but our drainfield tells us it needs the insulation of snow cover.

Storm Fear

Robert Frost - 1874-1963

When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts the snow
The lower chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
‘Come out! Come out!’—
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,—
How drifts are piled,
Dooryard and road ungraded,
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether 'tis in us to arise with day 
And save ourselves unaided.

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Water is Life #WorldWaterWeek

It's the noon hour on August 28, 2018 in East Central Minnesota. The skies are cloudy. The local temperature is 60℉. As we type this, we're wearing a fleece-lined flannel shirt and our fingers are cold. IN AUGUST? IN MINNESOTA? Clearly this is not part of global warming but it may well be related to climate change.

Plus, the areas of southwestern Wisconsin we've visited this year are currently under flood watches due to lines of thunderstorms that have been passing through Minnesota and into our neighboring state to the East.

Today is approximately the middle of World Water Week. According to one of their policy briefs,

All the 17 [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, are linked to water. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that social development and economic prosperity depend on the sustainable management of freshwater resources and ecosystems and it highlights the integrated nature of the SDGs. It is therefore important to consider how water contributes to all the goals. When looking for solutions, one goal cannot be tackled without taking into consideration how the others are affected.

Grand Marais Harbor on Lake Superior

Photo by J. Harrington

Lack of a holistic perspective is one of the current faults experienced in Minnesota. There, plus other Great Lakes States, people are faced with increasing competition for existing water resources, those once considered abundant to a fault. Are we killing the geese that lay the golden eggs? In the northern part of Minnesota, mining for copper is seen as presenting unacceptable risks to the Boundary Waters, St. Louis River and therefore Lake Superior. Yet, political pressure to proceed with the mining proposals continues. The southern third or so of Minnesota fails to meet water quality standards due, in large part, to (corporate) agriculture while growing numbers of proposed industrial-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations [CAFO] further threaten the water supplies and local surface water on which communities and tourists depend.

a trout stream in Minnesota's farm country

Photo by J. Harrington

Wisconsin has already obtained an "exception" to the Great Lakes Compact and Agreement for Waukesha to withdraw Lake Michigan water, and the prospect of the Foxconn project offers further threats to maintaining any integrity to the Great Lakes compact.

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes offers insight to other perils facing these lakes, as does The Great Lakes Water Wars. We suppose that, as long as people continue talking about the growing demands on our finite resources, there's a chance that we'll escape some shooting wars. That's more than we can say about other parts of the world. We wonder how many Midwesterners are in attendance at World Water Week.

Water

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The water understands 

Civilization well; 

It wets my foot, but prettily, 

It chills my life, but wittily, 

It is not disconcerted, 

It is not broken-hearted: 

Well used, it decketh joy, 

Adorneth, doubleth joy: 

Ill used, it will destroy, 

In perfect time and measure 

With a face of golden pleasure 

Elegantly destroy.

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Icing called #phenology lake turnover

Small, shallow ponds and pools in our neighborhood are now covered with skim ice. Any remaining swans, geese and ducks are being concentrated on the open water  of bigger, deeper lakes and slow-moving rivers. Yesterday, we noticed several flocks of Canada geese rafted on the Sunrise river near Highway 36. They'll probably hang around until the fields are covered in snow deep enough that there's no feed to be gleaned.

shallow pond icing in early November

Photo by J. Harrington

On the other hand, even in the North Country, near entrances to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, larger lakes like Shagawa, were still ice free and being fished from boats and canoes last weekend. We didn't check, nor did we ask, if fall turnover had happened yet. Shallow lakes don't turn over, so their heat loss proceeds more quickly due to a limited volume of water.

deeper, larger, ice free lake in early November

Photo by J. Harrington

As far as we know, waterfowl don't know, or care, about lake turnover. They focus on whether open water is available. If the snow cover on local corn fields doesn't get too deep, and local lakes such as Forest Lake stay open, we won't be surprised to see November ending and December beginning with noteworthy populations of Canada geese still hanging around, making early and late in the day flights to feed, and giving some of us a thrill at how close we can live to the wild, even without actual wilderness.

                     Flathead Lake, October

By Geraldine Connolly

The eagle floats and glides,

circling the burnished aspen,

then takes the high pines

with a flash of underwing.

As surely as the eagle sails

toward the bay’s open curve,

as surely as he swoops and seizes

the struggling fish, pulling

it from an osprey’s beak;

so too, autumn descends,

to steal the glistening

summer from our open hands.

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Coolin' it #phenology

This morning there were many thirsty, frustrated young birds trying to figure out why they couldn't drink the clear (frozen) water in the bird bath. By 11 am or so it was still mostly ice-covered. That's when I plugged in the heater that should keep it from freezing all Winter, although it also makes it obvious how quickly unfrozen water evaporates in dry, below-freezing, air.

frozen bird bath with oak leaves

Photo by J. Harrington

Now we've reached the time to start watching morning mist/fog accompany heat loss from our local lakes and ponds. Soil-freeze is probably six to eight weeks away. Ice-up on larger lakes? Your guess is as good as, or maybe better than, mine. Local lakes should experience turnover, when the water is  briefly the same temperature from top to bottom, about this time of year. Then, cooler water will sink until it gets colder than 39 degrees, at which water is the most dense. I'm still trying to get my head around global warming versus La Nina for the upcoming Winter. We're expecting rain, not snow, tomorrow, for which I'm grateful.

In her Nature Anatomy, Julia Rothman offers a useful definition of a pond as

"a body of standing water too small
for significant waves or depth-based
temperature variations."

Lake Superior from Minnesota

Photo by J. Harrington

Unfortunately, due, I'd guess, to space limitations, she doesn't elaborate on the depth-based temperature variations and how they change seasonally in lakes. Even a lake as large as Superior undergoes stratification and turnover. I used to be much more familiar with the details and timing of turnover, ice-in and ice-out when we lived on Big Carnelian Lake, but that was many years ago. Knowledge seems to be one of those things that comes under the heading of "use it or lose it."

Thin Ice

Ellen Doré Watson

Reedy striations don’t occlude the beneath—
earthy mash of leaves, flat pepper flakes, layered,
tips protruding, tender-desolate above a mirror
surface, gently pressing on horse-mane, nest material,
tickle-brush, fringe. Buff block-shapes further down,
ghost-bits of green-green, a lone leaf burned white.
My thrown stone skitters on ice. The next, larger,
plunks through and for a moment I am a violator
but then I see it opened a bubble cell, a city,
a lesion, a map—the way in cold and luminous.

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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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The phenology of rivers

When I was a child, my mother used to read to me from a book called Paddle to the Sea. It is the story of a canoe journey through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. I don't remember why she chose it, but I'm glad she did. I think, at the moment, I know how Paddle-to-the-Sea felt, caught in a frozen land, waiting for waters to begin flowing in Spring.

Lake Superior, Summer

Photo by J. Harrington

Fortunately, unlike Paddle, I have access to the Internet to help keep me from brooding about being frozen in place. I've been wondering, in anticipation of Minnesota's own Spring, what's already So far been written about the effects of global warming on aquatic insect hatches. I've found two really interesting resources. National Geographic published a story about a species of mayfly in the River Dove apparently going from a two-year to a one-year life span due to climate change. Additional poking about on Google's findings brought me to The River's Calendar and this introduction:

"Aquatic insect hatches are snapshots in time, telling the story of the river in its season. The Mother’s day caddis hatch that arrives - in a good year - just before spring runoff. With luck, salmon flies start emerging just as runoff subsides. The Hendrickson hatch, fished amidst the last snow squalls that spell the changing of the seasonal guard. A green drake spinner fall on a perfect spring evening, accompanied by lush verdant foliage and trilling of toads. The surprise of a large, solitary golden drake in the warmth of summer, taken quietly by a wary trout among the exposed rocks of a still pool. On those lucky days when we are witness to, and participant in the harmonious confluence of weather, water, fly and fish, we feel all is right with the world.

"But the times, and the climate, are a’ changing, and all might not be right."

Since this is the year when I intend to correct my drift away from rivers and fly-fishing, we'll do some more exploring of this topic and see if we can find a way to put it together with local wildflowers as they come into bloom. I'm pretty sure these explorations will turn out to be a pleasant way to pass some time and may even be interesting, satisfying and informative. I hope you enjoy them too.

At Least

by Raymond Carver

I want to get up early one more morning,
before sunrise. Before the birds, even.
I want to throw cold water on my face
and be at my work table
when the sky lightens and smoke
begins to rise from the chimneys
of the other houses.
I want to see the waves break
on this rocky beach, not just hear them
break as I did all night in my sleep.
I want to see again the ships
that pass through the Strait from every
seafaring country in the world—
old, dirty freighters just barely moving along,
and the swift new cargo vessels
painted every color under the sun
that cut the water as they pass.
I want to keep an eye out for them.
And for the little boat that plies
the water between the ships
and the pilot station near the lighthouse.
I want to see them take a man off the ship
and put another up on board.
I want to spend the day watching this happen
and reach my own conclusions.
I hate to seem greedy—I have so much
to be thankful for already.
But I want to get up early one more morning, at least.
And go to my place with some coffee and wait.
Just wait, to see what’s going to happen.

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Water management is all wet. Who's in charge?

Today we received a notice from our township supervisor alerting us to a proposal to expand the current Chisago Lakes Improvement (taxing) District [LID] to align with a new and improved watershed boundary. If the expansion is approved, properties newly added to the district will probably see an increase in taxes. Today's posting isn't about a tax increase however. That may or may not be the issue. I don't understand why the County Commissioners and the LID board can't provide a detailed set of maps that clearly delineates which properties are in and out of the current and proposed district and why. Here's some background:

• The Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District and the Chisago County Commissioners are proposing to adjust the boundary of the LID.


• From the maps they provided as links, I can't tell whether or not my property (which is located along the western boundary of the watershed) is in the "official 2009 Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes Watershed developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources" or just across the line in the Carlos Avery Unit.


• The area I'm particularly interested in lies between County Roads 19 and 80 on this map. The text and the legend don't make it clear how DNR delineated the western watershed boundary and what the dashed and red lines in the area of interest are supposed to show.

The Sunrise River watershed isn't identified on this map

Further troubling my impression of a lack of rigorous accountability and focus on mission are these statements on the LID's web site:

"The Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District partners with other organizations such as Chisago Soil & Water Conservation District, local communities, lake associations, state and federal agencies.... The following fact sheets highlight 2014 Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District activities that benefit lakeshore, non-lakeshore, city, and rural residents.

• 295th Street Neighborhood Retrofit – Lindstrom
• Aquatic Invasive Species Treatment
• Chisago County Children’s Water Festival
• Chisago County Water Quality and Aquatic Invasive Species Monitoring
• Chisago Lakes Watershed Best Management Practices Implementation
• Carp Management
• Ditch and Weir Maintenance
• Fish Kill Disposal
• Furgala/Labernik Rain Garden – Center City
• Groundwater Observation Wells
• Hook, Line and Sinker Recycling Program and Summary
• Lake Avenue Dead End Street Project – Chisago City
• Lake Level Monitoring Program
• Lake Level Graphs
• Summary for Chisago Lakes Chain of Lakes Watershed lake level monitoring activities
• Lake Water Quality Monitoring
• Loren’s Park – Center City
• Minimal Impact Design Standards
• North Center North Lindstrom Channel
• Pleasant Hill Park – Lindstrom
• Public Outreach and Awareness
• Pumphouse Park/Elm Street Project – Lindstrom
• Rural Subwatershed Assessment
• Septic System Compliance
• Slow No-Wake Ordinance
• South Center Lake Boat Launch – Lindstrom
• Surfland Neighborhood Rain Gardens – Chisago City
• Swamp Lake Outlet Easements
• Urban and Shoreline Best Management Practices
• Water Trail System
• Watercraft Inspection Program
• Watercraft Inspection Report"

The yellow area is the Chisago Lakes District

Perhaps I wouldn't be as disturbed as I am if I hadn't recently been reading the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy Report for the Sunrise River Watershed, prepared by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The Chisago Lakes watershed is part of the Sunrise River watershed, which is part of the Lower St. Croix River Watershed that is part of the Mississippi River Watershed. The WRAPS report notes

"Many key partners have been brought together to make this WRAPS Report a useable document that will ultimately help us to meet the goals of the Sunrise River Watershed and the Direct Drainage to the St. Croix River. These groups include: Anoka CD, Chisago SWCD, Isanti SWCD, Washington CD, Chisago County, MN DNR (Fisheries and Eco/Waters), MPCA, City of North Branch, City of Stacy, City of Wyoming, City of Shafer, City of Taylors Falls, USDA NRCS, Sunrise River Water Management Organization, Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District, Chisago Lakes Lake Improvement District, Linwood Lake Association, and Friends of the Sunrise River. These groups have collaborated with the Chisago SWCD to provide comments and additions specific to their subwatersheds. This collaboration will prove to be pivotal in applying for funding in the future to complete projects in each constituent’s jurisdiction."

Here's my basic complaint: Nowhere can I find a clearly laid out matrix of which agency or agency is responsible for which issue in which jurisdiction. Nowhere can I find a coordinated work program and budget that aligns resources with priorities. I'm not suggesting that all these folks aren't doing good and necessary work. I am stating unequivocally that we, the taxpayers and resource users, don't know. We'll report back here from time to time as we, hopefully, make some progress on this.

Issa’s Cricket

On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.

Issa (Japan, 1763-1827)

[translated by Jane Hirshfield]


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