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Forests of the Far North
Two of
Earth’s major terrestrial biomes, the eastern temperate and boreal
forests, dance in transition in northeastern Minnesota. Here,
glacially carved, crystalline lakes serve as southern gateway of the
majestic boreal forest, where it begins its circumpolar domination.
This is the forest of the Ojibwe, the voyageur, author Sigurd Olson,
and modern day polar explorers -- with all the legends
"in the saving of places of natural beauty and
wildness we are waging a battle for man's spirit."
~Sigurd F.
Olson
Saturday, July 10, 2010
3:00 pm
Registration and Check-in
at Smitty’s on Snowbank,
www.smittys-on-snowbank.com.
The Northwoods ambiance
is nowhere better experienced than in Smitty’s main lodge.
Constructed of logs and knotty pine interior, the rustic, homey
atmosphere will serve as perfect backdrop to the week’s events.
Crystal clear Snowbank Lake surrounds the resort on its peninsula
with views of Snowbank Bay from the dining room and of Rice Island
Bay from the suite and cabin. Sunday, July 11, 2010
9:00 am Bogs
We will begin our week's
journeys with a
trip to explore a true relic of the Pleistocene Ice Age and that
quintessential emblem of the far north. 1:00 pm Forest Ecology with Dr. Lee Frelich, Director, The University of Minnesota’s Center for Hardwood Ecology will be our introductory speaker. He will begin the school’s exploration of this forest region where temperate broadleaf blends to the boreal biome of the north. This afternoon session will begin with a PowerPoint presentation, followed by discussion, and then hikes led by Dr. Frelich to visit the majestic forests of Minnesota’s Arrowhead region: the portion of the state comprised of boreal forest and granite along the north shore of Lake Superior. Sunday Dinner with Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW). Our dinner hour will be enhanced by the presence of our guests from NMW , who will us an introduction to this local group's efforts to protect wilderness landscapes and intact ecosystems for future generations. Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness was formed in 1996 to continue the local tradition of working to protect Minnesota's wild places from the ever increasing pressures of public and commercial fragmentation and development.
8:00 pm The Invisible Forest
with Nancy Stranahan,
founder of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System. To fully appreciate the interface between the Temperate
Broadleaf Forest and the Northern Boreal Forest, one first must
“ken” the former biome, which can be described as the least
understood and most disturbed of our planet’s fourteen terrestrial
biomes. The Temperate Broadleaf Forest that spans the temperate
latitudes in Eastern U.S., Europe, and Eastern China was one of the
first world biomes to be displaced by agriculture, and later, by
industry. This program will bring a new appreciation for the world
significance of the forest that is so familiar to most of us, so
fragmented, and so geographically far-flung -- that to most citizens
it is invisible.
6:30 am Bird Walk
on Snowbank Lake
with Bill Tefft,
from Vermilion Community College. The diversity of this area is
mirrored in the number of birds either
Morning: Trees of the Northern Forest Hike with Chuck Wick, retired professor, Vermilion Community College. We will be visiting several different forest assemblages found along the historic Fernberg Trail, a ribbon of highway threading through a corridor in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Glacially carved lakes, ice sculpted terrain, and remote trails leading into wilderness will host our quest for identifying the trees and shrubs of the north woods. We will provide a packed lunch. 1:00 pm Tour of International Wolf Center. Ely, located in the heart of the largest population of gray wolves in the lower 48 states, became home to this center in 1993. The 17,000 square foot building, with its ambassador wolves, plays host to the dedicated research of many, beginning with Sigurd Olson in the 1930’s, growing through the years, and continuing today under the direction of Dr. L. David Mech, who has tracked and studied wolves here since 1966. 3:00 pm Superior National Forest’s Kawishiwi Ranger District’s new Visitor Center. Interpretive displays introduce the fourth largest forest in the nation, and the million acres of protected wilderness known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Dinner will be in historic downtown Ely where we will enjoy a well-known gourmet eatery, The Chocolate Moose, lodged in a quaint, hand-scribed log cabin. This meal is on your tab. 7:00 pm Biodiversity
of Forests North Tuesday, July 13, 2010
1:00 pm Canoe Trip into the the Boundary Waters. The BWCAW was recognized for its recreational opportunities in 1926, named the Superior Roadless Area in 1938, BWCA in 1958, and federally designated under The Wilderness Act in 1964. On October 21, 1978, The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act was established: creating the name we know the area as today and providing specific guidance for managing this million plus acres of the Superior National Forest. With over 1,500 miles of canoe routes and more than 1,000 lakes and streams, the BWCAW defines the border lakes. As part of the Superior National Forest, the BWCAW is managed by the US Forest Service. Canoes provided by premier Ely BWCAW outfitter and guide service, Spirit of the Wilderness: www.elycanoetrips.com/index.html 8:00 pm Adventures and Mis-adventures with Spruce Grouse. Steve Wilson, Minnesota DNR, will present a beautifully filmed program on the spruce grouse: that dusky resident of dark coniferous forests, bogs, and muskeg of the far north. With an innovative approach, Steve lures the birds close for incredible, and often hilarious, encounters. Steve's presentation is aided by the talented videography of Peter Neubeck.
9:00 am Wildlife of the Great North Woods with Bill Tefft, at Vermilion Community College, Ely. The animals of the north define the nature of its mystique. Moose, lynx, black bear, loon, marten, fisher, wolf, beaver, and more....
10:30 am
Visit to Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge
hosted by Arctic Explorer, Paul Schurke.
Afternoon:
Visit to Listening Point on Burntside Lake,
the wilderness home of beloved north woods author, Sigurd Olson, one of the
greatest environmentalists of the twentieth century. In addition to
authoring nine books, frequently on best seller lists, he served as
President of both the Wilderness Society and the National Parks
Association, and was honored by the Sierra Club and the National
Wildlife Federations for his distinguished contributions to
conservation.
This wilderness property
is on the
National Register of Historic Places.
www.listeningpointfoundation.org/listening_Point.html 8:00 pm Musical Performance by Pat and Donna Surface of Spiritwood Music -- featuring folk music dedicated to reflecting and preserving the beauty of Earth through song, sign, and acoustic guitar. www.spiritwoodmusic.com/aboutspiritwood.php Thursday, July 15, 2010 6:30 am Bird Walk with Bill Tefft, Vermilion Community College
9:00
am
Dragonflies
with Kurt Mead, author of Dragonflies of the North Woods.
A
North Woods bog mat or forest opening can sometimes be
literally dazzling with the flit of newly minted dragonfly
wings recently emerged in the summer sunshine. Over 80 species
of dragonflies and damselflies have been reported from the
Ely area, which includes nearly 25% of the Odonate species known
from all of North America. Altogether, the North Woods
region claims nearly half of all the
continent’s species of Odonates! These ‘winged dragons’ have
eyes comprised of 30,000 lenses, and the flying creatures never
fail to amaze us with their size, ferocity, and gem-like
1:00 pm Lichen Study with Joe Walewski, Author of Lichens of the North Woods. According to Joe, from breaking down the rock to form soil, to providing nest materials and food for wildlife, “Lichens are perhaps the most ‘obvious’ overlooked component of our landscape.” After an indoor introduction, we will spend the afternoon in the forest where lichens cover almost everything in the north woods. 8:00 pm Artist’s Gathering: A look at art as a means to capture and project the many moods and faces of the natural world. This program will feature an incredible gathering of talent who will lead participants on a contemplative and aesthetic study of the North Woods through the work produced by their skilled hands and hearts. Participating artists include: Claire Taylor, water colors; Ann Santo, oils; Jean Vertefeuille-Cutler, nature photography; Becky Prange, award-winning creator of wood cut nature prints; Polly Carlson-Voiles, author/illustrator; and Annette Mattingly, mandalas made from native boreal forest materials. Friday, July 16, 2010 All day canoe paddle into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Portage through an old growth white pine forest (last fire 1822), paddle clear, cold wilderness lakes, see pictographs and bogs, picnic with only loon and a red squirrel for company. The Great North Woods will serve as backdrop to this day of solitude, beginning with an 80-rod (1/4 mile) portage into South Hegman Lake. After paddling northwest, a short portage past a bubbling rapids will brings us to North Hegman Pictographs where an Ojibwe artist several hundred years ago left impressions of moose, man, and other images on stone. Just beyond a rocky narrows, lovely Trease Lake offers a floating mat with pitcher plant and sundew. www.tc.umn.edu/~call0031/Hegman.html Saturday, July 17, 2010 Breakfast and departure.
Chris Williams was born on a farm in central Ohio where she first learned her love of nature. Her parents also owned a remote island in Canada and between that, the farm, and yearly pilgrimages to old Florida, she developed a deep affinity for Earth in all her diversity. With an undergraduate degree in Botany/Geology and masters work in Environmental Education, she was set to pursue a career in the outdoors. Hired by the Ohio State Parks as a summer naturalist in the early '70s, she found a career choice and the lifelong passion of experiencing nature first hand while sharing that love and knowledge with others. The state park naturalist mantra in Ohio in those days was '...through knowledge comes understanding, and through understanding comes appreciation' and that has been a thread through Chris' personal and professional life. She left the state park system as Chief Naturalist in the mid '90s to raise and homeschool her two children. Chris, her husband, and children now live in the boreal forest of extreme northeastern Minnesota, reliving those wondrous early years on that remote island in Canada and experiencing Earth every day as manifested on a wild border lake. Through it all, Chris remains a staunch defender of wild country, protector of our human heritage of interaction with earth, and facilitator for enabling others to sense their truest roots in the wild places.
Lee E. Frelich Lee E. Frelich is Director of the University
of Minnesota Center for Hardwood Ecology. He received a Ph.D. in
Forest Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986.
Frelich teaches a course in Forest Fire Ecology on St.Paul Campus.
He has advised 17 graduate students, and is a senior member of the
Conservation Biology, Natural Resource Science and Management,
Ecology, and Invasive Species Graduate Programs. Frelich has
published numerous papers on forest ecology and has been listed
among the top 1% of all scientists in the world in the Science
Citation Index, Ecology and Environment Category. He has appeared in
the news media 200 times including The New York Times, Newsweek,
National Geographic, and many TV and radio stations. Current
research interests include fire and wind in boreal forests,
long-term dynamics of old-growth hemlock and maple forests, invasive
earthworms in forests, and global warming.
http://cfhe.cfans.umn.edu/
Paul Schurke Adventurer,
author and outdoor educator, Paul Schurke is
an arctic adventurer and outdoor program leader. Following a
degree at St. John's University, he did graduate studies Bill Tefft Bill
Tefft is a naturalist and a resident of Ely, Minnesota of over thirty
years. If he can help connect people to the landscape, he will work to get
them out of doors. This has been his passion in a variety of roles:
naturalist at an arboretum, assistant director for a Nature Conservancy
Center, ranger guide for the Superior N.F., mine
interpreter at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, college instructor at
Vermilion Community College, Elderhostel (Exploritas) instructor, father and
grandfather, and radio show host. He welcomes you to northeastern
Minnesota.
John C. Green, Ph. D.
John is a retired Professor of Geology at
the University of Minnesota Duluth. He grew up in New England,
and his geological studies began in the Northern Appalachians of
northernmost New Hampshire and adjacent Maine. In his field
work for his Ph.D. dissertation embedded in the North Woods, he
became familiar with many aspects of their natural history.
After moving to Duluth in 1958, he started a career-long program
of research and field mapping in the Precambrian rocks of
Minnesota’s Border Lakes area and the North Shore of Lake
Superior. An all-around naturalist, he has published many
research papers and geological maps as well as books and
articles for the interested lay person. For a complete biography
see
www.d.umn.edu/geology/people/fsbios/green.html.  Chuck Wick Chuck Wick, born and raised in Minneapolis, has a BS and MS in Forestry, with graduate work in Ecology. Chuck worked for the US Forest Service for six years. Much of his professional career was spent at Vermillion Community College, in Ely, where he has taught for over 30 years, providing instruction in Environmental Science, Dendrology, and Wildlife Management. He has been married 34 years and has one married daughter who just delivered Chuck's and his wife, Marty's, first grandchild! (Much to his delight) Besides Chuck's extensive knowledge in Minnesota's flora, he is an avid fisherman, hunter, and wilderness advocate. Considering the Forests of the Far North course's focus on late author and environmentalist, Sigurd Olson, it is interesting to note that Chuck knew 'Sig' quite well. His father met Mr. Olson in 1929 and the two became life long friends. Chuck met Sig when he was about five years old. When he started his teaching career in 1972, Sigurd Olson lived right next door! During those years, Chuck had the privilege of spending much time with him and they remained friends until Sig's passing. But their strong connection lives on. In 1994, Chuck and Marty bought theSigurd Olson home, where they continue to live today!
Lawson Gerdes
Lawson Gerdes first developed a passion for field ecology by experiencing the beauty of form and function within the northern forests of Michigan and Minnesota. Through subsequent academic training she earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Habitat Ecology (University of Minnesota) and a M.S. in Forest Ecology (Michigan Technological University). With nearly three decades of experience, working as a wildlife biologist and forest ecologist, Lawson has had many opportunities to identify and conserve areas of biodiversity significance in the upper Great Lakes Region. Since 1999, Lawson has worked as a field ecologist and the northern coordinator of the Minnesota County Biological Survey . In this capacity, Lawson collects and interprets data to identify areas of biodiversity significance. She also collaborates with teams of landowners, managers and conservationists, seeking workable solutions to natural resource management and biodiversity conservation issues.
Kurt Mead, author of the NOBA Award-winning Dragonflies of the North Woods, recently expanded and released a second edition of his book, and is the founder and coordinator of the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project (MOSP). MOSP seeks to expand our knowledge of the ranges of dragonflies and damselflies in Minnesota through the assistance of participating citizen-naturalists. Most recently, Kurt has been working as a naturalist himself, at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center near Finland, Minnesota. He has also worked in a pea canning factory, as a grunt for the MN DNR, as a garbage man, an animal control officer, an urban wildlife trapper, an aquaculturalist, a security guard, an acid rain monitor, a waiter, a delivery driver, an elected township supervisor, a DNR fisheries creel surveyor and, in Sweden -- as a log home builder and a carpenter. His scavenging habits lead his wife to believe that he was a turkey vulture in a former life.
Kurt
has a BS in Biology and a BFA in art, both from the
University of Minnesota Duluth. Kurt has given hundreds of
talks and workshops on dragonfly identification and
ecology. Kurt lives in the North Woods near Finland,
Minnesota with his wife, Betsy, also a naturalist, and their
two lovely daughters, Yarrow and Lily. They recently spent
a year living and working in Sweden, just because they
could.
Steve
Wilson currently works as a natural area manager for the MN
Department of Natural
Resources Scientific and Natural Area Program. He has also
worked as a moose biologist, wilderness ranger, wild land
firefighter, and wildlife researcher whose subjects have
included black bear, white-tailed deer, and boreal owls. He
began watching birds at 11 years old, a passion that’s
continued for nearly 50 years. This interest in birds, and
in particular their habitat relationships, led him to a side
hobby of observing and photographing spruce grouse. His
claim to fame is that he is surely one of the few people in
the world to have two different species of wild grouse perch
on him in the same day. Next year he hopes to go for the
triple crown. Steve's presentation on spruce grouse would
not be possible without the contributions of Peter Neubeck,
see below.Peter
Neubeck
Peter Neubeck
has been making videos since 1985, about the same time his
passion for birds became manifest. His collaboration with
Steve Wilson in creating this program was a perfect fusion
of his vocation and avocation.
Nancy Stranahan, Sponsor of the Appalachian Forest School.
North Country Artists
I have been a pressed flower artist for 25
years. I use flowers, herbs, grasses, and birch bark in my
work. The are from the woods, meadows, and ditches surrounding Ely,MN. The other 30% I grow specifically for pressing. All colors are the natural colors of the plant material—there are no paints or dyes involved. The designs are mandalas: concentric, geometric patterns that focus on the center. Mandalas are boundlessly evident in the patterns of nature: a spider web or the cross section of a tree; the petals on a dandelion; x-ray diffraction patterns: from microcosm to macrocosm the geometric forms are everywhere. All cultures throughout time have created mandalas. Native American sand paintings, Celtic illumination, Islamic mosaic, the stained glass rose windows and labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral, Hmong needlework, and elaborate Tibetan painted mandalas are examples.
Claire Taylor, Artist
“I would like you to think that when I saw the turn of a leaf or the dance of a shadow I would run to my studio to duplicate it in glass or paint. But, that’s not true. I was drawn to the colors of glass and the hues of paint and the texture and feel of both. Only then did I begin to notice how much color there was in a single blade of grass and how it bent and moved with the wind.
I fell in love with the forest and the water and the wilderness at a very young age. Once I began cutting glass and blending paints I fell in love all over again. How fortunate we are, those of us who live here, for we see so much more beauty around us just walking out our door.”
 Pat
Surface, Musician
Born in St.
Paul, MN, Pat was abandoned to the foster care system. At
age two, he was adopted into a family with a formidable
musical legacy--the LaPlants. Pat grew to be 6'8" and
became an all-star basketball player. Now the owner of the
international award-winning record label, Spiritwood Music,
Pat sings and plays his hand-built LaPlant guitars--reaching
millions with his solo performances, and with his critically
acclaimed band, the Boundary Water Boys. Pat is often
joined by his wife, Donna--a 'Performance Artist in Sign.'
His acoustical music celebrates the beauty of the earth and
his reverence for it.
Ann E. Schuler Santo, Artist
Beckie Prange
Beckie Prange is a printmaker, children’s book illustrator, and naturalist
of the amateur type.
She left to finish school, graduated from Lake Forest College in 1979 with a B.A. in Biology, and experimented with all sorts of occupations and habitats before returning to the northwoods in 1985. In 1989, she left again for a little while, to study natural science illustration at University of California in Santa Cruz. Now she lives in Ely with her son Izaak, creating windows into nature with woodcut and linocut prints. Her first children’s book, Song of the Water Boatman, by Joyce Sidman, won a Caldecott Honor Medal for illustration in 2006. Original work for Song was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, May–November of 2009. Her second book, Ubiquitous, also by Joyce Sidman will be (was) published in April 2010. She’s not spending enough time in the woods these days. But then, is it possible to spend enough time in the woods?
Jean grew up exploring the woods, meadows and waters of New England where she became fascinated with capturing the images of nature with her camera. The images in our minds can be fleeting so she feels that photography was a perfect venue to keep them alive. She has always lived close to nature; actually spending two years living in a tipi on a private pond where she observed wildlife, the seasons, weather, and natural transitions of the year in an intimate way that only living outdoors can afford. She also owned and operated her nature excursion business, Quiet Wanderings, where she exposed people to nature and its mysteries while on horses, hiking, and canoeing. By photographing daily events in the natural world she is able to share with others what they may never experience. By encouraging them to capture their own images she feels she can nurture curiosity and awareness of the wild world around them. She and her husband live on Birch Lake, close to Ely, and also spend time on their ranch in southern Colorado.
Polly Carlson-Voiles grew
up in the city of Minneapolis using books and art and a
large backyard to imagine a life outdoors among animals and
trees and lakes. At the age of 14 she first went to the
BWCA and fell in love with the quiet, the water, stars and
trees, the sounds of night and the touch of ancient rock.
These loves set a path for future art and writing. Art has
been a part of her life as long as she can remember,
inspired by her uncle, a well-known mid-century modern
painter. Her work had to live a quiet life in drawers and notebooks during her years teaching inner city teens, but through two writing groups she kept alive her writing and learned about children’s books and children’s book art. When she retired from teaching she wrote and illustrated SOMEONE WALKS BY; The Wonders of Winter Wildlife, published by Raven Productions, winning the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for children’s literature. www.ravenwords.com Wolves became a special animal for Polly when she first observed pack behavior as a volunteer for a study at a wildlife center near Forest Lake in 1979. Her passion is digging deep to learn new secrets of nature, teaching children to love those secrets, and seeing the changing shapes and colors of the wilderness surrounding where she now lives with her husband and dog, perched on a high ridge overlooking Moose Lake. On lucky nights she can listen to the music of the wolves.
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These cold, acidic environs
host rare, unusual, and beautiful plants, all adapted to the rigors
of bog conditions. We will see numerous blooming orchids and
pitcher plants enhanced by other bog lovers such as sundew, sphagnum
moss, Labrador tea, black spruce. This is a very special place--be
prepared to tread carefully. For Lunch enjoy Julie’s (co-owner of the resort) very
special chicken Wild Rice Soup, homemade with the locally harvested rice.
nesting or migrating through
the region. According to Birds of Minnesota and Wisconsin, 427
species have been recorded in Minnesota. We will be all week within
Superior National Forest which is named as one of 100 globally
important bird areas by the American Bird Conservancy. Bill will
lead us on two hikes this week. His expertise is well known in Ely
where ‘Birding with Bill’ is a cherished summer morning
activity,
9
am Geology of the Arrowhead region of Minnesota
with
Dr. John C. Green,
Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota
Duluth. A primordial portion of the Earth’s 4.5 billion years of
history is recorded in rocks exposed at the surface in this region,
some over 2 billion years in age. Volcanoes, lava eruptions in
ancient seas, mountain building: it is all here to be interpreted
by the experienced eye. Continental ice sheets over a mile thick
further etched their mark on the land. Dr. Green will lead us in
our understanding of these processes in lecture followed by trips to
the field to examine this backbone of the North American continent.
colorations.
Chris Williams--Course
Host and Organizer
in environmental journalism at the University of Minnesota and
worked as a science writer
explorers
warm called Wintergreen Northern Wear. This clothing line is
actually made in Ely, and is available to the public at stores
located in both Ely and Duluth or on-line at
Joe Walewski is the Director of
Naturalist Training at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
in Finland, Minnesota. He earned a B.S. in Fisheries and
Wildlife Biology from Iowa State University and a M.Ed. in
Environmental Education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Every spring and fall, Joe leads Wolf Ridge graduate
students on field botany excursions--Green Guys Hikes-- with the
intention of identifying all the green 'guys' and 'gals' in the
woods. It was on one of these hikes in the early 1990's that
Joe first included his beloved lichens. When away form work, Joe
finds plenty to do helping his wife, Lori, in the gardens and
banding birds (especially hummingbirds). He enjoys rambling and
exploring outdoors with his daughter Jenny. Joe continually
strives to reduce his ecological footprint. In
an effort to
reduce his contribution of global warming gasses, Joe commutes
to work by foot, bike, or ski at least fifty percent of the
time. Joe is the author of Lichens of the North Woods, a
part of the North Woods Naturalist Series and excellent field
guide to these fascinating genera. Of the some 14,000 species
of lichens found worldwide, 700 occur in the north woods.
Nancy
Stranahan is a Director of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, as
well as one of its original founders. The Arc's mission is to
acquire and reunite broken fragments of natural landscape in
order to preserve the natural biodiversity of the temperate
broadleaf forest. Today the Arc manages twelve separate
preserves and over 4000 acres of land in a five county region of
southern Ohio. The Arc also manages three visitor centers, one
being its headquarters at The Highlands Nature Sanctuary, where
the public may hike fourteen trails, stay overnight in one of
four lodges, or visit the Appalachian Forest Museum. When the
Museum is completed in 2011, the Museum will be the first in the
world to concentrate on teaching the world significance
of the world's most disturbed biome -- the temperate broadleaf
forest. 
Annette
Mattingly, Artist
pictures are geometric and kaleidoscopic, producing a
strong visual impact. Seventy percent of the materials
Claire Taylor is a botanical and wildlife
artist handcrafting glass art in an orchestration of line, form,
color, texture and light. She began working with glass in 1980;
acrylics followed and since moving to Ely, watercolor. An avid
naturalist, her designs pay tribute to the wilderness
surrounding us. 
Jean
Vertefeuille-Cutler
Polly
Carlson-Voilles