Summer 2016 Programs
/Saturday, May 28th 8:00‐10:00AM Spring Bird Migration on Madeline
Guides: Victoria Erhart, MIWP board member, Peter Hudleston, Geology Professor, U of M.
Summary: Bring your binoculars; see warblers and other spring migrants.
Location: Meet at the Pavilion in the Town Park.
Saturday, May 28th 7:00PM MIWP ANNUAL MEETING AND EVENING RECEPTION
Love Letter to Lake Superior
Speaker: Jeff Richter is an award winning, nationally-published nature photographer.
Summary: Living within the Lake Superior region, Jeff ventures out in every season with camera and sleeping bag. Jeff captures candid images of nature few of us will ever glimpse. Through his photographs, he will take us on a circle tour of Superior and its surroundings.
Madeline Island Museum: $30.00/person
Wednesday, June 29th 7:00‐8:00PM Water Tension and the Great Lakes Compact
Speaker: Peter Annin, Director Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College and author of The Great Lakes Water Wars.
Summary: The presentation delves into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Arizona.
Madeline Island Museum.
Wednesday, July 13th 7:00‐8:00PM Timing is Everything: The Phenology of Plants
Speaker: John Bates, Wisconsin’s Northwood’s naturalist for 27 years. Author of seven books on natural history of the Northwoods.
Summary: What’s phenology? The dates of arrival and departures, the births, the flourishing, the decays and deaths of wild things, their successions, synchronicities, dependencies, reciprocities, and cycles – the lived life of the earth, according to Jack Turner in his book, The Abstract Wild. The study of phenology offers a wealth of scientific and educational values, but its ultimate value may be in the personal love one gains by getting to know a place and its inhabitants. The average child today can name 100 advertisements logos but can recognize only a few wildflowers. If we want true stewardship of our land and waters, we need to know the species that live here, their life cycles, their interrelationships, and our relationships to them. A place is nothing more than a space with a story. What are the Madeline Stories?
Madeline Island Museum.
Thursday, July 14th 9:00‐11:00AM Timing is Everything: The Phenology of Plants
Hike Guide: John Bates, naturalist.
Summary: Guided hike is complimentary to Wednesday evening program but all are invited to hike whether having attended or not.
Location: Meet at Pavilion in Town Park.
Wednesday, July 27th 7:00-‐8:00PM The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore – The State of the Park
Speaker: Bob Krumenaker, Superintendent, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Summary: Park Superintendent Bob Krumenaker will discuss the major issues, project, challenges and opportunities facing our local national park in the centennial year of the National Park Service. This is part of the national parks ‘Centennial Lecture Series.’
Madeline Island Museum.
Wednesday, August 3rd 7:00‐8:00PM Geologic Time in the Islands
Speaker: Tom Fitz, Professor of Geology Northland College
Summary: Professor Fitz will compare and contrast geologic time scales to our own perspective of time in our daily lives. He will discuss how the processes acting over geologic time have created the Apostle Islands of today. There will be rocks, sediments, maps and lots of stories from the past and present.
Madeline Island Museum.
Wednesday, August 10th 7:00‐8:00PM Furbearers of the Apostles or “ Leave it to Beaver – and Others He knew!”
Speaker: John F. Olson, recently retired Furbearer Ecologist DNR
Summary: The western Great Lakes region, especially the Apostles, harbor an extensive history relative to native wildlife, especially furbearers and most importantly, the beaver. This program will take you on a rapid journey through time, laced with interesting ‘stuff’ about these cool critters. John will weave the past into our world today and reveal interesting historic and recently discovered facts about furbearers.
Madeline Island Museum.
Wednesday, August 17th 7:00‐8:00PM Lamps in the Wilderness
Speaker: Bob Mackreth, Author and retired Park Historian of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Summary: The lighthouses of the Apostle islands are a national treasure: six island outposts, with eight towers between them, in one of the world’s most beautiful settings. For more than a century, these light stations were home to men and women who endured the privations of island life in order to provide mariners with beacons to guide them on the waters of Lake Superior. The keepers and their families are gone now, replaced by solar panels and automated systems, but they left a legacy of dedication, endurance and survival in an unforgiving environment. Historian Bob Mackreth has spent years tracking down and collecting the stories of the Apostle island lights, and will share tales from his book in progress.
Madeline Island Museum.
Wednesday, August 24th 7:00‐8:00PM The Phenology of Mammals, Birds and other Creatures of the North Country
Speaker: John Bates, Wisconsin’s Northwoods naturalist for 27 years. Author of seven books on natural history of the Northwoods.
Summary: Phenology is the gate through which nature becomes personal. It’s often a list of firsts – the first spring peeper to sing in the spring, the first robin to return, the first walleye to spawn, the first fawn to be born, the first monarch butterfly to return, the first mosquito to hatch. But it’s also a list of other timings – the first and last frosts, the peak of fall color, the first and last days of ice cover on a lake. These connections to the timing of physical events offer insights into how the natural world works – the whens and whys. Perhaps more importantly, being mindful of the unfolding of natural events often evolves into a soulful perspective of where one lives, which may be the best reason for paying attention at all.
Madeline Island Museum.
Thursday, August 25th 9:00‐11:00AM The Phenology of Mammals, Birds and other Creatures of the North Country
Hike Guide: John Bates, naturalist
Summary: Hike will be complementary to Wednesday eve lecture but all are invited to hike whether having attended or not.
Location: Meet at Pavilion in Town Park
Saturday, September 3rd 9:00‐11:00AM Exploring the North End Trails
Hike Guide: Fred Koerschner, MIWP Board member
Location: Meet at the Burroughs Trail Head, 2.5 miles north of Benjamin Blvd on the North Shore Road
Saturday, September 17th 9:00‐11:00AM Exploring the North End Trails
Hike Guide: Ned Hancock, MWIP Board member
Location: Meet at the Burroughs Trail Head, 2.5 miles north of Benjamin Blvd on the North Shore Road
Saturday, October 8th 9:00‐11:00AM Exploring the North End Trails
Annual Pot-luck Picnic after hike.
Guide: Steve Mueller, MWIP Board member
Hike Location: Meet at the Burroughs Trail Head, 2.5 miles north of Benjamin Blvd on the North Shore Road
Picnic Location: Home of Toria Erhart
