The Latest FOLSR Buzz
Welcome:
Will Mowchan has joined the FOLSR Board. Will has been coming to Lake Superior’s North Shore even since he was a boy on family vacations. It took a move to Superior in 2011, however, for Will and his wife to discover and start experiencing the St. Louis River Estuary. “What a treasure it is, in so many ways, in all four seasons!” he says. Now, retiring after 38 years as a Lutheran minister, Will looks forward to working with the board to restore and protect the Estuary, enhance access to it, and engage more people in experiencing and learning about its beauty, history and importance.
Fare thee well: FOLSR board member Keahna Margeson left the area and the FOLSR Board for a wonderful graduate program in Nova Scotia. It seems almost inconceivable that it’s just been a bit over two short years that Keahna Margeson joined us. After a serendipitous introduction at the 2019 St. Louis River Summit, Keahna accepted an offer to join our board. Since then, she has been a star contributor, vastly improving our web and social media experience. From developing a new website, to getting us started with our web email platform, to our Facebook page, as well as Twitter and Instagram, Keahna has been doing it all. And she did it quickly and effectively and brought creative thought to board deliberations. We will miss her greatly. We wish her great success in her studies.
Grant supporting outdoor activities: Thanks to a $3,000 grant from the City of Superior, FOLSR was able to purchase 3 spotting scopes and 6 pairs of binoculars to support group bird walks and tours throughout the Reserve. The grant also allowed FOLSR to purchase 20 trash grabbers to facilitate beach cleanups and other trash removal events.
430 pounds of trash: FOLSR sponsored a beach cleanup in September to honor National Estuary Day and Adopt-a-Beach Day. The cleanup, held in collaboration with UWS professor Dr. Rios Mendoza, UWS students and Jaggerfest, involved about 27 people who helped remove 430 pounds of trash from Wisconsin Point.
Birds, Birds, Birds: FOLSR held two Bird watching events in September. One was a wheel-chair accessible hunt for fall migrants on Wisconsin Point. The other was a walk with local expert birders Steve Kolbe and Jeff Davis at Pattison Park. Fifteen people attended.
Reserve Monitoring Program: Ever hear the phrase “a canary in the mine?” Long ago birds really were used tell if the air in mines was safe. Well, the Lake Superior Reserve is serving in a similar role. Each of the 29 reserves in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System collects data every 15 minutes from spring to the middle of autumn to monitor the health of the water. Data are collected on weather as well as physical and chemical aspects of the water. Examples include temperature, water clarity and acidity. Data are collected by automated sensors (called sondes— sounds like "sonds”) at four locations in the estuary: Oliver Bridge, Pokegama Bay, Blatnik Bridge and the Reserve boat dock on Barker’s Island. These data are automatically sent to a central server for access by the public. You can see the last 24 hours of data for the Barkers Island water quality sensor by visiting this link: https://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu/pwa/index.html. Scroll down to the LKSBAWQ icon and click on it. Notice how several of the data values change in regular daily cycles. Have fun exploring other reserve sites!
You can help support the Reserve monitoring effort. Possible tasks include assisting with placing equipment for data collection and retrieving that equipment each season. For more information, contact Hannah Ramage, System-Wide Monitoring Program Coordinator, at hannah.ramage@wisc.edu.
Lend a hand!
- Volunteer to help at the Estuarium during the 2022 Ice Festival, January 22.
- The St. Louis Estuary Summit is happening March 8-9, 2022. There are opportunities to help on several planning teams. There is a need for help with the posters sessions, help with set up. The summit will be virtual except for field trips, poster sessions and River Talks.