Earth Week 2017

Earth Week has been especially fun this year with lots of events on my calendar.  I decided to attend 2 film screenings in the area- the Wild & Scenic Film Festival presented by River Alliance of Wisconsin and the premiere of Dan Larson's documentary The Great Ledge presented by Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership.  Scott has been extra busy lately, but I was able to get him to the Film Festival on the one night he was home that week!  As we were walking up to the venue (Backstage at the Meyer- next to the theatre downtown), we saw free beer samples inside (thanks Great Lakes Brewing Company!), so that sealed the deal for him.  They had some informational booths set up and some really good outdoor gear and local business raffles, but unfortunately we did not win anything.  The screening consisted of series of great short films about different outdoor adventurers, sustainable agriculture, Amazon rainforests, water, and a really excellent one about salmon migration in Alaska.

I found out about The Great Ledge the day before it was to be shown at the De Pere Cinema, a movie theater in downtown De Pere (the city just to the south of Green Bay) that shows second-run films for less than $5.  The event was organized as a fundraiser to support an educational campaign to get the documentary out to local elementary schools- which is awesome and very generous of the filmmaker! If you are a regular blog reader, you probably caught my earlier posts about The Ledge (i.e., the Niagara Escarpment)- the geographical feature that runs from Wisconsin to New York and is the same rock formation that forms Niagara Falls.  The documentary was excellent- I know a few people interviewed in the film, and many of the parks they visited to talk about the unique features of the rock and associated unique habitats for plants and wildlife.  A portion of the film also talked about the history and sense of place that The Ledge provides to this region of Wisconsin. You can see the cliffs quite clearly in several areas, which makes for some neat relief in an otherwise very flat landscape. I thought it was especially interesting that the film included some of the winemakers in this area and how they came together to petition the government to recognize the Niagara Escarpment as an official American Viticultural Area (AVA) because of its unique climate, topography, and growing conditions.  We have visited a lot of the wineries already, so it was great to learn more about their association with the climatic conditions from The Ledge. I had a good time and will have to check out a movie at the cinema sometime...and some more wineries!

In addition to the film screenings, I also signed up as a site leader to help with the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance's Watershed Cleanup Day on Earth Day.  I was assigned Bay Beach Park, which I have visited many times for invasive plant work along the shoreline, so it was great to be able to help out there in another capacity.  Basically, being a "site leader" meant that I showed up first to check everyone in and hand out trash bags!  Pretty simple.  The long winter and wave action in the bay washes up a lot of trash on the shoreline there, so the cleanup kept us really busy! We had 6 volunteers (including 2 kids who were part of the Baden Powell Service Association), who collected 14 bags of trash in about 2.5 hours.  We could have used about 10 more people to help given the amount of trash and large area we were covering. It turned out to be an abnormally beautiful April Saturday, so it was nice to be outside and to get all that garbage out of the bay.  No free clean hands to take many photos, but I got one of the kids with all the trash afterwards, including what looks to be a door that Scott found?!

Great effort by the Bay Beach cleanup crew- a small group, but we got the job done!  

The kids did an awesome job.

Lastly, but not least, I had the opportunity at work to help organize this year's Green Bay Conservation Partners Spring Roundtable, which was a great event yet again bringing together the area conservation professionals, landowners, and legislative staff to share project updates, discuss conservation issues in the area, and network with each other.  About 90 people showed up, so it was a great turnout.  Participants engaged in lightning round talks, conservation cafe tables, and a student poster session.   Check out a local Fox 11 news story about the event here. You can catch a quick shot of me in the spot intently listening to presentations!

A fun week to celebrate Earth Day.  The community garden opens next week, although we will have to wait awhile longer until we can plant- temperatures in the 30s again every night this week!  And plenty of rain.  You know what they say, April showers bring...

Happy Arbor Day from our one tree- crabapple blossoms are just getting going, and we have leaves!

"Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures."  - Gaylord Nelson, former Wisconsin politician and founder of Earth Day

Sturgeon spawning on the Wolf

I have been keeping a close eye on the predictions for the timing of lake sturgeon spawning season this year since I was really hoping to check it out for the first time.  Last fall, I volunteered at the Adopt-a-Sturgeon event at Besadny Anadromous Fisheries Facility Open House in Kewaunee and learned a lot more about sturgeon. I "adopted" my own juvenile sturgeon and sent her (most likely) off into the Kewaunee River.  They really are remarkable prehistoric fish and have a unique life cycle.

In late April/early May, the lake sturgeon in northeastern Wisconsin leave Lake Michigan, Green Bay, and Lake Winnebago (the larger lake systems in the region) and move upriver to spawn, sometime traveling big miles to reach their spawning sites.  During this time, lots of really big fish (average 4 ft, 40 lbs.) are easy to see right along the shoreline all at once.  The exact timing depends on conditions like water temperature and water level, and usually spawning season starts and ends fairly quickly, within a matter of a week.  Unlike some salmon that also spawn in a similar fashion (fish that move upriver to spawn are anadromous), sturgeon do not die after they spawn.  The adults pretty much turn around and head on back down the rivers to return to the lakes.  The fertilized eggs (of course, the product of spawning) hatch in a about a week or two and really depend on the river system to hide and later find food as the current moves them downriver to the bigger systems.  Male sturgeon begin spawning at 15 years of ago and usually will return every year.  However, the females are not able to spawn until they are at least 20 years old and will only return every 4-5 years to spawn.  Really amazing.

The Wolf River (which flows into Lake Winnebago, the largest inland lake in WI) has a well-established sturgeon population; the fish utilize several spawning sites easily accessible via town riverside parks.  This draws large crowds who come out to see the sturgeon once spawning begins (see a local news story from this year here).  I had some time during spawning week on a fairly nice weekday to take a ride out to the City of Shawano (pronounced SHAWN oh), about 35 minutes to the west of Green Bay, to see the sturgeon at none other than Sturgeon Park.  Sturgeon Park is located just at the bottom of a dam, Shawano Dam, which is associated with a paper mill on the other side of the river.  The dam creates Shawano Lake above it, and marks the furthest point the sturgeon can make it upriver unobstructed on the Wolf.  That's 125 river miles traveled from Lake Winnebago!!  Interestingly, there is dam up on the Menominee River (the border between WI and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) that also serves as a barrier to the sturgeon.  There, the power company has partnered with biologists to come up with a work-around solution. An elevator brings the fish up into the facility to be tagged and measured. Then, they are loaded into a truck and go for a ride up the river past the dam and other barriers that prevent their access and released back into the river.  Quite the story.  Watch two excellent Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources YouTube videos about sturgeon in the Menominee River here.

I arrived at Sturgeon Park around 9:30 AM and walked along the trail.  The sturgeon were right there- great views of the massive fish cruising along.  It was a pretty cold morning so a few sturgeon seemed active at times but the morning started off slow.  I walked around a bit to stay warm and had a snack while the sun came out.  Later, I saw some sturgeon heads randomly pop up out of the water, and some splashing and thrashing around on the rocks.  I was hoping to get a video, but it was tough to be ready in time since you never knew what was going to happen next.  The YouTube videos above have some good footage of spawning activity.  The water was also moving pretty fast due to the dam spillway, so lots of churning around and tough to get clear photos.  The sturgeon are vulnerable to poaching when they are congregated, so the Wisconsin DNR has a volunteer sturgeon guard program, placing volunteers at spawning hotspots to ensure that the fish are not harassed or illegally harvested.

I stayed until almost lunchtime and had to get going (and get warmed up on the car ride home!).  I even saw a bald eagle fly right over, unbeknownst to the spectators who were all looking down in the water.  It was a great experience to be among the sturgeon for a little while!  Hope my juvenile in the Kewaunee gets to be this big in 20 years or so- I have her tag number she received upon release, so maybe I will find out someday.

 Sturgeon Park is right on the Wolf River, just below Shawano Dam.

 Exact replica of "Stella,"  the largest lake sturgeon ever caught and tagged during spawning assessments on the Wolf River back in 2012.  She was 87.5 inches long (that's over 7 ft), 240 lbs, and estimated to be 125 years old at the time of capture!  Hopefully, she is still out there cruising the Winnebago System.

 View of the dam and spectators from the footbridge on the Mountain-Bay Recreational Trail

 The sturgeon come up along the rocky shoreline to spawn.

During spawning, people visit to get a close up look at the huge fish, and if you're lucky you might get splashed!

 The water is pretty fast right below the dam, so the photos really don't do the sturgeon justice- awesome to see so many huge fish!  A few tails visible here.

Action shot!  Got splashed on this one.

An information sign explaining the journey of the sturgeon.  Lake Winnebago is the big blue blob in the lower right...Shawano Dam is the tiny blue dot at the top center of the map. Long trip!

Spectators lined up along the shoreline enjoying the show- quite the event out here in Shawano!

Easter on the Fox

I had decided over the winter that I wanted to ride 32 miles on April 16th this year to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. It felt like a significant anniversary to recognize and I wanted to plan something unique, especially because I am no longer in Virginia physically and therefore unable to participate in the planned remembrance events.  Scott was a good sport and agreed to go.

I figured that the weather might not be nice enough in mid-April for a trail ride, but I would play it by ear and default to completing the ride at the gym, if needed.  Now, 32 miles probably doesn't sound like big miles to serious bikers- a lot of folks do that on a normal road ride- but to the average trail user or casual biker, that's a lot of miles!  It would also be the first of the season for us outside of spinning class and riding the stationary bikes at the gym.  You might say, "Well, it's Wisconsin.  Flat as a pancake, right?  Piece of cake."  If you did say that, then you have never done a trail ride on absolute flat land where you have to pedal every single second.  I would have traded the route for Virginia or Pennsylvania in a second to get a few downhill coasts in there to stretch the tired legs! Nonetheless, I was determined and felt that it was achievable even though it would be the longest ride attempted for both of us.

April also has been extremely rainy here- I think we have had some rain every day over the last 12 days and we are above average for total rainfall already.  The grass has even greened up early.  So, we weather was a strong possibility for the ride.  I chose to ride the Fox River State Recreational Trail, which runs from the City of Green Bay to the southern Brown County line, partially for that reason.  About 10 miles of the trail in the city is paved, so we would have a little bit of help with the weather should the trail be wet.  In fact, it rained very early on the morning of the 16th, Easter Sunday this year.  But then the clouds parted and the sun came out and it was an uncharacteristic gorgeous April day.  Not a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the 60s (F).

We started in downtown Green Bay around mid-morning and headed south along the trail, which surprisingly we had yet to visit despite the fact that it is so close.  The Fox River Trail does have a user fee for bikers and skaters, so that might be part of the reason.  We typically ride the Ahnapee Trail where we can pretty much have the place to ourselves and not deal with dodging lots of people and dogs.  Because of the proximity to dense population, I am sure the trail stays pretty busy all season long.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but figured that at least some people would be busy with Easter festivities despite the pleasant weather.

The trail is very urban in nature, but was very nice and not overly crowded.  The pavement helped a little bit as well (even nicer on the way back!) so that was a treat. We rode along the Fox River for the first few miles past the DePere dam and industrial park and out into farmland.  I saw a few turkeys not far from the trail.  We also passed a grain elevator (which we find on all the trails) and some of the large capacity dairies in southern Brown.  We found out that LedgeStone Vineyards was also right along the trail, but not open.  Goal for next time = ride to the winery!

The other issue with many of the the rail trails in this area is that they are very exposed to the sun.  There are times in the summer when it is literally too hot to ride.  This trail at least had the cooling effect of the river for part of the way, but lots of sun throughout.  We made it to the 16 mile mark near unincorporated Greenleaf, stopped for a moment of reflection and a snack, and turned around and headed back for the return 16.  Water was also available at several points on this trail in urban parks (mostly at the northern end), so that wasn't an issue like it is sometimes on the Ahnapee.  The winds really started to pick up during the last leg, which made it tough to stay upright let along ride straight into it.  Flatlands and into the wind, both ways!  Seriously!

It was a beautiful day and an enjoyable ride to reflect and enjoy nature (even the urban kind). Unfortunately I usually come up short with photos on bike rides. Nonetheless, whenever I go to nature to find relief, I always do.  It never fails.

Fox River State Trail with the Fox River in the background 

Near the turnaround point in southern Brown.  Nice and quiet, albeit a little bumpy ride!  

Also: Green grass in April!!

This quote was printed over the door at the Jack Day Center where I recently had a work meeting.  I thought it was pretty thought-provoking.  Also, a map of Green Bay was painted on the floor.

We will neVer forgeT 4.16.07