Month: October 2000

Fall is a great time for mountain biking. Across the Midwest, thetrails are less crowded. The fall foliage is near its peak. On a dryday, a careful rider can go deep into the backcountry without damagingpaths or fragile plant-life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s BrianMann set out on his bike recently into a remote corner of New York’sAdirondack Mountains. He sends this audio postcard:

Transcript

Fall is a great time for mountain biking. Across the Great Lakes region,
the trails are less crowded. The fall foliage is near its peak. On a dry
day, a careful rider can go deep into the backcountry without damaging paths
or fragile plant-life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brian Mann set out on
his bike recently into a remote corner of New York’s Adirondack Mountains.
He sends this audio postcard.

(Ambience of bike thrashing through trees)

It’s Sunday morning – an overcast, fall day – when I set off into the chain
of trails that criss-cross the Saranac Lake Wild Forest, in the heart of New
York’s Adirondack Mountains. It’s been twenty years since I took a crack at
this kind of rough terrain on a bicycle.

(Ambience of bike, combined with “onboard” narration)

“This is a
great stretch here. Just enough contour to make the ride interesting, but
not so many roots or blow-downs that you can’t get some momentum and really
move down the trail…”

The path stretches eight miles through a mix of hemlock and beech and
lowland bog. The Adirondacks are famous for rocks and roots and on a
bicycle you feel every one of them.

“Bicycles have a bad reputation on trails, and
it’s possible to really chew up the path. But if you’re careful, and you
walk your bike over the muddy spots, you can really avoid doing damage.”

After an hour or so, I come to the ride’s first reward: a solitary view of
metallic blue water down through the trees:

(Ambience: Water lapping at shore)
“It’s a gray morning, but warm. The first fall color
is just settling in here. You can see beautiful maples, bright red and
orange along the bank.”

As our parks and wilderness areas grow more crowded, finding real solitude
is a challenge. This trail is popular among hikers in the summer and
snowmobilers in the winter, but this time of year the area is quiet.
There’s a bridge at the outlet of the pond, where I stop to eat my lunch
and check the map.

“It’s a narrow creek of water, buttressed on both
sides by downed timber. A wonderful stretch of water and there’s color
here, too, bright reds and yellows.”

As I’m packing up, I see a canoe working its way slowly up the stream. In
the back woods, bicycles and canoes have a lot in common. There are easy
stretches, when you cruise forward effortlessly. But then there are the
carries, when the boat or the bike goes on your shoulders. The biggest
obstacle of my day is a huge patch of blowdown. A recent fall storm sent a
microburst of air crashing through this section of forest –like a bowling
ball scattering pins.

(Ambience: bicycle pushing through pushes)
“So here we are again, pushing the bike, down through
the undergrowth. It’s thick in here with witch hobble and ferns and the
upturned roots of these trees that have been knocked down.”
(Ambience: Blue jays and chickadees calling)

I slog on, muddy and tired, braking often to lift the bike over patches of
marsh. A creek winds between two kettle ponds. The bridge is out and I’m
forced tightrope walk over stumps and bits of timber, the bike balanced on
my shoulders. Later, on a rocky patch, I take a minor tumble.

“A ride like this can be pretty tough on the hardware. Right now,
I have a good-sized stick jammed up in my chain. (Klang-klang!) Okay.
That wasn’t exactly in the trail maintenance handbook, but I think it did
the trick.”

For every setback, there are incredible views: a grove of beech trees
struck by a sudden patch of sunlight, openings in the canopy offer a
glimpse of the water that defines this country. And then there’s the
sudden, liberating moment when the trail unkinks on a steep downhill slope.

(Ambience of riding)
“There’s nothing better than coming through a
tangled patch, where you’re carrying your bike and then discovering a
wonderful stretch of open trail. Really makes you feel like you’ve earned
your fun.
(Riding Rumble)

It’s mid-afternoon as I work my way back to the road and civilization. I’m
covered with mud from my gaiters to my riding gloves and pretty well
exhausted. Still, I’m humming after an afternoon of pure solitude. And
with the things I’ve seen: the powerful aftermath of a windstorm, the
strokes of color, the rough, rich textures of the forest.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Brian Mann on the trail in New
York’s Adirondack Mountains.

An architect is preserving a farm and its natural areas using a newapproach in housing development. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’sLester Graham reports:

Transcript

An architect is preserving a farm and its natural areas using a new approach
in housing development in the region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports.

Chicago architect Ed Noonan plans to build more than 100
houses on the 160 acre Tryon Farm in northern Indiana. But he
plans to keep three-quarters of the land as a working farm
and preserve natural areas. He says it’s a matter
of carefully placing the development.

“Put it on the worst land where the farming wouldn’t go. Put it so
that you could cluster it, hold it together. Put it so that the houses would
form a little settlement so that they were related to each other both in
size and color. And then allow for a lot of differences in small ways.”

The new residents get to experience life on a farm while the
original owners
of Tryon Farm still raise animals and sow the fields. The land
that’s to be
preserved is being put in the hands of a not-for-profit
organization so
future owners aren’t tempted to add more houses.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Farmland and natural areas across the region are being cleared andleveled to make way for urban sprawl and rapid growth. But a newdevelopment in Northern Indiana is trying to find a way to satisfy thedemand for more homes… while helping to preserve at least some of therural environment… the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Grahamreports:

Transcript

Farmland and natural areas across the region are being cleared and leveled to make way
for urban sprawl and rapid growth. But a new development in Northern Indiana is trying
to find a way to satisfy the demand for more homes, while helping to preserve at least
some of the rural environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports.

(sound of chickens and goats)

Tryon Farm is an old dairy farm. The 1890’s farmhouse is
surrounded by
mature shade trees. There are chickens in the backyard and
goats in the
barnyard.

(sound of chicken and goats out, crickets and birds up)

But behind the big white dairy barn, a gravel road that
leads to a courtyard. This is the center of life at the new housing
development that is part of Tryon Farm. The courtyard is bordered by multi-car
garages.
Clustered around those are 16 different contemporary
interpretations of the Midwest farmhouse. This cluster is the first of what could be
as many as
eight settlements– groupings of homes tucked on different
sites of the working farm.

Ed Noonan is the architect and developer of Tryon Farm. It’s
been getting the attention and praise of architects and environmentalists
for what some consider an important new approach in development.

“What we wanted to do was find a way to –for want of a better
word– be house farmers. In other words preserve the land and use it so that
when you were on a house here you still had a farm. When you were on a house
here you still had conservation. And traditionally, those things have been
in opposition to each other. So, that allows you to think much differently
about it.”

Noonan and his partners in the architecture firm Chicago
associates have been working to create a rural living experience by keeping
much of the farm intact. They plan to keep three-quarters of the farm –a full
120 acres– as a natural area or part of the working farm.

“It seemed like it was such a good place it shouldn’t be wasted.
And we knew what to do with it, so, why not?”

And that open land has been a major selling point for the
development. Everyone who buys a house here knows the farmhouse, barn,
and the long views of pasture and woodlands will always be around. That’s
because the undeveloped land is being placed in the hands of a non-profit
organization what will make sure it remains in its current state. So, future
owners won’t be tempted to replace farmland with more houses. Meanwhile
the family that owned the Tryon Farm still farms it.

(sound of hammering)

All 16 homes in the first settlement sold rather quickly. About
two-thirds of them to people who live in Chicago during the week and
come here to their
farmhouse on the weekend. The rest of the homes are owned by
people who live here full-time including Meg Haller, who says she’s pleased
to call this
home.

“It’s not your basic subdivision. I’ve met more people the first day
that I was here and truly think of them as friends than I had in five years
living in your basic subdivision. And the fact that our common areas are a
farmhouse and chickens and goats is certainly unique. I don’t think you’ll
find that anywhere else.”

Not everyone thinks the farm is ideal. Jeff Speck is the co-
author of the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of
the American Dream. Speck commends Noonan for the work he’s doing at
Tryon, but he says it still does little to stop sprawl. After all, it’s still a
development miles from stores and does little to reduce the reliance on
cars typical of the suburbs.

“It sounds like a good deal for the residents, because they’re getting
great views, a lot of spaces preserved, and they’ll have a better society,
you know, better communal society than they would have if it was one house
per lot. But, I wonder how the people surrounding it feel. They probably do
consider it sprawl.”

(Sound of car put in gear and driving)

Ed Noonan says using the Tryon Farm for housing is better
than the previous plans for this area. It was zoned for industrial use. As he
drives on dirt paths on the property. He notes he’s putting the settlements
on the land that’s not good for farming, making sure each settlement is
out of the sight of the others. And he’s restoring some of the cropland to
prairie grasses and flowers.

“I want to do no harm to this. And yet I want humans here. And so,
how I place the human beings is my job so I do the least amount of harm to
landscape and fit the people into the land rather than fitting the land to
the people which is what the normal subdivision generally does. It doesn’t
take into consideration the characteristics of the place except in the most
shallow possible way.”

(car noise out / crickets and birds up)

There are very few such developments across the nation. Most
developers are not willing to take the economic risk of an untried and novel
approach to a housing development.

Experts say the housing trend is still toward bigger houses on
large private lots. It’s considered a sign of the homeowner’s success. At
least some of the residents at Tryon, however, say their statement about
success is in living a more relaxed lifestyle on the farm.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

A Wisconsin utility is the first power company in the country to adoptsuperconductor technology to smooth out the area’s power supply and helpprevent brownouts. The company that makes these super cooledelectromagnets is marketing them as a cheap and green way for utilitycompanies to provide more reliable service. But renewable energyadvocates say it’s just a band-aid that does nothing to reducedependence on fossil fuels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s GilHalsted reports:

Transcript

A Wisconsin utility is the first power company in the country to adopt superconductor
technology to smooth out the area’s power supply and help prevent brownouts. The
company that makes these super cooled electromagnets is marketing them as a cheap and
green way for utility company’s to provide more reliable service. But renewable energy
advocates say it’s just a band aid that does nothing to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium Gil Halsted reports.

All of us who use electricity know how irritating
it is to have the power suddenly fail when we’re in the middle of
cooking dinner or trying to
download our e-mail.

Voltage irregularities cause the lights to
flicker and you start wondering when they’re gonna flicker again.

Greg Yurek is the CEO of American superconductor. The
company that installed the new superconducting magnetic storage
units on the northern Wisconsin grid. He says they’re
designed to stabilize the voltage when weather or
squirrels cause voltage irregularities.

“Lightning or sometimes a suicidal squirrel gets
fried across the line. Sometimes gives rise to an instability that
cascades through the system our units solve all those problems
which you can imagine are common to all utilities.”

Those units are housed in six semi truck trailers hooked up to sub
stations on the northern Wisconsin power grid. Inside the trailers are
magnets made of coils of titanium alloy. These
magnets can store up to three million watts of power. Powerful
refrigerators in the trailer are used to cool liquid helium that
circulates around the magnetic coils – keeping them super cooled to
more than 400 degrees below zero. Yurek says at that
temperature the coil becomes a superconductor allowing
power to flow through it with almost zero resistance. So when a
monitoring device detects a voltage sag on the
grid there’s power available to correct it immediately.

“The electricity in that superconducting coil –
there’s no resistance holding it back – when we want to draw
it out – nothing holding it back so we can shoot it out pretty much
instantaneously.”

Yurek says adding these units to the grid means
consumers get cleaner more stable power coming into their
homes. Researcher George Crabtree from the
Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois agrees.
He’s been working on superconducting technology
for more than a decade. He says the technology
will save consumers both time and money.

“For example computer users or high computer
intensive businesses will experience fewer crashes; crashes are very
expensive in terms of effort and time. And industries where machinery
can be shut down by an interruption
of power will also experience fewer interruptions so they will save
time as well. Nationwide that problem is large. It’s billions
of dollars.”

The conventional fix for the power sag problem is to build new
power lines and bring in more power to re-enforce the grid. but
consumer advocate Steve Hiniker of the Madison,
Wisconsin based citizens utility board says the
superconductor units are a cheaper fix.

“For roughly the same cost of building a new
transmission line you can
install one of these units can mitigate that need
and it’s really the
future of energy we’re not there yet but this is a
part of what we’ll be looking at which will be
something that as we develop a more sustainable
source of energy that’s used closer to the point
of use.”

But the superconductor is anything but sustainable according to solar
energy engineer Chris Laforge. He says the power
needed to keep superconductors super cooled simply creates
more demand for energy.

“The problem with these devices is that they’re loads – they
consume energy.”

Laforge says there are better alternatives. His
company installs wind turbines and photovoltaic panels for
companies looking for ways to cut their energy bills.

“To power these superconducting gizmo’s
we’re going to be burning
coal in North Dakota or Wisconsin and causing lots
of pollution unnecessarily whereas by
introducing a new free fuel source namely photo
voltaic panels and wind turbines – you support the
grid in the same decentralized distributed fashion
and you take advantage of cleaning up our energy
act at the same time.”

Still Greg Yurek of American superconductor
insists that superconductors will catch on in the utility
industry. His company already has half a dozen
orders from power companies. And he predicts
within the next twenty years homeowners will be
buying retail units the size of a typical home air
conditioner.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Gil Halsted.

As November draws closer, the major political candidates are setting
their sights, and focusing their campaign strategies, on several Great
Lakes states. Political observers say Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and
Michigan are among a handful of states that could determine who will be
the next President. However, one major question mark on the way to the
White House could be Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant has more:

The number of black bears in the northern portions of the Great Lakesregion is increasing. And in some places, such as Minnesota, the blackbear population has reached an all-time high. So officials are lookingfor ways to control the numbers, before the population becomes too largeand the bears begin causing problems for humans. In Minnesota, thestate relies heavily on a hunting season. But this year’s season hasjust ended (Oct. 15) and it was not the success officials had hopedfor. And that could mean more bear problems next year. The Great LakesRadio Consortium’s Chris Julin reports:

Transcript

The number of black bears in the northern portions of the Great Lakes region is
increasing. And in some places, such as Minnesota, the black bear population has
reached an all-time high. So officials are looking for ways to control the numbers, before
the population becomes too large and the bears begin causing problems for humans. In
Minnesota, the state relies heavily on a hunting season. But this year’s season has just
ended (Oct. 15) and it was not the success officials had hoped for. And that could mean
more bear problems next year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Julin reports.

Miles from the nearest town, in the woods of northern Minnesota, you can always see
bears at Carol Suddendorf’s place … or at least parts of bears. Bearskin mittens and
hats and mukluks hang from the wall. Suddendorf and her husband run a taxidermy
and clothing business, and they process a lot of bear hides. Carol Suddendorf loves to
watch living bears, too. With a fond smile, she talks about the bears she sees at least
once a week.

“If you’re driving around the
country roads in the evening, as the sun goes down, you often see them
crossing the road.”

In wooded areas across the Great Lakes, black bears are part of everyday life.
Suddendorf has lived in the woods for 20 years. She says she quickly learned the
basics — keep the garbage and the dog food inside, because there’s no doubt bears
will come looking for something to eat.

“A lot of it’s at night. The security
lights trigger a lot and you don’t know quite what’s out there. But a lot of
times in the daytime they’ll wander through, or you’ll get up in the morning
and there’ll be fresh tracks in the garden. They like to go over to the bird
feeder and help themselves to the sunflower seeds, and they can do a fair
amount of damage, but we just put up with it.”

Suddendorf sees more bears than she used to…and no wonder. The bear population is
growing throughout the Great Lakes … nowhere faster than in Minnesota. The state’s
Department of Natural Resources, or D-N-R, figures the bear population in Minnesota
has just about quadrupled since 1980, up to nearly 30-thousand. The D-N-R’s lead
bear researcher, Dave Garshelis, says that 30-thousand bears might be the most
Minnesota can handle without running into problems … but he’s not sure.

“We once said, and this was back in the
1980s, that boy, about 10-thousand bears would be just about right in
Minnesota. And then as we realized that we’re already over that, we’re to 15,
then we said let’s go ahead and stabilize it at 15. And we weren’t able to do
that, so here we are again in the year 2000 saying 30-thousand would be
okay, so if we can live with 30-thousand, that’s great. The more bears, the
better. It’s better for bears, it’s better for people seeing bears, and it’s better
for hunters that want to hunt bears.”

The state tries to limit the bear population through hunting. Because the population
has gotten so large, it opened this year’s bear season a week early, and issued an
increased number of permits with hopes of holding the bear population steady…but it
hasn’t worked out. The state planned on a bear kill of six-thousand, but it looks like
hunters got fewer than four thousand.

(sound of crunch, zipper zips…”I’m empty-handed, yeah” chuckle)
(sound of ducks)

It’s getting dark, and Dan Thomason is wrapping up his last day of hunting in the
woods behind his house, near the town of Two Harbors. He’s dressed in green
camouflage from hat to boots. He packs up his rifle and gear, including a portable
metal seat he’d strapped to a tree so he could watch his bait from ten feet above.

“The five-gallon plastic bucket there is just
what I use to carry bait out to the baiting site. The bait I’ve been using is
whatever bakery goods I can get my hands on. Molasses, oats, sunflower
seeds. Anything that’s sweet or seems enticing to a bear.”

Like thousands of hunters, Thomason started setting bait in August. A bear stopped
by Thomason’s bait station after dark several nights to snack on the sweets, but it
never come by in the daylight. So, like most hunters this year, Thomason didn’t get a
bear.

Researcher Dave Garshelis, says bears had abundant wild food this year — acorns and
berries — so the bears stayed away from hunters’ bait. The good news was, they also
stayed away from garbage cans and houses. In spite of the record number of bears,
Garshelis says the state has taken only a few hundred phone calls about “nuisance
bears” this year. In years when wild food is scarce, he says they get thousands of
calls.

“In those bad food years we’ve had
these, like horror stories of bears going into a restaurant, going into a
taxicab, and frequently going into people’s houses. I mean I was hearing
calls about that a lot. You know they’re not easy to keep out. It’s the kind of
thing where they can break through a window, easily go through a screen.”

Garshelis says bears’ supply of natural food follows a cycle. In northern states, food is
scarce every five years or so, and Garshelis says the region is OVERDUE for a “bad
food year.”

With the large population of bears now in the woods, Garshelis says the next food
shortage could bring an extraordinary number of clashes between bears and humans.
That worries him. He says he doesn’t want to return to a time when EVERY bear was a
nuisance, and the state paid 25 dollars for a dead one.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chris Julin in Duluth.