Scientists may have found the cause for the spread of an invasive species in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’sJonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
Scientists may have found the cause for the spread of an invasive
species in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Jonathan Ahl reports.
Cordylophora is a small brown stringy animal that looks more like a
plant than a fish. For years the pest has caused problems in Midwest lakes
and rivers by clogging intake pipes and stealing food from native animals.
Researchers in Illinois think they may have found a reason for the animal’s
recent increase in numbers. Jim Stoeckel with the Illinois Natural History
survey says the research is focusing on water quality.
“To see if runoff of road salt or discharge from
sewage treatment plants are increasing the salinity in some areas, and this
may be contributing to the increase in cordylophora.”
Stoeckel says if there is a link between water salinity and the growth of
the pest, it may be easy to develop some practical ways to control the animal.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
For homeowners, planting edible native species is a great way to benefit the environment and put nutritious food on the table. Yet Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Tom Springer says it’s also important to enjoy the wild bounty that’s already around you:
Transcript
For homeowners, planting edible native species is a great way to benefit the environment
and put nutritious food on the table. Yet Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator
Tom Springer says it’s also important to enjoy the wild bounty that’s already around you.
If you were old enough to read during the 1970s, you may recall a silver-haired pop icon
named Euell Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons was an author and wild food forager who wrote a
best-selling book titled Stalking the Wild Asparagus. He even starred in a popular TV ad
for Grape-Nuts cereal. “Their taste reminds me of wild hickory nuts,” Mr. Gibbons used
to say.
I’ve lived in towns most of my life, but I never forgot about Euell Gibbons. The idea of
eating food that most people find unfit for human consumption has always intrigued me.
So five years ago, when my wife and I bought an old farmhouse on four acres, it was time
to rekindle my fantasy. However, instead of being a forager, I decided to save on shoe
leather by growing wild edibles in our big backyard.
Until recently, most of our property was worn out Michigan farmland. My mission has
been to restore the native species that thrived here before titanium-strength herbicides and
three hundred thousand-dollar tractors came along. I’ve planted hazelnuts, beechnuts,
butternuts and chestnut saplings, along with raspberries, gooseberries, serviceberries,
wild plums and apple trees.
While most of my trees and shrubs have survived, their growth rate has been glacially
slow. During this year’s meager harvest, I picked three quarts of raspberries; four cups of
gooseberries; two dozen serviceberries; three apples no bigger than a tennis ball (the
largest of which was smaller than a tennis ball); and, a single, lonely chestnut. As I told
my wife, “Perhaps that’s why they call it a chestnut tree.”
But despite the skimpy yields, there have been some positive consequences. By
inspecting my plants and studying guidebooks, I’ve learned to identify numerous edible
species. I’ve also made a startling and humbling discovery: Namely that many of the wild
plants I’m trying to establish already grow wild nearby.
Last fall, we made cookies from hickory nuts that were gathered from a tree near our
driveway. This summer, I found a blackberry thicket growing by a creek just a ¼ mile
away. They were past their peak when I found them, but we still picked enough for a
juicy, blackberry pie.
Then last spring, along a farm fence one hundred yards from home, I noticed a small tree
awash in a blizzard of pink blossoms. I knew it was an American plum from the photo in
my guidebook. By late summer, clusters of rosy pink fruit hung from its upper branches.
For two weeks, I feasted on wild plums whenever I walked the dog in that direction.
I’ve also found a dozen elderberry bushes, and notably, a hazelnut bush that’s the size of
our Ford sedan. When the hazelnuts turn ripe, you can bet I’ll be back to pick a bucketful.
Meanwhile, back at the mini-ranch, I’m getting ready for fall. I’m wrapping fragile tree
trunks to protect them from deer and mice. I’m pruning dead shoots and adding new
layers of mulch. But I’m also resting easier. All around me, I’ve found wild plants that
neither toil nor spin, yet are healthy and productive just the same. As I work to create my
personal paradise, it’s good to know that the original creation is still within arm’s reach.
It’s harvest time across the Midwest, and for many farmers that means soon they’ll take one last pass with the tractor to till the soil before winter sets in. But several Midwest scientists arenow saying this practice of intensive tilling is ruining the soil andcontributing to greenhouse gas emissions. And they say it’s time for achange in how farms are run. Farmers, however, say changing the way they operate simply to reduce the production of greenhouse gases could be expensive. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tim Post reports:
Transcript
It’s harvest time across the Great Lakes region, and for
many farmers that means soon they’ll take one last pass with the tractor to till the soil
before winter sets in. But several Midwest scientists are now saying this practice of
intensive tilling is ruining the soil and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
And they say it’s time for a change in how farms are run. Farmers, however,
say changing the way they operate simply to reduce the production of greenhouse gases
could be expensive. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tim Post reports.
(sound of wind through the soybeans, crickets)
(sound of tractor comes
up toward the end of graph)
On a windswept prairie, just northeast of the small Western Minnesota town
of Morris, in a field of corn and soybeans, a small group of soil
scientists are doing what many farmers do, they’re tilling the soil.
(sound of blades turning over soil)
It’s a typical farm scene, until the scientists roll up with what looks like
a big inverted fish tank on a front end loader. They are using this device
to determine how much Carbon Dioxide, OR CO2, comes out of
the soil when its tilled. C02 is a greenhouse gas.
Research technician, Chris Wente sits in the cab of the front
end loader, which holds the tank over the soil being tilled. The
tank collects what’s released into the air after the blade has turned
the soil over, and Wente measures the result.
“Now you can see look at the water vapor going up cause we are
turning over a moist soil, see the CO2 is already off scale, for the user
interface, you can watch and see how its flying, its really increasing
dramatically fast. ”
What they’ve found in 5 years of research is that when soil is broken,
there is a big “burp” of carbon dioxide. It happens for a couple of
reasons. First, there is some CO2 trapped in the soil that escapes when
the ground is broken. But turning up the soil also mixes oxygen with carbon
contained in the soil, and microbes then turn that carbon and
oxygen into carbon dioxide.
The experiment is the work of Don Reicosky, a USDA soil
scientist in Morris. Reicosky says intensive tilling is like setting a
match to carbon in the soil.
“Well when the black smith wants a hotter fire, what does he
do? He pumps air through it, and you see the coals glow as he does that,
because he is putting in more oxygen, and that oxygen results in a very
rapid oxidation and a very rapid burning and that what happens when you
till the soil, that’s a pretty good analogy.”
Reicosky says this “burning” has, over the last 150 years or so, used up 30
to 50 percent of the carbon in the soil, sending IT into the atmosphere as
Carbon Dioxide.
So Reicosky is using his findings to try to convince farmers to switch to
less intensive types of tilling, like low till or no till, where little or
no soil is disturbed.
Agriculture officials in Washington DC are in favor of that
approach. Bill Hohenstein, the director of the USDA’s Global
Change program office, says conservation measures are beneficial to the
environment and to farmers, even if it is a big change for some in how they
operate.
“But in the long run by improving the health of the soil
and enhancing the organic content of the soil you can improve water
retention, you can improve overall productivity and actually reduce things
like soil erosion and nutrient run off into water ways.”
The USDA is watching how the agriculture industry affects the amount of
green house gasses in the atmosphere. The Global Change program monitors
not only CO2 from the soil but also fossil fuels burned on farms, methane
produced by farm animals and their waste, and nitrous oxide that comes from
the use of fertilizer. Figures are preliminary, but scientists say farms
contribute
7 to 20 percent of the gasses that contribute to global warming.
(Sound of farmer walking through corn comes up under last graph and goes
into next)
But on a farm east of Paynesville Minnesota, the concern right now isn’t
about green house gasses, it’s how the corn looks ahead of this fall’s
harvest.
“It has to be just as good as last year, which will give us
right around 140 bushels of corn, that’s in the bin, which is not bad”
Dave Brinkman manages this 1000-acre corn and soybean farm. Brinkman uses
conservation tilling measures, plus he’s put in place several measures to
manage animal waste, and reduce the impact of chemicals on his
land. Brinkman is a conservation farmer, the kind that people concerned
about the environment like to see. But he says it’s not an easy thing to
get into for a lot of farmers, in part because it’s expensive.
“It’s a cost of machinery, to do different practices, and you
aren’t gonna just go and trade your whole line of machinery off, it costs
money, and that’s the thing to look at.”
Brinkman says his yields are the same or better than farmers who use more
traditional farming methods. But it took a few years to get to that
point. And Brinkman says right now low farm prices make it difficult for
farmers to make a living. When helping the environment hits the bottom
line, the environment sometimes can’t compete. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tim Post.
For many cities across the Great Lakes region, ozone pollution was a problem once again this summer. Ozone pollution is particularly dangerous when it mixes with other chemicals to form smog. Aside fromthe health risks they create, many of the chemicals involved can also move great distances, causing problems far from where they were produced. That’s why the U.S. and Canada are now completing talks aimed at reducing those pollutants on both sides of the border. The final meetings are scheduled for this week, and an agreement is expected. But a major concern remains. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Transcript
For many cities across the Great Lakes region, ozone pollution was a problem
once again this summer. That type of ozone is particularly dangerous when it
mixes with other chemicals to form smog. Aside from the health risks they create, many
of the chemicals involved can also move great distances, causing problems far from
where they were produced. That’s why the U-S and Canada are now completing talks
aimed at reducing those pollutants on both sides of the border. The final meetings
are scheduled for this week, and an agreement is expected. But a major
concern remains. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports.
Smog has been linked to a host of health problems.
It can inflame the throat, cause shortness of breath and coughing.
It can also lead to premature death.
The Canadian government estimates 2 thousand people in
the province of Ontario die prematurely from smog
exposure each year.
And both the U.S. and Canada agree about 50 percent of
that smog-causing pollution is coming from the
American Midwest.
Steve Hart is the director of the transboundary air
issues branch for Environment Canada.
He says nitrogen oxides travel in a plume from
Midwestern power plants and cities and settle over
Ontario.
Hart says the chemicals interact with ozone, volatile
organic compounds and sunlight to create a major smog
problem.
“We’re very, very interested that our U.S.
counterparts control their pollution. That doesn’t
mean to say we don’t do our own job here because there
is some of our pollution that goes south of the border
into New York State.”
Hart says both countries have plans to reduce nitrogen
oxides and volatile organic compound emissions.
They’re meeting this week in Washington, D.C.
And they hope to create an ozone annex, which will
become part of the U.S-Canada Air Quality Agreement.
But some Americans are concerned that even if a deal
is hammered out, Canada won’t be able to enforce it.
In the U.S., the Clean Air Act sets mandatory federal
air quality standards.
And if the states don’t enforce those standards, the
federal government can step in.
But that’s not the way things work in Canada.
Here, pollution laws are mainly controlled by the
provinces, not the Canadian government.
The federal government Can unilaterally create new
regulations.
But in the ten years since Canada passed its
Environmental Protection Act, that’s never happened.
Hart says that’s because Canadians prefer to rule by
consensus.
“The two governments have a different style, a
different approach to things. In Canada, we tend to be
less litigious. We tend to do more by commitments which
are measurable. But we usually have as good or better
results than the U.S.”
But that may not be enough for the American
negotiators.
John Bachmann is the associate director for science
policy in the EPA’s office of air quality, planning
and standards.
He says they’re looking for a commitment from the
Canadians that they’ll give their national agreement
some teeth.
“The U.S. is looking very hard at what the
Canadians put forth to make sure it looks, given the
different federal system there, that it least looks
like there’s movement towards something that is a lot
like what we have in effect.”
But the Canadians argue their voluntary agreement will
be more effective at reducing pollution than the
American laws.
That’s because the Canadians have agreed to an ozone
limit about 20 percent lower than what the American
Clean Air Act allows.
But those Canadian promises aren’t written into law.
And that makes John Paul uncomfortable.
He’s the vice president for the Center for Energy and
Economic Development.
His group represents coal producers, railroads and
utilities – industries that could be affected by this
deal.
And he says those industries want a fair agreement.
“We want to make sure that whatever we’re
agreeing to do that the Canadians agree to a
commensurate reduction and that there be some
mechanism to ensure they can enforce it.”
Observers to the negotiations say these concerns have
been raised.
Patricio Silva of the Natural Resources Defense
Council has sat in on many of the meetings between the
two countries.
And he’s confident they’ll uphold their end of the
deal.
“We believe, in large part, both nations will be
able to honor nearly all the substantive commitments
and achieve the reductions that they’ve outlined.”
American negotiator John Bachmann says he’ll push the
Canadians to put their pollution agreement into law.
But Canadian representative Steve Hart argues that’s
not only unnecessary, it’s not the Canadian way.
That’s an issue that will undoubtedly be on the table
when the two sides meet this week.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly
in Ottawa, Ontario.
A government researcher says closing Great Lakes beaches because of high bacteria counts might be pointless. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… the researcher says by the time the test results come back, the problem is often past:
Transcript
A government researcher says closing Great Lakes beaches because of high bacteria
counts might be pointless. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports… the researcher says by the time the test results come back… the problem is
often past.
Many beaches on the Great Lakes are tested regularly for E. coli bacteria. In a few
instances swimmers have become sick because of the bacteria. But the test takes 24-
hours and many times the conditions that led to high bacteria counts are gone by the
time the results are in the next day, but still the beaches are closed. Richard Whitman is
with the U.S. Geological Survey. He says the current tests are not adequate. Something
else needs to be done
“And one way we’re working on is through predictive models,
mathematical models to take these considerations like rainfall, wind, and
turbidity and just like you forecast weather, we’re trying to forecast
e-coli.”
That would mean the beaches would close only when there’s potential risk, instead of
the day after.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Many visitors to Great
Lakes beaches are not aware of the risk of infections and other illnesses
associated with bacteria in the lakes. However, one researcher says most of
the time the beaches are being closed after the risk is past.
Because of a 24 hour
delay in testing the water, the family might learn tomorrow they're playing
in water with high bacteria levels.
In some places, creeks
wash bacteria into the lakes on or very near swimming beaches.
This past summer brought another season of beach closings around the Great Lakes. Officials close some beaches several times each summer because of high E. coli bacteria counts. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… while the public is growing more concerned, at least one researcher says the beach closings might be pointless:
Transcript
This past summer was another season of beach closings around the Great
Lakes. Officials close some beaches several times each summer because of
high e-coli bacteria counts. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports… while the public is growing more concerned… at least
one researcher says the beach closings might be pointless.
(open w/ beach sounds)
It’s a breezy, sunny day. People at this beach on Lake Michigan are trying
to slip in one more day of sun and swimming before it gets too cold. As they
hurry to the water’s edge, many of the visitors don’t seem to notice the
two bulletin boards they pass. They explain that bacteria levels on this beach
are sometimes too high for safe swimming.
About six times a year the Indiana Dunes State Beach here near Michigan
City, Indiana is closed because of high counts of e-coli bacteria. The
bacteria sometimes make swimmers sick. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting,
and fevers. The bacteria can cause rashes and infections. The beaches are
closed as a precaution when the e-coli levels are found to be high. But… in
reality closing the beaches might do no good at all.
That’s because it takes 24-hours to incubate test samples taken from the
water. So, that means the beach could be closed today because of
yesterday’s samples. Even though today the problem is past.
Doug Wickersham is the property manager of Indiana Dunes State Park. He’s
not happy with the 24 hour delay in testing for e-coli.
“No, it’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best we got at this
point, 24 hours. And it is frustrating ’cause you know when you are closed
the water may actually be clean and fine at that time. What you’re actually
testing is the day before and it may have been bad and you may have been
open.”
Where Great Lakes beaches are tested… they’re tested using this method.
One scientist who’s researching e-coli on Great Lakes beaches says the 24-
hour test is just about useless.
“That’s absolutely correct. We don’t have an adequate— in my
opinion, do not have an adequate way of warning visitors.”
That’s Richard Whitman. He’s station chief at the US Geological Survey’s
Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station. He says not only is there no
quick way to test for e-coli bacteria. But he says it’s probably the wrong
thing to use to try to gauge water quality.
“We are closing beaches using the wrong tool to close beaches.
E-coli is probably very poorly suited as a good indicator of water quality.
The more we learn about it, the less confidence I personally have in its
ability to predict the quality of the water that we’re swimming in.”
The problem is one of cost. For years, water officials have tested for
e-coli, not so much because it might make people sick, but because the test
was cheap, and it was an indicator of potentially much bigger problems. It
was thought that e-coli was found primarily in human waste. So, if e-coli
were present, officials felt confident that sewage would be nearby as
well. Sewage can contain pathogens potentially much more harmful than
e-coli.
But.. after many years of testing, the researchers are finding that e-coli
is present in much more than just human waste. In fact, e-coli are a natural
phenomenon. Researchers have found feces from mice, rats, and other
animals
also contain the bacteria. So, when the rain washes over the land, it picks
up those bacteria and carries them to the lake.
“The sand harbors e-coli naturally and then there’s a lot of bird
feces, sea gulls and sometimes geese, depending on where you’re talking
about, that can get re-suspended and cause beach closures.”
That means even when the great lakes were pristine, there were
probably background levels of e-coli bacteria in the water.
Whitman says it might be better to test for other bacteria, or chemicals,
or pathogens that scientist know are unique to sewage, but those tests are
much more expensive than testing for e-coli and often take just as long.
So for now, the beaches still have to close when the e-coli count exceeds
the EPA standards. To do that job better, researchers such as Whitman
are trying to put together predictability models. In other words, they’re
trying to forecast when e-coli will be high so the beaches are closed when
there’s actually a risk, not the day after.
Meanwhile, most swimmers here at Indiana Dunes State Beach seem to be
unaware of the problem.
Matt Swartz has brought his family to the beach. His two boys are
splashing in the water and playing in the sand. Swartz says he didn’t read
the bulletin boards outlining the e-coli risks. He was surprised to hear
about them, but not alarmed.
“I don’t know; I just think sometimes you take thinks for granted and
you just think everything’s safe. You know, it looks so nice and you just go
ahead and not worry about the actual things that are wrong with what’s
around you.”
Swimming in the Great Lakes is always a risk, although a slight one,
because of e-coli. But the Swartz family won’t know whether they were at
a greater risk from high e-coli counts, until the test results return
sometime the day after their visit.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Law enforcement officials throughout the Great Lakes region are warning motorists to start looking out for deer. With the cooler weather, they’re on the move. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Law enforcement officials throughout the Great Lakes Region are
warning motorists to start looking out for deer. With the cooler weather…
they’re on the move. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports.
Every year about this time deer-vehicle accidents start to increase.
Tim Schweitzer is with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He
says deer live near farm crops.
“Once the crop harvest begins, deer are forced to move. They’re going to be running across roadways, paying little attention to vehicles
in their path. And, the autumn is the start of the rut for deer, the mating
season. And once deer are concentrating on mating, they’re concentrating on
little else and won’t pay any attention to semi-tractor trailer trucks or
vehicles on highways.”
Schweitzer says if you’re driving, you should slow down… be especially
cautious at dusk – and just before sunrise – when deer are most
active. and…
if you see one deer crossing the road, Schweitzer says there’s a
good chance there’ll be more behind it.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Researchers say a combination of pollution and nature’s reaction to it is contaminating fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Researchers say a combination of pollution and nature’s reaction
to it is contaminating fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports.
Natural wind patterns carry many pollutants across the Midwest
region, and some of that pollution is deposited in the Great Lakes basin…
including simple forms of mercury. But researchers are finding a more
complex and toxic form of mercury in fish called methyl mercury. Jim Hurley is a
water chemist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and
The University of Wisconsin.
“We think that there are certain characteristics of watersheds,
particularly those that have wetlands in them, there’s the right mix of
conditions to form methyl mercury.”
Hurley says bacteria may be transforming mercury. He’s found that
fish caught in Lake Superior near the shore or near where rivers flow
into the lake have higher amounts of methyl mercury in them than the
same types of fish caught in the middle of the lake. He’s launching a three year
study to see if the bacteria in the watersheds and wetlands are responsible
for the difference.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Congress is considering a proposal that would give the governors of the Great Lakes states more power to stop the withdrawal of water from the lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
Congress is considering a proposal that would give the Governors of the
Great Lakes States more power to stop the withdrawal of water from the
lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.
The US Senate last week approved a version of the Water Resources Act that
gives the Governors of Great Lakes states the expanded veto power. The
language strengthens a 1986 law. That law allows the governors to block
transfers of Great Lakes waters to other points in the US. Senator Spence
Abraham of Michigan sponsored the language that would add the oversight of
water exports.
“We think that will help to make sure that the Governors
basic veto strength they have extends even to the efforts of foreign
countries to purchase water.”
Abraham says there are rising concerns that other countries will attempt to
use World Trade Organization rules to force the sale of Great Lakes Water to
use in arid regions. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan
Ahl.
It’s fall and the bird thoroughfares that head south are crowded. In North America, migrating birds tend to cluster in what biologists call major flyways. There’s one along the east coast, another along the Rocky Mountains, and another along the Mississippi River. On this central route, hawks and eagles squeeze into a bottleneck at the western tip of the Great Lakes, and each fall thousands of them stream over a place called Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Julin has more:
Transcript
It’s fall and the bird thoroughfares that head south are crowded. In North
America, migrating birds tend to cluster in what biologists call four major
flyways. There’s one along each coast, another along the Rocky Mountains,
and another along the Mississippi River. On this central route, hawks and
eagles squeeze into a bottleneck at the western tip of the Great Lakes, and
each fall thousands of them stream over a place called Hawk Ridge in
Duluth, Minnesota. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Julin has
More.
(Sound of people shifting feet on a gravel road. One person says “Here
comes a low one.”)
It’s chilly for a September morning, and it’s a weekday, but about 20
people stand on a gravel road that skirts a ridge 800 feet above Lake
Superior. Below, a huge freighter steams out of the Duluth harbor in the
misty sunshine. Above, dozens of hawks seem to turn in unending circles.
For watching birds of prey…or raptors…this is one of the best spots on
the continent.
“Top five. It’s for sure in the top give in North America.”
Nia Palmersten is the naturalist at Hawk Ridge. She says some years,
between August and December 100-thousand raptors fly past this spot. Many
of the country’s most popular hawk watching posts are lucky to get
20-thousand birds in a season… that many raptors flew past Hawk Ridge
in one day this September.
These birds are flying south from Canada and Alaska on North America’s
central flyway. Hawks and eagles tend to avoid big stretches of open water,
so when they hit Lake Superior, they follow the shoreline, which funnels
them through Duluth, at the western tip of the lake.
“It’s an amazing spectacle.”
Pershing Hofslund is a retired ornithology professor from the University of
Minnesota in Duluth. He says many raptors like to soar to conserve energy,
so they congregate at Hawk Ridge to ride the updrafts bouncing off the
cliffs. They spiral high into the air, and then coast south…sometimes
making hundreds of miles in one day.
“I counted — laying on my back and looking up — counted 16-hundred
coming off of just one of these spirals.”
Hofslund is 83, and he’s watched birds at Hawk Ridge for 50 years. He says
he’s seen a big change in people’s attitude toward raptors.
“When I grew up, hawks were varmints. I knew my mother had a chicken
yard, and if we saw a hawk out there, we were afraid they were going to get
the young chickens. And you’d pick up a Field and Stream magazine, anything
like that, and they’d have articles on how to shoot them.”
People used to come to Hawk Ridge to shoot the birds for target practice,
but activists with the Duluth Bird Club put a stop to the shooting by 1950.
They also collected donations to buy land at the highest point on the ridge
and make it a nature preserve. Since then hawk numbers have mostly held
steady, or even increased for some species. These days on the ridge, people
hunt hawks with binoculars … and naturalist Nia Palmersten says they NEED
them. Thousands of hawks might fly past, but most of them are specks to the
naked eye.
“Binoculars are a must. And you learn. You have to scan all around
you at all times a watch for them to come. Sometimes they come low,
sometimes they’re up way high.”
And even if you do see a lot of birds it takes practice to know what you’re
looking at.
(Sound of “Did you see a merlin?)
Palmersten spends much of her day helping people identify what they’ve seen.
(sound re-establishes “not a very long tail, but somewhat of a tail, where
a sharp-shin’s going to have a very long rudder-like tail)
Palmersten also spends time keeping eager birders from pestering Hawk
Ridge’s official bird counter Frank Niccoletti. Niccoletti has to
concentrate. He’s counting swirling specks in the sky…making sure to
tally each of them just once…noting which distant dot is a broadwing
hawk…which one is a northern harrier. Frank Niccoletti says he can tell
if an eagle is an adult or a juvenile from three miles.
“You know you’re looking at a bird at a great distance, and you’re
watching it move. You’re not looking for field marks, but you’re looking at
the shape of the wings, you know how long is the tail proportioned to how
long the wings are, and that’s what you’re looking for.”
Niccoletti grimaces a little at the suggestion that he has an inborn knack
for identifying hawks. What he HAS, he says, is 20 years of intense practice.
“And it’s just an art. You know some people know how to write, you
know, or some people know how to play the piano. I identify hawks, and birds.”
Birders less eagle-eyed than Niccoletti can still enjoy the challenge of
identifying raptors. Kim Mills makes the five-hour drive from southern
Minnesota each fall to spend a few days on Hawk Ridge.
“You know every time I come up here I learn, and I learn more and I
learn more. I kind of listen to what other people are saying, and what
they’re seeing, and it’s intriguing. I love it.”
Amateurs come to Hawk Ridge to learn, but so do scientists. Researchers
catch and strap leg bands on thousands of hawks each fall. Biologists from
across the continent spend time here studying raptor populations trends,
diseases, and migration patterns.
By the end of September, most small hawks have passed through, but there
might be thousands more. Bigger raptors…red-tailed hawks and bald
eagles…will pass the ridge in their largest numbers during October.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chris Julin in Duluth.
