If you go out in the woods this week, take the time to stop and be still. Water trickling somewhere, a breeze through the new leaves, insects buzzing, and the song of birds everywhere. The forest has now woken fully from the winter and instead of the hushed silence of snow or the quiet of early spring, it is full of the sound of life.
This is the time of year when a walk in the forest may find you looking at a newborn fawn, or watching a warbler create a nest, or slapping futilely at a swarm of black flies. Life is abundant right now, even those forms of life we’d prefer were a bit less abundant.
It’s all tied together though. The black flies need clear, non-polluted running water in which to lay their eggs – up to 500 from a single female. The eggs hatch, and the larvae develop into adults in only five days. The resultant burst of insect life is exactly why that nesting warbler migrated thousands of miles.
While Minnesota may be a desert in winter, in summer it is an insect eater’s smorgasbord. Warbler parents will feed their hungry chicks thousands of insects over the next month, fueling the chicks’ growth and eventual flight. Food is the reason to have a fawn in the spring as well. Fawns may be living off mom’s milk, but mom has to eat a lot of greenery to keep the milk supply going. Life as a fawn isn’t safe though.
Scat studies done in northern Minnesota have shown that this is the only time that black bears eat a lot of meat; in the early summer, fawns make up two percent of a bear’s food supply. You are in the food chain too. Remember that black fly laying 500 eggs? To be able to do that, female black flies have to have a blood meal, and you are the source of that blood.
It is a tangled web in the forest, and in the early summer, more than any other time of year, we can tell that we are a part of it. Windows can be open – we aren’t isolated by air conditioners or furnaces. We can eat fiddleheads, walleyes, and morels, and we are in turn eaten by black flies and mosquitoes. There’s a sense of connectivity that is powerful right now, and while we are always connected to the woods, in early summer that connection is a solid five bars strong.
When you do go out this next week, and we hope you will, be aware that some timber hauling operations have resumed. Hauling will be starting on the Trappers Lake Road by Sawbill Landing, and on the Greenwood Road and Blueberry Road. Harvest operations will be beginning off of Cascade River Road.
We’ve had some hotshot fire crews in town to help with our prescribed fires this spring. There are still a few fires we’d like to be able to conduct, so keep an eye on our website, Facebook, and Twitter feed where prescribed fires will be announced. Try to avoid going into areas near prescribed burns, and follow posted closures and restrictions.
We also have crews in to help with tree planting. Most of these fire and planting crews are not from this area, so be sure to say hi in the grocery stores and help these guests feel welcome during their stay.
Enjoy the early summer, slap some bugs, and remember that you fit in the food chain too.
Leave a Reply