August, and flowers are blooming all over. Asters and goldenrod are alive with activity as our pollinators do their job, busily visiting every flower. For me, one of the joys in life is discovering unsuspected diversity, and bumblebees are the latest source of this particular joy.
A bumblebee was a bumblebee for most of my life, but now, after attending several presentations on bumblebees, I can look at the flowers and find tricolored bumblebees, eastern bumblebees, and maybe even our elusive state rusty patch bumblebee. Mixed in with the bumblebees on the flowers are various kinds of solitary wasps, flower flies, hornets, sphinx moths, and ruby throated hummingbirds— an entire world of nectarivores living off nectar and doing us a great service by pollinating plants.
Also lurking about are other animals, such as crab spiders and birds, who are eating the insects doing the pollination. It is a complex system and the more we find out about it, the more interesting it becomes. Wildlife biologists on our forest are monitoring insect pollinator populations as other scientists work to discover how human activities impact these important parts of the world’s ecology.
Aldo Leopold wrote of ecosystems in Essays from Round River that “to keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering” and the more we learn, the more his advice rings true.
This August, so far, has flowers…but it also has had more than just a tinge of fall in the air. As our days shorten and our nights lengthen, bears have started preparations for winter by putting on weight. A fall bear will weigh about 30 percent more than a spring bear, and that fat comes from a lot of eating. While blueberries and ants are great, if you are a bear, garbage and human food is even better.
So please, when you are camping, do your part to keep our bears on the blueberry and ant diet. Don’t leave food or garbage unattended—always store it in a hard-sided vehicle and make sure your garbage ends up in the dumpster with the lid barred.
Forest roads are in good shape. There will be log hauling on the Gunflint District on the Lima Grade, South Brule Road, Cascade River Road, Pike Lake Road, Cook County 7, Cook County 6, and Forest Road 1319. Tofte hauling will be in the same areas of the Dumbbell River Road, Wanless Road, Lake County 705, the Four Mile Grade, the Grade, and Cook County 27 and 8.
Along the Gunflint Trail from the Brule River to the East Bearskin Road, we have had contractors doing fuels reduction work. This area of the Gunflint Trail has been rated as having a high potential for wildfires with possible high impacts. We are clearing out the small balsam fir, which could spread fire from the ground to the canopy of the trees. Once in the canopy, a crown fire in windy conditions can spread quickly, sending out embers up to a half-mile away. These fires are very difficult to suppress with any of the firefighting tools we have.
To reduce the chances of crown fires, small balsam are being cut along road corridors and near private property. This will give firefighters and the public routes for safe access and egress in case of a fire, as well as minimizing potential fire impacts to nearby infrastructure, and creating an area from which firefighters can work. The balsam clearing is a long term project and will be happening as weather permits for the next three to five years.
Whether you are going for a long trip up the Gunflint and looking at the big picture of fire ecology, or you are just going out into your yard and looking at the ecology of the pollinators in the goldenrod, there’s a lot to learn and enjoy about our forest. Either way, have a great August!
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