The woods have transitioned from the light greens of emerging leaves to full out summer green in most areas, but there is still some sun making its way through the canopy to the forest floor. This is the best time to go for a walk and look for wildflowers.
Many of the forest’s wildflowers are in a group known as spring ephemerals. These are plants that take advantage of the sun before the trees come into full leaf. They sprout while there is still snow in some places, leaf out in the spring sun, and flower – then melt away again in the shade, only to reappear next spring.
The roots of the plant survive from year to year, and while we might think of the leafy green part as being “the plant,” for these wildflowers, it is the root that matters. Solomon seal is a wildflower related to the more locally common twisted stalk whose age can be determined by counting annual scars left on the root by the stem of the plant. By counting scars, people discovered that these small wildflowers could actually be older than the trees in the forest above.
Many other wildflowers are similar with roots that can be decades old. Wildflowers are tough too: the buried roots can survive wildfires that might kill standing trees and survive through droughts and floods. Right now though, the above-ground part of the plant is visible and a lot of them are in bloom. Clintonia, Canada mayflower, wood anemone, starflower, twin flower, and others are all blooming, but probably the most spectacular are two of our local orchids: the pink and yellow moccasin flowers.
These orchids may take 10 years of growth before blooming, and are very sensitive to where they are located. While it can be tempting, it is not legal to dig wildflowers up to bring home, and it would be useless as the plant would most likely die. Enjoy them, take pictures, but leave all wildflowers where you find them.
If you want to learn more, our naturalist programs, cooperatively sponsored with Visit Cook County, feature a wildflower hike at 10 a.m. every Saturday morning at Cascade Lodge. Join us for a hike on their Wildflower Trail, or at any one of the other campfire and other programs at participating resorts and locations throughout the summer. Visit the Superior’s website, or Visit Cook County for the complete schedule.
Wildflowers aren’t the only thing that appears in the early summer. Now that the roads are dried out and firm, the log hauling has really started in earnest. On the Tofte District, expect truck use on the Trappers Lake Road, Perent Lake Road, The Grade, Cook County 27, and Cook County 8. Hauling on the Gunflint District will be happening on the Lima Grade, South Brule Road, Greenwood Road, Firebox Road, Blueberry Road, Cascade River Road, Pike Lake Road, and Cook County 7.
On June 28, it won’t only be trucks on the road. Next Friday is the annual Lutsen 99er mountain bike races. There will be plenty of bikers out on the road system, so take extra precautions and look for posted signs along bike routes. It is also a fun event to watch, so look for the bikers as well.
Finally, a word about garbage. Dumpsters at campgrounds are not for general public use; they are there for the use of campers only. Please do not dump household waste in campground dumpsters.
Also, do not dump household waste in the dumpsters and garbage cans at our district offices. It is great that more and more people are doing a wonderful job of packing out garbage from trips into the Boundary Waters, but we are not equipped to take everyone’s garbage bags from every wilderness trip. In most cases, you will have to pack your garbage all the way home and dispose of it there. And, although driving home with a bag of garbage in the car isn’t a lot of fun, you can look on the bright side and consider it an incentive to create less waste.
So, watch for wildflowers and bikers, and get out and enjoy the forest this week!
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