Wisconsin Master Naturalist Program starting in April

Do you want to increase your knowledge of the local environment, work alongside the areas most respected natural resource professionals and put your knowledge to good use?  The Discovery Center is excited to announce a Wisconsin Master Naturalist Volunteer Training Course as part of the Wisconsin Master Naturalist Program (WIMN) starting April 21.  WIMN is modeled after the WI Master Gardener Program and the 25 other Master Naturalist programs in other states across the country.

Courses provide 40 hours of instruction and field experience in natural history, interpretation, and conservation stewardship, and are led by Discovery Center staff and other professional natural resources educators and scientists. 

Monday, April 21 from 9am-3:30pm

Wisconsin Ecology – Fitting the Pieces Together

Led by Heather Lumpkin, Research and Monitoring Coordinator from the Discovery Center

In the Footprint of the Glaciers: Wisconsin Landscapes

Led by Tom Fitz, Geology Professor from Northland College

Monday, April 28 from 9am-3:30pm

Wisconsin’s Plant Communities

Led by Colleen Matula, Forestry Specialist from Wisconsin DNR

Wisconsin’s Wildlife – From Hummingbirds to Black Bears

Led by Mark Naniot, Wildlife Rehabilitator from Wild Instincts Rehabilitation Center

Saturday, May 3 from 8:30am-4:30pm

All Day Field Trip #1 – Visit the Van Vliet Hemlocks and the WinMan Trails with two excellent interpretive guides and focus on geology, ecology, plants, and wildlife.

Licia Johnson, Naturalist from the Discovery Center

Randy Hoffman, (former) Wildlife Biologist from the Wisconsin DNR

Monday, May 5 from 9am-3:30pm

Communicating Your Message – Generating Excitement

Led by Licia Johnson, Naturalist from the Discovery Center

The Waters and Wetlands of Wisconsin

Led by Susan Knight, Research Scientist and Aquatic Biologist from Wisconsin DNR

Monday, May 12 from 9am-3:30pm

Plants and Animals of Wisconsin’s Waters

Led by Sarah Johnson, Director from the Discovery Center and Anne Kretschmann, Water Specialist/AIS Coordinator from the Discovery Center

Human Impacts on Wisconsin Landscapes

Led by Jim Bokern, Historian/Educator

Monday, May 19 from 8:30am-4:30pm

All Day Field Trip #2 – Paddle the Manitowish River and visit treasured wetlands in our region three excellent interpretive guides and focus on water, wetlands, and aquatic plants and animals.

Licia Johnson, Naturalist from the Discovery Center

Susan Knight, Research Scientist and Aquatic Biologist from Wisconsin DNR

A major component of the course is a service-learning activity called a Capstone Project. Volunteer Master Naturalists work in groups on an education/interpretation, stewardship, or citizen-science project. The project is presented at the graduation ceremony on Thursday, May 29 from 10am-12pm. Once certified, WI Master Naturalist Volunteers volunteer 40 hours each year thereafter at centers like the North Lakeland Discovery Center, and take eight hours of advanced training to maintain their certification.  This is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to increase their knowledge of the natural world and pair it with fun and exciting educational opportunities.  Space is limited for the training session, so we encourage you to sign up now to reserve your spot. 

For more information or to register for the Discovery Center WIMN Volunteer Training Click Here. 

A Brownie Girl Scout Journey at the Discovery Center: Learning to Appreciate and Conserve Water Resources

By Heather Lumpkin, Research and Monitoring Coordinator

In Vilas County we are blessed by abundant water resources that shape our recreation, economy, and culture.  The Discovery Center’s goal is to inspire an ethic of care for Wisconsin’s Northwoods, and what better way to accomplish this than by helping young girls develop a personal connection to the area’s water resources and empowering them to make a difference in caring for and protecting these resources?  The second and third grade Brownie Girl Scouts of troops 7309 and 7302 have been meeting monthly at the Discovery Center to work on their WOW (Wonders of Water) leadership journey which is a part of the Girl Scout’s “It’s Your Planet – Love It” journey series.  Each month the girls have been finding new ways to engage their minds and hearts as they explore the wonders of water.   What they learn, and the awe that this new knowledge inspires, will be a springboard that they can use to care for this precious resource now and throughout their lives. 

 

In October girls discovered that water can be an exciting method of transportation.  The girls practiced their strokes on land and then headed out for a canoe tour of Statehouse Lake.  It didn’t take long for them to realize that without teamwork, they weren’t going to get anywhere!

In November the girls visited the critters in the nature nook, learning about aquatic turtles, frogs, and fish.  The Discovery Center’s water specialist and aquatic invasive species coordinator, Anne Kretschmann, introduced the girls to some of the alien invaders that can cause problems in our lakes and rivers.  They girls especially enjoyed checking out the live Rusty Crayfish.  Then they took some time to meet some of the smaller critters that inhabit our waters.  To do this they sifted through muck from the bottom of the lake in search of the tiny macroinvertebrates that live there like dragonfly, caddis fly, and may fly larvae. 

In December girls played a game where they became one molecule of water, traveling around the room collecting colored beads that represented the different places they found themselves in as a water molecule (a lake, inside an animal, in a cloud, and even frozen in a glacier!).  At the end of the game the girls had some beautiful beaded bracelets that told the story of their water drop’s journey.  The girls were surprised to learn how complex the water cycle really is. The girls also made personal goals for saving water by doing things like taking a shorter shower. 

In January the girls reported on how they were doing with their personal pledges to save water.  They realized that their efforts alone might not seem like much, but together they can have a big impact.  They began planning their troop project for saving water and decided to spread the word about water conservation at drinking fountains around their schools and community buildings.  Then the girls made goals for cookie sales and played a fun game where they ate a cookie off a string while blindfolded.  

In February the girls continued planning their troop project of spreading the word about water conservation at drinking fountains.  Then they went on a snowshoe hike around the Discovery Center grounds, learning how increasing the area of their feet with snowshoes can spread out their weight and help them stay up in the deep fluffy snow just like the snowshoe hares do.  The girls had a great time looking at the tracks and other animal sign along the way.  After the snowshoe hike they all crowded into the quinzhee (a snow mound that has been hollowed out into a shelter) and experienced firsthand the insulating properties of snow.

Tracking Critters at the WinMan Trails

With frigid temperature not uncommon these past several weeks in the Northwoods, it’s been a struggle to get out and enjoy all this beautiful snow!  Throughout the winter the Discovery Center is offering guided snowshoe hikes at the new WinMan Trails (www.WinManTrails.com).  On a recent interpretive snowshoe on the trails, participants found plenty of sign of critters out and about in the milder (12 degree!) temps.  It can be hard to come across wildlife in the forest, as they hear us they quickly hide themselves.  However, winter allows us to easily see what was once there, no critter needed.  Looking for animal tracks, scat and other sign is one of the most enjoyable winter activities in my opinion.  Enjoy some of the sights we came across on our trek, and if you are interested in learning more about the sign animals leave behind, join me Monday, February 17^th from 12-1 at the Winchester Public Library as we discuss and explore that very topic.

The first animal sign we came across were these snowshoe hare tracks.  The snow consistency was just right, and you can actually see the toes in the snow.  Snowshoe hare have extremely large and furry feet to keep them above the snow, a great adaptation to survive our Northwoods winters, along with their fur growing in white in late fall as the days get shorter.  Hare are considered hoppers, and as their smaller front feet land on the ground, their larger back feet swing around and land in front.  In this picture, the snowshoe hare was heading up the shot and away from us.

This human-made  sign we came across on the ski trails.  Someone had been out enjoying the WinMan trails with a fat tire bike!  If you haven’t yet tried it, I highly recommend it, it’s really fun!  These trails are meant to be enjoyed by everyone!

Halfway around the trail, we started to see trees that looked like this.  Immediately we knew a porcupine was in the area.  Upon closer inspection you could see the chew marks up and down smaller deciduous trees and also in the red pine in the old plantation.  However, we didn’t see any fresh tracks in that area.  We continued on…

Ah ha!  a fresh trail!  Porcupine are sometimes called the ‘snowplows of the forest.’  They have big, boxy bodies, short legs and when they walk through the snow, they literally plow through it, leaving a trough looking structure behind.  If you look close you can actually see the foot tracks in the trough.  Upon closer inspection, we found long hairs along the trail and drag marks from quills on the side of the trough.  Of course, scat was also found J  

We decided to wander off trail a bit to see if we could find the critter.  We knew it had to have been out that morning, as we had just a little dusting of snow the night before covering up the trails.  In about a minute we came up to a pile of brush with an opening, and the trail led right into it.  Wanting to respect the animal and its space, we didn’t get too close, but we were able to see the porcupine inside the den!  All we could see were quills poking out, then it heard us and went deeper inside.  What a neat find!

Overall, it was a very successful day of interpretation, discovery and recreation.  The WinMan Trails offer miles of groomed and ungroomed snowshoe trails, beautiful terrain, and many things to discover!  Enjoy the WinMan Trails a different way by joining us February for the WinMan Windigo Snowshoe Stomp 5K, 10K and 1K kids snowshoe race!  For more information please visit www.WinManTrails.com.  See you on the trails!

by Licia Johnson, Naturalist

Great Lakes Water Levels in Unusual Decline

Data collected by citizen scientists on small inland lakes was incorporated by researchers at the Trout Lake Research Station into a recent scientific article published by the American Geophysical Union (Geophysical Research Letters). Researchers report that water levels in lakes across the Great Lakes Region, including those within the North Lakeland Discovery Center’s lake level monitoring program, have a historical up and down oscillation of approximately 13 years. This pattern is controlled by precipitation and evaporation which are connected to large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns originating in the mid-latitude North Pacific that support moisture coming into the region from the Gulf of Mexico. In 1998, a downward trend in lake levels began, indicating a change in the historic 13-year pattern which may signal a new hydro-climatic regime.

Anne Kretschmann and Al Drum from the Discovery Center's
monitoring Program putting in a monitoring gauge

For more information on the Great Lakes water levels article follow the links below:

LIVESCIENCE

YAHOO

WPR

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