‘Nature’ Features

It’s a crane crazy weekend here in the Midwest!  First, the International Crane Foundation kicks off their 2011 season today here in Baraboo. ICF will be open to the public from 9 am to 5 pm daily from now through October 31st.  Admission is $9.50 for adults. 6-17 yrs, $5.00. Members get in free and there are special rates for school groups. Click Here for more information.  Tomorrow, Saturday, April 16, 2011 the annual Midwest Crane Count runs from 5:30 am to 7:30 am CDT. Last year 176 cranes spotted around Sauk County and 156 the year before. If you’d still like to get in on this year’s count you should contact Sauk County’s Count Coordinator, Jane Franzen (The lady on all local American Family billboards..) at 608.356.8946 or by email at jfranzen@amfam.com. For other counties or other states in the Midwest you can find your local coordinator here.

*** Today’s photo was taken this morning at the Merrimac Preserve just south of Baraboo.

Fires broke out yesterday along the south bluff of Devil’s Lake State Park between 2-3pm.  Reports of up to 6 individual blazes on the south shore of the park had fire crews racing to the scene from around the area to assist. Driver’s along Highway 113 near the corners of County Rd DL and South Shore Road could see up to 4 columns of smoke rising from the bluffs. Although park maintenance crews were blocking driver access to the south shore day use areas, onlookers were gathering at the Roznos Meadow parking lot to watch the smoke rise in the distance. Over the course of the next 2 hours each individual column of smoke began to disappear one by one as fire crews did their work. All the while a spotter plane circled the scene from above. By 5:25pm Devil’s Lake reported all fires were out.  The initial cause of the fires seems to have been sparks created by a passing train igniting dry brush along the tracks. A fast response by local fire crews avoided a potential conflagration.

** On a personal note we had witnessed the first large plumes of smoke rise into the air as we were walking the trails of the Merrimac Preserve just to the east.  I made nothing of it as I had seen smoke in a similar location just the day before.  There are also many controlled burns in the area as part of prairie restoration projects. Smoke in the wilderness does not instantly scream out “emergency” here in the Baraboo hills.  Interestingly we watched the fires with mixed feelings. It was obvious how quickly these fires could have spun out of control among the still dry forests and prairie landscapes. It also came to mind that if there is were no property in the area there is something to be said for letting fires run their course.  The problem in this area and at this time of year, is that they could quickly get out of control. If not put out quickly the fires would have soon threatened homes and businesses in the area. Again, thankfully our fire crews did a fantastic job.  What’s more, rain has begun to fall in the area.

To See More Pictures From Yesterday’s Fires: Pop-Up Slideshow | Flickr Gallery

As the population in rural areas continue to decline, more land is becoming available for public use.  That’s a good thing for hikers, cyclists and other outdoor enthusiasts.  The sad part is that as the land opens up we are getting a grim view of how folks viewed the land they once owned.  Here in the Baraboo hills along the ice age trail, within Devil’s Lake State Park and elsewhere it’s easy to come across the remnants of past lives rusting away in otherwise pristine forests and valleys.  The photo above was taken on the Ice Age Trail just west of Hwy 113 south-east of Baraboo.  It’s hard to imagine that even now, some folks still feel no qualms about tossing everything they no longer use onto an old junk pile somewhere “out back” on their property.  Let’s face it, sooner or later.. someone WILL have to clean it all up. I imagine it’s a struggle for parks and environmental organizations who are pressed simply to maintain the trails to find ways to deal with our legacy of waste.  Do you carry it all out and pay for proper disposal?  Do you leave it as a message for future generations?   What are your thoughts?

Photo Gallery

We are building a new photo gallery featuring the remnants of past lives here in our local parks and natural areas.  To see more: Pop-Up Slideshow | Flickr Gallery

Here in the Baraboo hills we are blessed with an amazing amount of wildlife these days. This morning with nothing more than the swing of a camera I was able to catch 2 types of ducks, a canada goose & a pair of Sandhill cranes and 2 heron from the seat of my car all without moving an inch.  Amazing!  It was not all that long ago when cranes and other wildlife were not so abundant.  We’ve come a long way toward improving our environment in the last couple decades.  Occasionally we do manage to get things right.  To see today’s and other photos from the area visit our Facebook page or our Flickr.   Oh, and if you’re thinking our local events calendar looks a little sparse this time of year?  Well, spring IS the big event!  Come see!

The Baraboo river is nearing flood state near Rock Springs while area some area streams are are already escaping their banks.  The photo above was taken in Rock Springs yesterday afternoon where the river is expected to continue to rise before falling back below flood stage on early next week. The National Weather Service report this morning (March 22nd) states that a flood warning remains in effect for the Baraboo River at Rock Springs and in Baraboo as well. You can read the details here.   For more pictures of the current high water in Rock Springs, Around the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom and Seeley Creek click here.

• Image Gallery as Pop-up Slideshow

What would you do if you came across a suffering animal in the wild?  What if you saw a deer fall off of a cliff right before your eyes?  What if the athorities were either too busy or to calus to help?  Well, that’s exactly the situation we were faced with over the weekend at Ablemans’s Gorge State Natural Area in Rock Springs.   Read the story here.

Spring is springing here in the Baraboo Hills!  Temperatures in the 50s have been melting away the snow and opening up the water in the lakes and ponds around the area.   At Devil’s Lake State Park hundreds of small rivlets and water falls are carrying melt water down from the top of the bluffs and down into the lake below.  Here’s a short, raw video of the first real days of spring at the park.

Late February in Wisconsin is a time when cabin fever can be at its peak. Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin can offer a much needed break. More often than not, knowing spring is around the corner only makes the late winter chill that much more unbearable. ”Get outside” often comes across as adding insult to injury, rather than good advice. Well, when skiing and snowshoeing are no longer making the winter days feel any better, it’s time for a visit to the Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in state’s capitol. For those of us here in Baraboo, that’s just less than an hour’s drive away.

The Bolz Conservatory is a warm refuge of filled with green tropical plants & fragment flowers, free-flying birds, and even a relaxing waterfall all under a green forest canopy. Visitors can walk the winding paths, feed the koi from wooden bridges, or simply find an open bench to sit and take it all in, or read a favored book. The conservatory is housed under a 50 foot tall glass pyramid and is around 100 ft square at its base. Temperatures are maintained between 65 & 80 degrees year around. (Occasionally even warmer) A visit to the conservancy this time of year not only takes the chill out of your bones, but also soothes the soul.

The Bolz Conservatory is open Monday – Saturday from 10am to 4pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm. General Admission for non-members is only $1.00. Children 5 and under are free.

We’ve posted a few more pictures from the Bolz Conservatory right here. |Or choose the pop-up slideshow

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“I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”

If there is an issue with environmentalism today, its simply that it sometimes feels cliché, a self-righteous tweet, a way to sell gear, something perceived by the right as a cause-du jour of elitist, left-wing 60′s revivalists and Prius driving, tree huggers.  A cliché’ is easy to ignore after all. What’s worse is that “Green” has now become a marketing slogan.  And while increased awareness has it’s benefits, in the end all slogans go to a special hell reserved for the likes of Ray Jay Johnson and Urkle.  Conservation has become a brand that many simply won’t buy.  Aldo Leopold understood the foundation of this.  In fact, in his forward to the Sand County Almanac he wrote, “These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast..” THIS, is what turned me on to Aldo Leopold. He also wrote, “Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land.  We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity…” That was in 1948. Still, without understanding these concepts, one cannot possibly be prepared to work for the protection of our environment today. While I may have been won over to environmentalism by the “dying green fire”, I realize many of those around me view a wolf as nothing more than a valueless burden on production & threat to recreational hunting.  Again, I’m brought to something else Aldo Leopold had said,“It is hard to make a man, by pressure of law or money, do a thing which does not spring naturally from his own personal sense of right and wrong.” I often wonder if we spend too much time preaching to the converted, when the real challenge is working with those who have not developed the moral grounding that is paramount to preservation of our environment.

Luckily change is happening, if for no other reason than rampant abuse of the environment has become obviously less sustainable than it had seemed in the middle of the last century. Too many years of simply taking from the land has finally made conservation a necessary economic tool for even the most closed minded among us. It’s a sad human truth that sometimes it’s only in seeing the stark results of our abuses, by pushing things to the very limit, do we find ourselves forced  to chance course. Environmentalism today is not brought on by a good breakfast, but by too many years of taking that good breakfast for granted. While it must be said that we’ve come a long way since A Sand County Almanac was first published in 1949, it’s also obvious we still have a long way to go.

Green Fire Premiere

So with that little diatribe, I’m happy to announce Wisconsin’s premiere of Green Fire, the first full-length, high-definition documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, will be hosted here in Baraboo, WI., at the Al Ringling Theater on March 1st, 2011.  Green Fire highlights Leopold’s extraordinary career and traces  how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement.  Maybe most importantly the film helps us to re-acquaint ourselves with why we found ourselves caring about environmentalism in the first place.  The evening program will include an introduction by members of the film team, and a catered reception will follow the film. Doors open at 6:30pm.  To purchase tickets online or find information about presentation dates around Wisconsin and around the country just go here.  Tickets are also available at Community First Bank and at the Al. Ringling Theatre Ticket Office.  Tickets are $8.00 in advance and $10.00 at the door.

OR

You can score a couple free tickets to the Baraboo presentation of Green Fire slated for March 1, at the Al. Ringling Theatre.  Just click here and comment on our Facebook.  The winner will be announced on 2/24/2011 on the same FB post.

*Photo of Aldo Leopold copyright by the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Used by Permission.

Commentary – If you asked anyone close to the park system, they would tell you Wisconsin state parks are vastly underfunded today. It’s not surprising that parks are low on any governments priority scale of course. So how are they managing? Well, for one thing parks & national resource jobs draw in people who care about what they are doing. Often they put in a lot of personal time to get things done. In addition, some Wisconsin state parks are becoming  more and more dependent on their Friends groups. These non-profit, volunteer organizations have been taking over a growing amount of the work that the under staffed parks simply can’t manage. In some cases the Friends Orgs have even helped fund staffing. Many issues such as control of invasive plants within the parks are little more than quixotic tasks for the warriors of lost causes.  There’s not enough money or enough feet on the ground. This in part, is why what’s going on in Madison, Wisconsin right now is important to everyone who enjoys our natural areas. Even if we prefer to stay out of politics and keep to the woods. Read the rest of this entry »