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In: Brandon Krumwiede, Collaborative Benthic Habitat Mapping in the Nearshore Waters of the Great Lakes, Great Lakes, Lake Superior, lidar, Lily Cartier, Michael Anderson, NOAA, River Talks, sonar, St. Louis River Estuary, underwater mapping

Brandon Krumwiede describes mapping projects during his River Talk. Image credit: Michael Anderson

By Lily Cartier, University of Minnesota Duluth

Knowledge of the oceans is more than a matter of curiosity, our very survival may hinge on it.

–President John F. Kennedy

While this inspiring quote is about the oceans, the same could be said about two waterbodies that we know and love locally: the St. Louis River and Lake Superior.

But how much do we really know about these waters? Brandon Krumwiede, a Great Lakes geospatial coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told listeners at the March River Talk held at the Lake Superior Estuarium in Superior that what lies at the bottom has largely been unknown and unmapped.

Krumwiede said that full-fledged mapping of the St. Louis River Estuary was not undertaken until 1943, driven by World War II and the importance of local ship-building and steel production.

“It was really important to map out the river and the estuary so that we had safe navigation, commerce could commence, and all the vessels that were being built in the Twin Ports could be shipped overseas,” Krumwiede said.

After that, estuary mapping efforts languished. Currently, there is not a comprehensive modern picture of the St. Louis River Estuary or the Great Lakes. It is difficult to know the health of the plants, animals and water in the area without knowing what lies below the surface. 

Along with an assortment of government and local agencies, NOAA gained funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2020 for a project called the Collaborative Benthic Habitat Mapping in the Nearshore Waters of the Great Lakes. The team uses benthic habitat mapping to measure the water levels in the Great Lakes. The goal is to map any part of the Great Lakes that has a depth of 80 meters or less. As of now, the project has mapped about 13% of the Great Lakes. 

This underwater mapping is done through two different methods. The first is called “sonar,” a process that uses sound waves to map the area. This uses small survey boats that move up and down the area that is mapped. The second is called “lidar,” which stands for light detection and ranging. This mapping technique uses green lasers on vessels or drones to map the substrate.

“At night, with a bathymetric lidar survey, you[‘ll] see this plane spinning around a green laser all over the beach. It looks like a UFO,” Krumwiede said.

Both types of underwater mapping come with pros and cons – the main one being the reliance on good weather while the data is taken. As you can imagine, lake conditions in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin are not often optimal for boats and small vessels. This study has a short season of about May to early November, at the latest. 

Krumwiede wished they would have prepared better for the warm weather we had this winter. “This season would have been amazing. We should have had survey boats here year-round because we were ice-free,” he said.

Why is mapping the river and Great Lakes vital? 

“It’s really important to think about, how do we ensure that we get the data that’s needed to make sure we make the right decisions and manage these natural resources into the future. For our generation and future generations down the road,” Krumwiede said.

The final River Talk for the season will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, at the Lake Superior Estuarium. Keith Okeson with the Lake Superior Chapter of Muskies Inc., will present, “Muskies and the St. Louis River.”

 

The post Underwater mapping expands knowledge spanning from the St. Louis River to the Great Lakes first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/underwater-mapping-expands-knowledge-spanning-from-the-st-louis-river-to-the-great-lakes/

Wisconsin Sea Grant

On:
In: Area of Concern, Art Fleming paintings, Coolerator Co., Jennifer Webb, Kom-on-Inn bar Duluth, Morgan Park, St. Louis River Estuary, St. Louis River Summit, U.S. Steel Co., University of Minnesota Duluth

One of the 21 images painted by Art Fleming that line the walls of the Kom-on-Inn in Duluth. This one depicts the U.S. Steel Plant, which has been torn down and is now a Superfund site that is being cleaned up. Note the St. Louis River in the background. The presence of the river emphasizes the role that water has played and continues to play in shaping the city of Duluth. Image credit: Jennifer Webb, University of Minnesota Duluth.

The smell of stale cigarette smoke is the first thing to strike as I walk into the Kom-on-Inn Bar not far from the St. Louis River. Even though indoor smoking in public places was banned 17 years ago in Duluth, Minnesota, the scent lingers here.

It’s 10:30 a.m.; several patrons sit under dim lights at the bar with their beers, chatting. But I’m not here to drink. I’m on a field trip that’s part of the St. Louis River Summit, an annual conference to share information about the largest U.S. tributary that enters Lake Superior on Wisconsin’s northwestern border, and site of the second-largest Area of Concern in the country.

Bars aren’t typical locations for conference field trips. However, this one in West Duluth was chosen for several good reasons. The old paintings that line its walls are one of them. The other reasons involve the bar’s importance to the community.

Art Historian Jennifer Webb describes the community significance of architectural portraits that hang in the Kom-on-Inn Bar in West Duluth, Minnesota. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

According to field trip host Jennifer Webb, an art historian and head of the Department of Art and Design at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), 21 paintings are displayed on the bar’s walls, with another 20 stored in the basement.

A resident of this area of Duluth, Webb has studied the artworks for several years and has written a scientific journal article about their significance. Created between 1950-51 by Western Duluth resident and sign painter Art Fleming, these architectural portraits depict local businesses where many of the bar patrons worked. There’s the U.S. Steel mill that made barbed wire and pig iron, the Coolerator Co. that made refrigerators and a coal-fired power plant. A blue strand of the St. Louis River flows through almost every image. The paintings’ varnish coating has yellowed with age and sealed in the cigarette smoke scent.

To Webb, the bar and the portraits epitomize the area. “As an outsider who didn’t grow up in a community like this, the first thing that I was struck by is how every neighborhood has a place, an anchor and an identity.” Bars like the Kom-on-Inn provided a place for workers to gather at the end of their shifts to “decompress from a very difficult and hard industrial life,” she said.

Many of the industries in the paintings closed only two decades after their depiction, leaving unemployment and pollution in their wakes. In Webb’s journal article she says the portraits are a “testament to the pride in place and the importance of the river and industries in the making and then breaking of the neighborhoods and the larger ecosystems of which they are a part.”

Webb suspects that Fleming painted the portraits from photographs since many similar scenes can be found in the photo archives at UMD. The artworks were commissioned by the original bar owners, the Crotty Family, and their preservation is a requirement each time the bar changes hands.

Webb divides us into small groups so that we can take a closer look. In front of one portrait of the river neighborhood of Morgan Park, comprised mainly of homes built by U.S. Steel Co. for their workers, Webb describes the experience she had interviewing people about this painting and their nostalgia for the way of life it depicts.

The Kom-on-Inn panel painted by Art Fleming, located inside the bar. Image credit: Jennifer Webb, University of Minnesota Duluth.

“People who grew up there, when they talk to me about it, they remember their childhood fondly. They had a perfect community. They never really needed to leave. The doctor was there, the dentist. They had a fire department and a hospital,” Webb said. Many of those services are no longer offered directly in Morgan Park.

Plans for remediating Areas of Concern stress the importance of placemaking, which is the process of using public input to create quality places where people will want to live, and broadening the definition of stakeholders. In her paper, Webb argues that such stakeholder groups should include local historians, archivists and art or architectural historians who can offer insights into the built and visual landscape. She also contends that the most successful community revitalization and placemaking work need not create new places but instead should focus on remaking places already formed and to which community members are attached.

“Duluth is so well situated to build walkable communities. We’ve got these anchors like the Kom-on-Inn that were already built as our communities strung themselves out along the waterways. I can’t wait to see where we’re going,” Webb said of restoration efforts.

I left with a new appreciation for this neighborhood where I went to high school, and a broader understanding of the connections between the St. Louis River, its recovery and some paintings in a neighborhood bar.

If you’d like to see the paintings and can’t travel to Duluth, watch this recent television news story about them.

The post A conference field trip to a bar links river and art to community first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/a-conference-field-trip-to-a-bar-links-river-and-art-to-community/

Marie Zhuikov

On:
In: Alexis Grinde, black ash trees, Cole Wilson, emerald ash borer, Natural Resources Research Institute, River Talks, St. Louis River Estuary

An ovenbird rests on a branch in the St. Louis River Estuary. Image credit: National Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve

On April 13, River Talks featured Alexis Grinde from the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute and Cole Wilson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Together, they presented “Black Ash and Birds: Conserving Critical Habitat in the St. Louis River Estuary.” This River Talk gave an in-depth look into the duo’s research and conservation efforts.

Grinde spoke first, highlighting her particular interest in black ash, a tree species abundant in Minnesota, and the organisms that interact with black ash. “At a global scale, we are in the midst of massive losses of biodiversity,” said Grinde. She explained that as we lose biodiversity in different ecosystems, those ecosystems begin to function differently, which in turn causes their resilience to decrease.

This decrease in biodiversity can be attributed to factors like habitat degradation and invasive species. A specific invasive species Grinde mentioned is the emerald ash borer, a wood-boring beetle that attacks native black ash trees. “Because this is an invasive species, all of our ash trees in North America have no defense against this emerald ash borer,” said Grinde, “If an emerald ash borer gets into a tree here in North America, it’s basically a 100% mortality rate.”

 Grinde warned of a bleak future for black ash trees. She noted that since 2002, the emerald ash borer has spread across North America and wiped out the majority of black ash trees. A method of minimizing this issue is to enact quarantines that prohibit the movement of trees or firewood into an area that is home to these trees. This would hopefully reduce the spread of invasive species like the emerald ash borer but has not been very successful thus far.

In Minnesota, where there are nearly 1 million acres of black ash forests, this issue is especially relevant. While emerald ash borers were first found in southern Minnesota, they are migrating north where the majority of the black ash forests are located. This could result in extreme consequences since black ash is a foundational species. This means it regulates ecosystem processes and isn’t easily replaced.

While the black ash population has a multitude of effects on neighboring species in its ecosystem, Wilson decided to delve into the impacts on breeding birds in the St. Louis River Estuary. Wilson focused on both species richness and abundance of birds in black ash forests, planning to use his data to determine the best mode of land management for the future.

“What we know is that the black ash are inevitably going to die off,” Wilson said, “What can we take from these studies to apply to future management and restoration efforts?”

Wilson used 10-minute point counts to characterize breeding bird communities. This means that he and his team occupied a certain space for 10 minutes at a time and recorded everything they observed and heard. In addition, they also recorded vegetation, black ash dominance, and canopy cover. The sites Wilson researched ranged from 50% black ash dominance to over 90% black ash dominance.

The results from the study asserted there is a positive correlation between the abundance of black ash trees in a given area and the total number of bird species observed. “Black ash are these really important species ecologically and they provide habitat for a wide range of birds,” said Wilson.

Looking forward, Wilson emphasized the importance of recognizing invasive species as a threat to black ash, as well as finding a new species suitable to replace them when they inevitably die out. However, black ash trees are not just important to ecosystem function, but also to Indigenous culture.

“It’s important that we include Indigenous knowledge into choosing a replacement species,” Wilson said. He mentioned that black ash trees have been a part of Ojibwe culture for many years.

All in all, supporting black ash communities and conductivity are essential for proper ecosystem function. Determining a viable replacement species for black ash is imperative for a variety of people and wildlife, and both Alexis Grinde and Cole Wilson’s work will help achieve these goals.

To watch a video of this presentation, visit the Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve’s YouTube site. The final River Talk of the season will feature a celebration of Wisconsin Sea Grant’s 50th anniversary and will be held May 11. For more information, visit the River Talks page: go.wisc.edu/4uz720.

 

The post A comprehensive look into the future of black ash and birds from a conservation perspective first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

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https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/a-comprehensive-look-into-the-future-of-black-ash-and-birds-from-a-conservation-perspective/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-comprehensive-look-into-the-future-of-black-ash-and-birds-from-a-conservation-perspective

Eva Ryan

On:
In: geese control and wild rice, River Talks, Sam Hansen, St. Louis River Estuary

The River Talk series is changing format for the final talk for this academic year. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, via Zoom, Sam Hansen, former undergraduate research fellow with the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, will present, “Deterring Geese on the St. Louis River to Protect Wild Rice.”

Northern wild rice, native to the St. Louis River, was once abundant. Today, it is threatened by high water levels and increased feeding pressure by Canada geese. Hansen will describe his project to determine if low-impact kayaking in wild rice bays could reduce the abundance of geese.

Registration is required to attend:

https://uwextension.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0od-ihqDIvEtQfz-vWF3bPtsPAIdk-ULYW

Registration will help keep the event safe and prevent unauthorized access. After registration, attendees will receive an e-mail with the link and a unique password to join the meeting. To attend a Zoom meeting, participants can access the meeting on the web and do not need to download the program to a personal device.

Hansen’s talk will be recorded and posted afterward on the Reserve’s Facebook page. A summary will also be posted on Wisconsin Sea Grant’s blog.

River Talks are sponsored by The Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Minnesota and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs.

For more information, visit go.wisc.edu/4uz720.

Original Article

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/deterring-geese-on-the-st-louis-river-to-protect-wild-rice/

Marie Zhuikov