Superior

Watch: How tree rings and community conversations are bringing fire back

On: May 1, 2025

In: burn, dendrochronology, Duluth, Evan Larson, fire, indigenous, Melonee Montano, Minnesota Point, pine, prescribed burning, scar, sea grant funded, Superior, TEK, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Wisconsin Point, wood

Research into centuries-old fire-scarred trees in northern Wisconsin is helping shape current fire management practices for tribal and state partners. The project, We are all gathering around the fire, or Nimaawanji’idimin giiwitaashkodeng in Anishinaabemowin, combines dendrochronology, Native Experiential Knowledge (NEK), and community engagement to uncover the intertwined ecological and cultural history of this Lake Superior coastal landscape.

The two-year Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded project, featured in a new video, confirmed something long known in Indigenous communities but rarely acknowledged in scientific literature: the beloved red pine forests on Wisconsin and Minnesota Points were not shaped by nature alone, but by people who used fire to care for the landscape. Red pine struggles to produce new generations without fire.

Aerial photo of Wisconsin and Minnesota Point, two peninsulas in Lake Superior.

Wisconsin and Minnesota Points are Lake Superior coastal peninsulas off the shores of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin.

Evan Larson uses a belt sander in his workshop.

Dendrochronologist and Professor Evan Larson sands a wood sample to get it ready for the microscope.

The exclusion of Indigenous perspectives and burning practices in the forest management has led to reduced ecosystem resiliency, biodiversity, and a drop in the pine tree population. In order to prove that people, and not natural phenomena like lightning, set fires to the landscape, the team looked for centuries-old fire scars from tree samples collected on the Points. The data confirm what the team expected.

“The fires on both Points ceased abruptly after the signing of the 1842 and 1854 treaties,” said Evan Larson, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. “It is undeniable that the reason that we love the Points and protected the pine forest is because of the fires that people were setting,” Larson said. “That act of ‘protecting’ – moving people out of that space – is literally dooming the things that we’re hoping to protect.”

After two years of research, engagement, and outreach, the team has shown the importance of fire and NEK to Wisconsin and Minnesota Points. This has allowed them to take important steps to return cultural fire to the landscape.

Melonee Montano, project leader and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Forestry Department graduate student, talks about the deep significance that Wisconsin and Minnesota Points hold to the Anishinaabe people.

Fire helps red pines, like the ones pictured here on Wisconsin Point, regenerate.

“One thing that has made this research extremely successful is the funding from Wisconsin Sea Grant, because that’s been our starting point for all of this,” says project and tribal leader Melonee Montano. Throughout the project, Larson, Montano, and their students talked to local residents about the history of fire and the possibility of returning it. “The funding made it possible for us to go out and actually build these relationships on the ground, in people’s homes, at their kitchen tables, and at the city meetings.”

Larson and Montano have been surprised by the amount of support they’ve gotten from the community. “Through this work, we’re seeing, in ways that I can’t put into words, that it’s time for fire to come back,” says Montano. The city of Superior is now in advanced discussions with fire experts from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa about burning practices on Wisconsin Point.

“A lot of this really has only been possible because of this grant, which is really weird for my mind to process,” reflects Montano. “It’s strange to think that it took a grant – a piece of paper, some money – to bring these folks together to actually start tearing down through the layers of trauma to figure out what is at the base and what really happened.”

While the Sea Grant funding has come to a close, the team continues their work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. They will be broadening their research to encompass the whole Great Lakes region.

Watch the video here.

The post Watch: How tree rings and community conversations are bringing fire back first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

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https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/watch-how-tree-rings-and-community-conversations-are-bringing-fire-back/

Bonnie Willison

A long-awaited tour of the SS Meteor

On: May 25, 2022

In: Alexander McDougall, Barker's Island, Great Lakes maritime history, SS Meteor, Superior, whaleback ship

The SS Meteor (taken in 2012). Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

A momentous event happened last week in Superior, Wisconsin. After 10 years of working in Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Lake Superior Field Office next to the SS Meteor – the last remaining whaleback ship in the world – I finally took a tour of it.

I’d written about the ship before in a story about maritime history geocaching – the ship is one of the stops in a Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded outreach project designed to highlight the history of the state’s shipping industry. And, I’d walked around the outside of it plenty on my daily roams around Barker’s Island, but I’d never been inside before. A tour was one thing I mentally wrote down on my Barker’s Island Bucket List. I meant to get around to it, but never did.

Tour participants walk on top of the ship among the vents. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

The free visit was arranged by my office partners, the National Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve, to train volunteers who work at their interpretive center during the summer. They had room, so invited their officemates (like me), along.

We met inside the ship in the gift shop for a short orientation, then went back outside and up a ramp where we were able to wander among the tall vents that brought air into the ship while keeping sea spray out. Along the way, our tour guide explained that the ship was built locally by Captain Alexander McDougall. Whalebacks were a new innovation in ship design back in the late 1800s, known for their cigar-shaped steel hulls that rode low in the water when loaded with cargo. Waves just washed over them, and the water was easily shed, unlike with typical ships. The Meteor carried a variety of cargoes over the years, including iron ore, grain, gravel, cars and oil.

After climbing a stairway, we went inside, taking a peek into the pilot house and then descending a short stairway to the living quarters. The officers’ quarters were closer to the bow of the ship, while the lowly seamen slept near the rear of the ship, above the noisy engine. The captain had his own spacious office and private bathroom.

The pilothouse. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

The kitchen and dining rooms were on the deck below the bedrooms. The crew and officers had separate dining rooms. Timeliness of dining must have been an issue, since there were signs in both rooms proclaiming strict serving hours. Another historic placard described steps to take in event of an atomic bomb attack.

Below the dining deck were the engine room and storage areas. The ship’s last load must have been oil, since the smell of petroleum was strong as we walked through, and we could see pools of oil seeping up from sand used to cover it.

The Meteor was built in 1896 and ended her shipping career in 1969 when she ran aground on a shoal off Marquette, Michigan. Because of severe damage to the hull, the shipping company chose not to repair her. Recognizing the ship’s historic importance, the Meteor was purchased, repaired, and began use as a museum ship in 1971.

Our tour ended with a stroll through historical displays that provided more information about McDougall and the ship. The excursion was better than I’d imagined, sitting so close to the attraction for all these years.

If you’re ever in Superior, consider taking a tour of this fascinating piece of maritime history.

Now all that’s left for me to do on my Barker’s Island Bucket List is to take advantage of the mini golf course that’s between my office and the ship!

The SS Meteor and Mini Golf Course on Barker’s Island in Superior. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant

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Marie Zhuikov