At one time, the forest lands of northern Michigan and the rest of the Upper Midwest were cutover scrublands.  The initial stage of logging left the land scarred, prone to massive fire and pretty much devoid of use.  But forest planners successfully implemented a long-term project that reforested the region.  The return of bear, moose, elk and wolves to the region are testament to this success.

One challenge, however, is that many of these reforested areas are nearing the end of their natural lifespan.  And the species that populate these forests are, for the most part, not original or even sustainable over the long term.  So scientists have been studying what will happen as these forests transition into their next stage of life.  The Columbus Dispatch has a recommended article on this topic:

New research on evolving Midwest forests underscores the role that trees play in trapping carbon dioxide and how fragile this storage system is.

A team of biologists and foresters at Ohio State University, Indiana University and the University of Michigan say the aspen and birch that dominate forests of the northern Midwest are reaching the end of their lifespan.

But the researchers predict that the white pine, red oak and red maple trees growing in the forest understory and poised to take over will absorb even more carbon dioxide, the main ingredient in global warming.

“The forest will be more diverse and the canopy more complex, with a leaf distribution that can process light more efficiently,” said Peter Curtis, chairman of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State.

Curtis and his colleagues base the prediction on nearly 10 years of work at the University of Michigan Biological Station, near Pellston, Mich. The scientists recently described their findings in the journal BioScience.

Full story:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2008/09/30/sci_forest_carbon.ART_ART_09-30-08_B4_C4BE3AO.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

In recent years, the Bush Administration removed wolves in the Great Lakes region from the endangered species list.  State officials in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan planned to allow farmers to kill problem wolves.  A federal judge, however, delayed these changes and returned the wolf to the endangered list.  Links:

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/516300.html

http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9092283

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080930/METRO/809300374/1409/METRO

http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/516301.html

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080930/NEWS01/809300327/1001/NEWS

When I visit my brother in Seattle, I am always curious about the houseboats that line sections of the northwest city’s waterways.  While these kinds of communities might be common in Seattle or Florida, the only place that I have seen a floating neighborhood on Lake Erie is at Erie, PA’s Presque Isle Park.

But that might change if a report in the Toledo Blade comes to fruition.  Port Clinton is considering whether to allow a gated houseboat community.  Excerpt and link:

Mr. Vandergiessen said they are equipped with city water and sewer lines as well as an electric utility system.

They are tethered to the lake bed by several dense, metal poles that are anchored about 25 feet in the ground, and as the water rises and falls, so do the houses.

But when standing in one of the homes it is hard to tell that it is floating.

“On an extreme day with high winds, you’ll feel it tug a little bit,” said Ron Wolf, sales manager for Coastal Marine II and Coastal Floating Homes. “On a day like today [Friday], you can see the water moving a little bit, but we don’t have wave action out here and it’s just like standing on the black top.”

Mr. Wolf said the homes aren’t affected by floods because they float and are tethered to the lake bed.

They also are equipped with a “bubbler system,” for winter months to keep the water under and around the houses from freezing when the rest of the lake does.

“It circulates the warmer water under the home and around the home,” Mr. Wolf said. “You’ll still see surface ice around the edges of the home, but what we’re trying to prevent is getting the hard ice, the thick ice to freeze … although it won’t hurt the foundation.”

Full story:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080929/NEWS17/809290323/-1/RSS08

The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports that a second horse in Jackson County has been attacked by some mysterious predator.  Excerpt and link:

A registered paint mare, 4-year-old Rags, was injured Tuesday morning in its pasture on Peacock Road south of Leslie. The horse had more than two dozen scratches on its hide but no wounds deep enough to require stitches.

“I’m not saying it was a cougar, but something got my horse,” Danielle Ford said Friday morning as she fed Rags, one of seven horses on the farm.

The horse was wounded between 7 and 9 a.m., after Ford’s daughters fed the horses. Rags shares her small paddock with a smaller mare.

“When I went outside, the two horses stood in the corner in shock,” she said.

A state Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist and Patrick Rusz of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy examined the horse. Its wounds were treated by Dr. Robert Sray.

Sray and Rusz said Friday they could not determine what caused the marks on Rags.

“I am assuming some sort of animal jumped on her,” Sray said.

The DNR had not issued its opinion on the injuries to Rags. DNR experts earlier this week said a horse earlier injured on Henry Road, seven miles west of Ford’s farm, was not attacked by a cougar.

Rusz disagreed. “That was a cougar attack,” he said.

Full story:

http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-26/122190511774700.xml&coll=3

MyNorth.com, the internet arm of Traverse Magazine, has a nice overview of Fall color cruising on NW Lower Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula:

A lovely,  languid drive along Old Mission Peninsula—the hilly green finger of land that divides the east and west sides of Grand Traverse Bay—is the perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Full story:

http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/September-2008/Cruise-Old-Mission/

One of the delightful aspects of this blog is the fact that it gives me the chance to peel back some of the layers of amazement to be found in the unremarkable-by-reputation Midwest.  The latest example of this comes from Illinois.  Apparently, the state’s coal mines have begun to reveal gigantic fossilized rainforests that have been preserved underground.  BBC excerpts:

The ancient vegetation - now turned to rock - is visible in the ceilings of mines covering thousands of hectares.

These were among the first forests to evolve on the planet, Dr Howard Falcon-Lang told the British Association Science Festival in Liverpool.

“These are the largest fossil forests found anywhere in the world at any point in geological time,” he told reporters.

“It is quite extraordinary to find a fossil landscape preserved over such a vast area; and we are talking about an area the size of (the British city of) Bristol.”

The forests grew just a few million years apart some 300 million years ago; and are now stacked one on top of another.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7604721.stm

Note: Thanks to Greens Blog for inspiring this post:

http://statelineobserver.com/component/option,com_mojo/Itemid,90/p,3425/

Kim Schneider at mlive has an interesting outdoors travel idea: paddle with the salmon runs in West Michigan.  Excerpt and link:

Warning: You risk irritating a few fisherpeople with my newly discovered favorite early fall outing. But the entertainment value of kayaking amid the giant salmon migrating up Michigan rivers outweighs a few nasty thoughts channeled your way. And it’s not like you actually scare away the hordes of fish teeming around you.

My friend Shelly and I paddled a short stretch of the Boardman River in Traverse City this past weekend, putting in behind the city’s new Warehouse District (just behind the fish weir and ladder) and floating downstream into Grand Traverse Bay. You can rent canoes and kayaks there for paddling the urban stretch of the Boardman. And you get a bit of a “swim with the sharks” experience, at least for the next couple of weeks, when you see the dozens of tail fins sticking up, and fish leaping around you.

Full story:

http://blog.mlive.com/traveling_coach/2008/09/swim_with_the_salmon.html

Note: There is an excellent video on youtube of a family canoeing the salmon run on the Platte River a week or two ago.  It is located at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pw-0ml-diI

The Monroe Evening News reports that a federal bill with implications for the proposed River Raisin Battlefield National Park is moving forward in Congress.  Excerpts and link:

Legislation that would set up a grant program to acquire battlefields and other sites associated with the War of 1812 and Revolutionary War has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and now awaits Senate action.

It’s expected the legislation would increase the chances that the War of 1812 River Raisin Battlefield site in Monroe would be developed further into a historic park.

Full story:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080930/NEWS01/109309988/-1/NEWS_RSS

The Dayton Daily News reports that a small, 2.8 richter scale earthquake hit in the Dayton area Monday night.  The earthquake apparently caused a loud “Boom” sound.  Excerpt and link:

Three miles underground just north of Lake Loramie in Shelby County, some rocks did a little horizontal slide over the Anna-Champaign fault, and the earth danced a little jig for miles around Monday evening, Sept. 29, said Michael Hansen, coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network.

Bob Blake and his wife were in different rooms of their New Bremen home watching television at 9:06 p.m. when they felt the rumble and heard a loud bang.

“We immediately thought of a tree in our backyard that was damaged by the windstorm and thought it might have fallen over on the house,” Blake said.

Full story:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/09/30/ddn093008quakeweb.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=16

Country Girl started a thread on monroetalks about the dangers of biking in Monroe.  Read and participate at the link below:

http://monroetalks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9725.0