LAKETRAILS WORK PROJECTS AT LAKETRAILS 2009
REPORT FROM ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
May 12: Wade moved in and began working on water system.
May 14: Lois J.and Jack C.arrived. The lake was very high at Young’s Bay, but as Lois noticed on the web, the lake level at 5:00 PM was 1063.82, and by 9:00 PM at 1059.55—that’s a four- foot drop in four hours!! We like the 1059 reading here at camp.
How about our Oak Point Islet? Well, the grass was just starting to grow so at least we did not need to take time to mow. Lois and I took a quick tour around the place, and as usual the angry and pissed-off three pairs of geese grudgingly moved off the east side of the islet honking off some insults over their backs at us as they retreated. The local mice had left their traditional welcome markings in all our buildings—tons of little black turds and a couple dead furry corpses in various containers. In fact, here is a scat report: plenty of bear dump, fresh green goose goop, otter poop, and a number of mystery droppings. We are fertilized. No buds on any trees, some on a few bushes, no dandelions, and the Dutchman’s britches are just barely beginning to bloom. We found a big load of pine cones under the white pines by the Lodge, two pelican skeletons on separate parts of the islet, severe deer browse on the pine and cedar this winter, sun-scald on blue spruce in front of Noesens, and the Wheelhouse tilting seriously to the east. There were quite a few downed branches, one of very big ones blocking the road by the Lodge mound. The island soil was very soggy and saturated from the recent rains, and there were many small pools all over the islet. The middle of islet was a small lake slowly flowing over the road by the Shop. Overall, things looked about normal for this time of year after a long winter.
May 15-17: Two NMJC leaders and seven kids arrive on a windy day.
On Friday Lois started a fire in the Lodge early in the morning to begin taking off the winter chill of the building. The kids, a great group of energetic young dudes raring to get to work, first got settled in and immediately jumped right into tree trimming projects.
Saturday morning we awoke to a numbing wind chill of around 12 degrees, a blanket of snow on the ground and a very very very frigid wind slamming in from the northwest, making it so cold that it was nearly impossible to work on west side of island or even be in the Lodge since the building was still radiating its winter cold. For the kids, our BIG fire in the Lodge took on the character of a people magnet.
The barn swallows, orioles, Black and white warblers, Yellow-rumped warblers and a number of smaller sparrow types arrived Saturday along with gaggles of grackles. I continue to wonder how tiny little creatures like warblers and sparrows survive these severe weather conditions. The big birds are around, of course. The bespeckled pelicans continue to cruise the winds, as do the fast black cormorants spearing past just above the big waves, and gulls everywhere. The place is alive! Impressive!
Our major work this past weekend was to open up more sun exposure on our buildings in hopes of reducing the lichen, algae and moss damage to shingles. Here is our report on our efforts.
Wheelh’se: Removed 2 fallen branches off roof
Noble: Removed 1 live tree
Removed 3 dead trees
Noesens: Removed 1 live tree
Trimmed 1 large fallen branch
Bills: Removed 1 live tree
Harrens: Removed 3 live trees
Trimmed 1 live tree
Cokes: Removed 3 live stems from clump of trees
Trimmed 4 live trees
J’s Villa: Trimmed 1 large branch from live tree
Herolds: Removed 7 live trees
Removed 1 live stem from clump of trees
Log cabin: Removed 1 small live tree
Trimmed 6 trimmed
Laundry: Removed 1 live tree (hollowed out, rotting heartwood)
Trimmed 2 live trees
Knob Hill: Trimmed 5 live trees to allow more sun on garden
Road: Removed 1 small deformed tree
Trimmed 3 large fallen branches
Totals: Removed 16 live trees (2 small trees, 1 hollowed out tree, 13 good trees over 6” diameter)
Removed 4 live stems from clumps of trees
Removed 3 dead trees
Trimmed 25 trees
--Wade spent a great amount of time and effort in order to get the water system up and running
--Wade got the tractor running.
--Cut up all downed trees and branches and hauled & stacked the wood.
--Tree wood in Woodshed separated from processed lumber
--Many loads of wood to Lodge fireplace (snow on the ground by Saturday morning)
--Filled the Knob Hill wood shed with sized wood for the small KH stove
--Endless chipping of tree slash (much left for over Memorial Day weekend work crews)
--Installed boat lift next to low dock and two boat roller ramps
--Moved boats into water
--Checked and assessed all buildings for possible damage
--Changed regular light bulbs with CFLs in a number of buildings
--Cleaned up flower gardens
--Planted milkweed seeds
--Ditched road so water could flow from central water drainage area
--Benches out around campfire
--Deadheads along shoreline hauled out of water
--Firepit dismantled
--Establish a non-burning policy for camp this summer (recycle to Angle Inlet)
--Cover on Crud Pit, but trying to establish a new compost system by barrel or palette system
--Perishables moved from Chart House to Lodge pantry and Bee Hive
--Information on Emerald Ash Borer to Celeste Colson at Jake’s resort
--Brought Emerald Ash Borer and Deer Tick specimens for EcoRoom
--Brought egg-shell Minnesota rock samples, nature books for library
--Did research on how to try to transition persistent barn swallows away from Lodge porches
--Brought two barn swallow nesting devices and two bluebird houses (built by Mike Broderick)
