Celebrate Lake Superior Day -- Enter our Photo Contest!

Photo: Sunset with freighter on Lake Superior, near the Keweenaw Tip. Photo © 2007 Gustavo Bourdieu, Keweenaw Now photographer, taken during the Reading the Landscape boat tour from Copper Harbor on the Isle Royale Queen IV June 30, 2007.

Lake Superior Day is Sunday, July 15. What’s better than a July picnic on a sandy beach next to the world’s largest freshwater lake? How about leaving the beach cleaner than you found it? Keweenaw Now's new blog is celebrating our beautiful lake by inviting you to celebrate Lake Superior Day sometime during the week of July 14-22, record it with your camera and email us your best photo in one of three categories: landscape (the beauty of the lake), wildlife (if you can catch them) or responsible action (e.g., doing something to leave the beach cleaner than you found it. Or send us a photo (in one of these categories) taken on or near the lake any time this summer, from May 1 to July 31, 2007. See the updated article on Keweenaw Now for examples). Here are the rules:
1. By entering the contest, you give us permission to publish your photo on this blog with your name. Email the photo to andersm@pasty.com by July 31, 2007.
2. Email your photo as a jpeg file of 1.5 MB or less. We may publish a smaller version of the photo with a click to the larger version.
3. The photo should express a personal, environmental, economic or spiritual connection people have to Lake Superior. (Photos of local beaches ecologically connected to Lake Superior -- such as Hancock, Houghton or Chassell on the Portage Canal -- are acceptable as entries.)
4. Please send only one photo for one category (You may submit up to 3 photos if they are in different categories.)
5. Do not post your photo on the blog. Email it to us. Only the 6 best photos will be posted, two in each category. The prize is having your photo posted on the blog and announced on Keweenaw Now.
6. Professional photographers are not eligible to enter.
7. If you have questions, comment on this post.

We welcome your comments!

Click on the Keweenaw Now logo above to read any of our articles and then return to this blog post to add your comments.

Climate change article 3 by Katie Alvord

News: Businesses feel the heat: Lake Superior warms up, part 3

By Katie Alvord Posted 06/30/2007


HOUGHTON -- On June 21, the Senate passed an energy bill that would increase average vehicle fuel efficiency, a measure meant at least in part to combat global warming. Meanwhile, in the Copper Country, some businesses -- particularly those based on winter tourism -- might already have been feeling global warming's effects. In this final segment of a three-part series on climate change in the Lake Superior Basin, Katie Alvord looks at ways local businesses have already been affected by warming temperatures, how some have responded with potential solutions and what some scientists say about the future of winter in our area. more
Photo: Making snow at Mont Ripley Ski Hill near Hancock. In warmer winters, ski areas rely more on artificial snow. The tall, slanted pipe in left foreground is newer, more energy-efficient snowmaking equipment. (Photo © 2007 and courtesy Mont Ripley.)

Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale DVD

News: Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale DVD explains research

By Julie Nordstrom Posted 07/08/2007


HOUGHTON -- "Collaboration" is a word that Michigan Tech Forestry Professor John Vucetich uses to describe Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale, a DVD released recently by Solex Media, a division of Monte Consulting Company, a local company. The DVD is a collaboration of research and production about wolves and moose, intended to educate the public about the most significant predator-prey relationship on Lake Superior’s largest island. Dr. Rolf Peterson -- Vucetich’s mentor at Michigan Tech -- has been researching the relationships between Isle Royale’s wolf and moose populations for 30 years. For the past 17 of those years Peterson and Vucetich have collaborated on this research. more
Photo: This photo of the Middle Pack on Lake Desor, Isle Royale, was taken in February 2006 by John Vucetich, co-leader of Isle Royale wolf-moose research. It is one of the 135 photos one can find in the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale DVD. (Photo © 2006 John Vucetich. Reprinted with permission.)

See also Katie Alvord's Climate Change Article 2 for more on the effects of climate change on Isle Royale wildlife.

Climate change article 2 by Katie Alvord

News: Lake Superior Basin feeling heat: Part 2

By Katie Alvord Posted 06/03/2007


HOUGHTON -- The next G-8 summit starts on June 6 in Germany; and, with climate change high on the agenda, George W. Bush has responded to European pressures by announcing his own counter-proposals for stemming greenhouse gas emissions. As world political leaders debate what to do about climate change, several scientists from around Lake Superior say local plants and animals are already showing the effects of rising average temperatures. Their findings range from northward shifts in bird and small mammal ranges to unexpected plankton blooms to a diminishing moose population on Isle Royale, and some are expressing concern about what a warming climate might mean for our future. more
Photo: Isle Royale moose shows areas of skin rubbed bare due to tick infestation. Moose lose fur when they rub against trees in an attempt to remove ticks. Warmer temperatures favor ticks and make moose more vulnerable to winter tick infestations. (Photo © 2007 John Vucetich. Reprinted with permission.)

Climate change article 1 by Katie Alvord

News: Lake Superior warming fast: Researchers surprised by strong trends

By Katie Alvord Posted 05/03/2007


HOUGHTON -- A growing number of regional officials and researchers have been examining how climate change may already affect air, water and ice within the Lake Superior basin. This regional work is taking place as the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) completes its Fourth Assessment Report on the state of the world’s climate. The IPCC is releasing its 2007 assessment in segments, and the next will be released Friday, May 4. In the first in a series of articles on climate change, Keweenaw Now guest writer Katie Alvord reports recent climate changes affecting Lake Superior, as researched by scientists at the University of Minnesota Duluth and Michigan Tech University and as observed by meteorologists and by officials at Isle Royale National Park and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. more
Photo: Ice melting along the Lake Superior shoreline in late March 2007. (Photo © 2007 Katie Alvord. Reprinted with permission.)

Welcome to Keweenaw Now!

HANCOCK, MICH. -- Welcome to the blog for our Web site, www.keweenawnow.com
At keweenawnow.blogspot.com you can find a quick summary of some of our recent articles, with a link to the article. Eventually we hope to add links to the articles to bring you back here so that you can give us some feedback by posting your thoughts on this blog. We also will welcome your additions and corrections to our Web site content. If you'd like to contact the editor of Keweenaw Now with a suggestion for new content, photos, a letter to the editor, you'll be able to post your message to this blog. The blog is now under construction, but let's get started! What's new on Keweenaw Now? Katie Alvord's 3-article series on climate change is recommended ...