A 100yr Old Story from the Barrens

A 100yr old Story from the Barrens

I was helping Paul Hlina, a plant researcher, gather plant samples from the Namekagon Barrens for his inventory study in 2020.  We were down on our knees examining plants for different ones we had not collected before, but, I found this old broken porcelain salt shaker.  We find lots of old ‘settler’ artifacts out on the Barrens or Northwest Sands habitat.  Around the late 1800s new immigrants to America began buying the land to attempt to farm it and create a new life for them and their families.  Unfortunately, the Barrens or Northwest Sands is not good soil for farming!  By the late 1930s they all began giving up and giving their land back to the county for back taxes.  We do have the good fortune to have access to an aerial photo collection from the late 1930s and it includes this very spot we were researching.  You can see in this photo that indeed there were several very small farms in various spots on the Northwest Sands Barrens extending from Grantsburg to Bayfield.  This area is called the Northwest Sands because the ‘ancient glaciers’ deposited 100-600 ft. of sand to this area and is as wide as 20 miles in places.  The Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area is just a small remnant of that enormous area. 

Native Americans, used this land very successfully for many hundreds / thousands of years for various sources of food especially the blueberries, but many other animals and plants.  Remember this area even had buffalo and elk on the land.  It was more open land in many areas because the sandy soil does not promote dense forests BECAUSE of 2 ingredients:  the sandy soil is quite dry and Fire!  The Natives learned that recurrent fire promoted the blueberry successes. 

This is the small broken porcelain salt shaker piece I found. I assume was broken and discarded in early 1900s or late 1800s. Probably a family treasure the family brought with them to the Barrens. Where was it made, one can only speculate? Europe even? Who knows. But it tells a little about the white settlers who tried to settle on this land and ultimately failed.

1938 Aerial view of the farm and site I found the salt shaker:

In this 1938 aerial photo we see the east west road is St Croix Trail Rd.  It intersects with a smaller north south road, Gomulak Fire Ln.  In the left lower corner you can see a small square boundary with a building in the center, Forest Home School (1906-1938).  There is a old farm site in the upper center of the photo.  That is where we found the broken salt shaker.

This is the website address for the 1938 aerial photos of Wisconsin.

https://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder/#7/44.750/-89.750

What is the Wisconsin Northwest Sands?

This is a map and description of the Wisconsin Northwest Sands.    1,956 square miles (1,251,723 acres) of land surface are within the Northwest Sands Ecological Landscape. This is 3.5% of the land area of the State of Wisconsin.  The depth of sand in this area varies from 100-600ft deep.  The actual landscape varies depending on Glacier kettle changes, to small marshes to streams that cross the Sands area.  So the variety of landscape habitats within the Northwest Sands area is tremendous.  Also remember that fire in the old days and within the preserved areas today is a very important ingredient to this habitat.  Think of Fire as Renewing the land!  Animals and plants are often unique to the Barrens habitats within the Northwest Sands.  The Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area is one of those preserved Barrens habitats within the Northwest Sands.

This site below is a group of maps for the Wisconsin Northwest Sands habitat.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/landscapes/index.asp?mode=detail&Landscape=13

Also if you want to educate yourself about the amazing ‘habitat’ of the Northwest Sands check out Chapter 17 of “The Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin”.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Landscapes/documents/1805Ch17.pdf#view=Fit

The website address for all of the Wisconsin Landscapes can be found at the address below.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/landscapes/index.asp The Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin publication is available online, in CD format, and in limited quantities as a hard copy. Individual chapters are available for download in PDF format through the Wisconsin DNR website (http://dnr.wi.gov/, keyword “landscapes”). The introductory chapters (Part 1) and supporting materials (Part 3) should be downloaded along with individual ecological landscape chapters in Part 2 to aid in understanding and using the ecological landscape chapters. In addition to containing the full chapter of each ecological landscape, the website highlights key information such as the ecological landscape at a glance, Species of Greatest Conservation Need, natural community management opportunities, general management opportunities, and ecological landscape and Landtype Association maps (Appendix K of each ecological landscape chapter). These web pages are meant to be dynamic and were designed to work in close association with materials from the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan as well as with information on Wisconsin’s natural communities from the Wisconsin Natural Heritage Inventory Program.

Mark Nupen

Board member of Friends of the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area

marknupen@gmail.com

Winter FNBWA Board Meeting held Saturday February 20, 2021

The Friends of the Namekagon Barrens Board met virtually on Saturday, February 20 and made plans for the year ahead. We are planning to construct a small shelter with benches and display boards in the North Unit, near where the current display kiosk is located. In the South Unit, we plan to place an interpretive sign on the new Namekagon Trail scenic overlook and update the kiosk on Spring Brook Trail. We may put a picnic table near the new shelter and another at the parking area on Spring Brook Trail. We are researching options and costs to upgrade our restroom facilities at the cabin and picnic shelter site. Our website redesign is also underway.

We are not planning an annual meeting or picnic because of the potential for Covid exposure. We did set dates for our field trips as in the past, all subject to change or cancellation if needed. Watch this blog for further details. All events begin at 9 a.m. at the driveway to the cabin at 33174 Gomulak Fire Lane. Here’s the schedule:

• Natural Resources Foundation (NRF) Birding Tour – Saturday, May 22
• Lupines on the South Unit – Saturday June 5
• NRF Bog Walk – Saturday, June 12
• Wildflowers – Saturday, July 10
• Blueberry walk – Wednesday, July 14
• Plant survey – Saturday, July 31
• Sharp-tails and Bird Dogs – Wednesday, August 11

To participate in the Natural Resources Foundation tours, sign up through their website at https://www.wisconservation.org/field-trips/. No pre-registration is needed for the Friends of the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area trips.

Many thanks to all of our members for renewing your memberships and your donations in support of our group and the Barrens!

Below zero in the Barrens! Photo submitted by Nancy Christel, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist and Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area Property Manager. Taken February 20, 2021

New FNBWA Website Under Construction

An update is underway for the website for the Friends of Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area. We’ll post an announcement when we have moved our information to the new site. This will be a great opportunity for all of us to stay informed on events and the view the beauty of the Barrens.

The Prarie Enthusiast TPE 2021 Event

Exciting Program

The conference program includes sessions on the latest in scientific research and restoration practices. A special “Prairie 101” session at the beginning of the conference is offered for those who are new to our work. We are also holding a Friday evening special session with a “happy hour” hosted by our new Executive Director Debra Behrens followed by a lively discussion on the future of TPE. Check out all the program details here.

Calling All Artists!

In addition to our always-popular annual photo and haiku contests, the conference features two online art workshops on nature drawing and photography. We are also very excited to offer an online “fair” for artists and craftspeople with a prairie-inspired focus to exhibit and sell their work. Learn more here.

Prescribed Burn School

In keeping with our conference theme, “Inspired by Fire”, we are offering a special pre-conference prescribed burn crew training workshop just before the conference on Tuesday, Feb 23. Sign up is required. Learn more and register here.

And more birds dancing…..

May, 2017

This frenzy of activity took place on the lek last weekend. The first two hours were spent keeping warm, watching males dance, and then stare at each other. The next hour flew by with this nonstop activity.

Courtesy of Dale Bohlke

Technical: Recorded one morning using a Canon C100 and Sony a7r2 with a 100-400 lens and Rode Videomic.

1863 Bridge Update

This is a photo taken with a drone camera of the sharp bend in the Namekagon River where the 1863 bridge was built and remnants still exist. It’s very near the south unit of NBWA, and one of the highlights of the area from a historical standpoint in the Town of Blaine.

photo courtesy Don McConkey

The red line approximates the location of the old bridge. Notice how the small island was used as an abutment to shorten the span. The old stagecoach trail from St. Paul to Bayfield ran right through East Blaine, thus the need for the bridge. A book, written by Don Monson, retired DNR fellow from Spooner, is about this bridge and it’s a fascinating history. Title: “The Namekagon Bridge 1863 – 1941”.

Vern Drake,
FNBWA Board

Moose on the Barrens? Oh Yeah!

Board Member, Vern Drake brought an excellent story to us in October – and photos too! Vern and his wife, Lynne, have a home about 2 miles straight west of the intersection of Dry Landing Road and St. Croix Trail. We jokingly refer to Vern as “The Baron of the Barrens.” Without further ado, let’s listen to Vern’s story…..

October 21, 2018
Around 6:15 this evening I came across a pickup truck parked in the middle of Dry Landing Road about a half mile north of St. Croix Trail. There was a young man and woman looking to the east with binoculars. I stopped to see what they were looking at and they told me that a bull moose was standing in the brush just a hundred yards into the barrens. It stood there for some time and they were able to get a few photos.

I’m going to try to get out in the barrens in the same area early in the morning as there’s a good chance that it might have bedded down for the night.

It’s obviously a good size moose based on his hoof print left in the shoulder of Dry Landing Road. Note the cap next to the print.

October 22, 2018
This is in the category “Can you believe this!?!!” On Saturday, Oct. 20th Lynne and I went out to reposition 3 trail cameras, primarily to see where the deer go. We didn’t need the 3rd trail camera so we decided to just put it in our driveway, not only for deer, but also just to see who might come and go to our cabin while we were gone. The camera was set up less than 100 yards down the driveway from the cabin so this morning I decided to retrieve the chip from the camera to make sure it was working properly. I put the chip in the computer and to our astonishment a Bull Moose showed up. He was walking down the middle of the driveway toward the cabin at 8:41pm last evening. It has to be the same moose that was in the barrens earlier in the evening at about 6:15pm –2 hours and 26 minutes earlier.

What’s odd is that since the moose was in the barrens early the evening before, and I was thinking that maybe he bedded down in the barrens, this morning I went out before light and parked on a hill overlooking the low land below and scanned the area with my binoculars, but nothing was seen. Then to return to the cabin only to find that Mr. Bull Moose had come to visit me instead. Go figure!

It is the breeding season, so he’s unlikely to stick around. I think he’s on the move looking for a mate. None-the-less, it’s probably the most fascinating event that we’ve experienced in the 20 years of being up here

Sweet Fern on the Barrens

Sweet Fern, one of my favorite plants on the Barrens. 

I first noticed it when I went out to the Barrens on several trips to find out more about this place the locals called “The Barrens”. 

As I walked around, I frequently noticed a lovely fragrance and discovered it was coming from the Sweet Fern plant. 

Now I grew up in the south-central Arizona Sonoran Desert and they had a plant called the Creosote bush that also had a prominent fragrance especially after a rain.  So nice to be walking about in nature and using all your senses.  The sounds of animals, the visuals of colors and then the smells of plants are such an added bonus!  Now the Sonoran Desert has some not so nice ‘tactile’ attractions called Thorns!  Oh, the beautiful ‘teddy bear cholla’ with its fuzzy sharp / hooked thorns surrounding 6–10-inch pieces of the plant that fall off the bush and roll around the ground to reseed the soil and make a new plant.  So, you need to watch where you stepped lest it puncture your tennis shoes!  Ouch!  Ahhh, the Barrens does not have any of those sharp pointy plants!  So, it is much safer taking a walk out on the Barrens than my old desert walks!

Well, getting back to that lovely plant called the Sweet Fern, which is not a fern but a perennial bush with many interesting features and a very old history for humans.  This is a plant that is quite unique!  It loves the sand because most other plants cannot grow in the sand.  The Barrens is part of the Northwest Sands that stretches 160 miles and covers nearly 2000 sq miles with a sand depth of 100-600 ft. 

This sandy acidic soil is not favorable to most plants because of that acidic sand.  However the Sweet Fern has adapted perfectly for this soil, because it has developed little root nodules that specialize in extracting Nitrogen from the air and into the plant.  Most plants need nitrogen in the soil chemistry to obtain nitrogen and can’t thrive on the Barrens sandy habitats.

Sweet fern has female green fuzzy flowers that bloom April and May and also grow small nutlets that also can be used.  Also has male catkins on the branch tips. 

Early settlers used the sweet fern as insect repellant by scattering the leaves on the house floors.  Even sweet fern insect repellant recipes have been developed in old times.

Very useful for itchy skin and against poison ivy rashes.

Mix the fresh leaves with water and can be stored up to a year.  Apply this solution to itchy skin and also to poison ivy exposed skin several times a day helps prevent the ‘big rash’ from appearing.

Traditionally, the burned , dried leaves were used in religious ceremonies, an infusion of leaves was used for fever, and a decoction or infusion of leaves was used to cure stomach cramps. 

Also check out a Wild Blueberry Sauce with Sweetfern recipe in https://foragerchef.com/wild-blueberry-sauce-with-sweetfern/

Also forgot to mention the ‘Song of the Sweet Fern’ sung by Carter family.

Song of the Sweet Fern

https://genius.com/The-carter-family-sweet-fern-lyrics

Springtime is coming, sweet lonesome bird
Your echo in the woodland I hear
Down in the meadow so lonesome you’re singing
While the moonlight is shining so clear
But I know he’s away in a far distant land
A land that is over the sea
Go fly to him singing your sweet little song
And tell him to come back to me

[Chorus]
Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern) Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern)
Oh, tell me, is my darling still true
Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern) Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern)
I’ll be just as happy as you
Well, a-lee-oh-lay-ee

You can google the many uses of the sweet fern for medicinal purposes.

For sweet fern teas check out this you tube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJH7Dp6Stoo

Separate male and female flowers are borne in catkins or dense, cylindrical clusters that develop in April and May. Male catkins are elongated and female shortened ovals. Olive brown, burr-like fruits develop from pollinated female catkins by early summer (edible nutlets are inside the burr).

Sweet Fern Plant and leaves

                      Male catkins

Female Flowers                                            

Edible nutlets

Botanical Club Newsletter

This is a test to see if we can get a pdf file attached to a WordPress post. The pdf was attached to an email sent out by the board email account. The file was uploaded to Google Drive. The address (URL) for the document is the link below.

copy and paste the address below into your browser to see the newsletter

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r6EMiq2DstzBQroAWcT0JYSqSybjAUJqpNMObtZNqhY/edit?usp=sharing

Instagram Users

Did you know a Friend of the Barrens has started using Instagram? Search for ‘Friend Barrens’ to start following us there.