Lake Superior Podcast
We are made stronger by story and there’s no better source than the continent's largest body of freshwater, Lake Superior. Join hosts Walt Lindala and Frida Waara as they highlight the five National Parks that ring this Greatest of the Great Lakes - meeting the people, touring the places and learning about the projects that make these parks and body of water so remarkable.
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Brought to you by The National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation (www.nplsf.org).
Theme song: King Whirl by David Huckfelt (www.davidhuckfelt.com).
Photo Credit: David Guttenfelder.
Podcast sponsored by Café Imports, a Minneapolis-based importers of fine, specialty green coffees.
Lake Superior Podcast
S7 E11: Moosewatch, Wilderness Learning and the Lasting Pull of Isle Royale — with Karen Bacula
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Isle Royale is one of the least visited of America’s National Parks. Located in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, it’s a tough place to get to. Access is only by seaplane, ferry or private boat. But once visitors do come, they are likely to return. Karen Bacula has been coming to this remote island since 1997. As a teacher, she also brought students to explore this unique archipelago of islands. Now, retired, she volunteers as director of Michigan Tech’s Isle Royale Institute and coordinates Moosewatch volunteers, helping people take part in fieldwork that supports the world’s longest-running predator-prey study. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Karen about citizen science, wilderness learning and the lasting pull of Isle Royale.
Quotes:
- “What connected me and made me want to just keep coming back was the beauty, the quiet, the simplicity, but yet incredibly complex whole area of what was there being surrounded by the lake. And many of the people I met were just absolutely wonderful.”
- “The power of the island, the power of the lake, the serenity, but also realizing that at the drop of a hat, the weather can change. So there's predictability and uncertainty in every step that you take. And I like that feeling.”
- “There's something special and new about it each time and getting to see the changes.”
- “We’re looking for dead moose and looking for the condition of the skeleton to see what the moose age-wise, health-wise was like, potentially how it died.”
- “It becomes very cross-curricular at all different grade levels. But they all come out with the big excitement being to learn how the study's done and to learn the field techniques for collecting data for this study.”
- “Two things I tell them to pack that are not necessarily on the gear list is their patience and sense of humor.”
- “Work to bring some of what you just felt right now with the people you met and living as close to the earth as you can live, bring some of that back with you and hold on to that.”
Helpful links:
- Learn more about the Wolf-Moose Project:
isleroyalewolf.org - Learn more about joining a Moosewatch expedition:
isleroyalewolf.org/volunteer-moosewatch - Learn more about Moosewatch for Educators:
isleroyalewolf.org/moosewatch-for-educators - Learn more about Isle Royale wolf-moose population dynamics:
isleroyalewolf.org/population-dynamics - Learn more about supporting the research through the Wolf-Moose Foundation:
wolfmoosefoundation.org - Learn more about the Northern Moose Alliance: moosealliance.org
- Plan a visit to Isle Royale National Park:
nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/index.htm
Connect with us:
- Lake Superior Podcast Page: https://nplsf.org/podcast
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalParksOfLakeSuperiorFoundation
Sponsors:
- Cafe Imports – Minneapolis-based importers of specialty green coffees since 1993, focused on sustainability. Learn more: cafeimports.com
- National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation – Donate to protect Lake Superior’s five national parks: nplsf.org/donate