Changing climate is impacting Lake Superior. The lack of ice cover this past winter effects coastal erosion, water levels, fish populations and wildlife. Plus, the unseasonably warm weather has economic and cultural impacts on the shoreline communities as well. But what can be done? In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Tyler Penrod, Program Manager at the Lake Superior Watershed Partnership. He has a plan and a list of projects in the works with the Great Lakes Climate Corps to make a difference.

Key Takeaways:

•  The lack of ice cover on Lake Superior due to warm temperatures has significant consequences, including coastal erosion, impacts on fish populations, and increased vulnerability to powerful waves and wind.
•  The warming trend in Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has led to changes in ecosystems, wildlife behavior, and recreational activities such as skiing and snowmobiling.
•  The Superior Watershed Partnership's Great Lakes Climate Corps program employs seasonal staff to work on projects related to climate change, including tree planting, wildfire prevention, and coastal resiliency.
•  Planting native trees, making energy efficiency upgrades, and engaging in composting and gardening are individual actions that can contribute to mitigating climate change and building resilience.
•  Collaboration between different stakeholders, including tribes, government agencies, and nonprofits, is crucial in addressing climate change and its impacts on lake communities.

Notable Quotes:

•  "Climate change isn't a far off, distant idea. There's aspects of it that are impacting us here today." - Tyler Penrod
•  "These are all issues that we can be proactive about. Community planning, government planning, can go behind a lot of these issues to help us avoid them or adapt to them when they arrive." - Tyler Penrod

Resources:
Superior Watershed Partnership website: https://superiorwatersheds.org/

Listen to the full episode of the Lake Superior podcast to gain more insights into the impact of climate change on Lake Superior and the efforts being made by the Superior Watershed Partnership to address these challenges. Stay tuned for more engaging discussions and valuable content from the podcast.

Lake Superior is home to an estimated 550 shipwrecks, with approximately half of them still undiscovered. In this episode of the Lake Superior podcast, hosts Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Dan Fountain, author, shipwreck historian, and researcher, about his lifelong passion for exploring Superior's depths and uncovering the stories behind these sunken vessels. He shares the challenges of finding shipwrecks in these vast and deep waters and explains the process of using side scanning sonar to locate them. Dan also recounts his latest discovery, the Arlington, a shipwreck with a unique and tragic story. This episode offers a captivating glimpse into the history hidden beneath Lake Superior’s surface.

Lake Superior tops the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem as well as the longest deep-draft inland waterway, extending from Duluth, Minnesota, to the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Ocean. Roughly 10,000 cargo ships pass through the Soo Locks every year. When it comes to protecting the Great Lakes from invasive species, monitoring the ballast water on these cargo ships is key. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Phyllis Green, former Superintendent at Isle Royale National Park as well as board member of the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, about ballast water and what is being done on both US and Canadian shores to protect Lake Superior.

Unseasonably warm weather along Lake Superior from Sault Ste. Marie to Grand Portage has canceled a host of winter events from sled dog and cross-country ski races to snowmobile rides and ice fishing tournaments. But it’s not just tourism that has been effected by mild temperatures. After 65 years of monitoring wolf and moose populations at Isle Royale--the longest predator-prey study in history--scientists had to suspend their 7 week Winter Study because of challenges accessing the island. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Dr. Sarah Hoy, Research Assistant and Professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. She explains the logistics and challenges of working on this remote archipelago in winter and what the cancelation means to the bank of data collected and predictions for the future.

Craig Blacklock first started taking pictures when he was nine years old, following his father, Les Blacklock, a pioneering nature photographer. By the time he was 15, he had graduated to capturing images on a large format 4x5 camera. Over his career, his award winning photos have been published in books, calendars and exhibits. He has been called the "Ansel Adams of Lake Superior," and in this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Craig from his home in Moose Lake, Minnesota, about his six decades of working on and around Lake Superior and the inspiration for his newest book, “Light Waves.”

Grand Portage National Monument in northern Minnesota sits right in the middle of the Canoe Capital of the World. The National Park has many boats on display, from smaller crafts used for gathering rice and hunting to huge Voyageur canoes used to haul thousands of pounds of furs to Montreal. Every summer visitors come to the park not only to learn more about the fur trade, but to also learn the secrets of how these age-old boats were built. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Grand Portage Ranger Karl Koster about what it takes—from materials to technique—to construct an authentic birch bark canoe.

Christmas Eve, 1913, was a tragic night in Calumet, Michigan. 73 people—59 of them children--were killed when someone falsely yelled, “Fire,” at a crowded Christmas party on the second floor of the Italian Hall setting off a deadly stampede. The disaster occurred five months into a crippling labor strike between Western Federation of Miners Union workers and the Calumet Hecla Mining Company. 

Now, 110 years later, Beth Kirschner has written about the historic labor dispute and what has been called the Italian Hall Massacre in her novel, “Copper Divide.” 

In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Beth, who works as a software engineer, about the 1913 Copper Strike and how the Keweenaw Peninsula’s history inspires her writing.

78 lighthouses circle Lake Superior, 42 of those navigational aids dot the Michigan shoreline. Au Sable Point Light Station in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore ranks one of the most popular. Built in 1874, it stands 86’ tall and the original third-order Fresnel lens could beam a light as far as 17 miles out on Superior. 

Pictured Rocks’ Hannah Bradburn, Visual Information Specialist, and Ranger Emma Olechnowicz often lead tours to the Light Station and in this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, they talk with Walt Lindala and Frida Waara about the history of the Light Station and plans to celebrate the 150th anniversary.

Lake Superior is one of the fastest warming lakes in the world. And when it comes to getting people’s attention about the warming, film is a powerful medium. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with film maker John Shepard about his upcoming documentary, “A Sea Change for Lake Superior.” John shares what his team at the Center for Global Environmental Education at Hamline University is doing to get the world out and ways we can be better stewards to protect our fresh water.

As daylight hours begin to wane, the darkest months of the year are ahead. For many, it means more time to get outside and pay attention to what’s happening through the night in our sky. In this episode of Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with John Mueller at the historic Keweenaw Mountain Lodge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Named an official International Dark Sky Park, John shares what the Lodge has done to earn that distinction and even more important, what happens to the planet when you keep the night dark.