Elk reintroduction continues on successful path up north
IF WISCONSIN'S elk reintroduction succeeds, and from all indications it will, a huge round of applause will be owed Ray Anderson. The retired professor of wildlife at UW-Stevens Point promoted the idea persistently in the face of some big obstacles, and he oversaw the project from its outset in 1995 until the DNR took it over a year ago.
The initial herd of 25 animals, obtained from Michigan and released in northwestern Wisconsin, has grown to an estimated 60 to 65, including perhaps 25 calves born this spring. This past winter was an easy one for the elk, but they've survived tough weather up there, too. They've also survived predation by bears and wolves.
Biologists are still studying the herd to better identify elk-habitat relationships. The next big elk decision in Wisconsin may be whether, or where, to establish another herd. It could be in northern Wisconsin or it could be in the west-central part of the state, perhaps in the Black River Falls area. Wherever it goes, it will follow a pattern drawn by Ray Anderson.
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AN ARTICLE IN the Gazette last August told about a project to test the ability of bats to control insect pests on farms.
Sponsored by the Golden Sands Resource Conservation and Development Council in cooperation with other agencies and individuals, the idea is to see if bats can reduce the need for pesticides, and if so, whether bat houses can increase their numbers near farms. It's a long-range project and it'll take awhile to get answers.
If you're like me, you probably assumed a bat is a bat and let it go at that. But according to a book I checked, published in 1976, the world has 847 bat species. Evidently they've found more since then, because the Wisconsin DNR says the number is about 950 and they constitute around one-fifth of the globe's mammals. Most bats are small, but one found in Australia, the flying fox, has a four-foot wingspan.
Wisconsin has seven bat species, all of them insect eaters. Actually it may have eight. The Indiana bat, on the federal endangered list, may occur in this state. The one chosen by the Golden Sands RC&D for its project was the big brown bat, common in Wisconsin and a good insect eater.
People as a rule aren't fond of bats. Flying around at night, they're spooky, and when they get in your house they're hard to evict. But they fill an important niche in nature, and if you don't like mosquitoes and similar pests you have to love bats.
Wisconsin's bat species, besides the big brown and possibly the Indiana, are the little brown bat, the eastern long-ear, the silver-haired, the red, the hoary and the eastern pipistrelle.
The big brown is one of the most common and widespread species in North America, and it roosts in colonies in tree hollows, wall spaces and buildings. It handles cold better than other Wisconsin bats, and if there was one in your attic last winter you can bet it was a big brown. It also hibernates in caves and abandoned mines.
Bats are vulnerable during hibernation, and if disturbed may use up their fat reserves, leading to starvation. That's just one of the problems bats have to face. They've died at the hands of collectors, have suffered pesticide poisoning from eating contaminated insects, have been the victims of deliberate eradication campaigns, and have lost roosting sites when old, hollow trees were cut.
Pretty rough treatment for an animal that can catch up to 600 mosquitoes an hour.
When a bat gets in your house the temptation is to get out the tennis racket and swat it. Resist the temptation. Open some windows and doors and let it fly out. If that doesn't work, let it land and then, using a towel or glove, catch it gently and release it outside.
You may also put up a bat house in your yard, but this much I can tell you: It may not work. I have one and to the best of my knowledge no bat has given it a second look. Check with someone who knows more about bats than I do to see where you should put the house.
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COUNTRY FOLKS are killing fish with the pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals that wash into lakes and rivers. City people aren't guilty of that, are they. Or are they?
Out in Oregon they're trying to get urbanites to be more careful with household cleaners, garden chemicals and other things that harm fish. The belief is that these people have contributed to the near-extinction of many salmon and steelhead runs.
The salmon is venerated in the Pacific Northwest, not only for sport but for its commercial value. Today, 12 of the Northwest's 25 threatened or endangered salmon populations swim by, or spawn in, the Portland area. To save these fish, lifestyle changes are needed in the cities and suburbs.
"But despite increasing evidence that one of the region's signature species is vanishing, Portlanders appear to remain more concerned about lush lawns and clean cars than dead fish," said a recent article in the Oregonian, Portland's newspaper. It's as if the muskie or the brook trout were on the verge of extinction in Wisconsin and no one gave a hoot.
The National Marine Fisheries Service recently promulgated rules to protect salmon and steelheads but didn't include measures affecting homes and gardens. They proved too contentious at public hearings, so now the agency is counting on "marketing" to convince people that they're part of the problem.
According to polls, people around Portland are fish-friendly, but "scientists continue to see streams swimming with pollutants from household products such as car soaps, antifreeze, lawn mower oil and pesticides," according to the Oregonian article.
One resident in an upscale subdivision tried an organic approach to lawn care but gave it up when the grass began to suffer. He said he didn't like to see the decline of any species, but "sometimes that's the price you pay for progress." Progress?
"It's clear that people don't see the cumulative effects of their behavior," said a university professor who has studied "backyard behavior." She said they remove vegetative buffers so lawns extend to the water's edge, making it easy for fertilizers and other chemicals to wash in.
Well, that's Oregon, but what about this area? Do urbanites in Wisconsin, including Portage County, commit any of those sins?
You don't have to look far to see fertilized lawns that go right down to the shore. OK, what about people who don't live on water? Most of Stevens Point's storm water goes into the Wisconsin or Plover rivers, so anything that washes off your lawn and into the gutter winds up there, untreated. Same if you dump antifreeze or any other chemical into a storm sewer catch basin.
Some catch basins empty into perforated pipes that drain into the soil. There, contaminants go into the ground water, which isn't any better than dumping them into the river.
Probably a lot of us need to change our habits.
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ANCIENT OUTDOOR HISTORY:
"The rivers here are tremendous resources to our community, and we're afraid they're being taken for granted," Dan Trainer said as he moderated the Rivers of Portage County Conference here Saturday. (Stevens Point Journal, Sept. 18, 1995)