A full schedule is on tap for the staff of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore this summer/NPS

Though summer never seems long enough, the staff at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin has a very full calendar, so full that they likely wish they could add another month or two to the summer.

Major Projects Scheduled for 2017 

Little Sand Bay 

* The historic fishing boat, the Twilite, will be getting a new home with construction on its shelter beginning this year. The Twilite was used by the Hokenson Brothers in their Little Sand Bay commercial fishing operations. The shelter and Twilite, located near the Visitor Center, will be an outside interpretive exhibit that includes interpretive waysides that tell the story of Great Lake commercial fishing. 

* Funding for the replacement for the Little Sand Bay Visitor Center was included in the 2017 federal budget. It is scheduled to go to contracting this year. 

Dock and Marina Work 

* The public docks at the Raspberry Island light station will be replaced this year. The east dock is scheduled to be completed in early July and the west dock in late summer/early fall. Until the east dock is completed, both docks will be closed with access to the light station limited to the sandspit and trail. The docks will be slightly narrowed to allow more docking space in-between the two docks. As with all other park docks recently replaced, the dock surfaces have been lowered to be more resilient to climate change-driven lake level changes. 

* Improvements to the Town of Russell boat launch at Little Sand Bay have been completed. 

Other Projects 

▪ A prescribed burn, to reintroduce a cultural tradition and restore barrens habitat, is planned for this fall on the Stockton Island tombolo, weather permitting. As part of the larger project, a fire history study will be done by the University of Minnesota and there will be a study to obtain Traditional Ecological Knowledge related to fire use in the islands (Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding). Fire effects monitoring will be done by park staff. 

▪ A Wilderness saw crew from Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness used cross-cut saws to clear 28 miles of trail on seven islands in the park. Their work allowed the park to open almost 15 miles of trail that were closed due to storm damage and blowdown in 2016. 

▪ The historic Manitou Island Fish Camp will receive some tender loving care, including work on the foundation at the Manitou Island Governor’s Cabin and exterior repairs to other fish camp structures. 

▪ As part of a restoration project at Stockton, Julian Bay, a trail bridge on the north side of Julian Bay will be replaced and floating boardwalk in the Julian Bay pine barrens will be extended. In addition, restoration of impacted areas along the boardwalk and coast was done with the help of Sarah Johnson’s Northland College class. 

▪ Bluff erosion mitigation using bioengineering techniques are being done at West Bay Club, Sand Island, to help protect the eroding bluff and historic ice house. In addition, condition assessments and planning are underway for the West Bay Club lodge. Until this spring, the West Bay Club was part of a life estate. 

▪ An historical structure evaluation, historic research, archaeological survey, and oral history interviews will be done on the south end of Bear Island, where a life estate recently expired. 

▪ Work will continue on Sand Island, East Bay, on an accessible boardwalk. In 2016, the dock was replaced, campsites at Justice Bay and Lighthouse Bay and an accessible group and individual site added, and accessible boardwalk was installed from the dock to accessible campsites. 

▪ Park staff, along with help from youth with the Minnesota Conservation Corps, will clear and maintain trails on Sand and Raspberry islands. 

▪ In a continued effort to keep bats out of the historic Michigan Island light station, but provide alternate lodging arrangements, an innovative bat “condo” was built by park staff and will be installed this spring. 

Interpretation and Education 

▪ The curriculum entitled “Gikinoo’wizhiwe Onji Waaban (Guiding for Tomorrow)”, or G’WOW integrates climate science with place-based evidence relating to climate change’s effects on culture, specifically the Ojibwe culture. A “how to create” a G-WOW program video will be completed in 2017 and distributed. 

▪ Stormy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of those who participated in Apostle Islands School this year, a partnership between Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Northland College, and Sigurd Olson Institute. Island School hosted four residential programs for over 160 students on Stockton Island during the month of May. 

Resource Management 

▪ With the assistance of the Midwest Archaeological Center, an Archaic site on Stockton Island will be evaluated and test sites excavated. Plans will be made to stabilize the site in 2018. 

▪ A Coastal Wetland Project, led by Northland College, will provide a comprehensive evaluation of eleven of the park’s major coastal wetlands. Hydrology, geomorphology, vegetation, macroinvertebrates and fish will be studied. In addition, complementary surveys and acoustic monitoring will be done for amphibians and birds. 

▪ Invasive exotic zebra and quagga mussels were recently found in waters around the Apostle Islands. The University of Minnesota will be conducting an assessment to determine distribution, origin, and risk of invasive mussel spread (GLRI funding). Northland College will be conducted a survey of native mussels in the park. 

▪ A cooperative project with UW Madison and Northland College to study wildlife species using trail cameras will expand in 2017 with a special emphasis on the state-endangered American marten. Cameras will be used to determine presence and distribution. Scat and hair traps for marten will be used for genetic analysis to confirm presence, origin and relatedness of marten and food availability will be assessed. 

▪ The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative continues to assist the park with funding for invasive plant species management, including surveys and control, and interpretation to help communicate the threat of invasive species. 

▪ A multi-park project to monitor bats for white-nosed syndrome that was begun in 2015 will continue in 2017. Seven species of bats have been documented in the park, including the Federally threatened northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis). 

▪ Cooperative projects with the NPS Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network include: amphibian monitoring; breeding bird surveys; dragonfly surveys and contaminant testing; monitoring water quality; and mapping coastal areas. 

Partnership Activities 

▪ The Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has been awarded a grant for $12,500 from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation for an educational program called "4th Graders-Giving a Voice to Water," which will fund a day on the water and in the park for 4th grade students from area schools. 

▪ Piping plover monitors will once again be stationed out at Long Island to monitor and protect these endangered birds, as well as provide information to visitors. The monitors will work closely with the NPS, but will be Bad River employees, funded through the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Program. This project is only possible through a partnership with the Wisconsin DNR, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bad River Tribe, and The Nature Conservancy. 

▪ The Real-Time Wave Observation System at the Mainland Sea Caves will continue to provide wave heights and wave pictures via the internet at: http://wavesatseacaves.cee.wisc.edu/index.htm. A digital display at Meyers Beach allows kayakers to check conditions before they paddle to the caves. The next phase of this project will develop an Autonomous Real Time Stereo Imaging System that can provide both summer wave characteristics and winter ice conditions at the sea caves. System development is led by the University of Wisconsin and UW Sea Grant. Wisconsin Coastal Management, and the Friends of the Apostle Islands have been important supporters and contributors to this project. 

Park Planning 

▪ As part of the cultural landscape study being completed for Sand Island, interviews were conducted with tribal elders to obtain Traditional Ecological Knowledge that will be used to inform the study. The study focuses on documenting surviving cultural landscape resources at East Bay (with a focus on Hansen Farm) and providing recommendations for landscape management. 

▪ Planning for replacement of the docks at Devils Island will begin in 2017, with dock replacement planned in 2018. The docks will have the same configuration as the current docks and be slightly lowered as an adaptation to climate change-driven lake level changes.