The Return of The Buckthorn Man

Posted on September 3, 2014 by paulmozina

It was a bit reminiscent of The Return of Tarzan when The Buckthorn Man returned to his Shangri-La on the shores of Ottawa Lake.

Like the buckthorn thickets of the kettle moraine are ‘a bit’ like the jungles of Africa, The Buckthorn Man is only ‘a bit’ as noble and virtuous as the mighty Tarzan. Yes, yes, if only I could be as self-possessed as the king of the jungle, how liberating that would be.

Imitating the lord of the apes, I aspired to noble contemplation of ethics and aesthetics as I bent over the spotted knapweed on the sand prairie and listened to The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Sweet freedom. Paradoxically, I do love my servitude to The Creator, which is my free choice to labor at The Springs, because it enables me to manifest my version of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic, and satisfy my desire to make the world a more beautiful place.

I finally did read A Sand County Almanac, which includes Leopold’s thought provoking essay, “The Land Ethic”:

A land, ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land.

Much of what he said resonated with me, but, and I hope you won’t think that The Buckthorn Man simply must have a buckthorn spike stuck in his butt to quibble with Aldo, like other careful readers, I found myself disconcerted by some of the things he said, or, as the case may be, did not say. He fails to mention the highly evolved Seventh Generation Earth Ethics of the indigenous people, while hoping that “we”, homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”), who violently and rapaciously “conquered” the land, have learned a lesson.

A nation spawned from empires built on the backs of slaves is not easily weaned from gluttonous exploitation. Lest you think my ranting hyperbolic, consider this example from Donald Culross Peattie’s fine work, A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America:

Until almost the turn of the present century (1900), pecans reached the market largely from wild trees. The harvesting methods in early times consisted in nothing less heroic and criminal than cutting down gigantic specimens — the bigger the better — and setting boys to gather the nuts from the branches of the fallen giants. It seemed to the pioneer then, as it did to every American, that the forests of this country were inexhaustible. Thus it came about that the wild Pecan tree had become rare before men began to realize how much was lost.

Before I proceed with the riveting story of what happened when The Buckthorn Man returned to Shangri-La, I must complain about another, subtle perhaps, line of Leopoldian thought. He espouses a moral relativism that positively rankles me: “An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct.”, and later: “The mechanism of operation is the same for any ethic: social approbation for right actions: social disapproval for wrong actions.” No Aldo, NO! There is an objective difference between right and wrong, independent of the whims of society, which Mark Passio eloquently and passionately explains in his Natural Law Seminar.

If you have any doubts, please check with Fredrick Douglas.

I arrived at the Ottawa Lake campground on Friday, August 22, excited to setup camp at the walk-in site #335, only to find that it had been let to another party an hour earlier. It reminded me of that scene where Jerry Seinfeld complained to the car rental company that knew how to take his reservation, but not how to hold it. Undecided about what to do, I took a walk downstream in the Scuppernong River to inspect the work that was recently done to improve the channel.

Here are some views of the stretch of the river just upstream from the gaging station bridge that still need some channel remediation.

While wandering the trails I met Eliot and his son Isaiah, and they graciously invited me to stay with them at site #388, which is a beautiful site on the bluff overlooking Ottawa Lake. Thanks again guys!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday were dedicated to digging and pulling spotted knapweed on the sand prairie. Most of the seed is still firmly attached and, since I did not mow the prairie this year, there is a ton of it.

I didn’t care if it rained.

It was hot, humid and buggy, but beautiful nevertheless.

The Hillside Springs.

The Indian Springs.

Ottawa Lake sunset.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I was determined to finish clearing the buckthorn along the trail that follows the east shore of Ottawa Lake between site #380 and #335. I was concerned about the bar oiling mechanism not working properly on my chainsaw and, sure enough, it was kaput. So, I carried a little pint bottle of bar oil in my chaps and stopped every couple minutes to manually apply some lubrication to the bar and chain. No problem!

Tuesday, before…

… and after.

The sights and sounds of The Springs:

Buckthorn seedlings along the cut-off trail.

The cut-off trail.

Giant thistles that I should have positively identified as friend or foe a few months ago.

The Hidden Spring.

The area of phragmites that I poisoned near the Emerald Spring deck is finally coming back to life.

The Emerald Spring.

The Scuppernong Spring.

The Indian Spring.

A beautiful, unidentified flower near the Hotel Spring.

The valley of the headwaters.

Wednesday morning and I had a date with buckthorn.

Before…

… and after.

You can follow the lakeshore trail all the way from the beach to the north end of site #334 and enjoy wide open views of the lake and fen to the west the whole way. It’s lovely.

Thanks again to Carl Baumann, for splitting and restacking my stash of firewood!.

And thanks to Dave and Lindsay for coming out to visit; I really enjoyed it. I had a couple of uninhibited and inspired guitar jams by the fire and, despite all the rain, never had to setup my tarp at camp. It was excellent.

See you at The Springs!

Free the Scuppernong River

Posted on July 18, 2014 by paulmozina

For thousands of years the Scuppernong River ran free, cutting its path across the bed of the old Glacial Lake Scuppernong per the laws of nature.

In the 1870s Talbot Dousman established a trout hatchery at the headwaters of the river at the Scuppernong Springs, temporarily subjecting the river to the laws of man. The trout farmers engineered the river with multiple levees, dams and flumes eventually leaving the headwaters submerged under two ponds.

I’ve been getting intimately familiar with the river, you might say, “getting in bed” with it, literally running my fingers through the muck searching for the original riverbed. As I removed the planks that formed the flumes, I discovered that the river is bisected by 10 huge 6×8″ beams 16′ long.

While the river was under the ponds, a lot of silt and marl migrated into the riverbed and, as we can see above, was trapped behind the beams. This past Wednesday, Ben Johnson and I removed the first of these beams, the one shown above that points to the left, and we also removed more planks from the flume and other wood structures where the flumes began.

Ben and I are very excited about giving mother nature a free hand to restore the natural riverbed in this area by removing the remaining 9 beams. Free the Scuppernong River!

Pati and I took a short vacation last week up at the Chippewa Flowage to relax and do some paddling and biking. The area is beautiful and we looked forward to exploring it. Pati found the excellent documentary below about how the flowage was created, and it was disturbing to see yet another case of the native tribes being steam rolled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As we paddled different areas of the flowage, I kept thinking of how beautiful it must have been before the dam was put in, and the native way of life in the Chippewa River Valley was destroyed forever.

I was eager to get back to The Springs and on Monday, July 14, I spent the morning cutting weeds like Bouncing Bet (shown below), Nodding Thistle and Canadian Fleabane on the sand prairie.

In the afternoon I got into the river and removed more of the planking that formed the flumes just below the Scuppernong Spring (see pictures above), and I discovered the 10, huge beams, bisecting the river.

Happily exhausted, I watched the sun set and imagined the river set free.

On Wednesday, I “mowed” the trail from the area around the hotel spring, north up to signpost #13, and then, following the cut-off trail, to the marl pits. I cut a lot of thistle that was about to go to seed and tons of white clover near the marl pits with my brush cutter, which is a lot more handy than a mower for stepping off the trail to get the nearby weeds.

In the afternoon, I cleaned up the area where I removed planks from the river. Some of the oak planks are in relatively good shape and might make interesting components in some artwork. I plan to revisit the stacks and reclaim some choice pieces. You are welcome to do the same. I asked Ben to bring his cordless reciprocating saw thinking we could cut notches in the beams to create gaps for the river to flow through. That was a bad idea and Ben quickly concluded that we needed to dig the beams out. It took the two of us over an hour to remove the beam shown in the picture above, but I think the process will go faster in the future now that we know what we are up against.

Yesterday I returned to The Springs to cut some buckthorn and pull spotted knapweed and found that Andy Buchta had completed piling all the brush near the parking lot on Hwy ZZ. Thanks Andy!

I wanted to finish a strip of buckthorn that separated an area we opened up last Fall from the area near the parking lot that we cleared this Spring shown above.

I had to deal with some technical difficulties with my stump sprayer and chainsaw, its been a while since I cut buckthorn, but I got it done.

I spent the afternoon pulling knapweed on the sand prairie. Although the knapweed is starting to flower, there is a window of opportunity to continue pulling it before it sets seed. Assuming I won’t get it all pulled, I’ll use the brush cutter to mow the remainder (except for the areas dedicated to introducing weevils.) The problem is that its impossible to cut the knapweed without also cutting the surrounding native plants, so I’m trying to pull as much as possible. The good news is that I sent in my permit to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, which I got from Weed Busters, and I should be receiving my Cyphocleonus Achates knapweed root weevils soon. We’ll get the Larinus Minutus Obtusis flower weevils next year (that is how they recommend doing it).

Steve (third from the left below), and his Ecology class from UW Madison, stopped on their tour to say hello as I was wrestling with the knapweed. Did you take a drink of the marvelous spring water?

It’s buggy as hell now at The Springs and my bug net is constantly at the ready. So be prepared if you come out…

See you at The Springs!

SNA Team Visits The Springs

Posted on June 4, 2014 by paulmozina

“This is one of the nicest oak savannahs in the kettles!”, that’s what Jared Urban, with the State Natural Areas Program (SNA), said as we toured The Springs and the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA last Thursday. After 3+ years of steady effort to rehabilitate The Springs, you can imagine how delightful it was to share the results with DNR Conservation Biologists Nate Fayram, Sharon Fandel and Jared Urban.

We marveled at all of the high quality native plants that have emerged in the Buckthorn Alley since we opened it up last winter. We could have spent hours identifying plants just on this stretch of the trail alone. I made some notes and, in an effort to solidify my learning experience, I want to share a few of the plants we found and encourage you to look for them the next time you walk the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail.

Tall Meadow Rue Thalictrum pubescens (Thalictrum polygamum)

Culver’s Root Veronicastrum virginicum Snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae)

Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina (L.) Roth)

Heuchera L. Alumroot

Lilium michiganense (Michigan Lily)

Only a few of the plants identified were flowering and it takes a keen eye to recognize species solely on leaves and stems.

Prenanthes L. rattlesnakeroot

Greenbrier Smilax Rotundifoilia

Red Baneberry & White Baneberry (Actaea rubra & Actaea pachypoda)

Aralia nudicaulis (commonly Wild Sarsaparilla)

Carex pensylvanica Lam. Pennsylvania sedge

Figwort Scrophularia nodosa

Arrow-Leaved AsterAster sagittifolius

Woodland Sunflower Helianthus divaricatus

Ohio Goldenrod (Oligoneuron ohioense)

Shrubby cinquefoil Dasiphora fruticosa

Pimpernel Anagallis arvensis

New Jersey Tea Ceanothus americanus

Viola pedata L. birdfoot violet

Artemisia absinthium (absinthium, absinthe wormwood, wormwood, common wormwood, green ginger or grand wormwood)

Yellow Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum)

We’ve barely scratched the surface of “biotic inventory” at The Springs. It was a pleasure to experience the enthusiasm Nate, Jared and Sharon bring to their jobs as DNR Conservation Biologists, especially when Nate discovered the Yellow Lady’s Slipper. We were at the Ottawa Lake Fen and happened to run into Don Dane and Mike, who were doing a little maintenance on the trail that leads to the back country sites #334 and #335 and Don’s eyes lit up when Nate showed him the pictures. “Don’t tell anybody where they are!”, he cautioned.

One of the things we were discussing was the need to create a burn unit that includes the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA and Don explained that he had in fact been using a forestry mower this past winter to put in a fire break on the west side of the lake extending north to the dog trial grounds. The terrain is really rough and bisected with old drainage ditches from the days when they tried to mud farm the area. I think the SNA team is inspired to create a burn unit in this area. In the meantime, I’ll continue to cut buckthorn along the east shore of Ottawa Lake all the way up to and around the fen.

Yesterday, I continued cutting the buckthorn just east of the parking lot on Hwy ZZ to connect with an opening in the brush we created last winter. I think one more day will do it!

And after 5 tanks of gas in the chainsaw…

Ben Johnson took the afternoon off from his day job and pulled white clover near the old hotel site. I joined him when I finished cutting and then we headed up to the sand prairie to pull garlic mustard, which is rapidly going to seed.

It was a beautiful day and Ben and I took a walk around the trails scoping out where we could get material to fill in behind the bio-logs that the fisheries team installed last winter. We considered hauling the buckthorn that I’ve been cutting by the parking lot but then realized that the aspen we girdled along the river would make the perfect fill. We are meeting Fisheries Biologist Ben Heussner and a group of volunteers at The Springs this Saturday to work on that project. I’ll be out there tomorrow cutting down the dead aspen and getting it ready.

See you at The Springs!

Spring Revelations

Posted on May 29, 2014 by paulmozina

Thanks for tuning into my posts. I hope you will bear with me — I’m trying to absorb some shocking revelations.

Its been 20 years since the events we all know as the Rwandan Genocide occurred and I’d never doubted or questioned the story that the Hutus massacred the Tutsis. So I was stunned to learn that the truth is the exact opposite. Here is James Corbett‘s introduction to his interview with Christopher Black.

Christopher Black is a Toronto-based international criminal lawyer who has spent the last 14 years successfully defending former Rwandan Gendarmerie General Augustin Ndindiliyimana at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In that 14 years, Black has uncovered copious evidence about what really happened in the so-called “100 Days” of 1994 and the four year civil war that led up to it. Today on the program, Black shares that information with us and deconstructs the lies that continue to be propagated about the Rwandan genocide.

Jame’s interview with Keith Harmon provides more historical context…

Keith Harmon Snow has extensive experience in Africa as a journalist, photographer and genocide investigator who attended the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. He joins us today to discuss the 20th anniversary of the “100 days” and how the true story of the genocide (and who was really behind it) has been completely inverted by politicians, the press, Hollywood and everyone else with a vested interest in what happened there.

…as does this article by Keith Harmon Snow.

How could I have been so wrong about something that I thought I knew and firmly believed? It’s humbling, and disconcerting, to say the least.

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell

The Buckthorn Man is attempting to control the present at The Springs — one buckthorn at a time. The last few times out I’ve been splitting the day between cutting buckthorn near the trailhead parking lot in the morning and cutting garlic mustard in the afternoons. The weather was spectacular and the mosquitoes haven’t arrived yet. It was blissful!

This was the scene Sunday morning, May 25th, on the edge of a patch of buckthorn between the trail and Hwy ZZ, just east of the parking lot.

It was slow going but I made some progress.

Then I headed over to the area north of the hotel and cut garlic mustard. The jury is out as to whether or not this approach will work. I’m on my third lap around cutting the areas of major garlic mustard infestation that adjoin the trail. The north and south perimeters of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Preserve are thick with garlic mustard and I plan to work on these areas in the coming years.

Late afternoon at the marl pit bridge.

I love this patch of columbine near the hotel bridge.

Sunset out on the marl pit.

It threatened rain Wednesday morning but it turned into a beautiful, warm, sunny day. I took up right where I left off on Sunday, working on the strip of buckthorn between the trail and Hwy ZZ. There are going to be amazing sunsets over Ottawa Lake that will now be visible from the trail.

I think there is just one more day of work to finish this thicket of buckthorn!

The next series of shots were taken while walking west to east on the cut-off trail. I’ll never forget how my good friend Lindsay Knudsvig ripped a path through the buckthorn back in the fall of 2012. This trail is sweet as can be so check it out if you haven’t done so yet.

The valley of the Scuppernong River headwaters.

The lupine on the west slope of the sand prairie are peeking!

Another marl pit sunset.

See you at The Springs!

Flower Power

Posted on May 24, 2014 by paulmozina

If your heart is burdened come, to the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail and feel the healing flower power. The soothing outbursts of form, color and texture will soften the rough edges in your mind and bring you peace and calm.

Resurgent lymes symptoms knocked me off my horse after the Whitewater Oak Opening burn and I was temporarily blinded to the beauty of life. Yesterday was the first time in two weeks that I felt “normal”. The antibiotics are helping my body heal but it’s flower power that is healing my mind.

Columbine at the Hotel Springs bridge.

Large-flowered Bellwort just around the corner.

Kitten Tails and Pussy Toes near the Emerald Springs spur boardwalk.

Wood Betony and Marsh Marigolds.

This is a perfect time to see a huge variety of woodland flowers at The Springs!

Sleeping seemed like the best option for a while there, but I willed myself back into action last Monday. Siddhartha taught me to listen to the river and Jayne Jenks, with the Waukesha County Parks and Land Use, taught me how to test the water’s quality. I’m now part of the Water Action Volunteers — Citizen Stream Monitoring team and happy with my site on the Scuppernong River, where it crosses Hwy Z, just downstream of its confluence with the South Branch.

I stopped at The Springs on my way there to re-girdle some of the aspen near the hotel site.

Carl Baumann was there removing a huge, dead, black locust that had broken off and was leaning into a cherry tree and hanging over the south end of the trail. Thanks Carl! Our friend Marty came back with his skid steer loader and smoothed out the tracks he laid in the mud this past spring.

Wednesday was my first real day back at work and I was pretty light-headed and emotionally unstable by the end of the day. I started with the chainsaw on the south end of the trail, where I want to extend the sand prairie and continue opening up the “big sky” views out towards the Scuppernong River Habitat Area.

I’ve been focusing on garlic mustard lately, but I need to cut buckthorn to preserve my sanity…

… and balance!

I spent the afternoon whacking garlic mustard on the south end of the loop trail.

When I woke up yesterday, I was raring to go — back to my old self! I started with the buckthorn near the parking lot on Hwy ZZ.

You’ll be able to see the sun setting over Ottawa Lake as you return to the parking lot when I get the rest of this mess cut.

I spent the late afternoon cutting garlic mustard north of the hotel site.

The views of the north side of the river are outstanding.

I missed the sunsets!

Out on the marl pit.

See you at The Springs!

The Adventures of The Buckthorn Man

Posted on April 25, 2014 by paulmozina

I took a break from The Springs this past week and joined forces with other teams of land stewards to help them on their restoration adventures. I was accompanied by Jules Verne, via A Journey to the Interior of the Earth, and the fearless professor Lidenbrock, his thoughtful nephew Axel, and their imperturbable guide Hans.

It was through the character of the unflappable Hans that Verne revealed the essence of the great eastern philosophies. Surrender completely to the present moment. Of all moments past and future, the present moment is the very best; the key to being enlightened.

My journey through the Kettle Moraine began last Tuesday when I helped the DNR burn the Hwy 67 East Horse Trail.

Burn boss Don Dane conferring with line the line bosses Brian and Paul.

Staging at the “anchor”.

The predominately northwest winds were strong — on the edge of the prescription — and the DNR team was extremely careful to lay down extensive black zones on the downwind perimeter of the burn unit beginning at point 6 on the map above.

We finally tied in the lines along Hwy 67 and then the north line team ignited a raging head fire driving flames 20′ high.

I was south of the tree line and missed the show but I did see Paul Sandgren light off the southeast edge of the horse trail.

The burn was a great success!

On Wednesday I joined Natalie Dorrier and her group from Nature’s Classroom Institute shoring up a bank of the Mukwonago River on the north end of what was the Rainbow Springs golf course. Last year, the DNR Fisheries Team, led by Ben Heussner, removed 7 culverts from this stretch of the river. I blackened in a little spot on the northeast section of the map below, where there is a fork in the river, to indicate the area that we worked in.

Rainbow Springs Lake.

The golf course reverting back to nature.

Dick Jenks poisoning buckthorn that he cut the day before. This was the source for the brush used to help stabilize the bank.

We cut more buckthorn along the south side of the river shown above until we ran out of stump poison.

Below is the river bank showing the work they accomplished on Tuesday and where we would continue.

Natalie marshaling her forces.

Passing brush across the river.

We extended the brush line all the way to the rocks where the river forks.

They warmed my heart with a cheer for The Buckthorn Man.

After the work was done, I wandered the property exploring a route that Dick suggested. When I see a beautiful piece of land like this scarred by a golf course, it makes me wish the game had never been invented.

On Thursday I joined: Herb Sharpless (the organizer), representing the Kettle Moraine Land Trust, Volunteers from the Lauderdale Lakes Improvement Association, and Camp Charles Allis, Students from Elkhorn High School and, last but not least, Eric Tarman-Ramcheck , who grew up on this property — to work on the Beulah Bluff Preserve. We focused on the hill immediately below the old homestead site overlooking Upper Beulah Lake to the south.

The students alternated between different tasks including: water quality testing, brush piling, stump treatment and learning how geology and prescribed burning shape the landscape. Herb provided an overview of the project and then we got after it.

Brush dragging and piling.

The Buckthorn Man, Ginny Coburn and Eric got in some good licks with their chainsaws on the steep hillside.

The view towards Upper Beulah Lake.

Who knows, maybe one or more of the young people there will be inspired to continue this restoration work, which is sorely needed.

After we wrapped up at the Beulah Bluff Preserve, I headed up to The Springs to pull some garlic mustard. I was stunned when I came around the bend on Hwy 67 and saw that the forest of towering, girdled, black locust, hulks on the south side of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Preserve property, had been laid waste.

The highway department was worried that any of these trees might fall across the road and they coordinated with Paul Sandgren, Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest–Southern Unit, to bring in contractors to remove them. They closed Hwy 67 on Wednesday to be safe. Steve Tabat was hard at work bucking up rounds of black locust when I got there. He has been cutting timber in the Kettle Moraine forests since the 1970’s — a real pro.

They plan to take down the black locust that I recently girdled in the area where westbound Hwy ZZ leaves Hwy 67 in the very near future. These are very positive steps in the restoration of the property!

Light showers fell as I took a walk around the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail.

New life in old burn rings.

Green algae invades the Emerald Spring. Is this the same species that gave this spring its name?

Brave Marsh Marigolds are blooming.

See you at The Springs!

I Am Not Buckthorn

Posted on April 21, 2014 by paulmozina

The Buckthorn Man has been doing a lot of soul-searching lately. Could his dis-ease be caused by excessive mind-identification? Is his preoccupation with past and future at the expense of the present moment dimming the radiant light of his Being?

In an effort to help him sort out his mess, I’ve recently been listening to The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”

“The past has no power over the present moment.”

Tolle has deep insight into what it means to be enlightened, but there is something missing it seems and I’m not sure The Buckthorn Man will be able to let go of his ego; his excessive need to be right, his belief that HE knows the truth. He might respond that we need to understand our past — the origins of the Powers That Be — to have any chance of responding intelligently to the events unfolding around us every day. The Truth — that which is, that which has actually occurred — does it matter?

The Buckthorn Man has never been one to “go along to get along”; he’s always been an activist speaking truth to power about the 9/11 cover-up, the nefarious origins and dealings of the CIA, the totally insane and misguided “War on Drugs”, the international banking cartel that pulls the levers of power etc… I fear pillow sitting and new age philosophy will never make The Buckthorn Man ignore what he knows.

Last week my mind was troubled and I tried in vain to be in the present moment. I returned to Ottawa Lake to continue cutting buckthorn on the bluff above the lake in the area around and below campsite #380. Here is how it looked when I got there.

The buckthorn were huge!

It was a cold day, hopefully the last for a while.

The views of the lake are outstanding!

I think that will be the last time I cut buckthorn all day until the Fall; I need to give my left shoulder a rest.

The USGS team came out to reset the water depth indicator in the river; someone had pulled it out.

The sights at The Springs.

Don Dane cut a lot of brush with the forestry mower on the south end of the nature preserve. Thanks Don!

I returned a couple days later still trying to adjust to the reality that I would not be going along with Pati to South Africa. I piled brush in an area just 100 yards or so down the main trail, towards signpost #1, that Dick Jenks and I cut last December while tending brush pile fires.

That was a tangled mess and it took me all morning to pile it up.

When I returned to my truck, I was greeted by Jim Davee and he willingly agreed to help me pull garlic mustard by the old hotel site.

I really enjoyed his company and we dug out 3 large bagfuls of the herb/weed and I burned them up with my torch. Ben and Karen Johnson joined us near the Indian Spring and we shared the late afternoon sun.

See you at The Springs!

The Mighty Oaks of Ottawa Lake

Posted on April 12, 2014 by paulmozina

“I got to liberate an oak tree! It felt great.” I was struck when Cameron Barker, a volunteer from the UW-Whitewater environmental group S.A.G.E., said that when introducing himself at the State Natural Areas workday at Little Kestol Prairie.

He was referring to the work he did at the Kettle Moraine Oak Opening back in February and it made me feel as John Nada, the protagonist from the science fiction classic They Live, might have when he encountered another person that could see.

I’ve had that liberating feeling as well these past two weeks cutting buckthorn on the steep hillsides between Ottawa Lake and the campground. Dick Jenks and I started in the area just below the handicap accessible cabin and worked our way south past site #388 to where the bluff gives way to the beach.

We continued this past Wednesday and Friday, working both south and north of the cabin. On the map below, the upper red line represents the area we cleared last year, and the lower line shows where we have cleared this year.

Alfred Korzybski said: “The map is not the territory”, but the bird’s eye view below will help bring it closer to life. Zoom in and note the contrast in water color near the shore. I thought the map was fuzzy there, but it is the surprising emerald color of the water that threw me off.

The views of the lake from the bluff, sans buckthorn, are simply beautiful. I wish I could show you the pictures I took on Wednesday, but I unconsciously deleted them somehow. Below are before and after videos and they do capture some of it.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day with a steady west wind pushing waves across the deep blue center of the lake into the emerald eastern shore.

There are some mighty oaks indeed along the shore and bluff below site #388 and I couldn’t wait to get back there yesterday to finish liberating this regal specimen, which, until Wednesday, had been completely encircled on the north side as well.

The buckthorn look puny compared to the massive oak, but they were huge for their kind.

It’s hard to capture a big tree in a single photo. I’m going to have to learn how to stitch multiple shots together into a panoramic view to do justice.

I then moved to the hillside below campsite #382 to continue the clearing we began in front of the cabin.

There were some massive buckthorns at the base of the hill.

Yes, “I got to liberate an oak tree. It felt great!”

The view from the deck in front of the cabin is glorious; and what a great place to watch birds from! I accidentally deleted the incredibly classic “sun setting over Ottawa Lake” pics I took on Wednesday, so I’ll leave you with the return of garlic mustard instead.

I’m not spraying any poison on the garlic mustard, so I’m hoping you will come out and help pull it.

See you at The Springs!

Adventure in South Africa

Posted on April 3, 2014 by paulmozina

When The Buckthorn Man retired early from the Quiet Company back in February 2012, he made a deal with his mate that he would help her with her business. Pati always dreamed about taking her work as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® and Anat Baniel Method™ for Children practitioner on the road, and she recently accepted an invitation to work with special needs children in South Africa. I’m going to put my chainsaw down for the month of May and help Pati on her big adventure. We’ll be staying at the beautiful Umtamvuna River Lodge, just upstream from the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of South Africa. We plan on doing a week of touring after 3 weeks of Pati’s intensive work with the children. I can’t wait!

Is it just a coincidence that I was listening to Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs when Pati first heard about the opportunity in South Africa and decided to pursue it? And was it just a coincidence that I listened to Mark Twain’s classic time travel novel, A Connecticut Yankee In King Aurthur’s Court, just prior to embarking on my own trip through time? Think twice before you pick out your next book!

Well, I’m going to get my licks in on the buckthorn that is crowding the hillside on the east shore of Ottawa Lake before I go. Anne Korman, Assistant Superintendent of the Kettle Moraine State Forest–Southern Unit, asked us to focus on the area below the handicap accessible cabin at the Ottawa Lake campground.

I’m trying to learn how to use my Canon G15 camera and accidentally left it on a weird setting, so all of my “before” shots are hopelessly blurry. But, Dick Jenks can back me up when I say there was a lot of nasty buckthorn there.

It was a gorgeous day; perfect for cutting buckthorn! Ben Johnson and I are planning on returning this Saturday with a brush cutter to clear the little stuff and do some piling. The “after” pictures below are of the area around and below the cabin panning from north to south.

I was glad to have Dick Jenks and his dog Zeus there to help!

I had scheduled a week camping at My Shangri-La in April and May, but with the trip to South Africa, I’ll have to wait until August for my next reservation. I’m looking forward to seeing the stars, skies, sunrises and sunsets from the perspective of the southern hemisphere; I’ve never been south of the equator.

From Ottawa Lake I headed over to The Springs to rake out ash rings from all the brush piles we burned. DNR trail boss, Don Dane, is going to give us some seed to sow on the barren soil. He also has seed for the sand prairie that we will be sowing. Is there anything more fun than sowing seed?

I took a nice, meditative, walk after my labors were done.

See you at The Springs!

Kettle Moraine Natural History Association

Posted on February 22, 2014 by paulmozina

Well, it’s that time of year. No, not when you start to go crazy anticipating spring weather, it’s Tax Time. What? You haven’t started working on your taxes yet? Pati and I sat down today to collect the numbers and I was reminded of how critical the support of the Kettle Moraine Natural History Association (KMNHA is on Facebook) is to the restoration work we are doing at The Springs. Oh, and the brand new pair of steel-toed muck boots I wore yesterday working in the Buckthorn Alley were also a great reminder as well.

The Kettle Moraine Natural History Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping preserve the features of outstanding interest in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The Kettle Moraine Natural History Association generates financial support through gift shop sales, donations, and membership dues. It has provided matching funds for Stewardship grants. (Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit)

Speaking of grants, last April the KMNHA played an instrumental role in the DNR winning a $75,000 NAWCA grant to continue the restoration of the Scuppernong River Habitat Area, the largest wet prairie east of the Mississippi.

Let me introduce you to the KMNHA board:

Dr. Donald M. Reed — Chief Biologist, Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (check out this link for an example of the scope of Don’s impact.)
Ron Kurowski — Retired DNR Park Naturalist; champion of the Scuppernong River Habitat Area restoration project; editor of The Scuppernong Journal.
Marlin Johnson — Retired UW-Waukesha biology professor and currently the property manager at the UW-Waukesha Field Station. Marlin is also on the board of directors of the Waukesha County Land Conservancy and was instrumental in acquiring the 26 acre Minogue property at the Hartland Marsh, where Pati and I still serve as caretakers.
Susan Lewis — Professor of Biology, Carroll College; Director, Greene Field Station; member, State of Wisconsin Natural Areas Preservation Council
Joicelyn Schwager — Retired Finance Director/Treasurer for the Village of Hartland and the one who signs my checks! The KMNHA pays for all the gear and supplies I use at The Springs and I couldn’t do it without their support.

The KMNHA is a great organization and their, always entertaining and informative, annual meeting is coming up soon. Reach out to Ron Kurowski at:

Kettle Moraine Natural History Association

S91 W39091 Hwy 59

Eagle, WI 53119

or, visit the Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit headquarters to pick up an application, and join the KMNHA and you’ll receive their excellent quarterly publication The Scuppernong Journal. Here’s a sample to wet your appetite.

With all the rain we had this past Thursday, I was glad to have on my new pair of muck boots yesterday; the slush was just an inch or two below the surface of the snow. I’ll try to contain my excitement as I describe the work on the last stretch of the Buckthorn Alley (well, the last stretch of the south side of the trail that is.) The first thing I noticed was that Andy Buchta had piled all of the brush that Ben, Zach and I cut last tuesday.

I really appreciate the way Andy just sees what needs to be done and does it. That enabled me to get right to work on the trail.

The blustery weather continued all day and blew the clouds away.

I cut a swath through the woods to open views to the hills on the south side of the Scuppernong River.

I couldn’t wait to drop my gear off at the truck and take a walk on the cut-off trail to see the effects of the days work from another perspective. In the center of pictures below you can faintly make out the wetland adjoining the Buckthorn Alley trail, where I spent the day and where we have been focused for the last couple months.