Finally...snow!

We have been getting light snow all day. The brown grass is finally covered with a nice blanket of snow.

Congratulations Sustainable Bayfield!

Great news, another Chequamegon Bay city has adopted the principles of sustainabilty. Last week on 12/13/2006, the City of Bayfield passed a resolution adopting the Natural Step principals of sustainability.

This includes reducing what we take from the earth's crust, reduce the pollutants we emit, protecting the natural systems that provide drinking water and food, and meeting the basic needs for humans all around the world.

Way to go all the Bayfield citizens who worked on the resolution and wrote Earth Care: Choose, Consume Recycle - Living a Sensible Life in Bayfield. You can download it here.

See the Sustainable Bayfield blog.

Lake Levels are the lowest in 80 years

Sioux River Beach 12/19/2006

Winter 2007 Newsletter

Our newsletter will be mailed out on December 14.

If you would like to receive a copy in the mail, please contact the Bayfield Regional Conservancy office at brc@brcland.org and we will add you to the mailing list.

You can become a member by donating to the BRC. Your gift is tax deductible as allowed by law. Your gift supports the protection and preservation of natural areas in the Bayfield region. Every penny stays here!

Pie Cherries

Every July, for only a week or so, cherry pickers would come from hours away to pick pounds of pie cherries from Betzold's Orchard. When you took your buckets to the fruit stand, Viola Betzold would weigh them up and send you down to the pitting machine.

Viola and her husband Gene, grew all kinds of crops for over 50 years: strawberries, rhubarb, apples, pears and cherries. With their children all pursuing other careers, Viola started to think about the future of the land she had lived and worked on for most of her life. Before Gene died in 1999, the couple had begun looking into the possibility of preserving the property as a farm. In December of 2005, The Town of Bayfield Farmland Preservation Program (which BRC administered) purchased the development rights on Betzold's Orchards to keep the land open for farming in the future. I really enjoyed working with Vi through the process and got to know her strong feelings for preserving the land that had such fine soils for growing fruit.

This November Viola passed on. Although her death seems too soon (she should've been able to enjoy retirement) I know that she felt great about making sure the farm was preserved.

Lake Ice

This has been the first week of real winter weather. Bayfield has about 6 inches of snow, and Lake Superior is starting to get ice along the shores.

The fishing boats are still going out every day.

Hello from Lake Superior

Today I am starting a blog to reflect on nature, our latest conservation projects and phenology along Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin.

Our small land trust has members from over 24 states, Sweden and Germany that are interested in what's going on in Bayfield when they are not here. I hope that this blog will provide a window into the natural world, and our attempts to preserve special natural areas that make this place so beautiful.