Midwestern Mindset

Monday, October 1, 2018

Everything Our Editors Loved in September

This month we got spooked about animals on drugs, then found solace with M.F.K. Fisher, British bakers, and LeBron James. (And you thought all we did was read about hiking.)

What We Read

I recently read Ticker, a new book by Texas-based writer Mimi Swartz about the history of attempts to invent an artificial human heart. It’s very good, and a great way to learn about the history of heart-transplant surgery and artificial-heart development. The book is set in Houston, Texas, which for decades was one of the most important hubs in the world for research in these areas. Among other fun facts you’ll learn if you read it: if the current most promising model for an artificial heart is ever used, patients who receive one will have full, life-sustaining blood flow, but they won’t have a pulse. (Cue the sci-fi music.)

—Alex Heard, editorial director

I’ve been reading Kate Harris’s first book, Lands of Lost Borders, her story of cycling the Silk Road. The book jacket describes it as a cross between Wild, Lab Girl, and Rory Stewart’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place. And that’s not far off. It really is a great exploration of longing, joy, and, well, exploration.

Oh, and one more thing. I can’t “recommend” these stories, but I’m all up on my soapbox about elephants being given LSD, lobsters on marijuana, and an octopus on ecstasy. I am not anti-drug. But are we just so self-centered that it’s not enough to hoover up every last acre of animals’ habitat? Now we are dosing them—to learn more about ourselves. This whole thing reminds me of those guys in college who would blow pot smoke into their poor pet ferrets’ faces. At one point on its X journey, the octopus reached out for a hug. You can damn well bet no human was there to give him one.

—Elizabeth Hightower, features editor

This month, I read With Bold Knife and Fork, an incredible, somewhat unhinged book by MFK Fisher published in 1969. If you haven’t read her, you must. For Fisher, food is the most interesting subject in the world, and, though I never thought I’d happily read an entire chapter on, say, salad, she had me cackling and dog-earing pages about croutons and her grandmother’s salad dressing. It’s not a cookbook, though there are recipes, and it’s not a memoir, though she recounts, many times, the way certain dishes cement themselves in memory and become the focal point of entire cities, relationships, or periods of life. This book made me want to write wildly, eat joyfully, and drink buckets of champagne.

—Abbie Barronian, assistant editor

I recently moved to New York, and all the bad things everyone tells you about the subway are true, but it has given me a lot more time to read. Earlier this month, I tore through The Idiot by Elif Batuman. I won’t bother explaining the plot, because that’s not why you should read it. Batuman’s writing is among the funniest I’ve ever come across, and it’s uncanny how well she captures the awkwardness of interacting with other people. Since finishing the book, I found myself constantly (annoyingly) referencing scenes from it in real-life conversations. If you still need convincing after this vague description, listen to Batuman’s interview on the Longform podcast and you’ll hear how terrifyingly smart she is.

—Molly Mirhashem, associate editor

I recently picked up Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. The book has been on my list since sophomore year of high school (now a decade ago!), but its heft and dense language always stymied me. Recently, after a few years’ hiatus, I decided to give it another whirl. Now I’m hooked. The book is essentially a very long answer to the question: Why did humans on the Eurasian continent wind up in power, while those on other continents didn’t? The answer, which ultimately explains the reasons for colonizations throughout history, takes 19 chapters and roughly 400 pages. I’m only midway through chapter two, and have gotten as far as 40,000 years ago, when Cro-Magnons built boats and made their way to Australia and New Guinea.

—Ariella Gintzler, assistant editor

I can’t put down All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride by Jaimal Yogis. In a bookstore, you might find it at the intersection of memoir and religion, but Yogis takes on his own special genre in this novel. He gleans wisdom from his travels with Buddhist monks in India, priests in New York, and surfers in Mexico. His writing glows when he talks about our connection to the ocean. And for a person like myself who constantly dreams of waves, this book only reinforced my craving to paddle out.

—Jeremy Rellosa, Buyer’s Guide assistant managing editor

What We Listened To

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Through interviews with ex-employees, Carreyrou depicts the rise and fall of blood-work startup Theranos and its eccentric leader, Elizabeth Holmes. Utilizing family connections and plenty of charisma, Holmes, who was a Stanford dropout in her early 20s at the time, managed to drum up enough money to launch the unicorn biotech startup. But her obsessions with success, Steve Jobs, and the (still unrealized) ability to run detailed tests using an extremely small amount of blood ultimately led to Theranos’s downfall. The story itself is so crazy, as Carreyrou dives into strange details surrounding Holmes’ personal life and work habits, that I couldn’t stop listening.

—Abigail Wise, online managing editor

If you find yourself dreaming of a better workplace, dare I say a better world, please listen closely to Julia Turner’s podcast, Women in Charge. The first episode was like a warm hug for my frazzled worker-mom-boss psyche. I just hope I can hang in there until the next one.

—Hannah McCaughey, design and photography director

What We Watched and Otherwise Experienced

In light of the recent Barstool Sports-gate, it’s hard not to get down on the current state of male culture in America. But this month, I came across Lebron James’ new HBO series, The Shop, where he takes to different barbershops around the country and invites artists, athletes, and activists to speak honestly and open about what is affecting them today. Although the show is mostly male, it’s still refreshing to see a room full of men (and Candace Parker) approach racism, family, and what it means to be an athlete who uses their platform for social change.

—Emily Reed, assistant reviews editor

Now is the time to tune in to the brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Explore.org features a handful of live bear cams, and its Brooks Falls location is especially good—it’s a fish fest there at the moment, and all the bears appear to get along amiably while having a relaxing spa experience before their winter hole-up.

—Tasha Zemke, copy editor

The Great Britsh Bake Off is a form of therapy for me, which is probably why I binged all ten episodes of season eight in approximately one week. For fellow fans, this season was controversial due to two new hosts and one new judge, but I’m happy to say—I liked them! Their awkward British humor and the contestants’ polite civility are the perfect balms for a stressful day.

—Kelsey Lindsey, assistant editor

I was just in Marrakech in Morocco to attend the Pure Life Experiences travel show. One of our lunchtime outings was a tour of the new Yves Saint Laurent museum and his stunning Majorelle garden next door. The garden also contains a really cool Berber Museum showcasing the culture and creativity of one of the oldest cultures in North Africa. Saint Laurent lived in Marrakech for years, and you can see how he absorbed the culture, beauty, and colors of the country into his designs. Then outside the city one day, we hiked in the Atlas Mountains with some of the students in the Education for All Morocco program, which brings girls from remote villages to secondary schools and provides boarding for them. Eighty percent of them go on to college. I was super inspired by them and the gorgeous terrain.

—Mary Turner, deputy editor

I can't believe I’m writing this, but I love the @steak_umm Twitter account. The pure silliness of this brand right now reminds me of simpler times.

—Svati Narula, associate social media editor

Everyone needs to watch Maniac on Netflix, a surreal new TV show about a pharmaceutical trial starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. That is all.

—Jenny Earnest, social media manager

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Pennsylvania trout club project ‘starting to make real difference’ https://ift.tt/2zJjC4J

New Florence, Pa. — The Tubmill Trout Club recently completed yet another habitat project in their namesake watershed.

According to club President Lin Gamble, the project involved the construction of 16 habitat devices – improving approximately 1,000 feet of Tubmill Creek.

Tubmill Creek is a Westmoreland County trout stream that flows into the Conemaugh River. It is stocked by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission as well as the Tubmill Trout Club. The stream is also home to endangered hellbenders, smallmouth bass and some wild brown trout.

The club was formed in 1998, with the goal of repairing the Tubmill Creek watershed that had suffered from years of abuse. This year’s boots-on-the-ground habitat work moves them closer to that goal.

The members’ summer 2018 project on Tubmill Creek included the construction of three modified mudsills, seven framed log deflectors, bank stabilization, the placement of random boulders and building four log cross vanes.

The in-stream work was a joint operation by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission habitat crew and the Tubmill club, which contributed more than 130 man-hours of volunteer labor. The project took five days to complete.

“This is our eighth project on this stream and our club’s 16th project in this watershed, since we began our work in 2008,” Gamble said. “So far these habitat endeavors have improved over 10,000 feet of stream in the watershed benefiting all aquatic life.”

Greg Schaetzle, a watershed manager with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, noted that this and previous Tubmill Creek watershed projects have protected the stream banks and will prevent tons of sediment from entering the stream.

The increased water velocity created by the devices will flush out sediment already present and improve the habitat for fish and other aquatic life. Recent heavy rain and subsequent high water have created deep pools near many of the devices.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy takes pre- and post-project samples of the watershed’s macro-invertebrates. Their samples of mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies and other aquatic organisms are used to measure the improvement of stream habitat.

Partners for the project include the Dominion Energy Foundation, Laurel Highlands Mini Grant Program, Robindale Energy Co., the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, Pennsylvania Growing Greener, and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds.

With favorable weather, the $36,500 project took five days to complete.

Many more people fish these stream sections as compared to just a few years ago, Gamble noted, crediting the improved habitat.

“Our projects have been good for the stream, anglers, the watershed and the economy of the region,” Gamble said.

The stream habitat work will continue through at least 2021, according to Gamble. With funding, next year’s project will improve another 1,500 feet of Hendricks Creek, a tributary to Tubmill Creek.

“With multiple back-to-back projects, we are now getting long lengths of stream that are good to fish,” he said.

“Instead of two spots for fishermen, we now have many good places for people to fish,” said Gamble. “Our work is starting to make a real difference.”

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Minnesota DNR survey sheds new light on spruce grouse population https://ift.tt/2y3KQkn

Grand Rapids, Minn. — The first year of Minnesota DNR’s new spruce grouse survey shed new light on these northern birds that sometimes show up in the bags of ruffed grouse hunters.

A partnership of volunteers, as well as DNR, National Forest Service and tribal staff combined to map out a range for the birds as winter gave way to spring, culminating in Minnesota DNR publishing the results in a 17-page report earlier this month.

“We had no population information,” said Charlotte Roy, Minnesota DNR’s grouse project leader. “When we started, we weren’t quite sure of where the limits of distribution were.”

The survey broke the spruce grouse range down into three regions: a northwest region, or the northern Minnesota and Ontario Peatlands, a northeastern region composed of the Northern Superior Uplands, and a south-central region called the Northern Minnesota Drift and Lake Plains, which doesn’t extend much farther south than Lake Superior.

There were 40 volunteers that contributed, Roy said, noting that it was easier to find volunteers near cities such as Duluth and Two Harbors than in areas such as Red Lake Wildlife Management Area because of the distance volunteers would have to travel for the three-year commitment.

Still, Roy said she was probably most surprised by the level of interest in this lesser-known grouse species.

“There was such keen interest in them,” she said. “They are not a bird that many folks have at the forefront of their hunting or birding goals. I was surprised at the diversity of reasons that people were interested in them, from birders to naturalists to hunters. There were a lot of different types of people that came forward and were willing to dedicate time in participating in the survey.”

Volunteers were trained to conduct a survey on a route, looking for both spruce and ruffed grouse droppings, as well as taking observations regarding tree and cover types. The volunteers made a commitment that they would conduct the survey for three years. That means getting out on a predetermined spot, using a GPS unit, and walking a 100-meter perimeter around it at roughly the time when snow has begun to melt but is still present, making it easier to spot the droppings.

A pilot study determined that surveying grouse droppings was likely the best way to go about conducting the work and trying to build a population estimate and range of the birds. Previously, Wisconsin had used sound call survey, Roy said.

“The birds will respond to that in the spring,” she said. “We tried that but ultimately decided we weren’t getting enough detection to determine population trends.”

Of the three Upper Great Lakes States, only Minnesota has a hunting season for the birds, and as recently as 11 years ago, hunters killed an estimated 27,000 spruce grouse.

But Roy said harvest numbers are not a good way of determining a population estimate because those figures are more driven by the number of ruffed grouse hunters that may be in the woods on a given year.

And because spruce grouse are a northern bird, at the southern extreme of their range in Minnesota, scientists are predicting that the birds will altogether disappear from the Gopher State at some point, as the need for cover and for food shift into Canada.

“I would expect that the temperature would also play a role because of the thermal benefits of snow for roosting and things like that,” Roy said.

Nothing is imminent, but Roy said future decisions regarding the species could be made, but should be made using better science than is currently available.

“We want to make sure that we have good information so that we can manage in a sound way that will allow us to produce good decisions,” she said. “We want to make sure we have this type of information that, if and when the time comes that we have to make changes, we have the best information to do that,” she said.

The initial survey found spruce grouse at 88 sites, which represented 32 percent of the sites surveyed. More sign was found in the northwest portion of the survey region, followed by the northeast region. The survey will be conducted annually. Roy said that the major effort training the volunteers won’t be duplicated again this year, but that if there are people interested in volunteering, they could reach out to their area DNR wildlife office.

There is still work to be done on determining the extent of their range, Roy said.

“We occasionally get reports of birds much farther south than where we are surveying,” she said.

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Hunting, fishing expanded in Ohio wildlife areas https://ift.tt/2zIHLrQ

Oak Harbor, Ohio — For the first time in its history, Ohioans will be able to hunt whitetails at Cedar Point National Wildlife Refuge.

At the same time, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Ohio will see expansion of gamebird hunting, small mammals, furbearers, migratory gamebird, and big game hunting, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the two refuges.

The added hunting opportunities in Ohio are part of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s plan to open more than 251,000 acres to new or expanded hunting and fishing opportunities at 30 national wildlife refuges across the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System. This will now bring the number of units where the public may hunt to 377, and the number where fishing is permitted to 312.

This will open more new acres to hunting and fishing than in the past and takes steps to simplify regulations to more closely match state hunting and fishing regulations. The final rule also outlines expanded hunting and fishing opportunities at 136 national wildlife refuges. The changes will be implemented in time for the upcoming 2018-2019 hunting seasons, according to the USFWS.

“American sportsmen and women contribute over a billion dollars a year to fund conservation. Without hunters and anglers, we wouldn’t be able to conserve wildlife and habitat. And, without access to our public lands like National Wildlife Refuges, many hunters would have nowhere to go,” Zinke said in a news release. “The last thing I want to see is hunting to become an elite sport, rather than a tradition passed on from generation to generation. Today’s announcement protects critical conservation funding, and ensures sportsmen have access to public lands for generations to come.”

Hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities contributed more than $156 billion in economic activity in communities across the United States in 2016, according to the USFWS National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, published every five years. More than 101 million Americans – 40 percent of the U.S. population 16 and older – pursue wildlife-related recreation – hunting, fishing, and birding, among others.

“Hunting and fishing are family activities that pass down from generation to generation. National wildlife refuges provide all Americans with places to hunt, fish, observe the natural world firsthand, and experience the great outdoors,” said Cynthia Martinez, chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System. “We are pleased to be able to offer hunting and fishing opportunities and other recreational activities where they are compatible with national wildlife refuge management goals.”

The USFWS manages hunting and fishing programs to ensure sustainable wildlife populations while also offering other wildlife-dependent recreation on public lands, such as wildlife watching and photography. The refuge system is an unparalleled network of 566 national wildlife refuges and 38 wetland management districts. There is a national wildlife refuge within an hour’s drive of most major metropolitan areas.

More than 53 million Americans visit refuges every year. National wildlife refuges provide vital habitat for thousands of species and access to world-class recreation, from fishing, hunting, and boating to nature watching, photography, and environmental education. In doing so, they support regional economies to the tune of $2.4 billion per year and support more than 35,000 jobs.

Under the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, the USFWS permits hunting and fishing along with four other types of wildlife-dependent recreation, including wildlife photography, environmental education, and wildlife observation and interpretation, when they are compatible with an individual refuge’s purpose and mission. Hunting, within specified limits, is currently permitted on 340 wildlife refuges and 37 wetland management districts. Fishing is currently permitted on 278 wildlife refuges and 34 wetland management districts, according to the USFWS.

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Two invasive species identified as new threats to Michigan https://ift.tt/2y42WCS

Lansing — Spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopper native to China and India, and Japanese chaff flower, a plant from East Asia, have been added to the state’s invasive species watch list due to the threats they pose to agriculture and the environment.

Already found in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, spotted lanternfly is spreading through eastern Pennsylvania. Nymphs (immature insects) and adults suck sap from stems and leaves of more than 70 plants and crops including grapes, apples, hops, walnuts and other hardwood trees.

Japanese chaff flower displaces native plants by forming large, dense stands in floodplains, forested wetlands and disturbed habitat. It currently is found along the Ohio and Big Sandy rivers, reaching counties in nine states including Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Spotted lanternfly nymphs are wingless and beetle-like, with black and white spots, developing red patches as they mature. Adults are roughly 1 inch long. Their folded wings are gray to brown with black spots. Open wings reveal a yellow and black abdomen and hind wings that are bright red with black spots transitioning to black and white bands at the edge.

Though spotted lanternflies cannot fly long distances, they lay eggs on nearly any smooth surface, including cars, trailers and outdoor furniture. Freshly laid eggs have a gray, waxy, putty-like coating, while hatched eggs look like rows of brownish, seed-like deposits.

“If you’re visiting areas known to be infested with spotted lanternfly, just be sure to thoroughly inspect vehicles or anything left outside before returning to Michigan,” said Joanne Foreman, invasive species communications coordinator with the DNR.

Japanese chaff flower grows up to 6 feet tall, with opposite, simple leaves and a bottle brush-shaped green flower with no petals. Deer heavily browse this plant, and seeds spread by attaching to animals and clothing.

“Spotted lanternfly and Japanese chaff flower aren’t known to be in Michigan, but because they’re confirmed in nearby states and because of the potential damage they can cause, early detection is vital,” Foreman said.

For more information or to report sightings of spotted lanternfly or Japanese chaff flower, visit michigan.gov/invasives or contact Joanne Foreman, (517) 284-5814.

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