#northwoods — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #northwoods, aggregated by home.social.
-
Hype for the Future 224H: Lake County, Michigan
Overview Lake County is a notable county in the northwestern portion of the State of Michigan and does not border any of the Great Lakes, in spite of the name of the county, with the community of Baldwin serving as the county seat. Today, the county is notable for serving as home to the Shrine of the Pines, Logger’s Landing in Luther, and the Rockwell Lake Lodge in the northeastern portion of the county, along with the iconic Harper Lake Resort in the northwest as well as a number of […]https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/hype-for-the-future-224h-lake-county-michigan/
-
Hype for the Future 221K: Antrim County, Michigan
Overview Antrim County is a notable rural county located within the northwestern portion of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and along the Lake Michigan shoreline of the State by way of the East Arm Grand Traverse Bay. Today, the county is notable for the communities of Elk Rapids, Bellaire, and Mancelona, with the community of Bellaire serving as the county seat and Routes 31 and 131 serving the respective communities of Elk Rapids and Mancelona. Within the Elk Rapids area, notable community […]https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/hype-for-the-future-221k-antrim-county-michigan/
-
Hype for the Future 204N: Route 8 in Northern Wisconsin
Introduction The Route 8 corridor is a notable east-west corridor located almost entirely within the State of Wisconsin between the Minnesota Twin Cities and a community known as Norway, Michigan. The portion of the highway in the State of Wisconsin is notable for consistently avoiding communities of 5,000 or more residents throughout the entirety of the route, including the Cities of Rice Lake and Rhinelander. City of Turtle Lake The City of Turtle Lake is a notable smaller community in […]https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/05/23/hype-for-the-future-204n-route-8-in-northern-wisconsin/
-
So, while #EuropoeanEarthworms can be beneficial in gardens, they are not native to #Maine, and are actually an invasive species! (Native Maine earthworms were wiped out a long time ago, it seems...)
Invasive #Earthworms Rediscovered in #NorthernMaine #Forests
January 2022
"University of Maine researchers recently discovered invasive earthworms from Europe in Aroostook County, Maine timberlands, in what they say is the first reported sighting of the creatures in northern Maine forests since 1979. The finding raises concerns that the worms may cause changes in the forest ecosystem, from a slowing of tree regeneration to a release of carbon from the soil.
"Joshua Puhlick, formerly a research associate at the UMaine School of Forest Resources and now a scientist at The Jones Center at Ichauway in Georgia, found the worms while sampling soils as part of a sustainable forestry initiative at three research plantations. 'We were collecting soils and looking at the influence of forestry management on soil properties when we happened to discover earthworms at two of our sites,' he said. 'It was a pretty big deal to find them because we weren’t expecting to see them in northern Maine.'
"European earthworms were found in all 18 research plots at the Nashville Plantation along Route 11 and in 2 of 15 plots near the Seven Islands campsite on the St. John River. At least two different species of non-native worms were identified.
"Native earthworms were extirpated from Maine and much of the rest of New England during the last Ice Age. European earthworms eventually found their way to most of the region through discarded fishing bait, the transportation of horticultural materials, and on logging machinery, but they weren’t believed to be widespread in northern Maine.
"'Earthworms can cause a lot of abrupt changes in forest ecosystems and influence forest health, and many natural resource managers are becoming increasingly alarmed about the presence of earthworms in Maine forests,' said Puhlick. 'Invasive plant species find it easier to make their way into forests after earthworm invasions, and that impacts tree regeneration. Worms also consume a lot of the organic horizon – the litter and duff layer – and redistribute some of it within the mineral soil, which changes carbon dynamics and could potentially release carbon back into the atmosphere.'
"The worms prefer forests of northern hardwoods because the leaf litter is less acidic than in coniferous forests, Puhlick explained, although earthworms have been reported in mixed forests as well. #SugarMaple forests are a particular concern.
"'This isn’t a new phenomenon in New England, but we often worry about the decline of sugar maple health,' he said. 'These earthworm populations can cause changes in soil dynamics that could lead to declining health in sugar maples. That’s something we’ll have to continue to evaluate.'
"Puhlick recommends that land managers in northern New England document where earthworm populations are found and monitor changes to forest conditions over time. They should also implement practices that will minimize the spread of earthworms and limit new introductions of worms across the forested landscape.
"'There are #ClimateChange impacts to our forests, invasive plant species, and now this,' he said. 'It’s just one more issue that forest managers are going to have to face.'"
Source:
https://northernwoodlands.org/discoveries/invasive-earthworms#InvasiveSpecies #WormWednesday #NorthWoods #ProtectTheNorthWoods
-
Here's an idea -- instead of building a transmission line through untouched woods, why not put wind power and transmission lines on land already used for timber harvesting!
Northern #Maine transmission line gets key vote from state regulators
By Kevin Miller, Maine Public, October 26, 2022
"Longroad Energy’s proposed King Pine project which won a bid from the PUC on Wednesday would feature more than 160 wind turbines scattered across 175,000 acres of commercial timberlands north of Oakfield. At roughly 1,000 megawatts, the King Pine project would be Maine’s largest wind power facility, by far."
#CleanEnergy #WindPower #HydroQuebec #NorthWoods #SaveTheForests #SaveMaineForests
-
Maine energy: Much delayed US-Canada hydro project gets go-ahead
By Robin Levinson-King, BBC, April 20, 2023
"#Environmental groups also challenged the permits over concerns about the project's impact on #Maine's #NorthWoods.
"In November 2021, the state held a referendum on whether the project should be cancelled. More than 400,000 people showed up to vote - a huge turnout for a state with a population of 1.3 million.
"Last August, the state's Supreme Court weighed in on the case, ruling that the referendum could not be retroactively applied if CMP had vested rights, kicking it back to a lower court to determine the extent of those rights.
"Thursday's ruling sided with #CMP, who had already spent $450m on construction before the project was halted."
#Hydropower #NaturalResourcesCouncilOfMaine #NRCM #Avangrid #CMP #CleanEnergy #Forests #SaveTheForest #SaveMaineForests