Just Different

TRAIL CONDITIONS: POOR. Will require a great deal  more  snow before trails  can be groomed again.

NO SKI FOR FREE UNTIL ADEQUATE SNOWFALL

 

                                                                           Fewless2

Door County is just different. Our rocks are different; our weather is different; our plants are different. That is why the Master Gardeners have invited botanist Gary Fewless to Crossroads on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00  to present the lecture:  “Flora of The Niagara Escarpment.”
 
To a geologist, an escarpment is a steep cliff  and indeed, we have an escarpment along the Green Bay side of the Door Peninsula. But when people talk about the Niagara Escarpment, they usually are refereeing to a 1000-mile long rock formation which stretches from Niagara Falls to Wisconsin. The Door Peninsula is part of this rock arc  which formed some 430 (or so) million years ago and was revealed by the advances of Ice Age glaciers.
 
 Across the length and width of out peninsula,  soil, weather, and habitat conditions vary considerably.
 
 Take the actual escarpment,  for example. The temperatures at the top of the cliff are significantly higher than temperatures at the water level. That makes sense. Hot air rises and cold air sinks.  But that means growing conditions are substantially different.
 
And weather? On the Door Peninsula, isolated weather events seem to be the rule rather than the exception. Door County is a collection of microclimates.
 
 Soil depth varies noticeably and soil pH is just as variable. Think about forests and wetlands. In most places, the soil of  bogs and conifer forests is acid. But here, where surface water seeps out of  our dolomite bedrock, it is alkaline. Microhabitats just inches apart can vary in pH.
 
 Door County is made up of an array of  different microclimates and microhabitats, many having conditions that are hostile to most common plants.
 
 Common plants [dandelions immediately come to mind] can survive and flourish in a broad range of growing conditions.  Rare plants are rare because they can’t grow just anywhere.  But rare plants tend to be adapted to specific and usually hostile conditions. 
 
In her beautiful book Journey in Green Places, Virginia S. Eifert described rare plants as “the haves and the have-nots—they are the ones which manage to live with too little water or with too much water, in too much sun or in too much shade, in too much acidity or with too little nitrogen, in too much heat and too much cold, in too long a winter and too short a growing period, in too much wind or in too little air.
  
“These are all situations to be abhorred by many plants. Yet in this situation of starvation and physical punishment which might destroy those which are native to lusher regions, I find a different assortment of plants in each kind of habitat.”
 
 The Door Peninsula is justifiably famous for its biodiversity, not because it has ideal plant-friendly environments, but rather, it boasts  a variety of extreme microhabitats  in which rare plants, adapted to hostile growing conditions, do not have to compete with aggressive common species.
 
In his lecture, Fewless will discuss Niagara Escarpment and the plants that make our peninsula so different and so special. Using stunning images, he will discuss that plants of the escarpment including the rare species.  He also will describe threats to the escarpment and its flora.
 
The Friday Film for February 3 was selected for people who miss our summer birds. The Wisconsin Public Television documentary explores more than 2,000 miles of the journey Wisconsin’s migratory birds make every year, looking at the perils faced by our migratory birds and how people in Wisconsin and Latin America are working to save them.
 
 Trails at our three preserves are free and open to the public 24-7. For trail  maps and current trail conditions, and cancellations, visit www.crossroadsatbigcreek.org   The Collins Learning Center, located at 2041 Michigan Street just east of the roundabout in Sturgeon Bay, is open 2:00-4:00 daily and during scheduled activities.
 
 
 

Thursday, Feburary 2
 
1:00-3:30 (snow conditions permitting) SKI FOR FREE
 
Friends of Crossroads lend ski equipment and snowshoes, free of charge, to residents and visitors of Door County. Go to the Maintenance Building where you will be fitted and then sent out onto our trails to get in touch with nature. Dress for the weather. When in doubt, check the Crossroads Website for current conditions and closures.
 
 
 
 
 
Friday, February 3
 
2:00 Friday Film: Our Birds
 
This Wisconsin Public Television documentary explores more than 2,000 miles of the journey Wisconsin’s migratory birds make every year, looking at the perils faced by our migratory birds and how people in Wisconsin and Latin America are working to save them. Lecture hall of the Collins Learning Center. Free and open to the public.
 
 
 
Saturday, February 4
 
1:00-3:300 (snow conditions permitting) SKI FOR FREE
 
Friends of Crossroads lend ski equipment and snowshoes, free of charge, to residents and visitors of Door County. Go to the Maintenance Building where you will be fitted and then sent out onto our trails to get in touch with nature. Dress for the weather. When in doubt, check the Crossroads Website for current conditions and closures.
 
 
 
Sunday, February 5
 
1:00-3:300 (snow conditions permitting) SKI FOR FREE
 
Friends of Crossroads lend ski equipment and snowshoes, free of charge, to residents and visitors of Door County. Go to the Maintenance Building where you will be fitted and then sent out onto our trails to get in touch with nature. Dress for the weather. When in doubt, check the Crossroads Website for current conditions and closures.
 
 
 
Tuesday, January 24
 
Master Gardener Lecture: Flora of the Niagara Escarpment
 
Door County’s landscape is famous for its scenery and botanical delights. The Niagara Escarpment dominates the peninsula.  Join Master Gardeners as botanist Gary Fewless, emeritus curator at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay herbarium, explains the relationship between this major geological formation and the plants that make this place so special.
 
 
 
Gary Fewless is a retired botanist and emeritus curator at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay where he was Herbarium curator and a lecturer in botany and ecology for 33 years. He has life-long interests in the wild plants of Wisconsin and their natural communities, and has created illustrated web pages for Wisconsin trees, ferns, wetland plants, invasive plants and others.
 
 
 
The programs are free and open to the public. Lecture Hall of the Collins Learning Center.
 
 
 
Coggin Heeringa
Director, Crossroads at Big Creek, Inc.
2041 Michigan
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin 54235
920-746-5895
 

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