Inject life into winter: Seeking pools of life, eagles, fish and conservation

Welcome back from a spectacular winter weekend. At last. Cross-country ski trails bustled. Swiss Valley boasted a wealth of snow on its ski slopes. Anglers drilled lake ice for fish. Snowmobiles whined across the area’s groomed trail systems.

And shutterbugs snapped photos of precariously unsafe but spectacular ice shelves along Lake Michigan — not to forget ice on the St. Joseph lighthouse that looks like white whiskers.

Now what? It’s a gamble to predict what this week’s rain and above-freezing temperatures, plus refreezing, will do to the landscape.

The snowy base will likely survive, minus the fluffiness. Lake ice will deserve even more caution and testing before venturing out onto it (remember your spud bar, ice picks and life preserver).

So, with an eye on conditions, here are other things to watch and do to inject life into winter.

Pondering tiny pools

After the copious winter snows melt, followed by spring rain, shallow pools of watery life form — called vernal pools — that look like mere flooding to a hiker. But these temporary waters, which dry up by summer, are bustling with tiny organisms if you were to look up close.

To help us understand the surprisingly critical and vulnerable life of vernal pools, there will be a series of free presentations in the coming months. Among the two presenters, Amy Gillan of South Bend is the Berrien County coordinator of the Michigan Vernal Pool Patrol — an effort to verify and map vernal pools. So far, the Patrol’s website claims they’ve documented 829 pools out of potentially more than 5,200 across Michigan (vernal-pool-patrol-mnfi.hub.arcgis.com). Gillan is a retired science education professor at Saint Mary’s College. She’ll be joined by Pat Fisher, head of the Harbor Country Hikers.

Their presentations, Gillan says, will teach you steps you can take to help protect and monitor vernal pools, mostly as citizen scientists. The indoor learning sessions will all be similar. But, as we get into spring, there will be hikes to study the pools. Here’s the schedule so far:

∎ Feb. 6: 6 p.m. at New Buffalo Public Library, 33 N. Thompson St., New Buffalo (indoors)

∎ Feb. 26: 6 p.m. at New Buffalo Public Library (for youths)

∎ March 2: 1 p.m. at Fernwood Botanical Garden, 13988 Range Line Road, Niles (indoors)

∎ March 23: 1 p.m. at New Buffalo Nature Study Trails at New Buffalo Elementary School, 12291 Lubke Road (vernal pool monitoring)

∎ April 6: 1 p.m. at Love Creek County Park, 9292 Huckleberry Road, Berrien Center (indoors) and 2:30 p.m. (vernal pool monitoring)

∎ April 27: 1 p.m. at Warren Woods State Park in Three Oaks (vernal pool monitoring).

Goodbye, cabin

If you skied the “Cabin Loop” trail this past week at Love Creek County Park in Berrien Center, as I did, you noticed something was missing. Namely, the cabin — that old, tar-papered house that trail users often saw with the stone chimney that was tucked in the woods, always a curious spectacle, always vacant. It is no more.

As I’d reported a year ago, park managers had hoped to convert it into an open-air pavilion. But, as work began on removing the walls just before Thanksgiving, they discovered that it wasn’t as sturdy as they’d hoped, park manager Derek Pelc says.

They left the stone fireplace and chimney, thinking it could be preserved. Johanna Simpson had built it herself with stones that her husband, Dale, had gathered. The Simpsons, who’ve since died, had built and used the cabin until decades ago. But the chimney was compromised, too, Pelc says. So the crew cleared it down to the concrete slab.

They kept stones from the fireplace and chimney, hoping to reuse them in a new shelter. Pelc says managers are looking for a kit for a permanent shelter to build there, likely not this year but soon in the future. The funding is there. The local Bitzer Family Fund had donated $40,000 for the cabin’s conversion to a shelter.

WinterFest, fish derby

WinterFest comes back to LaPorte on Jan. 26-28 with an ice fishing derby, ice sculpting, family activities and free ice skating all weekend on the city’s rink at Monroe and State streets downtown — you know, if conditions permit.

The Pine Ice Derby on Pine Lake will run from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. CST Jan. 27, if the ice safely survives this week’s rain. Registration will start at 5 a.m. Everything is based out of the Blue Heron Inn, 1110 Lakeside St. Cost is $60, with proceeds to benefit the local charity DeCamp Band of Brothers. Cash prizes will be given for the longest smallmouth and largemouth bass, crappie, northern pike and bluegill. There will be a 50-50 raffle, too. Chili and hot dogs will be served for $5. The Sundays Sons Band will start performing at 3 p.m. To register, find a link at https://laporteparkandrec.com/winterfest. For questions, call 219-380-9947.

A “Frosty” one-hour bike ride will launch at 1 p.m. CST Jan. 27 from the Cummins Lodge, in the city’s Soldiers Memorial Park, with hot chocolate and snacks to follow.

Find an afternoon of embracing the snow Jan. 27 at Red Mill County Park, west of the city at 0185 S. Holmesville Road, LaPorte (from U.S. 421 just north of the Indiana Toll Road, go east on Snyder Road). Make snowflake crafts from noon to 2 p.m. CST, join Arctic animal survival games from 2 to 3 p.m., go snowshoeing with a naturalist from 3 to 4 p.m., do a night hike at 4 p.m. and join a campfire with storytelling and S’mores from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Eagle watches

Look for American bald eagles where they congregate for the winter in Indiana. Join the Indiana Audubon Society for three-hour field trips via a car caravan, meeting up at 2 p.m. Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, around Salamonie Lake, which is just east of Wabash. You’ll drive to various sites to view eagles roosting and feeding, just ahead of breeding season. Registration costs $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Register via an eventbrite.com site linked inthis column online.

Also, Turkey Run State Park in Marshall, Ind., will host its annual Eagles in Flight Weekend on Jan. 26-28 with caravan eagle tours, songbird banding demonstrations and presentations on eagles and other birds. Find the full schedule of events and register in an eventbrite.com site linked here in this column online. Cost for the weekend is $20 per adult, $15 for ages 6-15 and free for ages 5 and younger. That’s in addition to gate fees.

Frosted Fat Tire race

The Frosted Fat Tire race hits the flat half-mile loop on frozen dirt or snow with teams of four riders racing on fat bikes Jan. 28 at The Pit Fitness Ranch at 14791 Hoffman Road in Three Rivers, Mich. They’ll race either 25 miles (50 laps) or 50 miles (100 laps). Top winners compete for cash.

Online registration ends at 5 p.m. Jan. 25. Cost is $62.50 per rider or $250 per team. On-site registration (if slots are still available) costs $70 per rider, $280 per team. There will be fires and food and drink available throughout the day — complimentary for racers and for a minimal donation for spectators. This includes coffee, beer, soup, chili, barbecued pulled chicken sandwiches and homemade sugar cookies. Learn more and register at frostedfattire.com.

Conservation and nature

∎ New conservation group: There’s an effort to start a grass-roots group in Elkhart County that would organize the removal of invasive species and promote conservation. If you’re interested in helping in any way, small or large, come to a meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Goshen Public Library, 601 S. 5th St., Goshen. Such a group is known as a Cooperative Invasives Management Area, or CISMA.

∎ Bird Beaks 101: Learn how each bird beak is adapted for different things as you look at several taxidermy birds in the Elkhart County Parks’ collection at 6 p.m. Jan. 29 at Bonneyville Mill County Park in Bristol. This free program for all ages will meet in the basement of the park’s Baldwin Schoolhouse. Register by Jan. 28 at www.elkhartcountyparks.org.

∎ Wildlife conference: Are you concerned for the Indiana waterways that sustain wildlife? That will be the focus of Indiana Wildlife Federation’s annual conference Feb. 3 at the Drury Plaza Hotel Indianapolis Carmel, 9625 North Meridian St. Organizers invite the public to come learn from various speakers. Jordan Lubetkin from the National Wildlife Federation will discuss Indiana’s role in the Ohio River Restoration. Bob Barr with the IUPUI School of Science/Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences will talk about what’s needed to maintain healthy streams as the landscape continues to be modified and as the climate changes. And there will be a panel discussion with representatives from the White River Alliance, Kankakee River Commission and Blue River Commission. It will start with registration at 8:30 a.m. and end with a reception at 4 p.m. The cost, including a meal, is $75 for nonmembers, $55 for members and $35 for students. Register at indianawildlife.org/annual-conference.

∎ Tapping Day: Help to start the maple sugar season at Bendix Woods County Park in New Carlisle, set for Feb. 10, when you get to tap the maple trees. If weather conditions look unfavorable, the back-up date will be Feb. 17. Parks staff will make that call by early February. You must sign up for this free event by Feb. 7 at 574-654-3155. Activities will begin at 10 a.m. as the park provides tapping bits, drills and other tools, plus guidance on what to do.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Seek bald eagles ice fishing vernal pools and conservation in winter