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“The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.” Terry Tempest Williams An Outdoor Classroom: Tagging along with Mr. Cochrane’s Ecology Class The twenty or so students who comprise the Sturgeon heads. In comparison, the green cedars, white pines and Bay High School Ecology Class are standing beneath trailing arbutus surrounding us look lush; they’ve been towering evergreen trees on a chilly spring morning in “photosynthesizing” every day the temperatures allow it, late April. Their teacher, Mr. Carl Cochrane, is standing mining even the stingiest March sunlight for energy. This before them. He spreads his arms wide, takes a deep is their adapted way of extending a short growing season breath and says, “Look around. This is one of my and getting the energy they need before the next harsh favorite places in all of Door County.” He starts to teach winter arrives. and by the time he’s finished, it’s one of mine, too. Aside from the coniferous plants, there is something even more noteworthy about where we’re standing. We are on top of a ten-foot wide ridge flanked on either side by deep swales. There is standing water at the bot- tom of each swale and as far as we can see, the pattern repeats itself – ridge, swale, ridge, swale, ridge, swale – twenty three parallel beach dunes that were “written” on the land by lake levels higher than those of today. For those who know how to read the landscape, there are stories to be had here, and this one says that we are liter- ally standing on ancient shores. Mr. Cochrane moves the class along the ridge, talking as he goes, stopping to answer their questions as they experience the forest. “Mr. Cochrane, What’s that bird we just heard?” (“A blue jay…the bell call of a blue jay…unusual.”) “What animal left this scat?” (“A mink or weasel.”) The immediacy of the teaching moment is I am tagging along on the Ecology Class field trip and powerful. we’re visiting what is known locally as “the Ship Canal The class moves forward stopping for occasional quick property.” The Door County Land Trust is in the process lessons ranging from fungus and duff formation to of trying to purchase this property for conservation pur- Emerson and Thoreau’s transcendentalist views of poses.To learn more about its unique attributes,I took nature. We reach the end of the trail and are rewarded Mr. Cochrane up on his invitation to join his class for a with a spectacular view of Lake Michigan and the Ship field trip. Canal lighthouse. Mr. Cochrane is telling the students that we are stand- It’s a quick retreat back to the waiting school bus and ing in a coniferous forest, a rarity this far south. He asks their next classes. The students and I leave the Ship his students why this microcosm of plants usually found Canal property knowing more about this place we call 300 miles north is here on the 45th parallel. They throw home.I can't help thinking how fortunate we are to out answers like “short summers” and “colder weather have teachers like Mr. Cochrane and places like the Ship by the lake;” he nods and pushes them further. “How Canal property, for them to use as outdoor classrooms, have evergreens adapted to colder climates?” A student living examples of the lessons they teach. mumbles “photosynthesis” and Mr. Cochrane shouts “Yes! Is that birch tree doing photosynthesis right now?” Laurel Hauser The students look at the bare branches and shake their April, 2009 Door County Land Trust - PO Box 65, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin 54235 920.746.1359 • www.doorcountylandtrust.org erial photo of the Ship Canal by Jeff Davis. All other photos by Julie Schartner or contributed. A The Human History of the Ship Canal Property: Portages, Passages and Potatoes… A Special Place One of the first records of the “Ship Canal Property” was an 1835 “sketch map” which included the heavily travelled Indian portage trail stretching from the shores of Lake Michigan to “Big Sturgeon Bay.” Hand-written notes from the surveyor stated simply: “land all poor, soil poor. Timber – cedar, tamarack, hemlock.” By the second half of the nineteenth century, logging had become big business in Wisconsin. Forests bordering Green Bay and Lake Michigan were clear cut to create farmland and to provide lumber to the growing cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. The lumber was shipped by way of the aptly named “Death’s Door,” the treacherous and often deadly passage around the Door peninsula. Lumber ships and lumbering interests fought a tough political battle in Washington D.C. to have the “Any time a community owns Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal built and thus eliminate 150 miles of this voyage. Construction began in 1872, and in 1879 the schooner Rarely is ecological diversity of this magnitude found on one tract of land, but such a geological rarity, “America,” loaded with lumber for Chicago, was the first ship such is the case with the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal property, a 332-acre undevel- which usually is rich in both through the passage. In the early days, ships were charged a toll for oped parcel located within the city limits of Sturgeon Bay along the shores of plant and animal life, the passage through the canal. Lake Michigan and the south side of the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal. people should guard it very Over the years, portions of the Ship Canal Property were used, For the past seven years, the Door County Land Trust has been quietly jealously. What innumerable unsuccessfully, to grow cranberries and later, with better results, working with the Sturgeon Bay Utilities, owners of the property, on the possible potatoes. The Roder brothers, Carl and Donald, ran a potato farm on purchase of this land and the establishment of a public nature preserve.Years recreational and educational a small portion of the land in the 1950’s finding the sandy, cool soil of hard work by the Land Trust may finally be rewarded as the opportunity to opportunities lie there.” to be ideal. Mary Roder Jeanquart recalls an older relative taking her purchase and protect this special place is now before the Land Trust and the Roy Lukes, naturalist little sister’s palms and rubbing them in the soil, introducing the Door County community! toddler to the good potato-growing earth. More recently, the Ship Canal property has been the site of several large-scale development proposals including a coal-fueled power plant and an aquatic-based industrial center. But despite all the speculations and plans to develop this special place, the community has continued to enjoy its magnifi- The Ecology of the Ship Canal Property: cent beauty and the recreational opportunities it provides. It is the aspiration of the Door County Land Trust to ensure Dune Thistles, Ancient Shorelines and Rest for Weary Warblers… that the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal property is permanently protected and remains the inspirational place that it is today. The eastern-most edge of The numerous natural communities found here support a the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal truly amazing diversity of wildlife habitat. Rare and threat- The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve: property is 750 feet of ened species such as the dune thistle, dwarf lake iris, dune sandy, picturesque Lake goldenrod and Minfan’s moonwort fern all call this place A Community Asset Michigan shoreline. home. It is also one of the region’s most critical migratory Proceeding inland, the cur- bird resting spots. In addition to migrating warblers, birds Purchasing a 332-acre tract of waterfront property is an ambitious and expensive endeavor. To accomplish this feat, the Door County Land Trust is working in part- rent shore gives way to open such as bald eagles, Caspian terns and osprey all utilize this nership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsin’s Knowles-Nelson sand dunes and the repeat- area. A breeding pair of osprey have established a nest Stewardship Fund, members of the Door County Land Trust and other community ing “ridge/swale” landscape overlooking the property. members to raise the funds needed to protect this special place. Under the Land of ancient shorelines similar Due to its outstanding ecol- Trust’s ownership, the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal property will remain a place of unspoiled beauty and be open to the to that found at the Ridges ogy, the Sturgeon Bay Ship public for wildlife viewing, hiking, swimming, fishing, hunting and other nature-based recreational activities. Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor. Canal property is eligible for While it is hard to place a dollar figure on the value a well-managed nature preserve has for a particular neighbor- Gracing these ridges and State Natural Area (SNA) des- hood or community, we do know that in this day and age of over-developed landscapes, people are attracted to and swales is a boreal forest ignation by the Wisconsin want to live in and visit communities that have protected their open spaces and natural places. comprised of white pine, Bureau of Endangered The opportunity to have a premier 332-acre nature preserve within Sturgeon Bay city limits is an opportunity many hemlock and red maple. The uplands here offer magnificent Resources. SNA status is con- regions around the country would relish. The Door County Land Trust and its partners welcome the chance to pre- views of the canal and lake below. On the far western por- ferred only upon those places serve the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal property and enhance the quality of life in this area for visitors and residents alike tion of the property, an extensive wetland and lowland high in ecological, scientific now and far into the future.

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