Friends of Plum & In this Edition: Feature Articles Pilot Islands, Inc. • Photo Exhibit in Mayville Where History and Nature • Historic Furnishings—Call For Help • Audio Tour for the Listening Meet at the Door! • 2018 Annual Report Link Founded in 2007 • Ticks—Be Prepared • 2019 Events—Mark Your Calendar! • 2019 Work Days—See you Then Forum • Annual Meeting and Picnic • Fourth Annual Sunset Cruise www.plumandpilot.org Spring 2019 Island Inspirations • Beacons to the Past on Plum Island Hello Friends and Supporters, Light Lessons • Schooner Grape Shot Isn’t it wonderful to wake up to the melodious birdsong? There is a cardinal Book Review that sits in the tree near my bedroom window, insisting he’s a rooster, Our Supporters stirring the neighborhood. Hearing Mother Nature awaken from her sleepy • Island Clipper hibernation calls to us for our 11th season on the Green Bay National Wildlife • Nicolet Bank Refuge. We have some wonderful plans this season, including: lead abate- • Shoreline Charters ment on the Life-Saving Station and paint shed, window preservation/ • Washington Island Ferry restoration (through a partnership with the National Park Service) on all • Hotel Washington and Studio buildings, gutters on the Life-Saving Station and Pilot Island Lighthouse, testing for potable water on Plum Island, connection to the Washington Donors Island electricity grid, pollinator plantings, picnic table building and many New Members more tasks in store to enhance your visit to the Refuge. We always welcome additional hands, so please contact Volunteer Coordinator, Jim Schwartz, The FOPPI Forum is the membership if interested in helping ([email protected]). journal published four times a year by the Friends of Plum & Pilot Islands, Inc., Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released the final draft for people who care deeply about the of the official Visitor Services Plan (VSP). This strategy addresses all aspects of restoration and preservation of the visitor services with emphasis on the evaluation of historic buildings for use historic maritime structures of the as visitor contact stations / interpretation, and criteria for opening new land Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge. acquisitions to visitor use for the next 5 to 10 years. We are excited to have this in place so we can align our Strategic Plan with the VSP. An open house will be held on Washington Island in May for public review. FOPPI Forum back issues can be found at the Washington Island In April, members of our Board of Directors and Volunteer Leaders met at Archives, WI Marine Historical Society, the Horicon NWR for a ‘Friends Mentor Retreat’ weekend, awarded to FOPPI WI Maritime Museum, Egg Harbor Public in 2018 by USFWS. We worked together to develop strategies for building Library and the Wisconsin Historical financial capacity, redefined goals, objectives and priorities to preserve and Society Archives. restore the historic maritime structures, and learned a bit more about each other. An intensive program for the next 12 months, it has integral check- points to keep us on track to meet defined goals. Stay tuned for updates in future newsletters and blog posts. We will be participating in a number of festivals like the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium, Door County Maritime Museum’s Classic Wood Boat Festival, Washington Island Fair and Death’s Door Barbeque. Please stop by and visit our booth! We were at Canoecopia (the world’s largest paddling expo) in March and met many folks interested in our projects and eager to come and volunteer. Also, mark your calendars for the Bird and Lighthouse Festivals, our Annual Member Picnic, the Fourth Annual Sunset Cruise, and USFWS Mentoring Retreat Weekend at the Explore Plum Island. See you soon! - Mary Beth Horicon National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, Mayville. Friends of Plum & Pilot Islands Forum - Spring 2019 Page 1 Feature Articles— Good Things Are Happening Kim Krueger, Matt Foss and Mary Beth Volmer are working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife historians, James Myster and John Lauber to prepare a Historic Furnishings Report for the Plum Island Life-Saving / Coast Guard Station. The report will document the furnishings that were in the building between 1939 and 1969, to guide in the acquisition and/or reproduc- tion of like pieces. The intended research will be done through photographs, movies, journals, letters and oral history from Coast Guard personnel and their families who served at the Plum Island If a picture is worth a thousand words, visitors to the Station. If you are interested in joining the HFR team, please Horicon National Wildlife Refuge now can take in a few contact [email protected]. chapters of Plum and Pilot Islands’ story. On display into May, a gallery wall at the Refuge Visitors Center, W4279 Headquarters Road, Mayville, show- cases colorful photos taken by Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands members. Thank you to Dave Edwards and Tim Sweet for coordi- nating the exhibit. And thanks to Tim, Amanda Above left: photo from restored Old Harbor Life-Saving Station Danforth, Elaine Hilmer, Amy Lesnjak and others for within the Cape Code National Seashore. Right: Plum Island Life- sharing their artistic vision. - Patti Zarling Saving Station. https://www.plumandpilot.org/audio-tour.html is the link that will take you on a very special audio tour to places we love. Created by Gorton Vieth in 2018, the free app izi.travel (produced ‘easy dot travel’), can be downloaded to most smartphones. Once in place, you’ll be on the way to learning more about numbered topics (above) from a desktop, laptop or even while you are hiking on Plum! Friends of Plum & Pilot Islands Forum - Spring 2019 Page 2 Feature Articles— Odds, Ends and Ticks Do you count on winter weather to kill off various insect pests? Best to keep up your vigilance for ticks all year round. Here’s a caption correction from the The University of Rhode Island TickEncounter Resource Center Winter Forum for reports that the blacklegged (deer) tick, which can carry Lyme adjacent photo. disease, is not killed or even necessarily dormant during winter. Deer ticks can withstand freezing temperatures and Misidentified as the may be active any time the ground is thawed, temps are Resumption, this ship is above freezing and they are not covered by snow. The Depart- the Mary Ellen Cook, abandoned near ment of Entomology at UW-Madison reports adult deer ticks Sturgeon Bay. Thanks can be active any time the temperature gets above 40-45F. again to the John Chris- According to the American Lyme Disease Federation, people tensen Family for sharing are most likely to become infected with Lyme disease by tick the picture. Editor. nymphs during the summer because they go unnoticed due to their small size: just one tenth of an inch in length. Adult ticks are larger and more likely to be noticed, and so people often remove them before becoming infected. The likelihood of infection depends on whether or not the tick carries the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, and how long it feeds on a person. According to the Department of Entomology, the most com- mon Midwest ticks found on people and pets are the deer tick (also called the blacklegged tick), the wood tick (also called the American dog tick), and the lone star tick which is abundant in southern Illinois but not Wisconsin. Their website has images to help identify the different varieties of ticks at different life stages. Although we've been taught to beware of ticks attaching to our legs while walking in tall grass and brush, in one study 63% of adult ticks were found attached on the head, neck and upper torso. When volunteering within the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge and on Plum Island, please watch for ticks. The Tick Encounter Center recommends: • Wear tick repellent clothing treated with permethrin, especially your pants. • Tuck in your shirt. • Perform tick checks, looking for adult ticks, after outdoor 2018 Annual Report is available online at https:// work or play. www.plumandpilot.org/annual-report.html • Throw clothes in a hot dryer for 5-10 minutes before Photo by Dawn Nelson. washing to kill any lingering ticks that may be attached to work clothing. • Report any ticks found either biting or loose to Tick Spotters, America’s crowd-sourced tick survey. Another option for reporting and identifying ticks isThe Tick App from UW-Madison. • Protect your pet. Spend time after being outdoors with Left to right: deer tick, wood tick, and lone star tick. them to check their fur, skin folds, ears and collar area. Photos are not actual tick size. - David Stack Friends of Plum & Pilot Islands Forum - Spring 2019 Page 3 2019 Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge and FOPPI Events MAY JULY 5/17-5/19 – Washington Islands Birding Festival 7/27 – Fourth Annual FOPPI Sunset Cruise Join FOPPI’s Sunset Cruise through beautiful Death’s Door Passage. Enjoy close-up views of Plum and Pilot Islands, part of the Green Bay National Wildlife Event located on Washington Refuge. Learn about the light- Island, includes side trips to houses and historical maritime Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge’s Plum Island and Rock structures found there, and help FOPPI’s campaign to Island State Park. Includes: Bird Banding capturing, band- restore them. Rain date 8/03/19. See page 7 and purchase ing, recording data and releasing birds); Birding Hikes led tickets online at: http://plumandpilot.org/ by experts; and Big Sits at locations where experts have recorded over 90 bird species in a single day! Registration: AUGUST http://www.wianc.org/bird-festival 8/10-8/11 – Door County Maritime Museum Classic & Wooden Boat 5/25-5/26 – Door County Festival of Nature Festival The Ridges Sanctuary partners with local Held during Maritime Week in conservation groups, like FOPPI, to offer Sturgeon Bay.