March: More light, and stirrings of spring

Umwelt,

                March 1, 2024

            March: More light, and stirrings of spring

            Frontenac State Park Association newsletter
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2024
Mist shrouds a prairie area in Frontenac State Park  on a late-winter morning. We saw more fog and mist in February than snow. What an unusual winter this has been! What weather will March bring? No one knows for sure.  / Photo by Steve Dietz
March: More light, and stirrings of spring
It’s been a disconcerting winter for those of us who love traditional Minnesota weather. And it’s made it tricky for us newsletter folks to write about what’s coming next at Frontenac State Park, weather-wise—heck, who even knows anymore?
Yet as March arrives, we find ourselves feeling Minnesotans’ traditional anticipation at spring’s imminent arrival. (Presumably, spring, unlike winter, will not bypass us.) And we’re excited about the great activities coming up this month and in the year to come.
In this issue of the newsletter (our 12th! It’s been a year now since we launched it), you’ll read about those events, as well as a review of the year past, an introduction to the fascinating concept of Umwelt, odes to Baltimore Orioles and skunks, and more. Read on!
Gilled mushrooms won’t make their appearance for a few more weeks, but you can start looking for pretty early polypore fungi now. These fresh turkey-tails (Coriolus versicolor) growing on a woodpecker-decorated birch log were spotted in the woods near a park trail in early February. / Photo by Pamela Miller
Looking back: 2023 in the park
At our Frontenac State Park Association’s quarterly meeting in February, park manager Jake Gaster shared a rundown on 2023. Some highlights:

2023 attendance included 184,286 day users and 18,573 campers. Camping numbers were similar to those in previous years, but day use was down—the lowest since COVID years, but still higher than the 150,000 of pre-COVID. Why? Prolonged summer road construction that closed Hwy. 61 in both directions and intense summer heat are probably to blame. (See the graph below on park attendance through the past few years).

The park conducted 11 prescribed burns—820 acres of the park’s 2,500 acres burned and refreshed for native prairie plant growth.

November’s weekend hunt harvested 35 deer, more than in the past few years. (Don’t worry—there are plenty left!)

Goats will be back in 2024, this time in paddocks to the east high along remote bluffside trails. They’ve done such a good job of eating invasive shrubs over the past few years that many areas are now ready for yearly burns.

Thanks significantly to the FSPA, the park put on 52 programs in 2023, serving 1,410 visitors. Volunteers (many from the FSPA) gave 2,710 hours of volunteer time to the park, of which 597 hours were spent on public programs.

Frontenac State Park attendance was lower in 2023 than in COVID years, but higher than the years preceding the pandemic. Last year’s major road construction and extreme summer heat were likely factors.
Our Feb. 24 candlelight walk was a beautiful success. About 400 people came to the park to walk the candlelit trails, with many stopping by the picnic shelter and trail bonfires to visit with FSPA volunteers and enjoy the treats we provided. We love meeting you! Thank you for coming out! / Photo by Earl Bye
Looking ahead: Mark your calendar for 2024 events
As Jake told FSPA members at our February meeting, the park’s 2024 focus will be on its sprawling newest tract of land along County Road 2 Boulevard. southwest of Hill Avenue. (It’s so beautiful! We’ll write more about it in an upcoming newsletter.) Initial goals include restoration of natural areas and establishment of a more extensive trail system in the property. After that—depending on whether state funding can be procured—goals will include construction of a day use area with parking and other amenities, as well as creation of walk-in campsites.
Meanwhile, the park and its FSPA will present a plethora of fun, fascinating events in 2024. Here’s a list! (It’s pretty long, so the second part is at the bottom of this newsletter.)
March 2024
Saturday, March 16, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Janet Malotky and Steve Dietz, Sand Point Trail; meet at the Sand Point parking lot.
April 2024
Saturday, April 6, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA member Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, April 20, 9 a.m.-noon: Sand Point Trail spring cleanup (volunteers welcome!).
Saturday, April 27: Free park entry day; FSPA will have a welcome table with free snacks from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the main picnic shelter.
Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m.-noon: Ranger Jake Gaster will lead a walk-and-talk focused on post-fire ecology, leaving from the picnic shelter.
May 2024
Saturday, May 4, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Janet Malotky and Steve Dietz, leaving from campground kiosk.
Friday, May 10: Governor’s Fishing Opener weekend, with Gov. Tim Walz visiting Lake City. We’ll have a guided nature walk from 1 to 2:45 p.m., leaving from the Sand Point trail parking lot.
Saturday, May 11, 10-11:30 a.m.: Guided mushroom habitat walk with FSPA member Pamela Miller, leaving from campground kiosk.
Tuesday, May 14, 10-11: Nature Explorers: A new one-hour activity program for preschoolers with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger. May’s topic is birds. Meet at the main picnic shelter. (Look for an interview with Sara and more information on her upcoming monthly children’s programs in April’s newsletter.)
Thursday, May 16, 3-4:30 p.m.: Quarterly FSPA meeting, main picnic shelter. All are welcome.
Saturday, May 25, 8-10 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Janet Malotky and Steve Dietz at Hok-Si-La Park just north of Lake City. Meet in the Hok-Si-La parking lot.
Saturday, May 25, 9-10 p.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Sunday, May 26: Raptor program with Jackie Fallon (watch for details in upcoming newsletters).
(For activities in June and beyond, scroll to the bottom of this newsletter.)
A Red-Bellied Woodpecker busied itself gathering food in the park. All winter, the red-bellieds (whose alleged red bellies are less noticeable than the red atop their heads) scold us with their familiar shrill chur-chur-chur call. / Photo by Steve Dietz
Notes from the field: Mind your Umwelt
By Steve Dietz, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Blue skies over Frontenac. At least that’s the color we humans see. / Photo by Steve Dietz
Inquiring youth are known for all kinds of philosophical musings besides "why," including about the color blue. Pointing up at a gorgeous summer sky, they might say something along the lines of: The sky may look blue to both of us, but how do we know we’re seeing the same color? 
Years later, I am reminded of this conundrum by some fascinating illustrations perused while link-trawling the Internet. Who knew puffins have fluorescent bills?
I knew from reading Ed Yong’s magisterial “An Immense World” (it should be next on your reading list, if you’ve finished Bernd Heinrich”s  “Winter World,” reviewed by our illustrious editor last month) that at least a partial answer is Umwelt, the German word for the world as it is perceived by a particular organism. As Yong writes:

Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal can only tap into a small fraction of reality’s fullness. ... There is a wonderful word for this sensory bubble—Umwelt ... the part of those surroundings that an animal can sense and experience—its perceptual world.

For example, bees see the common black-eyed Susan with a central “target,” which attracts them. And while humans do not not fully understand why Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) have photoluminescent bills, they do, and it is possibly related to “billing behavior,” linked to sexual signaling. Northern Mockingbirds - birds in general - see a “UV-blue” sky (which is colored magenta for human consumption in the false-color photograph below).
Upper left: A bee’s-eye view of a black-eyed Susan. Note that what is uniformly yellow to the human eye has a much darker center when a bee sees it. Upper right: Two Atlantic Puffins. Their bills are luminescent to each other. Lower left: A Northern Mockingbird, barely visible among tree limbs to the human eye, has a fluorescing white wing bar when seen by other birds. Also, birds see the sky as a different "UV blue" due to their ability to see UV wavelengths. Lower right: A Northern Mockingbird. The wing bar does not stand out so strongly to human vision.

Yong describes numerous other Umwelten, such as fish that “see” directional water pressure changes—a perceptual ability inaccessible to us humans.
In this image, Jevbratt simulated the tetrachromal (four-cone) vision of a chicken, right, compared to trichromal human sight.
In her Zoomorph project, artist Lisa Jevbratt simulated an app that would allow you to use your camera phone to photograph the world more like how other species see it. When we are shown the color world of other species, which we often view as “less than” us, we learn that in fact they’re sometimes “seeing” more than we do and usually quite differently.
Jevbratt writes

“it is a humbling experience that invites us to start questioning humans’ self-proclaimed position on the top of a species hierarchy.”

Mind your Umwelt.
Here’s a primo spot to mind your Umwelt from—a nifty newish bench at the end of the little dead-end path that heads down toward a wee pond from the trail that heads up the hill by the park’s storage building toward the campground. / Photo by Pamela Miller
Skunks: We salute them! Er … from a distance
Ten species of skunk live in the Americas. Minnesota is home to two—the striped skunk and the spotted skunk. The former  is by far the most common. / Photo by (obviously brave) interpretive naturalist and FSPA member Bruce Ause
By Pamela Miller, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Long, long ago, when your newsletter editor was growing up in Old Frontenac, people routinely let their dogs run loose (a bad idea for so many reasons, most prominently because packs of domestic dogs are extremely dangerous). Our big old mutt, the lovable, hapless Alfie, occasionally slunk home with a muzzle pocked with porcupine needles that we had to pry out, or, worse, reeking of skunk. We’d bathe him in tomato juice, but he’d still be canine non grata for a few days. (Experts now say to skip the tomato juice and bathe your stinky pet with a mix of hydrogen peroxide or white vinegar, baking soda and liquid soap.)
But honestly, Alfie had it coming for messing with Mephitis mephitis—a striped skunk. We were reminded of his adventures lately when we started seeing (and smelling) signs of skunk in and around the park. They’re out of hibernation a bit early this whacko winter. 
Skunks are an anomaly in the mammal kingdom, which generally prefers gray and brown fur. No camouflage for them—their dramatic coloring makes them easy to spot from half a mile away. They’ve evolved thusly because once an animal has been sprayed by a skunk, it learns to avoid that black-and-white thing like the plague (unless, like the aforementioned Alfie, it’s not that bright), saving time and trouble for both said animal and the skunk.
Other things to know about skunks, courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:

They’re usually pretty easygoing. Skunks only spray when they feel trapped. And they’ll warn you—if you observe a skunk hissing, grunting and stamping its little feet, Run like a son-of-a-gun, Mabel! It’s about to blow! Skunks have the ability to emit a stream or misty cloud of that musk (we salute the scientist who stuck around long enough to record that fact).

Skunks are largely nocturnal, using their acute sense of smell to look for food by night. They eat mice, frogs, insects, nuts, fruit, corn, carrion, honey from bee hives (they’re apparently oblivious to bee stings) and yes, garbage. They’ve been known to kill roosting chickens—boo! But they also eat huge quantities of Japanese beetles—yeah!

In the fall, skunks chow down to fatten up, and when winter arrives, they retreat into burrows or dens, where several females and one male will curl up together for warmth and go into what’s called torpor, a metabolic slowdown that’s less intense than the deep hibernation experienced by some other creatures. When the weather warms up, they emerge for short hunts for food. That’s why we’ve seen more of them out this winter.

In spring, female skunks isolate and dig their own little dens, where they give birth to four to six kits. They become fiercely defensive, quite willing to fight with other animals, even male skunks, to keep them at bay. The kits weigh less than an ounce apiece when born, and are nourished by their mother’s milk. Their eyes open at about four weeks, and at six weeks they emerge from the den to play and explore.

A group of skunks is called a “surfeit,” which means too many (we salute the wry creator of that term). But since they’re largely solitary except during hibernation, a group you’d see would most likely be a mother with her cute little kits. Back away slowly, Mabel.

Only one creature appears to be oblivious to skunk spray—the great horned owl. (Though your newsletter editor has smelled a deer or two at her bird feeder that seems to have hung around a skunk for too long.)

Yes, skunks can harbor rabies—they’re the Minnesota mammal most likely to contract it, since a poor addled rabid animal won’t be deterred by skunk spray. We live in skunk country: Be sure to keep your pets vaccinated against rabies.

An Old Frontenac resident snapped this photo of a group (surfeit) of baby skunks born in a window well outside his house. They are kind of cute. / Photo by Mikkel Gardner
Bird notes: Our friends from … Baltimore?
By Janet Malotky, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
When my husband and I were considering a move to the Driftless area, we took a stroll along the waterfront in Pepin, Wis. It was fall, and there weren’t a lot of birds along all that concrete, but several Baltimore Orioles were leapfrogging from tree to tree. We rarely saw them where we lived at the time, just west of the Twin Cities, so we were enchanted.
Baltimore Orioles are charismatic birds, easy to love with their colorful attire and bird-feeder friendliness. Fortunately for folks around here, they are a common sight and sound in Frontenac State Park from late spring to early fall. 
But where are they the rest of the time?
Baltimore Orioles breed here, but overwinter from southern Mexico through Central America and northern South America. A few small populations winter in Florida. During our winter holidays, most of them are hanging out in humid tropical forests, gleaning bugs and caterpillars from the leaves, noshing on small fruits and piercing tropical flowers to sip the nectar. At least some are surrounded by the sounds of oropendolas, macaws, toucans, and monkeys.
Even in this strangely warm Minnesota winter, that sounds like heaven to me. Why would they ever think of leaving?
The answer: bugs, bug-adjacent critters, and nectar-producing flowers.
Baltimore Orioles will be back in Minnesota in early May. / Photo by Steve Dietz
By early February, their migratory itch sets in. Changes in the length of day—even the slight changes near the equator—cue them to head north toward our seasonal bounty of emerging caterpillars, insects and flowers. Those annoying mayflies that swarm (harmlessly) from the river? The tiny caterpillars dangling by silky threads from the oak tree? Yummy! Just the things to feed the kids!
By the time you’re reading this in March, Baltimore Orioles winging northward along the Atlantic coast of Central America will be arriving in Mexico. By April, they’ll be in Texas. From there, they spread across the United States east of the Rockies in a northward surge to their breeding grounds.
Our birds head up the Mississippi flyway. We’ll see them in the park in early May. When they arrive, they will have traveled up to 2,500 miles. Some fly non-stop across the gulf of Mexico—that’s 500 miles!
You can bet they’ll be hungry when they get here. Go ahead and put out some grape jelly if you’d like. They love it, and it’s instant energy for them after their long journey. They’ll enjoy jelly all summer long, but once their chicks hatch, they’ll increasingly turn to more protein-rich sources of food. This is where migration timing is crucial.
A female Baltimore Oriole. / Photo by Steve Dietz
Baltimore Orioles arrive, build nests, incubate eggs, and hatch their chicks just when there is a profusion of the insect and larval food they need to successfully raise their young. That is how it has worked forever.
But the changing climate is shifting emergence dates for flowers, insects, and larva. There is real concern that these shifts will no longer align with migration patterns, greatly impacting the reproductive success of our migratory birds. Grape jelly is not even a Band-Aid in the face of this threat. Protecting our birds is going to require us to rally every which way we can: in our own backyards, yes—but also on the national and international stage.  
I will never forget the sad eeriness of walking through parks in parts of China where birdsong was piped in electronically because there were no more living birds there. That cannot be our future, nor the future for our Frontenac State Park Orioles.
Help us restore our park’s one-of-a-kind sign!
In the center is the original 2007 sign, which has rotted (left). At right, the “makeover” that blew off in 2023. / Photos by Jake Gaster
For many of us, whether we were coming back from a long trip or just returning from a grocery run or heading up into the park for some hiking and camping, we knew we were in treasured territory when we’d see our brightly colored, one-of-a-kind Frontenac State Park sign. 
Sadly, in 2023 a replacement sign blew down in high winds and the sign underneath, which was raised on the 50th anniversary of the park in 2007, is rotting and coming apart, which is why the newer sign had been overlaid.
Even sadder, if understandable, Minnesota’s DNR is standardizing all park signs across the state and will not fund “non-compliant signage.” The standardized signs, while smart-looking, lack the color and uniqueness of our historical sign. 
We love our unique sign! So your Frontenac State Park Association is seeking to help raise $5,000 to install a new—and sturdier—rendition of the iconic park sign we all know and love. Please consider sending a tax-deductible contribution in any amount to: Treasurer, Frontenac State Park Association, 29223 County 28 Blvd., Frontenac, MN 55026-1056, and note “FSP sign” on your check. All donors will be acknowledged in the FSPA newsletter at the conclusion of the campaign. 
Thank you! And if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Steve Dietz, president of the Frontenac State Park Association (stevedietz@duck.com).
Longtime FSP/A stalwart Wally Siewert inaugurates the new Little Library he built for the FSP campground. / Photo by Steve Dietz
A Wild Turkey surveys a spring scene in the park. If you approach a bunch of them in the woods, they’ll flap away in a mighty startling rush. / Photo by Bruce Ause
Poem of the month
*Note:  We had stashed away Ralph Waldo Emerson’s magnificent poem “The Snowstorm” for March, but now doubt we’ll have a bonafide snowstorm to honor it. So we picked a less dramatic poem for what’s going to be a month of uncertain weather.
“Thaw”
Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed

The speculating rooks at their nests cawed

And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass,

What we below could not see, Winter pass.

—Edward Thomas (British; 1878-1917)
Returning soon to our park (the geese are already here): Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes. / Photo by Steve Dietz
More park activities! (continued from above)
Here is our list of 2024 park activities from June to December, continued from above:
June 2024
Saturday, June 8: Free park entry day; FSPA will have a welcome table from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the main picnic shelter.
Saturday, June 8, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk  with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, June 8, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Tuesday, June 11, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers: Wildflowers, for preschoolers, with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger, main picnic shelter.
Saturday, June 15, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m.-noon: Ranger Jake Gaster leads a walk-and-talk on post-fire ecology, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, June 22, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky along Prairie Loop Trail, leaving from park headquarters.
Saturday, June 22, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, June 29, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
July 2024
Saturday, July 6, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, July 6, 7 p.m.: Starry, Starry Night program with the Rochester Astronomy Club, beginning with a 45-minute presentation at the picnic shelter before star viewing from the main parking lot.
Tuesday, July 9, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers: Insects, for preschoolers, with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger, main picnic shelter.
Saturday, July 13, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, July 13, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, July 20, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, July 20: Butterfly count (watch for details in upcoming newsletters).
Saturday, July 27, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, Sand Point Trail. Meet at the Sand Point Trail parking lot.
Saturday, July 27, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, July 27: Mussel program (watch for details in upcoming newsletters).
August 2024
Saturday, Aug. 3, 9-11 a.m.: Ranger Jake Gaster leads a talk-and-walk on native plants, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 3, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 10, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 10, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Tuesday, Aug. 13, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers: Wildlife, for preschoolers, with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger, main picnic shelter.
Thursday, Aug. 15, 3-4:30 p.m.: FSPA quarterly meeting, main picnic shelter.
Saturday, Aug. 17, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 24, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky along Prairie Loop Trail, leaves from park headquarters.
Saturday, Aug. 24, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 31, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Aug. 31, 7 p.m.: Starry, Starry Night program with the Rochester Astronomy Club, beginning with a 45-minute presentation at the picnic shelter before star viewing from the main parking lot.
September 2024
Sunday, Sept. 1: Falcon program with Jackie Fallon (watch for details in upcoming newsletters).
Saturday, Sept. 7, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.: Seed-gathering work day for FSPA members  (volunteers welcome!).
Tuesday, Sept. 10, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers: Seeds, for preschoolers, with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger, main picnic shelter.
Saturday, Sept. 14, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept.14, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 21, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Sept. 28, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, Sand Point Trail.
Saturday, Sept. 28, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
October 2024
Saturday, Oct. 5, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 10-11 a.m.: Nature Explorers: Trees, for preschoolers, with interpretive naturalist Sara Holger, main picnic shelter.
Saturday, Oct. 12, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Oct. 12, 11 a.m.-noon: Fungi habitat walk with FSPA member Pamela Miller, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Oct. 19, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Oct. 19, 10 a.m.-noon: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, leaving from campground kiosk.
Saturday, Oct. 26, 10-11 a.m.: Nature walk with interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause, leaving from campground kiosk.
November 2024
Friday, Nov. 9, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, Sand Point Trail. Meet at the Sand Point Trail parking lot.
Saturday, Nov. 16, 9 a.m.-noon: Invasives removal work day for FSPA members (volunteers welcome!).
Friday, Nov. 29: Free park entry day; FSPA will have a welcome table from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the main picnic shelter.
December 2024
Saturday, Dec. 7, 9-11 a.m.: Guided bird walk with FSPA members Steve Dietz and Janet Malotky, Sand Point Trail. Meet at the Sand Point Trail parking lot.
Here’s something we weren’t particularly happy to find in the park in February—invasive garlic mustard. Mercilessly opportunistic, it’s one of the first plants to pop up when it gets warm, and this year, that was February. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), which emits a soil chemical that discourages more desirable native species, should be pulled out by the root as soon as possible to prevent its spread. (Make pesto from it! Lots of pesto!) Also out early this year—deer ticks. Check yourselves after hikes, especially if you bushwhack or walk through tall grass. / Photo by Pamela Miller
Interested in joining the FSPA?
We’d love to have your support (dues are $25 per year for an individual, $35 for dual/family membership). Here is a link.
A reminder that  joining us occasionally to help the park out with volunteer efforts is awesome too, even if you’re not a member. The FSPA’s goal is simply to share our love of Frontenac State Park with as many people as possible.
To sign up to regularly receive this monthly newsletter, click on “Subscribe” below. Feel free to send questions or comments to your newsletter editor at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com. Questions about the FSPA? You can reach FSPA chair Steve Dietz at stevedietz@duck.com.
A Herring Gull gathers ice. Why? We’re not sure. Perhaps for a gulltini? / Photo by Steve Dietz
Handy links for more information and education
Frontenac State Park website

Frontenac State Park Association website

If you take pictures in the park, tag us on Instagram

Frontenac State Park bird checklist

Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist

Parks & Trails Council

Website for our township, Florence Township

Minnesota Master Naturalist program

Red Wing Environmental Learning Center

Lake City Environmental Learning Program

Visit Lake City
Frontenac State Park staff
Jake Gaster, park manager; Amy Jay, assistant park manager; Amy Poss, lead field worker
Parting shots
Birches along the park’s somewhat remote Santelmann’s Fire Break trail, which heads up the bluff off of Hill Avenue, last March. / Photo by Pamela Miller
A late-winter sunset along the crest of the park road. We’ll be turning our clocks forward an hour early on Sunday, March 10, which will make for later sunsets, and later walks in the park. / Photo by Pamela Miller
Thank you, readers and park visitors!
This is Volume 2, No. 3 of the Frontenac State Park Association newsletter, which was launched in April 2023.

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