Growing up in southwestern Wisconsin, I spent many educational hours with an ear tightly pressed against the heat vent of the second floor hallway of my childhood home. I strained to catch the jokes, gossip, and stories of the grown-ups who sat directly below me around the kitchen table. As the nights wore on, the…
While wandering the lakeshore on a cloudy morning in Autumn of 2018, following a storm that had blown over the day before, I spotted an object washed up by the waves. Lying at the edge of a parking lot on a pile of leaves and bleached driftwood was a piece of birch bark which seemed,…
The Impossible Burger, a non-animal burger gaining popularity, is being marketed as the solution to saving the planet. How? Persuade people to stop eating beef, double production annually, win over consumers with an ‘equivalent’ and cheaper product, and eliminate animal agriculture by 2035. Despite this lofty goal, Impossible is on track—Impossible Whoppers are available at…
Minnesota has shoreline on only one Great Lake, but it happens to be the greatest: largest, clearest, coldest and, until recently, seemingly least vulnerable to various environmental afflictions elsewhere in the five-lake basin. The world’s biggest lake by surface area, Superior happens to hold one-tenth of the fresh water on the face of the Earth.…
We love to talk about weather in the Midwest. At work or the grocery store, small talk almost always begins with, “How much snow did you get?” or “What did you think of the wind howling last night?” or, my favorite, “Cold enough for you?” This banter, however, has taken on a more serious tone…
The greatest part of being a college coach is getting to work with student athletes during one of the biggest developmental stages of their lives. I moved from Bennington, Vermont, to Ashland last April to become the Northland College men’s soccer coach, which means I’ve been here long enough for my family and friends to…
ASHLAND, WI– Larger than normal storms over the last several years are causing issues for Lake Superior, according to a group of researchers at Northland College in Ashland. Researchers there released a study on Tuesday breaking down the impact climate change has on the lake and what issues it’s causing. “Since 2012 we have experienced…
Increasingly larger storms, more frequent heavy rains and higher water levels — likely spurred by global climate change — are not only roiling the waters of Lake Superior but also damaging the big lake’s water quality. That’s the analysis of a “white paper’’ report released Tuesday by researchers at Northland College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center…
A new report from Northland College in Ashland recommends that the United States and Canada rewrite its principal agreement that provides a framework for improving water quality on the Great Lakes. The white paper released Tuesday by the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College highlights water quality concerns on Lake Superior…
Emma Holtan chose to study water science because water is life. And through that lens, she has explored all that the liberal arts has to offer. In addition to working as a researcher at the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation and taking Limnology, she is pursuing a minor in women and gender studies…
