Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

end Yellowstone
March 8, 1996. Received invitation to give Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. I
was working through a pile of mail received while gone and came across a brown envelope from
University of Edinburgh, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor's Office. Since I once in a while get
solicitations for gifts through this office, I almost tossed it unopened. But then I thought, "That one
looks a little different," and opened it to my great surprise. Sutherland's invitation letter is dated 27
February 1996.
Minnesota Wolves
March 28-April 3, 1996. Ely, Minnesota, and the wolves, via Milwaukee and Marquette University.
Thursday, flew to Milwaukee, Friday, spoke at Marquette. Saturday, flew to Duluth and rented car,
drove to Ely. Duluth has broken snow cover, but by the time I got to Ely there was solid snow pack,
often 3 feet or so. Crossed the Laurentian Divide, which is where water goes three ways, to the
north into Hudson's Bay, or into the St. Laurence, and south into the Mississippi. The Mesabi
Range here is the site of the largest iron mines in the world. The Range Cities are the towns in this
area. The Arrowhead country is this general northeastern Minnesota, which looks like an
arrowhead. Checked into Trezona House B&B, Lynn Olson and Jim MacDonald, owners. He is
from Scotland. Winter temperatures here can be 60 o below!
Sunday, March 30. Visited International Wolf Center in the morning, wolf flight in the afternoon.
My host is Paul Hansen, P. O. Box 121, Ely, MN 55731. 218/365-7217. He is from Minnesota and
works partly with the Mech wolf project, partly teaches at Vermillion Community College. Doing a
M.S. on kit foxes from a school in Texas. Sigurd Olsen was long dean at Vermillion Community
College, and left his mark there. This is the jumping off point for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Main host: Susan Meisner, Vermillion Community College; she is in charge of environmental
studies.
Spent the morning at the wolf center; there are four wolves in a pen outside a large picture window.
Interpreter's talk. Lunched at restaurant adjoining Piragis outdoor store, a famous one here, with
Jim Brandenberg gallery also adjoining.
The study is a National Biological Survey study. The local director is Mike Nelson; I met him
Monday afternoon. There are twelve wolf packs on which they have collars, about one animal per
pack. There are about 2,000 wolves in Minnesota, lots more packs than this, and the population
has been steadily expanding southward. One kind of collar is an ordinary radio collar, another is
a capture collar that has two needles that can be radio-triggered to dart the animal. These are
expensive and cost about $ 2,500 versus about $ 250 for the ordinary ones. There are maybe 50
wolves in Michigan, maybe 50 in Wisconsin. The Isle Royale population is not all that far from here,
on Isle Royale (in Michigan, in Lake Superior), and Paul Hanson is to lead an ecology class there.
That population has been followed for 35 years, the longest longitudinal study of any mammal, and
is now at a historic low. Trouble can be canine parvovirus, from domestic dogs, but this is not
distemper. On whether roads bother wolves, see L. David Mech, "Wolf Distribution and Road
Density in Minnesota," Wildlife Society Bulletin 16(1988):85-87. There are as many wolves in