Science Articles

Articles specific to the primary branches of science including climate change, water quality, archaeology and more.

How smart lighting choices can protect our precious night sky, save energy and money – a Dark Sky Star Bright Festival event

How smart lighting choices can protect our precious night sky, save energy and money – a Dark Sky Star Bright Festival event

The Dark Sky Star Bright Festival celebrates our precious night sky, and as the crowd gathered at the Honest Dog Books event space on Tuesday learned, it's more than that. Friends of the Apostle Islands Executive Director Jeff Rennicke put it this way. "We also wanted to make sure that when people got inspired and learned about the sky, they could take that next step. And the next step is okay, what can I do about it? In my home. In my business. In my community. How do I help, one lightbulb at a time?" To answer that question, outdoor lighting expert, Electrical Engineer and Dark Sky...

Frozen assets: how Lake Superior’s late-winter ice is shaping up in 2025

Frozen assets: how Lake Superior’s late-winter ice is shaping up in 2025

Lake Superior is making ice at a faster pace this winter than last. For the first time in several years, it's thick enough to force the Madeline Island Ferry Line to shut down service for the season. However, it's nowhere near normal levels and nowhere near enough ice to even think about the mainland ice caves.The big picture NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory says 17.5% of Lake Superior is ice covered as of February 12th.  As represented by the black and dark blue areas on the map below, ice hugs the south shore, covers some of the water between the interior Apostle...

Bird’s-eye view: What 50 years of research reveals about waterbirds in the Apostle Islands

Bird’s-eye view: What 50 years of research reveals about waterbirds in the Apostle Islands

2024 is a milestone year for the waterbirds of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and for the scientists who study them. It is also a time for concern as some waterbird populations are now significantly smaller than they’ve been over the past half century. Others are simply gone. The Apostle Islands and Chequamegon Bay have served as nesting areas for herring gulls, ring-billed gulls, common terns, black terns, cormorants and great blue herons. These birds are colonial, meaning that they typically nest in colonies or groups. As rugged and remote as most of the islands are, Wisconsin...

Know before you go: Get your free Wave Watch QR code cling for the upcoming boating season

Know before you go: Get your free Wave Watch QR code cling for the upcoming boating season

One scan of this new Wave Watch QR Code and you’ll be safer on the water this boating season. Friends of the Apostle Islands has partnered with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the National Park Service to create Wave Watch, a series of strategically placed weather buoys offering boaters free, real-time wave data for five popular boating locations in the Apostle Islands starting in June of 2024. See the real-time data page here.Grab a FREE 4x4 inch sticker or cling for your boat window or water bottle or anywhere on your vessel. Scan the QR Code with your phone and...

Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

From the single-use water bottles, containers and bags you might carry into the park to microplastics detected in the lake water around the islands, plastics are having an impact on the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Doing something about our personal and global dependence on plastics is the global theme of Earth Day 2024.Earth Day is an annual event designed to promote the importance of environmental conservation and sustainability. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day on April 22nd, 1970. On that day, an estimated 20 million people nationwide attended the inaugural...

Dark Sky Week: from the first lighthouse beacon to the starry skies of today and beyond

Dark Sky Week: from the first lighthouse beacon to the starry skies of today and beyond

Michigan Island Lighthouse - 1913 - NPS photoThe first brilliant beam pierced the ink black skies over the Apostle Islands like a lightning bolt. The year was 1856, when the first keeper lighted the lamp atop the original Michigan Island lighthouse for the first time. In the years that followed, keepers lit a constellation of new lights on Long, Raspberry, Outer, Sand, Devils and Michigan Islands.All of the light stations built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were designed to help mariners navigate their way around the Apostle Islands while avoiding dangerous shoals in the dark of night....

How you can celebrate International Dark Sky Week in and around the Apostle Islands

How you can celebrate International Dark Sky Week in and around the Apostle Islands

International Dark Sky Week draws worldwide attention to light pollution, promotes simple solutions and celebrates the irreplaceable beauty of a natural night. High school student Jennifer Barlow started International Dark Sky Week (IDSW) in 2003. In explaining why she founded the event, Barlow said, “I want people to be able to see the wonder of the night sky without the effects of light pollution. The universe is our view into our past and our vision into the future. I want to help preserve its wonder.”Here are some ways you can discover the nightGet outside at night with friends and...

Thin ice: How historically low ice coverage affects Apostle Islands, Great Lakes

Thin ice: How historically low ice coverage affects Apostle Islands, Great Lakes

It's open water - not ice - as far as the eye can see. Not only in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore but across all of the Great Lakes. As of New Year's Day, less than 1% of Lake Superior was ice-covered - a tiny percentage but still the largest percentage of any Great Lake. Combined, ice covered roughly one-third of one percent of the surface area of all of the lakes as of the first of the year; that's the lowest level in 50 years and the percentage is growing very slowly. As you can see on the map from the US National Ice Center, ice on Lake Superior is now mostly confined to the bays...

Retiring NPS Division Chief Julie Van Stappen reflects on decades of service to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Retiring NPS Division Chief Julie Van Stappen reflects on decades of service to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

After dedicating more than three decades of work to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Julie Van Stappen retires as Chief of Planning and Resource Management at the end of 2023. Julie grew up in Chicago; she spent vacations and later summers in northern Wisconsin. Her love of - and appreciation for - nature and science grew during her college years, during which she studied geology, earned an advanced degree in aquatic ecology and gained experience in the US Forest Service and at various locations in National Park Service before landing her dream job at the Apostle Islands National...

Treasures of the night: Friends to focus on protecting the night sky over the Apostle Islands in 2024 and beyond

Treasures of the night: Friends to focus on protecting the night sky over the Apostle Islands in 2024 and beyond

It begins with a faint glimmer, just a hint of brightness on the northern horizon, then builds, rising like an aria. Soon, the night sky is glowing green and red, dancing with light, shimmering like diamonds. The aurora is out. The northern lights are gleaming above the Apostle Islands. Aurora over Honeymoon Rock - Jeff Rennicke photo“To watch the white sail of a full moon gliding across the stars or see the brushstroke of the Milky Way or the flicker of northern lights painting the night sky is to witness one of true the wonders of the world, a gift of nature,” says Jeff Rennicke, Executive...