The Corps of Discovery

On August 31, 1803, two hundred and six years ago today, Meriwether Lewis set off by boat from Pittsburgh with his dog and a small crew of men, in what would become one of the greatest expeditions of discovery in American history. William Clark joined the party that October and the two men led their Corps of Discovery to explore the American West. Very little was known about this vast region of our young country (as evidenced by the 1803 map, below), much of it newly purchased from France. Today, we zip back and forth over the miles in a few hours on a plane or at 70-plus miles an hour in our cars. At the time, however, water travel was the fastest means of transportation - but only if you were traveling with the current! Ascending the Missouri River, the Corps spent two years, four months and ten days exploring the West. Along the way, they interacted with several Native American tribes, French-Canadian fur traders, and observed a vast landscape unimagined by most in the world at the time. During the journey, Lewis and Clark prepared about 140 maps of the area, showing rivers, prairies and mountain ranges, hitherto unknown by those in the East. Another major accomplishment of the expedition was a better understanding of the Northwest's natural resources. During the trip, the Corps successfully documented 122 species of animals and more than 178 plants. They even sent a caged prairie dog, which had never been seen in the East, to President Jefferson as a gift. Over the two-year journey, the expedition made more discoveries of landscapes, rivers, native cultures, zoology, and botany of North America than any scientific expedition to date. Today, you can read the full text of the Lewis and Clark journals (almost 5,000 pages) at this website. A vast treasure trove of other information about the expedition can be found by just typing "Lewis and Clark" into your favorite search engine. For those of us living, working and playing in the modern world it's almost impossible to imagine the sense of exploration and adventure the Corps of Discovery experienced. Yet, if we open ourselves to the wonder and majesty of nature, starting in our own backyards, we can still feel a deep sense of connection, appreciation and love for the living Earth and all her creatures. Pack up the kids and become your own Corps of Discovery today!

Harnessing the Sun

When thinking about green technology and sustainable design one often envisions rows of solar panels collecting the sun’s energy and generating electricity for use in a home or business. As solar panel efficiency increases and costs come down we’re even increasingly hearing about individuals completely disconnecting from the electrical grid and producing all the power they need from sun and wind. While we’re not making that big of a jump at Chippewa Nature Center, we’re very excited that we will be installing a 10 kilowatt solar panel array on the south roof of the recently completed Nature Preschool thanks, in part, to a grant from the Michigan Energy Office! [photo: solar panels on the uppermost roof provide energy for heating hot water in the building.] How much power will a 10 kilowatt system produce? When operating at full efficiency on a sunny summer day our system will produce more than enough electricity to operate an average size home. In the winter, as the sun’s angle drops, efficiency will decrease, but we will still be producing power from the sun that’s available. Unlike some solar panel systems, we are not installing a battery bank to store excess energy; instead, we’ll use a net-metering system that puts the renewable energy we’re producing back into the grid. The science of solar panels and photovoltaic arrays is fascinating. Solar panels are made up of individual solar cells, manufactured from semiconductors like silicon. The panels work by absorbing photons present in sunlight and in the process generating electricity. Electricity from solar panels is in the form of DC current so it must be converted to AC current through an inverter, allowing it to be used to run standard appliances. The Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan is on the cutting edge of solar technology through the amazing work of companies like Dow Corning Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company and Hemlock Semiconductor Group. You can learn more about solar panels and other solar technology by visiting the websites of the companies mentioned above and through the U.S. Department of Energy here. We expect to have the solar panel array installed on the Nature Preschool by the end of September so be sure and hike the Arbury Trail and check out our progress. by Dennis Pilaske, Director of Interpretation Chippewa Nature Center

Live Green this Summer!

The Sierra Club is at it again, providing all of us in cyberspace a great collection of Green Living Tips for Summer! Check them out here: Summer Green Tips - Sierra Club and be inspired to make a difference in YOUR life to live lightly on Planet Earth!

A Summer Show

After testing it out in June, a once a month photo feature seems like a nice idea. Enjoy these scenes of summer, all taken at Chippewa Nature Center!

Enjoy your time in the fields, woods, wetlands and rivers this summer. We hope to see you on the trail or in the river at Chippewa Nature Center!

The Memory of Stars

One of the things I love most about summer is spending some quality time "Up North" with my family. While we enjoy many different destination, we especially love Mackinac Island (my wife and I met while working for the State Park there in college). Perhaps the most magical time of day on Mackinac is when the last ferry leaves for the night and the throngs of tourists head home. Most people retreat indoors and the only sounds you hear are the clip-clop of horses hooves and the bell ringing on the buoy in the Straits. The best nighttime show, however, is up at Fort Holmes. Here, on the highest point of the Island, you can climb the embankment and lie with your friends on top of the wooden entranceway. On a clear night, the stars are truly astounding! Billions of tiny dots of light twinkle in the dark night sky. Your imagination follows the bright path of the milky way as it spirals through the sky. Falling stars, satellites, and sometimes even the space station all travel across your view. With a pair of binoculars, your view deepens and you can even pick out some of Jupiter's moons. And if you're really lucky, the shifting hues of the Aurora Borealis will put on a spectacular show. When I return to Midland or head to an even larger city, so much of the night sky magic is hidden from view. Lights along streets and in parking lots, office buildings and private homes illuminate our world so completely, we hardly know what it means to walk it the dark. I love attending a Loons game, but the glow from the stadium can be seen for miles around. Technically, all this illumination is called Light Pollution, and it's become a major problem in our modern society. The rhythm of nature (including human nature) depends on cycles of light and dark for feeding, sleep, migration, reproduction and more. Many animals are inexplicably drawn to artificial sources of light and smack into office buildings and cell phone towers. Others scavenge insects under the glow of streetlamps and become easy prey for other animals or automobiles. And all that extra light escaping into the sky is a big waste of energy. This June, the American Medical Association (AMA), issued a series of resolutions in support of energy efficient lighting technology. They read: RESOLVED That our AMA advocate that all future outdoor lighting be of energy efficient designs to reduce waste of energy and production of greenhouse gasses that result from this wasted energy use, and be it further

RESOLVED That our AMA develop and enact a policy that supports light pollution reduction efforts and glare reduction efforts at both the national and state levels; and be it further

RESOLVED That our AMA support that all future streetlights will be of a fully shielded design or similar non-glare design to improve the safety of our roadways for all, but especially vision impaired and older drivers.

For more information about the importance of a more natural night sky, visit the website of the International Dark Sky Association. And when you go to bed, don't forget to turn off the lights!