I'd call that a bargain

I am looking at an ad for A Lakeland TImes type Anti-DNR screed. The ad's main "shocking" selling point is that "Every Man, Woman, and Child" pays 109 dollars to support the DNR.

Wouldn't that be a great headliner for someone writing a pro-DNR book? I had no idea that was all it cost to safeguard the incredible Natural Resources we have in Wisconsin.

Hurray for Boulder Junction!

Boulder Junction keeps the bike trail growing! This extension will tie resorts, residential areas, and businesses north and west of the town to the "Heart of the North" trail. And eventually, they will be the connecting links to Manitowish Waters, Land O Lakes, and Presque Isle.

"Is it near that Bike Trail?" is going to be heard by every resort and motel owner in Vilas and Oneida County.

Ford MyKey helps control speed, noise

So a key can help parents slow their kids down and keep the volume lower.

Why don't insurance companies offer a discount for ANYONE agreeing to use a key like this?

Better yet: If we want to immediately cut down on the use of foreign oil, save lives, and reduce green house gases, why not a federal mandate for a key that keeps speeds down to 65?

No Need for Speed

Kent Sepkowitz advocates making cars that can't speed. As I've argued in the past, a very simple way to cut traffic deaths, carbon emissions, energy use, and road noise. My only complaint: Sepkowitz advocates installing cruise controls that keep cars at 75. Why not 65?

Loons and Bilge Bumps

I was practicing kayak "self rescues" yesterday, which consist of getting my lard butt out of the water and up on a kayak with the help of an outrigger you make out of a paddle and an inflatable bladder,  while trying to rescue various items that have floated out around you.  Then, getting said lard butt back into the cockpit without flipping back over the other way.  (A very entertaining site from shore, I imagine)   Finally, after getting  in the boat, I was pumping out the water with my bilge pump when a distressed loon screamed right behind me, loud enough and close enough to make me nearly flip again.  I looked around to see a pair of loons.  As I sat still, they floated off in another direction, till I started pumping again, then they returned, and one of them started raising up out of the water, wings flapping.  I imagine the splashing of the pump sounded like a rival bird.   This might explain why sometimes loons are very curious about the kids who swim at a nearby raft.   

A hierarchy of noise: the short course

I have been working in Northern Wisconsin this week, where it is relatively quiet.  Of course, there are exceptions to the quiet.    That reminded me of a project I wanted to undertake: Making a study of the ethics of  human-made sound.     I would start with an Aristotelian gathering and classifying different kinds of sounds.   (What types of human-made sound are there? When is a sound a noise? )  Then I would try to examine human-made sound through the lenses of  ethical ideas.  

   But I get ahead of myself.  For now, just the short version: Let's say you are on a small, quiet,  northern Wisconsin lake and you are wondering whether your radio is a sound or a noise to other people enjoying the lake:  Its a noise.  

And if you are wondering if you have an equal ethical warrant to make that noise as another person has to be free of it: No,  you don't.

A Cloak of silence!

What if we  could place "cloaks of silence" around roadways?  Wouldn't we create an incredible amount of wealth in property around those roadways?

Green cars and noise pollution

Eric Leech lays out something that doesn't get written about enough-how electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles might impact noise pollution....

It may be that electric cars are too quiet, in fact, and we will need to find a way to make them noisy enough to be safe.   I would be in favor of that, as part of an overall strategy to reduce unnecessary vehicle noise, especially after-market exhausts (which also must be a hazard to the visually impaired-if a motorcycle with a blaring exhaust is nearby, how do they hear car traffic?) 

Driving (mostly) 55: results...

I blogged several weeks ago about my decision to drive 60 miles an hour.     In northern Wisconsin, where the actual speed limit is usually 55, I stick to 55.    On my last fill up, I was surprised to see the gas milage on my little blue 94 Prizm go up to 40 MPG.   That seems too good to be true, for a car that got around 30 mpg before I started paying attention.   Is this typical?   I will test the results again this week.  

I can't be preachy about what people should do to reduce their energy use-I put a lot of miles on my cars.    But I think everyone should do something, and I am just offering my experience with an energy saver that every driver could employ with little difficulty.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars?

Honda sells a nominal few in California.  Certainly not a short term solution-the location of hydrogen filling stations being the problem.  But the bigger question is whether we can make hydrogen in an energy efficient way. 

In the meantime, driving 60 miles an hour and easing off on the gas pedal is something that everyone can do right now to help fight global warming and use less energy.

Wow! Great news for Wausau and biking trails in Wisconsin

Biophony

Studying the impact of human noise on the planet.  

Practicing what I preach...

For the past month, I have been driving no faster than 60 miles an hour.  It can be done!  I was afraid there would be a lot of obscene gestures directed my way, especially on highway 41 between OshKosh and Green Bay.  But, actually, it was fine.  I noticed I actually had a more relaxed ride, my car stereo sounded better (less road and wind noise), and the needle on my gas tank went down more slowly.    

The price of gas can't really be a serious problem for anyone who chooses to drive fast.     

The simplest way to reduce automobile deaths

Speaking of cars:

There is a very simple way our country could reduce energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions,  lower traffic fatalities, and cut insurance rates-install governors on all cars to reduce speeds to 60 mph.   It would take a little longer to get places-but from a utilitarian point of view, the benefits outweighs the inconvenience by a long shot.

Cars cause a kind of a great insanity, though-people who couldn't care less about other government intrusions on our freedom and privacy become irate at the idea of controlling how fast we can drive.

Do we really want to drive anymore? alert...

From time to time, I pass on news related to the progress towards a self-driving car.     Volvo will move us closer to that goal by developing a car that "takes over" before a crash happens. (click on the above link)

We really don't want to drive anymore.  We want to text message, manage our fantasy football leagues, and do tequila shots while we watch the scenery pass by.  Cars that drive themselves will be safer,  more efficient, and better for the environment.  

The technology will soon be there. The only thing holding us back will be the desire to "take charge" behind a wheel-a desire that is 99% sales myth.   Driving, properly and ethically done, is a bore.  People who want to play behind the wheel will go to special race tracks or play interactive video games, where there is no limit to the kinds of tracks you can have.   

Welcoming committee

These three welcomed me when I got in on Friday evening.  Come to Boulder Junction, and you can see them for yourself.   

 Quiet Hunting brings a perversion of the normal sense of a "nice" or "not nice" weekend.  It was cold and windy this weekend, so there was a lot of peace and quiet.  The little lake we are next to is open, and the loons are already there.    There were "peepers" out the first night, but I think they thought better of it Saturday and Sunday. I hadn't been up in a while, so it would have been irresponsible to do any yard work.  Better to just stand around and look at things.   

Lakeland Times: NR board says No.

Good summary by Nathan Bortz linked above.

 

A very interesting quote by NHAL superintentent Steve Petersen- "Now, if someone approaches us in five years and says, "these ATV's are lightweight, have a top speed of eight mph, differentials and two psi tires-that we will consider".

And there is the problem in a nutshell.  What kind of sport is ATV'ing going to be five years from now?   The ATV industry knows its biggest market-and most potential for making money-is in machines that are bigger, faster, and more able to tear up the terrain.    True ATV trail supporters need to step back and examine who their friends are.   They have been played by an industry that doesn't have their interests at heart.

Victory!

As many of you know, the State Natural Resources Board voted on Wednesday to drop plans for ATV routes in the NHAL forest. I will post more on this, but just wanted to say it was a long battle.  In fact, this blog started about the time the DNR proposed a first trail for the Master Plan.  

More on this to follow.  Each time a trail proposal has been defeated, another seems to rise up.  Joel Patenaude writes that this will give us a reprieve till at least 2020, when the new Master Plan is in place, unless-and this is certainly a possibility-a trail is put in by legislative fiat.  We know from the pier fiasco that this could happen.  

But for now, the important lesson is that spirited opposition matters.  There will be some people to thank, in a later post. 

Music as a weapon

An interesting essay in the Atlantic on the everpresence of background music.  

Quiet Hunting...

Wouldn't it be nice if quiet hunters could post their conquests in the Lakeland Times-holding the moment of silence by the gills like a trophy for all to see, before they tossed it back to nature?

If so, I could show you the great catch I made on Sunday, out north of our house, skiing along an old logging trail.  

It has been two years since I saw the markings that this area is going to be logged-enough time for me to grow used to the fact.  I can only hope they will leave the best of the beautiful white pine alone.

Growing up, there were no cross country ski trails,so following logging roads was the sport.  The idea is: Go as far as you can breaking a trail, then enjoy the glide on the way back.  The next day, you can take your already groomed trail out to explore new territory.  

     I like the forgotten feel of old logging roads.    They combine the solitude of a wild place with the mystery of the passing of time.  

   On this Sunday in March, there were few snowmobilers out there, so there were many moments I could stop and wait for my breath to slow, and my thoughts to slow, so I could notice how quiet it was.  It was a perfect day.  Make a note of it: Sundays in March are good days for quiet hunting in Vilas County.     

    

  

Morning visitors

Keeping tabs: net sources you should be reading

NewsoftheNorth.Net

When I began Quietnorth in 2005, there was no blogging going on in the Vilas-Oneida neck of the north woods, and little in the way of unbiased environmental reporting.  NewsoftheNorth houses a nice handful of blogs, some great local interest reporting, and a badly needed source for environmental reporting.   

An old friend-the Lumberjack Trail

The Lumberjack trail is an ungroomed ski trail just outside of the town of Boulder Junction on "Old K".   A half mile run through tall pines brings you to a to a bridge over the White Sand Creek.  Stop and linger on the bridge for a minute,  and think about the puzzling nature of time.   

Then, you have a nice six-mile figure eight trail, not difficult, except for the fact that it isn't groomed.   In my book, that is a "feature not a bug".  If you want groomed, take the trail on Saturday, and you will have it groomed plenty for Sunday.  

Take the little jag to Fishtrap dam on the Manitowish River, where you can contemplate time some more, or if your mind runs more towards active philosophy, contemplate whether a nice foot bridge would be progress or the end of civilization.

Further along the figure eight, you will see another option that takes you to a different parking lot on Hwy K near Concora  Road.  This is a beautiful trail, with lots of hills and a great view of White Sand Lake-but be sure to take it when you have lots of time, some food and water, and a partner to help break the trail. If you are really motivated, you can go all the way to the Escanaba-Pallette trail.   But that is for another day. 

On your back to Boulder, stop and take a look at the new Winter Park on the left.   Where did you put those ice skates?

I have to say this once a year...

No emails about my being antisnowmobiling!   I would like to see twice as many snowmobiles in Wisconsin, if I heard them half as much.   Its the culture of speed and noise that I object to-a culture that manufacturers are marketing to (notice the speedometer that opens  the web site?)  with the machines that turn the countryside into a racetrack.

I'm back....

Hello, everyone;

I am back from a near two month hiatus from blogging. More about that later, But lets jump in media res, shall we?

We are told the DNR has enough personnel to protect the Northern Highland-American Legion if the proposed ATV trail is built.   So how well has DNR doing with its plans to reduce snowmobile speed, alcohol abuse, and noise?  From the listening points of my favorite cross country ski trails, and from my stargazing at night, no progress is being made on the noise department.   Much of the forest sounds like a demented NASCAR track.

Maybe snowmobile deaths have been drastically reduced...hmmm, not so much...

But how about drunk snowmobiling?  Er, well...

The problem is NOT with the hardworking law enforcement folks-there aren't near enough to make any difference in a large forest when manufacturers make their dime selling racing culture.  And it will continue in the summer.   Look at the ATV ads in magazines and on television.  Notice, for example,  how easy it is to buy after market exhausts.  

 Summer peace and quiet-the main gift the Northern Highland-American Legion forest has to offer-is currently at high risk.