Michigan Forest Life - March 26, 2025

Good morning, friends,

Permit me to bring you another sunrise

from the Treehouse porch in Winterfield

Pines Nature Sanctuary, Clare County,

Michigan (Photo 1). A thin, fresh layer of

lovely, white snow covers the forest again -another tribute to Michigan's on-again off-

again spring (Photos 2 and 3). This pure white sheet is likely to disappear by today’s

afternoon and then reappear at the end of

the week.

Michigan spring. It is the way of things.

There are those of us who thrive on this. There are therapists who make a living counseling

such people - until the therapists themselves surrender and move to climates where spring

is spring, and people simply enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.

This weather also makes the Michigan maple trees talk. They pump out their maple sap in a

steady, joyful way. A cold night. A warm day. That is what the maple trees like best. The

trees sing out, "Come and get it! I'm giving out my flowing sap today!" Each day another

gallon drips into the container. I thank the tree.

I brought twelve gallons of sap home for a friend last weekend. They were interested. They wanted to try boiling it down themselves (Photo 4) and have syrup fresh from the tree. From twelve gallons, they made about one quart of first-class maple syrup (Photo 5).

Of course, part of the syrup did not make it into a

bottle. It went directly onto a stack of hot pancakes

with a thick slice of bacon on the side. Delicate,

delicious maple syrup, as straight from the tree as it

comes.

Thank you Mother Nature. Thank you beautiful maple tree.

I am always anxious for the day when ice melts off the pond's surface. I hold my breath,

curious to know how the fish made out. Did they survive?

The pond is thirteen feet deep. It is home to a breeding population of perch and also a

number of rainbow trout that are stocked annually as six-inch fish and then fished out for

dinners two or three years later as eighteen-inch fish. I also add several thousand fathead

minnows each spring that reproduce twice before the next winter and are a food source for

the trout, perch, and herons that often hang out in cattails along the pond's north edge.

During mild winters all the fish survive the seasonal risk (though a river otter may slip into

the pond and leave the skeletal remains of its fish meals along the pond's shore.) When the

winter keeps its cold, with ice that stays on the surface for long, fish die.

This year ice covered the pond early: the third week in December. It lasted until mid-March.

Finally, last week, open water appeared around the edges. Several days later, a warm wind

from the east blew the melting ice to the pond's west shore (Photo 6). Fish died this year

(Photo 7). Fish of all sizes. It will take time to know more about the fish that survived.

The pond is an interesting example of the way Mother Nature works. The robust health of

last summer's fish population is likely what led to the winter death of fish below the ice. The

pond's winter oxygen is limited. It is fish and decaying matter that use up the oxygen. More

fish need more oxygen. So, the fish population is self-regulating in a Michigan pond. An ice

covered pond will only support fish life for so long. The more fish, the shorter the time that

an oxygen supply will last. What looks deceptively wonderful in the summer - healthy, happy fish swimming everywhere - is actually the problem in the winter. Mother Nature works to right-size the pond's fish population again.

Michigan winter. It is the way of things.

I wish you the natural wonder of a changing season, a warm fire when you need it (Photo 8), and a plate of hot pancakes covered with pure maple syrup.

Until next time,

Dan