From February 3-12, 2012, the Cook County Visitors Bureau hosts the Winter Tracks Festival, an annual countywide celebration of winter.  This 10-day celebration of the season highlights the best of what winter has to offer with downhill and Nordic ski events, snowmobiling, live music and many more family-friendly activities scheduled throughout the week. 

Winter Tracks kicks off on today, February 3 with the Lutsen Mountains Family Fun Fest, a chance for families to experience downhill skiing in a fun and affordable way. On Saturday, February 4, snowmobilers can tour some of the area's 450 miles of groomed trails with the Ridge Riders Snowmobile Fun Run beginning at the Devil Track Resort or Hungry Jack Lodge, or participate in the Easter Seals Snowarama at the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino.

One of the week's signature events is the fourth-annual Volks Ski 400. Held on Saturday, February 11, this non-competitive Nordic ski event brings enthusiasts together in an attempt to cover the county's 400km of professionally groomed ski trails—North America's largest ski trail system—in a single day. Skiers may sign up to ski sections of the network as individuals, form a team or join one of the local resort teams to cumulatively cover the county's trails.

 Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) received funding last fall for a part-time coordinator position for 2012. Virginia Danfelt was hired for this half-time position to handle administrative duties of the almost 4-year-old nonprofit and assist the board in advancing their goals.

CCLEP originally was formed as a citizen’s group to coordinate a local response to the worldwide transition away from fossil fuel based energy sources. They work for energy efficiency and clean, local, renewable, energy development in Cook County.

Danfelt brings over 20 years experience building energy efficient timber frame structures as part owner of her family business, Lake Superior Timber Framing, where she continues to work.  She has resided in Cook County since the late 1970s and is familiar with the local community. She is enthused about the variety of work involved in the coordinator job and the opportunity to work with both the board and community to advance energy awareness and solutions.

One current CCLEP project, which has been over a year in the making, is a comprehensive Energy Plan for both the City of Grand Marais and Cook County. This plan is being reviewed by the local officials and will be open to public review and input next month. Carrying out aspects of this plan with the CCLEP board will be one of the main focuses of the job.

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has hundreds of miles of beautiful beaches. Seemingly pristine and still very wild, the North Shore of Lake Michigan is a wilderness destination. But in 2007 George Desort, a filmmaker and photographer, stumbled upon a cataclysmic event. He saw something you’d never expect to see in such a beautiful place.

This is Part 1 in a two-part series on the bird & fish die-offs in the lower Great Lakes. Tune in on February 18th for the conclusion of the series.

Long tailed duck from george desort on Vimeo.

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One in 10 babies along Minnesota's North Shore are born with unhealthy levels of mercury in their bodies. That, according to a new report on contamination around Lake Superior.

Researchers at the Minnesota Department of Health said they found that some of the 1,465 children they tested had very high concentrations. Mercury is a pollutant that can cause neurological damage and is distributed around the world, primarily by coal-fired power plants.

Researchers also found that the Minnesota infants were more likely to have unhealthy mercury levels in their blood than their counterparts in Wisconsin and Michigan.

According to Pat McCann, the research scientist who conducted the study for the Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, babies born in the summer months, had more mercury than those born in winter. “This seasonal effect suggests that increased consumption of locally caught fish during the warm months is an important source of pregnant women’s mercury exposure in this region,” said McCann.

"People could be eating enough fish to cause exposures that we are concerned about," she said. A mother eating as few as two meals per week of fish high in mercury could cause newborn blood levels to reach unacceptable levels. That includes large walleyes or northerns from Northland lakes. The state warns women and children not to eat any walleye over 20 inches or northern pike over 30 inches.

Mercury goes into the air when coal and other fossil fuels are burned and then falls back to Earth. In the U.S., about half of all mercury emissions come from coal-fired power plants. In Minnesota, taconite plants also are a large source.

Between 2008 and 2010 blood samples were taken from infants born around the Lake Superior basin. The majority by far were from Minnesota, where the basin extends from Duluth to Hibbing and up along the shore to the Canadian border. In all, 8 percent of the babies had blood concentrations above the EPA health standard -- up to a thousand times higher. In Minnesota, 10 percent of the blood samples had mercury levels above the healthy standard.

The level of Lake Superior dropped three inches in January, about the usual decline for the month, according to the International Lake Superior Board of Control.

The lake now sits 13 inches below the long-term average for Feb. 1 and 3 inches below the level at this time in 2011. The Lake Superior area generally saw below normal snowfall for the month.

Lakes Michigan and Huron fell their usual one inch for January and now sit 13 inches below their long-term average but seven inches above the Feb. 1, 2011, level.
 

 The county board approved the purchase of two new four-wheel-drive six-passenger pickup trucks for the Highway Department at a total cost of just over $67,000.  One will replace a 1999 van and the other will replace a 2002 pickup with 124,000 miles on it.  The board also approved the purchase of a specially designed box for one of the trucks, which will be used as a surveying vehicle. It will cost just under $7,800.

The department may keep the van and equip it to carry signs.  The newly required highly reflective road signs get damaged when piled on top of each other in a pickup truck, said Maintenance Director Russell Klegstad.

The purchases were budgeted in the department’s equipment replacement schedule.  The board talked about the benefits of holding off longer to purchase new vehicles vs. the drawbacks of getting lower resale values on old vehicles while paying ever-rising prices for new ones.

With Commissioner Jim Johnson absent while undergoing medical treatments, the board voted 3-1 on the vehicle purchase, with Commissioner Bruce Martinson casting the nay vote.

“I don’t ask for stuff I don’t think the Highway Department needs,” Klegstad said.