Committee for the Lake Superior Science and Education Center

Radio segment on Ashland's oredock and how it connects our town's history with our future. We are so lucky to live in this beautiful place!

Ashland Seeks New Future in Pivot Toward Lake, Away from Historic Industry Living in Lake Superior’s shadow and walking its windy shore in Ashland didn’t sound like much of a life plan to Sara Hudson. But 16 years ago, when her

The feasibility study for the future Lake Superior Science Center was completed December 2019, a little over 4 months ago from the date of this post. We are looking forward to moving the project forward, but of course Covid-19 has impacted the timeline of many things across Northern Wisconsin, including the next chapter in the development of the Science Center. We promise to keep you informed and let you know when we are able to move forward again. Stayed tuned, friends!

Good news! The Committee for the Lake Superior Science Center recently completed the feasibility study exploring the possibility of building a Lake Superior research facility in Ashland, WI. The feasibility study was presented to the City Council on February 18, 2020. If you weren't able to attend, you can access the feasibility study and also watch the video of the presentation at City Hall by clicking on the link below.

Lake Superior Science Center Feasibility Study Phase II — Ashland Area Development Corporation Lake Superior Science Center Feasibility Study Phase II

Lake effect!

Lake Superior lake-effect snow plumes visible from space Lake-effect snow bands are prominent across the Great Lakes as arctic air pours south.

GEOLOGY, FLORA AND FAUNA, CLIMATE, etc.
1. Lake Superior is one of the earth's youngest major features, at only about 10,000 years of age--dating to the last glacial retreat. By comparison, the earth's second largest lake (by surface area, and largest by volume), Lake Baikal in Russia, is 25 million years old.
2. Fifty-eight orchid species are native to the Lake Superior basin. In North America, only Florida has more native orchid species.
3. Lake Superior produces the greatest lake effect snows on earth. (Significant lake effect snows are a rare phenomenon, occurring--besides on the Great Lakes--only on the east shore of Hudson Bay and the west coasts of two Japanese islands.) Lake effect snows extend 20 to 30 miles inland, primarily on the Ontario shore southeast of Marathon, and from Sault Ste. Marie to the Wisconsin-Michigan border. Average annual snowfall in Michigan's Keweenaw exceeds 200 inches in places.
4. Lake Superior has been at its modern elevation for only about 2,000 years, when elevations of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron dropped, creating a rapids at Sault Ste. Marie.
5. Lake Superior has its origins in the North American Mid-Continent Rift of 1.1 to 1.2 billion years ago, which produced a huge plume of hot mantle where the present lake sits. The crust tore apart, leaving an arc-shaped scar stretching form Kansas through Minnesota, then down to Michigan.
6. Within its borders, Lake Superior has both the thickest, and nearly the thinnest, crust found anywhere in North America.
7. When European explorers visited Lake Superior in the 1600s they reported giant sturgeons (up to nine feet in length) and pike of greater than seven feet in length.
8. The largest tributary of Lake Superior, Ontario's Nipigon River, was in the 1800s the finest brook trout water in the world. It produced the world record brook trout of 14.5 pounds.
9. Some of the world's oldest rocks, about 2.7 billion years of age, can be found on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior.
10. The average annual water temperature of Lake Superior is 40º F. It only very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for hours. The last complete freezing of Lake Superior occurred in 1979, although the lake was almost completely frozen over in 2014.
11. Migrating birds of prey funnel down Lake Superior's north shore in great numbers each fall. On a single day at Duluth's Hawk Ridge as many as 100,000 birds of prey might pass by.
12. Lake Superior rests mostly on Precambrian rock at the southern edge of the Canadian shield, the largest exposure of such bedrock on the planet.
13. Sliver Islet, a Lake Superior island off Ontario's north shore, was the site for 15 years in the 1800s of the world's richest silver mine.
14. Lake Superior contains nearly 70 million diporeia (shrimplike creatures) with a total biomass greater than that of the human population in the entire Lake Superior basin.
15. Lake Superior is home to 88 species of fish.

Lake Superior Facts Facts about Lake Superior's size, water quality, history, climate, aquatic life, etc

The lakes have always been tempestuous neighbors, but today they appear to be entering a new era of volatility that is testing the region as never before. The simple explanation is that the last five years have been the wettest in history in the Great Lakes watershed, which encompasses parts of eight states and two Canadian provinces. But some scientists believe a more complicated dynamic is at work: a warming climate that will continue to cause extreme fluctuations in weather and water levels, threatening havoc for lakeside homeowners, towns and cities, tourism and shipping.

Opinion | Along the Great Lakes, It’s Time to Prepare for Extremes The lakes are hitting record levels and lakefront communities are asking, what’s next?

Economic benefits of the Lake Superior Science Center to the region were compared to two
alternative uses for the site – housing and commercial development. The total economic impact
of a Lake Superior Science Center in Ashland, Wisconsin is estimated at $27 million, compared
to $17.5 million for a housing development and $14 million for commercial development.

Study finds multimillion-dollar local science center ‘financially feasible’ A long-discussed science center built on Ashland’s waterfront could cost millions to construct but could generate many times that in local economic impact, according to a study released this week.

http://www.coawi.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=49

Nontoxic tackle: Let's get the lead out Lead is a toxic metal. Anglers can choose sinkers and jigs made from non-poisonous materials such as tin, bismuth, steel, and tungsten-nickel alloy — and they can find them at established sporting goods retailers and on the Internet.

Microfiber Pollution: How Our Clothes Harm Marine Life Aside from tons of plastic products littering the ocean, marine animals face another human-made threat that they can't see -- microfiber pollution.