Tauilei McPherson, a substitute teacher in the Jackson School District, spent part of her summer participating in a research project in Isle Royale National Park, Lake Superior, an island in northern Michigan near the coast of Ontario, Canada. JACKSON — Some teachers will travel great distances in order to bring back experiences they can use in their classroom.
Tauilei McPherson, a substitute teacher in the Jackson School District, is one of those teachers. During the summer, she linked up with Earthwatch Institute through an educational fellowship grant provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
Earthwatch Institute is involved in the field of experiential education, providing opportunities in the field and online for volunteers to broaden their understanding of sustainability and to support conservation research.
McPherson recently spent two weeks on an adventure exploring for moose and wolves in Isle Royale National Park, Lake Superior, an island in northern Michigan near the coast of Ontario, Canada. The park is known throughout the world for its ecosystem and is an area that has been the focus of long-term research since 1958.
McPherson and other Earthwatch volunteers comprised the research team that was led by principal investigators and wildlife researchers Dr. John Vucetich, Dr. Rolf Peterson and his wife, Candy, of Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich.
The other team members were lead guide and first responder Marcy Erickson, Thomas Rutti, Have Rodriguez, Jean Sideris and Thomas Fischer, from the United States and Switzerland.
The team members pitched their tents outside Bangsung Cabin, the Petersons’ research headquarters, and on the morning before the nine-day hike, Candy prepared a pancake breakfast for them. As they left on their journey, she offered them one piece of advice.
“Take care of each other,” she said.
The volunteers spent their days hiking and their nights camping, making certain not to leave any trace of themselves behind, all while searching the forest for moose bones.
The team members made their way off-trail through dense brush and swamps, covering between two and six miles each day and combing Moskey Basin, Lake Richie, Blueberry Cove, Vodrey Harbor, Little Greenstone Beach and Lake Whittlesey as they searched for moose bones.
McPherson said it was the most strenuous thing she has ever done.
“Each team member carried between 30 and 50 pounds of personal belongings, tents and sleeping bags along with food for the duration of the trip,” the teacher explained.
The team members came across a moose kill while they were in Vodrey Harbor and collected it for further study. Bones were collected from about a distance of 100 feet in each direction from the skull.
“Marcy Erickson pre-analyzed the spine, pelvis and jaw bones for details on the health, age, nutrition and time of kill,” said McPherson.
Temperatures in the vicinity ranged from 45 to 50 degrees at night to 80 to 90 degrees during the day.
Breakfast was served early.
“There was a cool breeze at sunrise and we could look out on the picturesque beach as we could absorb the breathtaking scenery and massive blue wonder of Lake Superior,” McPherson said. “Freshly picked wild blueberries, strawberries, sugarplums and the rare thimbleberry topped our oatmeal, giving newfound energy to pack up the campsite, filter our drinking water from the lake and trek to the next destination.”
The teacher said lunch would find the team members back at the water’s edge.
“Some people would cool off with a dip in the nearest lagoon or a refreshing dive into the clear waters of Lake Superior,” she said. “The team became more serious as each afternoon progressed and our desire for finding moose bones became stronger. We headed out in different directions until it was time for dinner on
some smooth ridge or rocky, brush-strewn slope.”
In the evening, the team members pitched their tents, rinsed their clothes and washed in the lake. Afterward the explorers had time to do some reading or to write in their journals.
“That came just before the night sky insisted on tucking us in and giving us a constellation show that was close enough to touch. We slept to the sounds of rushing water, loons calling and the occasional wolf howl,” McPherson said.
The research team provided the basis for long-term analysis of moose survival and population reconstruction. The team findings from ongoing moose and wolf research at Isle Royale National Park will now be used by wildlife managers and scientists all over the world.
“The singular major research goal remained unchanged. That was to clarify the role of wolf predation in the population dynamics of moose,” the teacher explained.
As a research area, Isle Royale provides a unique asset found nowhere else in the world, McPherson said.
“This is a simplified animal community. Only 15 of the 45 or so mammal species from the mainland have [ever] reached the island. All species are protected by its remote locale from harvest or manipulation by humans,” she said.
The most commonly asked question she gets now is, “Did you see any wolves or moose?”
“We saw a moose and her calf. Moose tend to feel a sense of safety around humans. They seem to know that wolves keep their distance from our kind,” she said.
McPherson said she was able to glimpse foxes, an otter, bald eagles, loons and black ducks.
“But no wolves, only the eerie howl at night and wolf pack trails that cut through the brush like hollowed-out tunnels,” she said. “The best time to see wolves is during the winter, when the brush is thinned and snow-covered, but only from a distance.”
She said the trip was magnificent.
McPerson said she will now be able to come back to the classroom with photos, journal entries and data about the behavior of wolves and moose, as well as a lot of funny stories she can tell her pupils.