The Dryden area saw nearly 10,000 lightning strikes as storms rolled through the region, Sunday evening. The above scene was captured at Claybanks Marina, Aug. 29 looking southeast over Wabigoon Lake. Photo by Chris Marchand

By Ally DunhamAlthough the forest fire rating was recently high to extreme, the current rainfall the area has received brought the rating down to low to moderate.Deb MacLean, of the Ministry of Natural Resources reports that the area saw almost 10,000 strikes of lightning on Sunday and Monday.  Although this number appears high, it is not unusual for the region,There are currently four fires burning north of Sioux Lookout, which are all lightning caused. The plan of the MNR is to monitor the fires, and allow them to burn to the natural boundaries.“This is good for the ecosystem, and there are no other values threatened,” says MacLean.Nipigon district has seen the ignition of one new fire on Sunday evening, also lightning caused.“Based on their historical mapping over the last several days, they figure that lightning caused fire actually was ignited on the 13th of August,” reports MacLean.The term for this is a “hold over lightning fire”, where a strike of lightning will hit a tree or other vegetation, and smolder within itself.  In many cases, these lightning strikes do go out on their own before they are ever reported as a fire.   This particular case in Nipigon district popped up as a fire on August 29th.“The other factor that is helping and has all this fire season, is the high humidity,” says MacLean.  “That does affect fire behaviour, it helps to keep it down, and also keeps the hazard down.”The entire West fire region is currently sitting at 344 fires to date, with approximately 9500 hectares burnt.  This is up from 2009, which totaled at the end of the season 194 fires, with 14,000 ha burnt.  2008 season saw a total of 218 fires, which burnt 1215 ha.The Dryden area is currently at 32 fires, having burnt 9.6 ha to date in the 2010 season.There are still approximately 300 firefighters from Ontario stationed in British Columbia and have been there since July 29th.  With a two week rotation on crews, approximately 260 are fire rangers, with the remainder being incident management team personnel and overhead staff.

- Ally Dunham

The Dryden District Agricultural Society’s 103rd Fall Fair was blessed with fine weather and series of spectacular moonrises over three days in Dryden last week as the community swelled with fair goers from around the region. Here is a sampling of images captured over three exciting days of events at the Dryden Fairgrounds. Photos by Chris Marchand and Ally Dunham

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For the second year in a row, patrons of the annual Trout Forest Music Festival in Ear Falls endured some very nasty weather, Aug. 13-15,  that all but shut down the main stage and crammed the muddy hordes into the protective confines of the tent covering of Frank’s Tavern stage. Rain gear was a must over the weekend as the unrelenting rain and high winds persisted into Sunday, but festival die-hards enjoyed themselves and the great lineup of acts nonetheless. Local Peter Cortens also performed various times throughout the festival having secured some stage-time through the regional auditions process.

Photos by Chris Marchand

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Eagle Lake Coalition continues efforts to protect peninsula

Thunder Bay field naturalists Mike (left) and Susan Bryan were joined by local Farabout Coalition members Joanne Bridgwater (second from right) and Carolle Eady (right) to help catalogue plant and bird species on the peninsula.

Eagle Lake residents opposed to forestry on the Farabout Peninsula haven’t let up on their goal of preserving the 1,000 hectare landmass as a conservation area.

Lakeshore residents from the Townline Rd. area near Eagle River formed the coalition in 2008 after learning of a proposed plan to build a road across the narrow isthmus connecting the peninsula to the mainland and harvest timber.

After succeeding in having the harvesting plans taken out of the current Ministry of Natural Resources Forest Management Plan, the group has been hard at work building a case for a higher level of protection for the land which dominates the center of Eagle Lake.

Most notably, those efforts involved a collaboration with Thunder Bay-based field naturalists Susan and Mike Bryan, who in 2009, made four trips into the isolated peninsula to perform an ecological assessment of the area.

Their efforts to catalog rare plant and bird species were assisted by locals and resulted in a 48 page life science inventory that documents the presence of provincially and regionally rare plant species (ie: yellow ladyslippers,  white adder’s mouth and hooker’s orchids.

“It’s a databank so that people in general and the MNR understand what’s out there,” said the coalition’s Dale Mackenzie

Rare in these parts, a yellow variety of ladyslipper orchid can be found on Farabout Peninsula

The group were surprised plants ranging from prairie species like bur oak and prairie onion to ancient stands of old growth black ash and white cedar that escaped fire and logging that previously occurred on the peninsula in the 1930s.

Darlene Salter says that the Bryan’s investigation into the Farabout Peninsula yielded knowledge of a fascinating diversity of species sharing common ground.

“They (Sue and Mike Bryan) recognized it as a very special place, something they believe is pretty unique, that they don’t see even in the Thunder Bay area,” said Salter. “The inventory makes it clear that this is an area that’s got species from the prairies, alpine, or arctic species and, of course, boreal.”

The area was found to have a strong breeding population of Canada Warblers, a threatened species and considered by the province to be a species of special concern.

Eagles are a common sight and many nests have been documented along many kilometers of shoreline, including the isthmus. Even American pelicans, more common to the Lake of The Woods area, are a common sight for nearby residents.

The Farabout Coalition of Eagle Lake recently received a grant from Bird Studies Canada’s James L. Bailie Fund to help group members recoup costs from their volunteer-driven conservation efforts.

Salter says she believes Farabout Peninsula should have been included in the provincial government’s 1999 designation of The Eagle Lake Islands Conservation Reserve, but wasn’t included because of privately held land on the peninsula.

“Farabout was missed and should have been included,” said Salter. “It’s virtually an island and it’s wilderness — no roads or buildings. It certainly wouldn’t have set a precedent by having patent land within a park, there are many incidences of that.”

- Chris Marchand

After being rained out on July 3, the Aug. 14 Soap Box Derby brought out a large crowd and 13 cars for the second annual event.
After moving the races to Colonization Ave. hill, the cars were able to max their speed at 39km/h.
The races featured three classes, an A class for kids 13 and under, a B class for kids 13-18 and a modified class where the kids could get really creative with their cars.
Sara Wice was this year’s champion, taking first place in all three classes in her white and pink #88 car.
Placing second in both A and B classes was brother Justin Wice in car #00.
Placing third in the A class was Ryan Davis in the #14 car while Nick Clarke in #07 placed third in the B class and second in the modified class.

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U.S. competitors edge out Canadians in Can-AM showdown on Lake Wabigoon, Aug. 6-8

An exhausted Brad Woodworth holds out his palms to show us a collection of newly raised, painful-looking blisters.

“That’s the result of light air, right there,” he said. “Some people’s hands are just open sores. You’re constantly pumping and working your sail all the time. It’s really challenging and physically demanding.”

‘Light air’, or a general lack of wind emerged as the dominant theme of the competition at the 2010 Canadian Masters Windsurf Championships.

Strong and steady winds on Thursday before the competition tapered off to mere shifty breezes as racing began placing great emphasis on technical perfection and giving lighter competitors a bit of an upper hand.

Woodworth, the race organizer and local favourite, says he had a bit of a tough weekend on the water, placing 12th overall in the gold class.

“I had a few good races, I crashed a few times, got held up — it’s part of racing — you have good races, you have bad ones,” he said. “The light air is not my specialty. With heavy air I can use my height and weight to my advantage. We had to work extra hard out there. Conditioning is a big part of it and maybe my conditioning could have been a bit better too. All in all I’m pretty happy with my results.”

Margot Woodworth had a great weekend on the water, placing top among the women in the Silver class.

More known for his prowess with a fishing rod, Darren Kennedy was the weekend’s top local finisher in the gold class posting solid finishes throughout the weekend that landed him in 9th place.

Final results were posted after a lengthy protest was lodged by a number of competitors after a race start was perceived to be miscommunicated on Sunday.

As expected, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin’s Andy Gratton was a force to be reckoned with in the gold class — winning five of the nine heats including Sunday’s long race around Picnic Island, which counted for two races.

In a dead heat for points with Canadian Nick Cox when all was said and done — Gratton was named champion by virtue of his number of first place finishes.

“I sailed as hard as I could, sometimes it wasn’t in the right direction, but I managed to squeeze out the first place — which surprises me,” said Gratton. “The light winds you really have to work at, watch where they’re coming from, pump a lot.”

Gratton says the event itself was unlike anything he’s experienced.

“There’s usually five or ten people watching, maybe,” he said. “To have those bleachers up there, to see a crowd cheering as you’re coming in for the finish, and an announcer — I’m not used to that. It’s great.”

On the strength on Gratton’s finish, along with brother Kevin, and fellow Midwesterners Timothy Cleary, Jeff Adamski and young Magnus Zaunmueller, U.S. competitors edged out the Canadians in the CAN-AM showdown.

Festival atmosphere enjoyable

Whether the wind was blowing or not, Dryden residents took advantage of three of the nicest days our Northwestern summer has had to offer, clogging the grounds of Sandy Beach park and lining the bleachers in support of 65 competitors from Canada and the U.S.

The park space was transformed into a festival atmosphere with local food vendors, music, arts and crafts on display and a beer garden.

The main action remained at the beach, somewhat remodeled for the occasion with fresh sand and a re-sculpted bank.

Local windsurfer Blair Skene says he got back into windsurfing specifically to be a part of the event. Skene finished a respectable 12th in the Silver Class.

“I haven’t windsurfed in 25 years,” said Skene. “I wanted to go in this regatta, so I joined up with the club. I got great instruction and I had no equipment. Brad (Woodworth) says ‘no problem, we got your board’. Bruce Stratford says ‘no problem, we got your sail’. All I needed was my swim trunks.”

Chris Marchand