“Tell me who could make the clouds and make them move across the sky, who could make your mind and put it here to wonder why.” — Steve Forbert In these autumn days, when the winds are twirling leaves across the dirt roads and the muddy pathways in multi-colored spirals, there’s a quiet ...

Upper Peninsula • Copper Harbor: Has seen quite a few anglers with mixed results. More small fish have been caught on natural baits. A few nice splake were caught by pier and boat anglers, but they are putting in lots of time and success was limited. Eagle Harbor had very few pier anglers ...

ISHPEMING — The Upper Peninsula isn’t always the most hospitable habitat for white-tailed deer, and some local conservationists are trying to make it easier for the popular game animal’s population to thrive. Matt Watkeys, a certified forester with the Marquette County and Alger ...

“Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn.” — John Mellencamp The first sound I heard after I slipped outside the back door that morning was the croaking squawk of an old raven. He sounded upset about the cold and the snow. I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t even ...

MARQUETTE — Swingsets and monkey bars are fun for youngsters, but a natural setting can provide the fun as well as an immersive experience. Superior Hills Elementary School is becoming more environmentally friendly, inside and out. “Last year, an idea came from our school to sort of ...

Upper Peninsula • Copper Harbor: The cold weather slowed catch rates however just before that fishing was fair with some nice splake caught along with lots of smaller fish by boat and pier anglers. Most were using spawn, smelt, spoons or crank baits. • Keweenaw Bay: Was producing coho, ...

“Somewhere along the high road, the air began to turn cold,” — Bob Seger Riding out over the gray gravel road, the plain laid out in front of me in all its spectacular sweeping autumn beauty. The October road was as straight as a witch’s broomstick, dipping lower and lower as it ...

Upper Peninsula • Marquette: Few anglers were out. With the cooler temperatures and rain last week, local rivers saw a good push of salmon, but the run was short lived. A decent number of coho along with some steelhead and brown trout were picked up in the Carp and Chocolay Rivers and a few ...

By CHRISTIE BLECK Journal Staff Writer CHATHAM — Call it a school lesson via hayride. Students from Negaunee High School’s environmental science class on Wednesday visited the South Farm at the Michigan State University Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center — an appropriate ...

BARAGA — A complaint called in to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Report All Poaching hotline resulted in two brothers being ticketed for illegally killing a pair of trumpeter swans on Sept. 28, the opening day of waterfowl hunting season in the Upper Peninsula. Trumpeter ...

“The high rolling hills give it all in the fall; oh, the hard days are gone...now.” — Steve Forbert The hem of the resplendent gown of Madame Autumn moves slowly across the floor as she half-sashays into view, pulling with her a trail of rolling and tumbling multi-colored leaves. Her ...

Upper Peninsula • Keweenaw Bay: Continued to produce salmon, splake and lake trout including a few being caught in shallower water in Traverse Bay. Chinook and coho started to enter area streams. Anglers will find salmon in the Huron, Falls and Silver rivers. Chinook and brown trout were ...

BY SCOT STEWART Special to the Journal STONINGTON PENINSULA — It’s not the mountains of Mexico, but the sights were the same. More than a thousand monarch butterflies were roosting in the trees at the tip of the Stonington Peninsula — Peninsula Point in Delta County. The tip ...

“Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide Kato and their rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty.” — Green Hornet TV show introduction We moved to our new home last year and discovered, after not having been there very long, that we were sharing the property with a swarm of bald-faced ...

Upper Peninsula • Copper Harbor: Anglers continue to catch splake however the action did slow, and many were sub-legal. A few lake trout, steelhead and brown trout were being caught out on the big lake, but anglers were doing a lot of trolling. • Keweenaw Bay: Anglers caught salmon, ...

MARQUETTE — It’s paving paradise and putting in a parking lot — in reverse. In reference to Joni Mitchell’s song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” the Jacobetti Home for Veterans, 425 Fisher St., is planning construction of a nature-based plaza on the south side of the facility in the ...

MARQUETTE — Slugg’s Bluff sounds like the name of a 1960s-era Clint Eastwood movie, but it’s actually the site of a local weekend conservation project. Northern Michigan University student Brandon Caltrider, a junior studying biology and president of the NMU-based South Superior ...

“Now the rain’s been droppin,’ drip drop a drippin’ every day you’ve been away.” — Aaron Schroeder and Chuck Kaye I’m sitting up in bed listening. Everyone else has gone to sleep. With the darkness gathered around me, I’ve got my eyes closed listening. I can hear my watch ...

Upper Peninsula Keweenaw Bay: Splake and salmon were being caught and a few lake trout were caught in Huron Bay when the weather permits. Traverse Bay was producing some lake trout and salmon in shallower water. Marquette: Had no updates due to weather conditions. Anglers were starting to see ...

“Summer’s end’s around the bend, just flying.” – John Prine The afternoon couldn’t make up its mind between sunny skies, cold winds and clouds threatening rain. I decided to spend those hours traveling gray-graveled backroads, looking for some respite from the hurry here and there ...