With all of the hullabaloo last week relative to the cancelation of the UP200 Sled Dog Championship, the Midnight Run and Jackpine 30 races due to the warm conditions the region has received, passing all but unnoticed was the cancelation of another wintertime activity.

The annual wolf and moose count at Isle Royale National Park was canceled for the first time in more than 60 years.

As most resident s know, Isle Royale is a 134,000-acre island situated in far western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Canada.

The park is a wildlife biologist’s dream — it offers a rare opportunity to observe wolves and moose acting naturally with little human influence.

Researchers have conducted an annual survey of the park’s wolf and moose population since 1958. It’s been going on every year except for 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced scientists to cancel it.

According to the Associated Press, scientists from Michigan Tech University in Houghton returned to the island on Jan. 19, planning to survey the wolf and moose populations from the air through March, said Sarah Hoy, an MTU research assistant professor who leads the project alongside John Vucetich, a Michigan Tech forestry professor, and Rolf Peterson, a retired Michigan Tech ecology professor, AP reported

She said warm temperatures have left the ice around the island unsafe for the scientists’ ski-planes to land.

The team may return to the park if temperatures drop and the ice firms up enough to support ski-planes again. Additionally, the team may return to the park in spring by boat, but trying to conduct the survey then will be far more difficult, she said. The snow and bare branches makes tracking easy in the winter, but once the trees bloom, spotting the wolves and moose will be much more difficult, she said.

More winter is coming but it’s anyone’s best guess if the temperatures will drop enough to permit the survey.

We certainly hope scientists are able to complete it.