ASHLAND, WI (WTAQ) – Folks in northern Wisconsin are being asked to help experts get a handle on the region’s loon population.
The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute in Ashland will conduct the state’s loon population survey on July 18th. They’re seeking volunteers to check pre-selected lakes during the early to mid-morning hours.
The institute is headquartered at Northland College in Ashland.
“Project Loon-watch” coordinator Erica LaMoine says the Badger State’s loon population has grown from 2,400 in 1985 to around 4,000 by 2010. She says the loon is considered the symbol of the Northwoods, but it faces some big challenges — like the loss of habitat, water quality issues, and the growth of toxins and botulism.
Just over a year ago, Chapman University professor Walter Piper found that biting black flies caused 70 percent of nesting loons in north central Wisconsin to leave their eggs. He said the black flies proliferated following the extremely cold and snowy winter of last year.
For more information on next month’s population survey, go online to Northland.edu/loonwatch.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
