Superior National Forest after take-off from the USFS Seaplane Base. © C.Dickinson
Cynthia Dickinson’s latest photography project has brought her to new heights, literally and figuratively. Her work in progress, “Red Earth: Women and Land in NE Minnesota,” focuses on women living and working in Lake, Cook, St. Louis and Itasca Counties. It will be featured in a 2017 solo exhibit at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis.
Watch for more Agate coverage of this exciting project as it nears completion. In the meantime, Dickinson has been kind enough to share these aerial images of Superior National Forest, taken during a recent interview with Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyer.
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On September 8, we flew out of the U.S. Forest Service Seaplane base on Shagawa Lake, Ely, MN, one of only two seaplane bases in the United States operated by the U.S. Forest Service. Pat Loe piloted the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver float plane, which is used for rescues, wildlife tracking, fighting fires, and restocking fish into lakes. On this flight, Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyer was using radio telemetry to track collared wolves and deer (15 wolves, 11 deer). Shannon is a wildlife biologist working for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wolf and Deer Project in Ely, under the direction of Dr. L. David Mech. We did not see wolves or deer on this day, but she was successful in picking up their signals. There were great views of the landscape, and pilot Pat Loe pointed out many of the features below.
Pat Loe pilots the plane to areas indicated by Shannon, based on radio signals from the collared wolves and deer. © C. Dickinson
A diversity of forest and aquatic environments. © C. Dickinson
The Pagami Creek fire started on August 18, 2011 with a lightning strike 13 miles east of Ely. An unexpected drop in humidity and extreme wind shifts led to its expansion, and by September 13 the fire had overtaken roughly 93,000 acres. This is the fire area today. © C. Dickinson
Present-day view of the area affected by the 1999 blowdown in the BWCA. The straight-line windstorm, or “derecho,” took out 25 million trees along a path 30 miles long and between 4 and 12 miles wide. When we were in the air, there was a point when all I could see out of every window in the plane was this landscape. © C. Dickinson
Highway 1 along the Superior National Forest going toward Isabella from Ely. © C. Dickinson
Superior National Forest. © C. Dickinson
Superior National Forest. © C. Dickinson
Find out more
Cynthia Dickinson’s Red Earth: Women and Land in NE Minnesota
Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyer, Wildlife Biologist, USGS Wolf and Deer Project
Photographer Cynthia Dickinson (ice-fishing!)
Pat Loe © C. Dickinson
Dr. Shannon Barber-Meyer. © C. Dickinson
