Northland College Magazine

Northland College

Turtles, Temperature, and SexAssistant Professor of Biology Kayla Bieser and Northland student

Caitlin Ginnery are exploring the link between climate change and turtle populations. Learn more on page 11.

MAGAZINE Home of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

FALL 2014

Also in this issue: News • Class Notes • Athletics

On the CoverNorthland student Caitlin Ginnery

holds a painted turtle. Eggs from this female were collected to aid in genetic research led by Assistant Professor of Biology Kayla Bieser. Learn more on pg. 11.

Northland College MagazineFALL 2014

MissionNorthland College integrates liberal arts

studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the

challenges of the future.

VisionNorthland College will be the nation’s

preeminent liberal arts college focused on the environment, preparing students and

other stakeholders to lead us toward a more sustainable, just, and prosperous future.

PresidentDr. Michael A. Miller

President’s CabinetLeslie Alldritt

Interim Dean of Faculty, Vice President of Academic Affairs

Andy Goyke Faculty Council President and

Professor of Biology

Robert Jackson Vice President of Finance and Administration

Michele Meyer Vice President for Student Affairs and

Institutional Sustainability

Mark Peterson Executive Director, Sigurd Olson

Environmental Institute

Margot Carroll Zelenz Vice President of Institutional Advancement

Magazine ContributorsJulie Buckles, Public and Media

Relations Specialist

Bob Gross, Associate Director of Institutional Marketing

Demeri Mullikin, Executive Director of Institutional Marketing

Jill O’Neill, Graphic Design Communications Specialist

Sean Devlin, student writerNiina Baum, student photographer

© 2014, Northland College

SubmissionsTo submit comments and ideas

for the Northland College magazine, please write to :

Office of Marketing Communications Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

You can also call (715) 682-1307 or email [email protected].

Class NotesTo submit class notes or alumni

photos, please write to:

Office of Alumni Relations Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

You can also call (715) 682-1811 or email [email protected].

northland.edu/coffee

Give the Gift of COFFEE.

This holiday season, give Fenenga Fuel, Northland’s signature coffee locally roasted by Big Water Coffee Roasters in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It’s the perfect gift. Or be a Scrooge and keep it all to yourself. Order today and drink up.

CONTENTSFROM THE PRESIDENT PG. 1

NEWS PG. 2

JOHN N. ALLEN FITNESS CENTER PG. 9

TURTLES, TEMPERATURE, AND SEX PG. 11

ATHLETICS PG. 17

ALUMNI NEWS PG. 18

CLASS NOTES PG. 193

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1 NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

administration. I appreciate the efforts of the maintenance and construction crews who worked through summer to complete the John N. Allen Fitness Center and Malcolm and Wendy H. McLean Graphic Design Lab for returning students. And, of course, we are all grateful to the donors for having the confidence and vision to fund these projects and more.

Wishing you all a productive fall and peaceful winter.

to red-eared slider turtles (Alabama) and now to painted and snapping turtles. She has a paper that will be published later this year. Read more about what she’s discovering in the field of genetics related to turtles.

Sarah Johnson first joined Northland College as a student, then studied at UW-Madison and returned to teach and research at Northland College a few years ago. She spends most of her summer in the field and on the islands, usually with a crew of eager students, ready to learn.

This issue of the magazine provides a sampling of all that goes on to make this campus hum—alumni, students, staff, faculty, and

Fall is a time to breathe in deeply and take in the splendor of this campus and this region. I just spent a colorful weekend at Northland’s Fall Festival—a combination of family weekend, alumni reunion, and community celebration. I walked through falling leaves around campus watching new students mingle with former students, parents talking with faculty, community members laughing with staff. It was a celebration of all that is so great about Northland College and its surrounding environment.

I hope you will find that the magazine reflects the work of all the people who help create such a vibrant environment, and who make it an honor to come to work every day. The faculty-student relationship is at the core of the student experience at Northland College. Our ratio of one faculty member to every eleven students is an admirable one and the U.S. News & World Report notes this as an asset in our ranking. I hear from students and alumni that faculty-student research, faculty accessibility, and faculty interactions create a unique, stimulating, and family-like campus community.

Every time I talk to faculty members, I find out about another research project, paper, book, or presentation. In this issue, we highlight just two of the amazing faculty-student research projects in the works. Kayla Bieser, one of our newest faculty, wasted no time in adapting her turtle research which moved from sea turtles (Costa Rica)

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Michael A. Miller President, Northland College

President Miller speaks at the dedication of the new John N. Allen Fitness Center held October 17 on the Northland College campus. Learn more about the new space on page 9.

FALL 2014 2

NEWS

Parsonage Fund Success: Matzinger Combines Music and Biology

By Sean Devlin, student writer

In the past year, Northland College junior Parker Matzinger discovered a field of science that combines two of his passions: music and animals. That science is bioacoustics, a cross-disciplinary science that combines the biology with acoustics of many different animals.

Through coursework and internships, Matzinger discovered the art of bird-calling and how measuring the frequency, time, and amplitude of different bird calls enables biologists to make assessments of the number of invasive species and the biodiversity of an environment.

“I knew that Cornell University was big in the field so I went to their website every so often to see what was going on with the science,” said Matzinger.

With financial help from the Parsonage Fund, Matzinger attended a week-long workshop from June 12 to 18 at Cornell Ornithology Laboratory in the Sierra

Mountains. The Parsonage Fund is designed to assist students to develop themselves professionally.

Matzinger was the only undergraduate at the conference which hosted forty professionals, including graduate students and professors from other institutions.

The conference focused on the use and understanding of technology used to record the sounds of the birds in a certain environment. Recorders use ultrasound microphone technology to collect the sounds in nature.

“I never held a recorder before and now I have a baseline knowledge for it when I need to use one,” Matzinger said.

More importantly, Matzinger said the conference allowed him to “connect with nature in a way that I have never really done.”

Matzinger explained that the workshop was so influential that he feels as though his capstone project his senior year will involve bioacoustics.


NEWS

Rarely is federal legislation passed today with such unanimity as happened with the Wilderness Act fifty years ago. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Act 373-1. The Senate approved it 73-12. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964, proclaiming that the passage of the bill was “in the highest tradition of our heritage as conservators as well as users of America’s bountiful natural resources.”

Mark R. Peterson is executive director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, and David Zentner of Duluth is the past national president of the Izaak Walton League of America. Peterson and Zentner originally co-authored this editorial for the Duluth News Tribune.

The lopsided margin of victory belied the act’s long struggle, which was spearheaded by visionary Minnesotans. In an era when extraction of forest resources was the dominant paradigm, Arthur Carhart, a U.S. Forest Service employee working in Minnesota’s

Keep the flame alive.

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Superior National Forest, challenged this view. His 1921 recreation plan recognized that an area called the Boundary Waters could become, in time, “as priceless as Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon—if it remained a water-trail wilderness.”

Carhart’s recommendation was almost heresy; there were already plans afoot to build roads and homes throughout the area. In 1926, Sigurd Olson of Ely and Ernest Oberholtzer of Rainy Lake worked successfully to rally public support for a “primitive area” designation that banned roads and recreational developments on the public lands. This, along with subsequent battles to prohibit proposed hydro dams, logging, and floatplane use, helped to define the concept of wilderness.

The Wilderness Society was founded by eight men in 1935, including Oberholtzer and Wisconsin ecologist Aldo Leopold, and soon Sigurd F. Olson joined their leadership circle. With help from Olson and others, their director Edward Zahniser took the lead in crafting wilderness legislation. Together, they worked tirelessly for its passage.

Another Minnesotan, Senator Hubert Humphrey, then introduced the first wilderness bill in 1956. For the next eight years, sixty-six different wilderness bills were introduced, and eighteen hearings were held across the nation. Few opponents denied the validity of the wilderness concept. In principle, they were for it, but wary. Even the National Park Service and U.S. Forest

Service testified against it, preferring a free hand in applying their judgment of what is best for wild places. In the end, organizations like The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, and Izaak Walton League successfully rallied public support as Americans’ concern for the environment escalated in the 1960s.

The 1964 Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System and set aside an initial 9.1 million acres of wildlands to benefit the American people. Another 100 million acres were later added to a system that now totals 757 areas on federal lands.

In our region we have eighteen wilderness areas amounting to about 1.2 million acres, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Isle Royale.

The preservation of our wilderness areas did not end with a designation on a map. In the five decades since the Act, threats to wilderness challenge modern conservationists: airborne contaminants like mercury coming from distant sources, exotic invasive species, visual intrusions such as nearby cell towers, mining, and overuse by the very people who love these special places are among the threats.

Olson prophetically warned and challenged us before his death in 1982: “You’ve got to carry on the battle to preserve such beautiful places as this. The battle goes on endlessly. It’s your task—you’ve got to see that you keep the flame alive. The whole world depends upon you.”

The heroes of the past are with us in the shadows. Their hopes are penned in the words of the Wilderness Act itself. They understood that wilderness enriches our civilization. They might be impressed with how much we’ve saved, but they would agonize over how much we’ve lost. As this generation now lights the candles on this anniversary cake at fifty, we must keep the wilderness flame alive and burning bright, knowing that we need wilderness now more than ever.

Keeping the flame burning bright on our generation’s wilderness legacy means several things. First, we need to add to the wilderness system those special places that remain without this protection. Astonishingly, many of our iconic national parks, like Yellowstone, are without wilderness protection. Second, Congress must provide reasonable funding to care for our wilderness assets. Third, wilderness protection means defending these national assets from external forces that would compromise wilderness integrity. Finally, in an age of video games and gadgetry, we need to introduce more young people to the inspiring and restorative powers wilderness possesses.

So, happy birthday Wilderness Act, and thank you to all who made it happen and to those who work protecting these special places. Let our generation’s birthday present be in saving the living wilderness, a gift that keeps on giving, growing in value to the benefit of generations to come.


NEWS

Northland Receives Wilderness Legacy Award

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the USDA Forest Service awarded Northland College with a Wilderness Legacy Award.

Working with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Northland provided work-study students to arrange Wilderness Act anniversary events at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. For nearly a year, these students have arranged monthly programs bringing in different speakers and also presented programs themselves on the Wilderness Act.

In addition, the College, through the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, held several programs on campus in celebration of the Act.

FALL 2014 6

Lake Superior Wilderness Conference Draws 150

The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute took the lead in organizing a Lake Superior Wilderness Conference to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act, and to imagine the next fifty years. Held in Duluth, the conference drew 150 attendees from around the Midwest for a day and a half of presentations, lectures, and networking.

The Wilderness Act was signed into legislation on September 6, 1964. Photo by radiantspiritgallery.com

Malcolm and Wendy H. McLean Graphic Design Lab

Northland College transformed its photography dark room this past summer into a laboratory for graphic design and digital photography.

The College added a graphic design emphasis to its list of majors and minors this fall. Graphic design explores graphic solutions for visual problem solving through project-based curricula in both traditional and digital design including publication design, branding and identity, advertising, web, and interactive media.

“The graphic design emphasis provides an opportunity to expose students to another form of visual communication,” said Associate Professor of Art Jason Terry, who is coordinating the program. “Art fulfills the role of communicating the complex ideas—of moving science out of the lab and into the world.”

Wendy and Malcolm McLean supported the transformation of the former photography dark room into a space for digital photography and graphic design. Malcolm McLean, Northland’s second longest-serving president (1971-1987), is also credited with leading efforts to create and develop the environmental studies program, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, and the Native American

studies program, as well as bringing about a recommitment to the student work program.

The new lab has sixteen iMacs all equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud and a set of digital SLR camera kits.

The design program will connect students with regional nonprofits, government agencies, and campus researchers who have graphic design needs.

“Graphic design is used in everyday life—we see it every single day in the products that we use and the signs that we see,” said senior Timothy Cline. “I am an art major and business management minor—graphic design will help bridge the two together.”


NEWSNorthland College Tops Lists: U.S. News & World Report, Military Friendly, Princeton Review, and Hippiest Haven

Northland College is ranked in the top tier of the U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 ranking of best national liberal arts colleges, which was released in September.

National liberal arts colleges are those that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half their degrees in the arts and sciences.

U.S. News & World Report uses such factors as classes with fewer than twenty students (seventy percent at Northland College) and student-faculty ratio (11:1). Assessments by high school guidance counselors, freshman retention rates, the percentage of alumni giving, and acceptance rates also are among the data included in the methodology.

This year’s thirtieth edition of Best Colleges includes data on nearly 1,800 colleges and universities. Eligible schools are ranked on up to sixteen measures of academic excellence.

“We’re pleased to be included on such a highly watched list and to have validated the high quality of our college and the education we provide to our students,” said President Mike Miller.

Military FriendlyFor the second year in a row,

Northland was designated a military friendly school by Victory Media, a veteran-owned business that assists military personnel transition to the civilian world.

“Northland College is proud to again be included on this list,” Miller said. “We remain committed to supporting student veterans and to providing the best education for their future.”

Now in its sixth year, Victory Media uses a weighted scoring system and reviews penned by veteran students—then independently audited by the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

The 2015 designation is awarded to the top fifteen percent of 8,000 colleges, universities, and trade schools that are authorized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to accept post-9/11 GI Bill funds.

Environmentally Responsible

The Princeton Review named Northland College one of the 332 most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada.

“We’ve been establishing sustainability standards for over forty years,” said Northland’s Regional Sustainability Coordinator Nathan Engstrom. “It’s wonderful to be recognized by Princeton Review for our ongoing dedication and vision to be the nation’s preeminent liberal arts college focused on the environment.”

The Princeton Review chose Northland College based on a survey it conducted in 2013 of administrators at hundreds of four-year colleges to measure the schools’ commitment to the environment and to sustainability. The institutional survey included questions on the schools’ course offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation.

FALL 2014 8

On Giving Tuesday (December 2, 2014), step up and participate in Northland’s Be A Hero Challenge.

A Northland alumni couple has heroically offered to double all new and increased gifts to Northland’s annual fund. They will match up to $250,000 for:

• New Donors (anyone who hasn’t made a gift since June of 2013)

• Increased Gifts (any amount that exceeds the prior year’s gift)

You can direct your gift to scholarships, sustainability, athletics, SOEI, or an academic department of your choice.

Northland College is one of thousands of nonprofits taking part in #GivingTuesday this year. #GivingTuesday is a global day for giving back, counterbalancing the consumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Find out more about the Be a Hero Challenge and #GivingTuesday at

northland.edu/giving.

Step up and be a hero…

Free SpiritedIn a less conventional ranking,

the website Her Campus named Northland College one of “the ten most free-spirited colleges in the country.”

Her Campus is the number one global community for college women. With a team of more than 4,000 students at more than 240 colleges and universities contributing to the site, Her Campus

rated Northland College in the top ten hippiest havens along with Berkeley, Oberlin, Warren Wilson, and Lewis & Clark that promote “growing their own organic food, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability.”

Writes Her Campus: “The typical student is described as being friendly . . . with a penchant for activism and outdoor activities. In fact, life at Northland begins with a required Outdoor Orientation trip, in

which first-year students participate in five-to-twelve-day adventures in the Wisconsin wilderness.”

“This list confirms what I’ve always been so proud of—that we have a student body of spirited, driven, and energetic individuals who strive to make the world a better and more sustainable place,” Miller said.


John N. Allen Fitness CenterNorthland College dedicated the new

John N. Allen Fitness Center, a newly renovated building adjacent to the Kendrigan Gymnasium.

John N. Allen of Naples, Florida, and Minneapolis is a long-serving trustee alumnus. He attended Northland in the 1970s and graduated with a degree in broad field social sciences, with a pre-law emphasis (magna cum laude). John was active in basketball, football, and Tau Kappa.

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1. The new center provides an 8,000 square foot open-floor plan for recreation, conditioning, physical training, and wellness programs.

2. The facility is available to students, staff, and faculty and their families.

3. As part of the renovation, the outdated cooling and heating system was modernized. Much of the waste from the project was recycled or repurposed.

4. The original wooden ceiling and beams were sanded and refinished.

5. The facility includes a bouldering wall, strength machines, spin bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers, free weights, core equipment, an exercise studio for yoga, dance, and group fitness classes plus building-wide Wi-Fi access, television monitors, and stereo system.


Scientists know that temperature determines sex in certain reptiles—alligators, lizards, turtles, and possibly dinosaurs. In many turtles, warm temperatures during incubation, create females; cold temperatures, males. This is one hypothesis that explains dinosaur extinction: a meteor hit, cooling the Earth, producing an all-male population. The reason ancient reptiles like turtles and alligators survived, the hypothesis goes, is that the water regulated drastic temperature changes during incubation.

Turtles, Temperature, & Sex

One of the snapping turtles incubated at Northland as part of Bieser’s genetic research. A quarter shows the minute scale of this newly hatched reptile.

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This subject has fascinated Northland College Assistant Professor of Biology Kayla Bieser, Ph.D., since she went abroad as an undergraduate in Costa Rica researching leatherback sea turtles. She pursued graduate degrees studying red-eared slider turtles in Indiana and Alabama. Her most recent research, completed with Thane Wibbels, Ph.D., her mentor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will be published by December 2014 in the primary research journal Sexual Development.

This study represents the most comprehensive simultaneous evaluation of the chronology of how sex-determining genes express themselves during embryonic development and, maybe more interestingly, at least to Bieser, the study also looks at the impacts of estrogen.

She’s interested in the genetics behind sex determination. Scientists know that temperature determines

sex in turtles. In the species she studies, a swing in only a couple degrees Celsius is the difference between becoming male or female. Researchers even understand that this happens during the middle-third of the incubation period, which can be approximately 20-35 days long depending upon the incubation temperature.

But no one understands why temperature influences sex—whether it’s a hormonal reaction, a genetic one, or a combination of factors. Bieser is seeking to answer that question.

Bieser and Wibbels followed five different genes and what was going on in the exact same turtle. To date, scientists have looked at a number of turtles and pooled the data, but Bieser is the first to follow individual turtles. She wanted to know when and how they “express” themselves. For an example, Bieser describes expression as the physical manifestation of those genes such as blue or brown eye color.

She looked at turtle eggs incubated at male and female temperatures and looked at what the genes were doing while sex is being determined. “Which genes ‘turn on’ and when, could be an indication of what is triggering sex,” Bieser said.

Bieser also applied estrogen to eggs at a male-producing temperature. The purpose she said is to help determine the triggers

for sex determination and how hormones, such as estrogen, can override the temperature signal.

In other words, would temperature or estrogen win out in deciding sex? The answer: in short, neither. What she found—and this is new information—is that when estrogen is applied to eggs incubating at a male temperature, gonads, male or female, do not develop. Or, if they do, they barely develop.

Why? “ We don’t know yet,” Bieser said.

Scientists have been doing this experiment for some time but never reported these results. She suspects the reason is because scientists did not dissect the gonadal area specifically and that they disected the general area but may have not analyzed the gonads to the


same detailed level. In fact, this was a sticking point for one of the reviewers of this study—so Bieser provided photos of her findings.

Bieser, who joined Northland College in fall 2014, has continued and expanded her research with northern turtles—painted turtles and snapping turtles. She and biology student Caitlin Ginnery worked on two research studies this past summer.

Ginnery took Bieser’s Methods of Molecular Biology and “fell in love with genetics.” In one semester, she went from being pre-med to wanting to focus on genetics and is now looking at graduate programs in genetic research, pediatric genetics, and genetics counseling.

Last summer, Bieser hired Ginnery to work with her in the lab. The two researched epigenetics, which look “above the genome,” to see how genes are expressed without changing the letters—“an exact, abstract, and invisible science,” Bieser said.

Bieser and Ginnery were also able to duplicate the results from Bieser’s initial estrogen study.

Bieser has no intention of slowing down. She’s wildly interested in environmental estrogens and how they impact people and wildlife. She is working with other faculty at Northland College to set up studies to look at turtles near a sewer outlet,

for example, versus turtles living in more pristine conditions.

“This research provides a critical understanding of how temperature acts on and above the genes in species where temperature determines sex—this is particularly critical in light of global climate change,” Bieser said.

According to Bieser, temperature-dependent sex determination species may be unable to evolve rapidly enough to offset the increases in temperature, which may ultimately result in their extinction.

“It’s critical that we understand the genetic mechanisms on which temperature acts and incorporate this knowledge into management plans for the conservation of these vulnerable species.”

Asst. Professor of Biology Kayla Bieser (standing) reviews research data with Northland student Caitlin Ginnery in the genetics lab in the Larson-Juhl Center for Science and the Environment.

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Junior Annie Campbell studied sharks and oceanography in South Africa last summer, specifically in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape near where the Indian and Atlantic oceans converge and sharks reside in abundance.

“It was like living Shark Week every day,” said Campbell, a biology and natural resources major with an emphasis on fisheries and wildlife ecology.

Campbell was accepted into a three-month internship with Oceans Campus, an organization specializing in wildlife internships in Africa. She will graduate in May 2015.

SEAN: What was your average day like?ANNIE: I threw chum—dead and squished sardines—in the water to bait sharks to get pictures of their dorsal fins. We used this for photo identification and for other studies.

SEAN: What was the research for?ANNIE: All of our projects were for clients doing research—some were graduate and doctorate projects,

all depending on our research.

SEAN: And what was your most memorable day? ANNIE: One day I was pulling a seal decoy into the boat to change it out for a different decoy. It was about eight feet away from the boat when an eighteen-foot great white shark breached on the decoy. He ripped it out of my hands and bit down hard sending flying chunks of decoy. The shark was so close that if I had reached out I could have touched him. Then he hit the water and drenched me. For a split second I thought he was going to end up in the boat with me. I just turned to look at my field specialist and the other six interns on the boat with me. They all had huge, wide eyes. Finally, my field specialist said, “that was awesome.”

SEAN: Coolest person you met? ANNIE: We worked at a shark lab/aquarium that Oceans funds, run by a man named Alan Jardine. He has a book out called I Touched the Moon and other Wild Adventures. And, yes, he really did touch the moon, and that’s not even close to his craziest story.

SEAN: Did you catch any sharks?ANNIE: I caught a Pyjama shyshark—a small, small shark. The record weight in South Africa is fourteen pounds. Turns out I caught one that was just shy of the record weight. We tagged her and released her back into the bay.

SEAN: What was your reaction when you first saw the ocean?ANNIE: Surprisingly, the bay I lived on looked quite similar to Chequamegon Bay, but with mountains in the background and dolphins in the salty water. When I got back to Ashland, I kept looking at the lake waiting to see a shark breach or a whale blow or seals jump.

SEAN: Did your Northland experience help you out while in South Africa?ANNIE: I found out from other interns that their schools hadn’t instructed them in most of the things I took for granted. I was so prepared in necessary skills like Geological Information Systems (GIS) and RStudio software. Northland also provided me with a lot of fieldwork, something many of the other interns hadn’t had.

Senior Sean Devlin is a communication intern and a writing major at Northland College.

Shark Summer: Annie Campbell


Stockton Island is one of twenty-two Apostle Islands in Lake Superior near Northland College. The second largest island, Stockton, has many noteworthy characteristics—diverse plant life, including prolific blueberries, the highest concentration of black bears in the world, and a long stretch of “singing sand” that squeaks underfoot.

At Julian Bay, the site of a long stretch of singing sand, Assistant Professor of Biology and Natural Resources Sarah Johnson (NC class of 2002) and three students measure elevation, dune health, and juniper statistics like width, height, sex, and mortality. The National Park Service has contracted with Northland College to monitor dune vegetation and to study the ongoing health of juniper bushes.

Johnson found her passion for plants as an undergraduate at Northland College going out in the field with retired Professor Jim Meeker. She strives to teach like she was taught—by getting students in the field as much as possible. “This is what I love,” she said. “I wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a teacher without the field work.”

Johnson and college juniors Emily Leonard, Michael Sinclair, and Forrest Rosenbower spent five days and four nights nearly every week camping and working at fourteen different dune sites on five different islands. The lessons were vast. “I learned tons about plant ecology,

and really got to know the Apostle Islands,” Sinclair said.

Leonard, a biology and natural resources student, stoops over a juniper bush holding the end of a measuring tape—with Johnson at the other end—taking down dimensions. She says she stared at the Apostle Islands on a computer for a semester before actually stepping foot on one.

“I think it is incredible that Northland allows me to get graduate-level experience as an undergrad,” Leonard said. “I never thought that I would be studying plants on the Apostle Islands or that I would be a coauthor of a technical report and manuscript for publication as a junior.”

As Johnson’s work-study research assistant, Leonard added data from summer 2013 Canadian Yew studies into a global information system. She then created maps, comparing 2013 to data from the 1990s to look for changes in the islands.

Leonard was one of the first to apply for Johnson’s three listed summer research positions. For dune vegetation surveys, Johnson and her students studied fourteen beach environments. Johnson is interested in finding out how kayakers, hikers, and weather impact the sandscapes.

The Park Service has been monitoring vegetation since the 1980s. Johnson and students are

tweaking the methodology for better analysis.

The team made one surprising discovery. Through careful observations, they noticed extensive girdling by rodents on junipers growing on Michigan Island. Johnson immediately contacted Northland College Assistant Professor of Natural Resources and Biology Paula Anich, an expert on small mammals.

The Johnson-Anich collaboration led to perhaps the highlight of the research team’s summer. The crew spent five nights trapping small mammals on Michigan and Outer Islands and had an amazing success rate of captures, with southern red-backed voles being the most abundant species found among the junipers on Michigan Island.

“This might be the first documentation of the southern red-backed vole occupying such high densities and impacting a sand dune environment,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Anich look forward to conducting further research here. Meanwhile, students are analyzing results, writing their report, and processing their incredible summer.

“I can’t imagine studying anywhere else,” Leonard said. “I have friends studying biology and natural resources at other schools, and very few of them are able to build their resumes through field experience and internships.”

Dunes & Junipers

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ATHLETICS

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Hockey Coach Finds Home Away From Home

Seamus Gregory spent a day in September with his wife, Jodi, driving through Bayfield’s orchard-filled countryside. The leaves had started to turn and the apples to ripen. “This is why we chose to move here,” he said, “for a better quality of life.”

Gregory started as the new hockey coach in July, moving from Williston State College in North Dakota where he was the head hockey coach for the last three years. While there he built the first hockey program at the school and was the 2012 NJCAA National Runner-up in his first year. In both 2013 and 2014 his teams won the NJCAA National Championship.

The Lake Superior region’s landscape reminds Gregory of his home region in Newfoundland, Canada. He was born and raised in Harbour Grace, a town the same size as Ashland’s neighbor, Washburn, with cold winters, lots of ice, and one grocery store. Seamus Gregory set to the ice at the age of two, and by five, played organized hockey.

His family immigrated to the United States in 2001. His father, Joseph Gregory, worked as the assistant director of sustainability at Harvard University from 2002-2011 and now owns Gregory Law in Boston, specializing in private energy law. His mother, Joan, is a Boston Public Schools administrator.

Seamus Gregory graduated from St. Thomas University in New Brunswick in 2003 and then joined them, teaching high school history. After five years, he needed a change and decided to commit to what he was most passionate about: coaching hockey.

Gregory is looking forward to reviving the hockey program at Northland College and to building a stronger fabric within the community for the entire athletic program.

Gregory and his wife will welcome their first child in November. “We didn’t expect to be having a baby in the middle of hockey season but there you have it,” he said with a smile.

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ALUMNI NEWS

Romano Rides the Airwaves

Dan Romano, weatherman for WDIO TV, did not start his career in typical fashion. In 2010, he was living in New Jersey, thirty years old, bartending, and taking a second stab at college when he happened to catch Reed Timmer on Storm Chasers one night after a long shift.

“Just watching Reed Timmer on TV made me think this is something that I have wanted to do my entire life,” said Romano.

The next day he started researching meteorology programs and found Northland College.

The third time was a charm. Northland College fit him well. He

developed his own WRNC radio show called “Romano’s Rage,” and he played baseball—a passion since childhood that followed and helped him through his twenties. He assisted with coaching his senior year and now coaches a little league team in the region.

Within two years of stepping foot on campus, Romano was offered an interview at WDIO, the local weather station in Duluth, Minnesota, and went on air in January 2013.

Romano graduated from Northland in May with degrees in meteorology and mathematics—cum laude.

At WDIO Romano is part of a team of five meteorologists and develops two to four forecasts a week. “I fill out a forecast sheet looking at the current conditions and I also look at the short and long range trends,” said Romano. He works every weekend and fills in for Good Morning Northland.

He is not chasing storms or starring in his own television show, but Romano is happy. “It’s not quite like Storm Chasers, but I get to do more than just chase storms,” he said. “I have the opportunity to share good weather with people and tell them they can go outside and enjoy their weekend.”


CLASS NOTESCollege of Veterinary Medicine with her DVM. In July she married Mark Daniels, and the following week started as an associate veterinarian at Maple Run Veterinary Clinic in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.

Matt Tanneberg is in his last year of chiropractic school, on pace to graduate in December 2014 from Palmer College of Chiropractic in San Jose, California. This past summer he went on a clinic abroad trip to Fiji for two weeks, where he provided free health care at several different elementary and middle schools.

Ashley Lokken married Michael Kamantauskas of Marengo, Wisconsin, on September 6, 2014 in Washburn, Wisconsin. Michael is the son of Uta (Lotz) Kamantauskas ’87 and Eugene Kamantauskas ’89.

Blake Wiese graduated from Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine and has accepted a position as an associate veterinarian at Oakwood Animal Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

CLASS OF 2009Jessica Harguth and Felix Malpica

were married on June 22, 2013. Jessica earned a master of art in education in 2014 from Hamline University.

Adrien Roth is a GIS analyst for Vantage Energy in Englewood, Colorado. She will earn her MS degree in GIS from Delta State University in December 2014.

CLASS OF 2007Katherine Christenson and Justin

Bledsoe were married on September 28, 2014, and are living in Eagle River, Alaska. Katie was previously living in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for the past six years, working as a dive master. She is excited to start her new adventure in Alaska.

Amy (Fazio) and Jared Trimbo continue to be a part of the Chequamegon Bay community. They were married in 2009 after purchasing a hobby farm, and have since had two amazing children, Henriette and Milo. Jared works for Pike’s Bay Marina in Bayfield while Amy is the outreach coordinator for the Chequamegon Food Co-op in Ashland.

CLASS OF 2006Kelsey (Myrvold) Rothe and her

husband Todd ’10 bought a thirty-acre farm in 2012 and launched their market scale farm. They sell their produce to Northland College, the Chequamegon Co-op, and through the Lake Superior CSA. They welcome alumni to come visit and take a tour.

CLASS OF 2005Angie Busby is a natural resource

manager for Cal-Wood Education Center in Jamestown, Colorado.

CLASS OF 2004Royal Gingery is the director of

instrumental music for the Sheboygan Area School District, North High School in Wisconsin.

CLASS OF 2002Abe Lloyd recently published his

first book, Wild Berries of Washington and Oregon. He is an instructor of natural history and ethnobotany at Western Washington University and Whatcom Community College, and does ethnobotanical consulting work through his business, Salal, the Cascadian Food Institute.

CLASS OF 2001Kevin Lang is a Montessori teacher

in Mountain View, California.

CLASS OF 2014Taylor Stewart is a fisheries biologist

with United States Geological Survey, Lake Erie Biological Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

CLASS OF 2013Elizabeth Kahn finished her

master’s degree at Vermont Law School in Environmental Law and Policy. Currently, she is attending The Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for another master’s degree in urban and regional planning.

CLASS OF 2012Bill Mokry is pleased to announce

his engagement to Melissa Wygant. They are looking forward to their wedding in January of 2016. After graduating from Northland, Bill went on to pursue his master of atmospheric sciences from the University of North Dakota, with an anticipated graduation this winter or next spring. In the meanwhile, Bill has also accepted a staff meteorologist position in Fort Collins, Colorado, while Melissa pursues her PhD at Colorado State University.

CLASS OF 2011Michael Madsen is a math and

science instructor for the Art Institute of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He earned a master of mathematical science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in August 2014.

Ryan Pageau is a business development manager for IBM in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

CLASS OF 2010Denise (Johnson) Daniels graduated

in May from the Ohio State University

FALL 2014 20

Betsy and Joe Meres ’97 added a third boy to their clan in January of 2013. Big brothers Ethan and Owen welcomed Noah Henry Meres home. They bought their first house in 2012 in International Falls, Minnesota, and now have two dogs and too many chickens!

CLASS OF 2000Dan (Miner) Nordstrom is a

psychotherapist and has been recently certified as an advanced practice social worker in Madison, Wisconsin, specializing in grief/loss, relationships, PTSD, and addictions. Dan lives in Madison, is married, and has two children, ages six and eleven.

CLASS OF 1998Jacob Nacht graduated from The

University of Colorado School of Medicine in May, and started his residency at the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine in June.

CLASS OF 1995Michelle (Smith) Lampson is

the owner of Michad Computer Consulting in Washburn, Wisconsin.

CLASS OF 1985 Eric Leon Bradley retired in October

as a Lieutenant Colonel after twenty-two years of military service in the U.S. Army. During his military service, he learned to repair and pilot helicopters and lived in Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. After retirement, he will pursue outdoor adventure travel and writing, starting with journeys to Tanzania and Greece scheduled for this fall, with endeavors in Alaska and Russia planned for 2015. Eric also served as a volunteer firefighter/EMT in his home county of Dona Ana, New Mexico, outside of El Paso, Texas.

CLASS OF 1984Tim Colglazier is the owner of MOVE

IT! by bike, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

CLASS OF 1982John Recore is chief of readiness

and resources for the National Guard Bureau in Maryland.

CLASS OF 1981Deborah Bartl is a photographer/

visual artist in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Greg Fleet retired in April after thirty-two years with Farm Bureau Life Insurance of Michigan. He served in various accounting positions with the company and ended his career as the director of accounting. He plans on doing consulting, but mostly enjoying life with his wife and their kids. He would enjoy hearing from his fellow Northlanders.

CLASS OF 1980Sharon Deihl Irwin is teaching

science, math, and music at a very small rural school on the Colorado plains. She stays there during the week and goes back to Colorado Springs on weekends. The mountains and the prairie each have their own beauty, and she enjoys experiencing both.

CLASS OF 1979Jody Gordon earned a master of

science in May 2007 from Northern Illinois University

CLASS OF 1978Terry Margenau is fisheries

supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He earned a master’s degree in 1982

from South Dakota State University-Brookings. He and his wife Lorna were married in 2007.

CLASS OF 1974Jake/John Ilko retired in 2013 after

working as a logger and trapper on the Canadian border, a high-rise construction ironworker in Chicago, and a certified occupational health RN for Amoco, BP Amoco, Motorola, and Fermi Accelerator Lab. He has authored two books related to the Anishinabeg (Ojibwa) and several museum articles related to the Great Lakes c. 1800 fur trade. Jake still dances at Native American Powwows as a northern traditional dancer.

CLASS OF 1972Beth (Amundson) Hadland, widow

of Marc Hadland ’73, is proud to announce the birth of her first great-granddaughter, Brylee Eva Hadland, on August 6, 2014.

CLASS OF 1970Fred and Hinda (Handelsman)

Richards have retired to Flowery Branch, Georgia, just north of Atlanta on Lake Lanier. Fred and Hinda have become active in the community, with Fred being elected twice to the Flowery Branch city council.

CLASS OF 1968Michael Allison is retired from the

U.S. Postal Service. He and his wife, Doris, live in Gainesville, Florida.

CLASS OF 1964Dr. Lorman L. Lundsten is retired as

a professor at University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.


CLASS NOTES

Want to see your news in Class Notes?To submit notes, please contact:

Phone: (715) 682-1811 Email: [email protected]

Mail:

Office of Alumni Relations 1411 Ellis Avenue Ashland, WI 54806

Director of Alumni Relations: Jackie Moore ’05

Alumni News Editor: Vicki Nafey ’96

Alumni Association Board of Directors: Jim Quinn ‘73 (president), K. Scott Abrams ‘77, Richard Ackley ‘71, Sam Berkman ‘08, Bobbi Blazkowski ‘71, Laurel Fischer ’72, Stu Golman ‘69, Mark Gross ‘83, Beverly Harris ‘72, Tam Hoffman ‘80, Max Metz ‘10, Peter Millett ‘69, Craig Mullenbrock ‘77, Erika Palmer ‘02 , Sam Polonetzky ‘70, Wendy Shields ‘04, Patti Skoarczewski ‘74, Marguerite Waters ‘49, Kelly Zacharda ‘05,

To submit a note go to: northland.edu/alumni

SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF:Imogene (Gemme) Mann ’45, Vancouver, Washington, died 7-4-2012

Elaine (Speicher) Straw ’46, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 8-31-2014

John Henry Gustafson ’50, Nampa, Idaho, died 3-9-2014

D. Jack Lodle ’51, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 7-2-2014

Bonnie (Beaulieu) Pink ’52, Indianapolis, Indiana, died 7-23-2014

John K. Trumbo ’52, Naples, Florida, died 1-13-2014

Louise (Dundas) McDonald ’53, Anaheim, California, died 8-23-2014

Barry W. Young ’53, Waunakee, Wisconsin, died 7-19-2014

Robert K. Engholm ’54, Ashland, Wisconsin, died 7-6-2014

Thomas L. Longbotham ’54, Westfield, Wisconsin, died 6-27-2014

Mary (Fenzl) Kramer ’57, Park Falls, Wisconsin, died 8-18-2014

J. Denis Opperman ’57, Wausau, Wisconsin, died 9-10-2014

Donald E. Jensen ’58, Grand View, Wisconsin, died 8-4-2014

Stephen D. Semaria ’65, Louisville, Kentucky, died 5-3-2014

Ethel (Mattson) Vizanko ’69, Ironwood, Michigan, died 8-12-2014

David J. Kraft ’71, West Henrietta, New York, died 6-18-2014

Verna Johnson H’72 (former Registrar), Ashland, Wisconsin, died 12-17-2013

Thomas C. Zielke ’77, Glidden, Wisconsin, died 6-27-2014

Laura “Chip” (Strobbe) Warren ’83, Alameda, California, died 7-13-2014

Thomas T. Barr ’94, McFarland, Wisconsin, died 5-31-2014

Mate Pleic ’05, New Mexico, died November 2012

For additional classnotes, go to: northland.edu/classnotes

To submit a note go to: northland.edu/alumni

ALUMNI SURVEYReturn this survey in the enclosed envelope or it’s also available online at http://bit.ly/nc-alum

The goals of the Alumni Association alumni survey are to collect information regarding…1. Preferred communication methods among alumni base2. Best timing for alumni events, regionally and on campus3. Effectiveness of Alumni Association BoardYour participation will help us make a comprehensive update to our alumni database and improve alumni communications for events and activities. Please utilize either the traditional paper survey or the online version available on Survey Monkey. We ask you take several minutes right now to complete this survey so we can serve you better. Thank you for your time and commitment to Northland College.

Name: Class year:

Address: City, state, & ZIP:

Name, city, & class year of high school:

Home phone: Cell phone:

Email:

Current employment: Work phone:

Survey Questions:1. Were you involved in any of the following while attending Northland? (Check all that apply.)

Student government

Athletics

Community service

Greek life

Theme hauses

Residential life

Internships

Other:

2. Do you have relatives who have attended or are currently attending Northland College?

No

Yes. Your relative’s name(s):

3. How would you describe your level of involvement in Alumni Association activities and events?

Very active

Moderately active

Not active at all

4. What is the best reason to attend Alumni Association events? (Check all that apply.)

Camaraderie, chance to connect with old classmates

Networking

Unique events

Convenience to home

Educational programs

Learn about what’s happening at Northland

Other:

continued on following page.

5. If you have not been actively involved in the past, what is the primary reason? (Check all that apply.)

Lack of interest in the types of events

Distance

Cost to attend

Timing conflict

Didn’t know other classmates who would be attending

Other:

6. What type of alumni event would you be most interested in? (Check all that apply.)

Family-oriented

Community service

Arts/cultural/academic

Quarterly alumni networking

Professional events based on majors/areas of study

Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute events

Athletic events

Other:

7. What time of year would you be most interested in attending? (Check all that apply.)

On campus events Regional events

Winter (Nov-Mar) Winter (Nov-Mar)

Spring (Apr-May) Spring (Apr-May)

Summer (Jun-Aug) Summer (Jun-Aug)

Fall (Sep-Oct) Fall (Sep-Oct)

8. How would you prefer to receive information about alumni events and news? (Check all that apply.)

Alumni website

Northland College Magazine

Facebook

Email

9. Are you interested in a leadership role for an alumni event or in the Alumni Association?

Yes

No

10. Do you have an interest in a leadership role with the Alumni Association in any of the following ways? (Check all that apply.)

Awards & Events Committee

Communications Committee

Board Development Committee

College Advancement Committee

Fall Festival (Reunion) Committee

Alumni Volunteer Networks

Class Agent

11. What does the Alumni Association do well?

12. How can the Alumni Association improve communication with alumni?

13. What should be the priority of the Alumni Association?

14. What is your most memorable experience as a Northland College student?

15. What is your most memorable Northland alumni experience?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your response helps to ensure that your Northland College Alumni Association operates efficiently and effectively in line with its mission:

“The Northland College Alumni Association is dedicated to advancing the goals of Northland College by providing connection, cooperation, and collaboration between alumni, students, faculty, and the Northland community.”

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Office of Alumni Relations at [email protected].

FALL 2014 24

JOIN US NEXT YEAR. SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2015

FESTIVALFALL

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

1411 Ellis AvenueAshland, WI 54806-3999

Students enrolled in Northland College’s Growing Connections program press apples into cider during a hands-on experience focused on local foods. The event, held on campus, also included the roasting of a locally raised pig over a wood fire under the direction of alumnus and chef Jonathan Berthel ’91. Photo by Niina Baum.

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