[Music] Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota.

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Everybody loves the sound of loons.

Everybody loves to watch loons.

Everybody loves to see them with little babies on their backs.

That's the neatest thing I think that we can see with loons.

So, today my guests are two ladies from the Loon Center in Crosslake, Minnesota and they're going to introduce themselves and what it is that they do and let's start with you.

I'm Natasha Bartolotta and I'm the Stewardship and Outreach manager at the National Loon Center, one of the loon ladies here today so I feel like we should call ourselves that and I'm Maddie Nistler, I'm the Minnesota Greencorp member serving at the National Loon Center and could you just explain a little bit about the Greencorp what that is?

So, if you're familiar with Americorp, it's like a a domestic version of Peace Corps and Minnesota Greencorp is a domestic version of Americorp.

So, it's only in Minnesota.

Right now we have about I think about 60 members in Greencorp this year and they're all serving a temporary service term 11 months at a host site.

So, whether it's a school, a nonprofit like the Loon Center, government agency, tribal government and we're all addressing different environmental issues and mine happens to be the Loon.

That's cool and the Loon Center isn't built yet obviously but where is it at?

Where is the project at at this stage of the game?

Are you the best to address that?

We're up in Crosslake.

So, we formed in 2017 as a nonprofit and really started getting going in and gaining momentum in 2021.

That's where we opened a temporary visitor center.

It's called the Nest and that's in Crosslake Town Square and that's open year round.

Of course the busiest time of year to visit is in the summer and we are on track to complete the building in 2026 hopefully as early as then and breaking ground on the the new facility itself this spring and that will also be in Crosslake, not too far from the Crosslake Town Square.

We have a 10 acre campus site there and that will be where the the building itself will be as well as outdoor amenities and exhibits.

So, you're thinking it'll be about a year project to get it built from the time they first shovel ground until it's open for visitors?

About a year or 18 months, I think we'll get a better idea of how long it'll take once there are shovels in the ground but that's our our best estimate now is as early as 2026.

And, how long has this been in the works?

Where you've been trying to work with, I'm sure you've had to work with lots of groups legislators, Corp of Engineers because I know you're in some of that area there.

How long has this been happening?

It really started getting going in 2017 and in 2018 and it first came as an idea in 2016 from, you know, a meeting in Crosslake to discuss the future and it, so it was really a community-based idea that we should have a National Loon Center in the heart of Lakes Country, in the heart of where we have all of our loons and a great place where people come to visit and then from there, you know, formed the initial board of directors and the founding members and pursued some of the initial funding through the Environmental Natural Resources Trust Fund and then that brought us to 2021 when we hired our first staff, our director and then myself and another staff member opened the temporary facility and got a lot of our educational programs going.

So, you have a board now and is the board, what is the role of the board in this particular case?

Our board's very involved, some of them are involved as volunteers, including tonight two of our board members work with Maddie on trivia nights and we're going to have one of those tonight as well, as throughout the the winter and our, you know, board members help with recruiting other volunteers.

They help with events.

They help just supporting everything that we do and running the operation.

We do, we have our four staff members now.

We recently hired a fourth staff member as well as Maddie as a Greencorp member the previous year and returning now for a second service term but we're definitely a small team getting going, doing a lot of programs and projects so our board helps us get all of that to fruition.

Is the board made up of local people or are they from all over the state?

Mostly local, we have one member who is up in the Walker area, a few around Crosslake, one that is based in the Cities but has a cabin up here.

So, a lot of them are local which is nice so we get to see them pretty often.

So, the Loon Center will be located on Crosslake ight?

Is that right?

We did have a change in plans.

So, originally we were going to be right on Crosslake at the Crosslake Recreation Area but in the past year or so we pursued a new path just down the road so we'll be really not too far from that area because it made more sense to maintain a programatic partnership there with Army Corps of Engineers and run our pontoon programs from the Crosslake Recreation Area but then have the facility instead on this campus site where we can have a little more room to have some outdoor exhibits, outdoor amenities and, you know, help with some of the connectivity from Crosslake from the Town Square to the lake and so that was a recent development within the past year where we pursued the new area but we'll keep programs at the Crosslake Recreation Area.

Well, you're blessed with lots of lakes very close by aren't you?

I mean that's just amazing.

What are some of the missions that the center is going to try to do?

What are some of the goals that you have when you establish this?

Of course, our mission is to, of course, advance fresh water and Common Loon education and research and to, you know, keep our Common Loons common.

Here in Minnesota we have the largest population in the lower 48 states and of the Common Loon breeding range in North America.

We're just at the southern range of where Common Loons breed.

So, we want to keep our loons in Minnesota and keep our lakes clean so that we keep our, you know, our state bird here and so we do a lot on education and connecting people, you know, to this magnificent bird.

So, Maddie what is your role that you're volunteering for this year?

What do you do?

Well, I work a lot with Natasha on outreach.

So, different in the summertime, it's a lot of the stewardship and I'm sure Natasha can talk about the stewardship and what that's all about but during the winter I'm doing a lot of different types of outreach that are more, I guess more indoor related since, you know, in the winter time we don't get to spend a lot of time outside with our loons.

So, I'm trying to translate all of our education into, you know, presentations and outreach forms of, you know, like in the classrooms and with water fests.

So, just recently actually I went to a water fest down in St.

Cloud.

So, they had a bunch of different schools come and we all had stations.

So, a bunch of water related organizations like the Loon Center were there and we had a station for all the kids to go and do activities led by environmental professionals and so that's a fun thing that we get to do during the winter, a good way to get kids engaged, getting into classrooms, getting into Lake Association presentations and program development.

I know the loons go into Canada obviously, but when you look at Minnesota's southern area, how far south do you usually see loons?

Are they all the way down to the Iowa border or are they a little farther north?

A little farther north, say around the Twin Cities is probably the southern extent to where you'd see loons breeding because then as you start getting further south you get into some of the more grasslands area and some of the lakes that are down in the southern area do have reduced water quality now so they are a little bit farther north in Minnesota but you'll start seeing them migrating through so you might see them on lakes in the southern region in the the fall and the springtime.

We recently had the Northern Waters Land Trust on and I used to be a board member of that group and it's pretty well known that from the Interstate 94 South we have a lot of impaired water, a lot of impaired rivers and lakes.

North of 94 we have really still very good quality lakes.

So, what you're saying is that those lakes that are somewhat impaired aren't as attractive to the loons?

Exactly.

The loons definitely depend on lakes that have high water quality and high clarity.

They are visual hunters looking for fish.

So, they need to be able to see their prey, to see the fish or the other different aquatic, you know, creatures that they'll be eating, primarily fish though and so the fish population too of course depend on the healthy water.

So, it's all connected.

So, that's why we even kind of think of loons as a environmental sentinel or an indicator species.

Like the canary?

Healthy loon population on the lake is usually you a good sign that you have a healthy lake which of course benefits loons, all the other wildlife, us as well, you know, we want to recreate on lakes that are clean and pretty.

Do you work with the DNR and other groups to sort of monitor what the populations are doing year to year?

I know you haven't been at it that long but do you work with those folks too?

We do.

We have a lot of partnership with folks including the Northern Waters Land Trust which Maddie can talk a bit about that later on with some of the work that she does but for the DNR we've worked primarily with the Minnesota Loon Restoration Project and so it sometimes is maybe a little confusing, the different loon groups in Minnesota we are sometimes asked if we're part of the DNR but so we're a nonprofit and we're, you know, our own entity and we partner with the DNR as well as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency because both the DNR through the Loon Restoration Project and the MPCA through their "Get the Lead Out" program have received funding from the BP oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico because a lot of loons will winter along Florida's Gulf Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Coast and so back in 2011 was it when the oil spill occurred, there were a significant number of loons that died because of the oil spill and so now that funding has gone to fund those projects in areas where the loons breed now, you know, here in Minnesota too.

So, the Loon Restoration Project, Get the Lead Out both have funding from that and so then we help support those programs.

So, through the Loon Restoration Project with the DNR we've placed some of the artificial nesting platforms that they do through that project.

So, we've monitored a few of those as well as working with them on education programs.

We've done a few collaborative presentations - call ourselves The Loon Crew where we get together and get to work and support the Looney crew, the Loony Crew, that's us and we, you know, we try to get people involved in the DNR's loon monitoring programs like Loon Watcher and the Loon Monitoring program itself and get people connected.

So, I think we all support each other and we have a drop off box for Get the Lead Out for people to dispose of old lead tackle.

So, we definitely work with all these groups.

We work together to support each other and to get people connected to the different ways that they can get involved with protecting loons in Minnesota.

I have an opportunity usually in the fall to fish a lot of smaller lakes and I see these little signs on the lake that this is a volunteer with the loons.

I don't know if it's with the Loon Center or the DNR watching populations, is that through you folks or is that through something else?

That would probably be through the DNR's program as they have the Loon Watcher survey where people can submit loon sightings throughout the summer and they also have a onetime a year program and that's the Minnesota Loon Monitoring Program and that's a 10 day window in June where they get kind of a census of the state broken up in six index areas.

So, we do try to connect people to those programs and we try to monitor as well on our educational pontoon called the Stewardship Maddi mentioned earlier.

We do try to keep track of the Loon sightings that we see just out on the boat when we do educational tours with people and so that we can submit that data and contribute to the statewide monitoring.

Do you have researchers that work with you and I'm asking this question specifically the adults are all gone now so we just have the young youngsters the Gray Loons still around, I'm just amazed how do they know where to go?

I amazed by that too.

They go south obviously and they don't come back I believe for five years to mate.

Is that correct?

It does take a few years for them to come back North.

They'll summer on the Atlantic Coast or down on the the coastal waters and I have no idea how they get down there, one of those phenomenon of migration.

Amazing.

It's like hummingbirds, you know, how do they find their way down but, that's amazing and I have seen some that are staying too late and they get stuck in the ice.

Do you folks get calls to help get those out?

We do get calls and then it is tricky because if it's the situation where the loon is on a lake that's been iced in and there's just a small hole so they need a, you know, kind of a runway to get off the water because they're so heavy compared to their wing span and that's usually the the case where they get iced in as we'll call it but that's kind of a, could be dangerous, you know, to get out on the ice as we don't have that kind of training of course.

So, my first winter at the the Loon Center, in my first winter in Minnesota too, we had a call about a loon on Crosslake that was iced in and we were fortunate to be able to reach out to the Crosslake Volunteer Fire Department and they were able to use it as a almost a training exercise I believe where and they had their full suits on were able to get out, get into the water to get the Loon out cuz even if they're iced in they still might have enough strength left to dive and that makes it very tricky when they're diving.

Absolutely.

So, they were able to get the Loon and bring it to Wild and Free the rehab center in Garrison but unfortunately that Loon had to be euthanized because the reason that it was on the the lake and iced in was that it had a broken wing that they could tell from the nature of the injury it looked like it was a propeller strike from a boat and really it was, really so it couldn't be fixed.

No you can't really rehabilitate them and it's, you know, it's a really long journey to then try to even fly them to the Gulf of Mexico and you don't want to keep them over the winter because loons and this is why we won't have live loons in the future of the National Loon Center, when they're under human care for a long time they're susceptible to a fungal respiratory disease and so you don't want to keep them for too long, usually try to have them in the rehab center for a short amount of time and either release them or euthanize them if they can't be released sadly.

I was told I need to ask you what is the projected attendance going to be when you're up and running?

Maybe you don't know that.

Maybe your director does but I've been told it's pretty phenomenal.

Is that true?

We were just talking about this, the other week at our team meeting as we're, you know, getting ready for the groundbreaking, we're talking about how we're looking at right now at probably an 80,000 attendance rate per year of that many people coming in.

That's a lot of people.

I know the challenge for local businesses because we have a lot of resorts in the area is to get people out of the resorts and to come to their businesses and The Loon Center is probably not going to have any real big problem getting kids to go to The Loon Center when it's raining on those bad days when you have this.

Will you have a little theater in the Loon Center?

What's it, what's going to be made up?

What's going to be in there?

The theater is one of the ideas to have in there, an education ring a research ring, kind of a lab space and we've been working with Dimensional Innovations as they've been contracted as the exhibit design team and they've done really cool work on the Minnesota Vikings Museum as well as other places and we've been going through the renderings which has been super cool to be looking at what the center could look like and there will be a lot of interactive exhibits throughout the three floors and one of the most exciting things that will be in there that people get really, you know, jazzed about when we start talking about what will be in there is the Ecosystem Tower.

So, that will be one segment of the the building that'll be a really interactive experience.

As you go up the tower, you'll go through the life of the Loon under the water, on the surface and then in the air in hoping that we can use a lot of like visual elements and you know sensory experiences to really bring people into what it's like to be a Loon at those three, you know, parts of the ecosystem.

So, will there be other displays then in the center of Loons?

Yes, displays of Loons and we also hope to have displays, exhibits about the other species of Loons too.

So, there are five species of Loons total and we have the Common Loon in Minnesota but farther north up in Canada and Alaska you have the other four species of Loons as well.

So, I hope we get to educate people about all the kinds of Loons out there.

So, you've talked about when you're going to try to have an opening, what is it you're doing now when you have the center that you're using in Crosslake?

Can kids come now and see things there that are interesting?

Oh for sure.

At the The Nest which is the name of our visitor center there, we have some exhibits as well of brochures to give people, an educational information.

We do have a video screen so that we play lots of different videos, some educational, some are snippets from live Loon cams from across the country which are always fun to look at and you have a Taxidermy Loon, a Common Loon and an Arctic Loon as well.

So, people are often really surprised when they see the Arctic Loon.

They say "why does this one look different" and so there's lots of cool things to see in there.

Kids love to come in and I think the first thing they grab is the Calling Loon plush that we have.

So, if we're in the back room our office space is just in the back, we often will hear, you'll know when kids are in there because you start to hear the Loon plushes or they'll do the Loon tune, if you see one of those that like spinning disc that if you pull it, it'll make a Loon call.

So, we hear that a lot but because of course the Loon call is one of the things that really draws people into the Loon itself but a lot of things that people can see there as well as the stewardship itself is our main education program on Crosslake.

We do a free tour for people to come out and see Loons and we'll go about two hours around Crosslake and we'll have a naturalist guide on board and we'll talk all about the Loons.

Is that on a pontoon?

Yes, on a pontoon and we're really grateful to the Crosslake Lions Club club for funding to purchase that pontoon about three or four years ago and so we've been running the stewardship program since 2022 and I've just been amazed by the turnout about people coming on board.

I think we're already getting asked about when we're going to have dates for next summer and we're hoping we can do more.

So, Maddi what have you learned about Loons since you've been up here from Colorado?

More than I ever thought I would know about Loons and that's never going to leave me.

I'm going to be a Loon lady forever.

So, what's some are examples of things you've learned?

Oh my goodness, my favorite I think, one of my favorite facts about Loons is that they carry their chicks.

The adults carry their chicks in their wings on their back.

So, the first couple weeks after chicks are hatched, usually in somewhere around early to late June sometimes July, the chicks will hatch and then they'll go straight into the water.

They don't hang out on the nest at all.

They go straight in the water and they will spend a lot of time on mom or dad's back.

The parents spend a lot of time splitting the parental duties equally so the chicks will sit on the parents back and that's how they keep them safe and keep them warm until they're big enough to fend for themselves and if you've never seen it I would recommend it because it's adorable.

And if you seen them walk, that's how I walk.

They're not very balanced when they get on land are they?

Do you think the numbers are stable in Minnesota or are they diminishing?

From the Loon Monitoring Program from the DNR, they've been doing that for a few decades now and that kind of census that they take has shown that the adult population is relatively stable across the years but they have seen in the past few years a small decline in the population of juveniles which from what I've seen on the report I think it's still too early to know what some of the causes would be.

I think since they're a long lived species still need a few more years of data to know.

How long do they live?

Usually in their 20's but the oldest ones are in their 30's.

Oh wow!

So, which is very old for a bird especially.

And do they always try to come back to the same lake once they become adults?

They have what's called High Sight Fidelity.

So, they really like their real estate especially if they're successful with chicks and so if they can come back and the same pair can reunite and come back and find each other, they will try to stay where they're successful but if they have to defend it from, you know, maybe younger intruding Loons that might be coming in and trying to displace one of them and in that case, you know, if one of them is displaced they will stay, you know, the one that is remaining will stay there.

They won't follow their mate to another lake because of course they want the good real estate.

They'll try things out with the new guy or the new female that's there.

So, then that's kind of a myth and then that they're monogamous and mate for life because in those situations they could have a few mates in their life but there are of course some that have been really good at defending their territory and coming back and they've been together you know for 10-15 years.

We're about out of time, how do people get a hold of you and how do they find out when you're open and when they can have tours?

Well, we have our website nationallooncenter.org.

We are also active on our our social media pages and on our website you can sign up for our newsletter which is called The Hoot named after one of the Loon calls that they use to stay in contact and that's where we send information and that's where we probably will be sharing a lot of information about our one of our education programs which we'll be building up in the winter if we have time to share a little bit about that.

Maddi could share about the Share Our Shoreline program.

So, we're just about, we got about a minute left.

So, Share Our Shoreline like Natasha said where our population is stable in Minnesota but we want to keep it that way.

The state bird is really a delicate animal that lives in a very delicate ecosystem and we want to make sure that Minnesotans know how to keep Loons safe and keep our lakes healthy for them, so we've developed with Northern Waters Land Trust and with the White Fish Area Property Owners Association, we've created Share Our Shoreline.

I'm wearing the shirt and it's a public education campaign that gives people tools to know more about Loons, know more about how to protect them.

So, if you're a visitor of the area you've never seen a Loon before or if you're a resident and you have lived with Loons your whole life, you can always learn something new about how to keep them safe.

So, that's what Share Our Shoreline does.

I know there are a lot of people that come here, have never seen a Loon before so it's a big deal.

Well, thank you for jumping on the show with us.

We appreciate it and are you open five days a week in the winter?

In the winter we are Monday through Friday 10-4 PM.

Okay and just go to your website and that's how you'll get there?

Great all right.

Well thank you for jumping on with us, appreciate it very much and good luck down the road.

Thank You.

You've been watching Lakeland Currents.

I'm Ray Gildow.

So long until next week.