IWLA-PCC NEWSLETTER
PCC Founded 1958 * JANUARY, 2018 *60 years of conservation
Izaak Walton League of America - Porter County Chapter
Thomas Library in 2nd floor meeting room
200 W. Indiana Avenue, Chesterton, IN 46304
NEXT MEETING JANUARY 20, 2018
Email: executivedirectoriwlapcc@gmail.com
Website: NWIconservation.org
Location: 200 West Indiana Avenue, Chesterton, IN, United States
Phone: 219-241-7431
Facebook: facebook.com/PCCIWLA
“From the Dunes in the north, to the Kankakee River in the south”
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President - Gary Brown grbrown57@hotmail.com, 219-464-8882
Vice President - Jim Sweeney jp55biod@att.net, 219-322- 7239
Treasurer/Membership - Liz McCloskey tmconservation@csinet.net, 219-326-0700 Secretary - Susan Swarner susan.swarner@gmail.com, 219-201-5498
Chapter Directors: Don Frame df.nature@outlook.com, 219-331-6136,
Bill Iltzsche biltzsche@hotmail.com 219-464-9850 and
Herb & Charlotte Read candhread@comcast.net, 847-302-8069
SEE OUR CHAPTER'S NEW CALENDAR OF EVENTS
IMPORTANT PCC UPCOMING EVENTS
1/20 PCC Monthly Meeting
Thomas Library, upstairs meeting room
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2/15-17 IWLA Mid-winter BOD meeting
Myrtle Beach, SC
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3/15 Family Nature Night
Yost Elementary School
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3/20 Family Nature Night
Brummitt Elementary School
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4/5 Family Nature Night
Northview Elementary School
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4/12 Family Nature Night
Flint Lake Elementary School
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5/3 Family Nature Night
Discovery Charter School
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5/10 Family Nature Night
6-7:30pm Liberty Elementary School
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VOLUNTEER TO HELP at Family Nature Night events! Contact Bonnie Swarner at bdswarner@hotmail.com or Susan Swarner at susan.swarner@gmail.com
PHARES ASSISTS POCO MUSE
PCC member, Jim Phares, refurbishes taxidermied "Daisy" the Dog of Porter County Museum.
ARTICLE BY
Amy LavalleyPost-Tribune
SEE THE FULL ARTICLE
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-pc-dog-st-1211-20171210-story.html
...Daisy remained on Helen Slanger's sofa after being preserved until she died around 1972, and her husband donated the dog to the museum, Pazour said.
Daisy moved with the museum from the courthouse to the former sheriff's residence and jail in 1974.
"She was moved around to quite a few different exhibits if she didn't fit (where she was), but we determined because she was kind of an icon of the museum, she deserved her own space," Pazour said.
Pazour said Daisy "was starting to show the signs of aging" and needed some restorative work before settling into the dog's own exhibit.
Pazour turned to Jim Phares, owner of Phares Taxidermy in Westville, to have the work done. Phares' father, Marvin Phares, was on the museum board when Daisy was donated.
Jim Phares, who remembers seeing the dog at the museum when he was younger, said a lot of Daisy's skin was dried out and cracked, likely from getting moved around, and its ears and some toes needed to be replaced.
"I remember the face of the dog was in very good shape given the age," he said, adding taxidermy these days is typically done with polyurethane forms, which are much lighter than plaster.
He used scraps of fur he had on hand, striving to match what he had with the dog's original fur color.
"You do whatever it takes," he said, adding he spent about a week working on Daisy. "I tried to match as best I could."
The museum had the dog restored about a year ago, Pazour said, but the dog wasn't brought back out until its exhibit was ready.
"Now she's not only dog, she's partly rabbit, partly red fox, and partly polar bear," Pazour said of the menagerie of scraps used to repair Daisy's fur.
Given his family's history in Porter County and his father's involvement with the museum, Phares said he was happy to help with the project.
"I would do anything I could to help out the museum because I really feel the attachment," he said.
MARBURGER PRESENTATION
PCC member Joy Marburger is giving a presentation at the Westchester Library on January 24, 2018 at the Thomas Bertha Wood room upstairs. The presentation will compare life and our research in Rajasthan 30 years ago compared to the present. Please come and invite others.
NATURE NOTES - Lightning
Article by PCC member, Gene Clifford
Cloud to ground lightning involves electrical currents in the order of tens of thousands
of amps, whereas a common household circuit breaker is rated at 20 amps. Because of
this extreme scale, lightning is a complex physical phenomenon.
Thunder is caused by lightning, which is essentially a stream of electrons flowing
between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. The air surrounding the electron
stream is heated to 50,000 degrees Farhenheit, which is three times as hot as the surface of the Sun. The nearby air rapidly expands and contracts. This causes the column to vibrate like a tubular drum head and produces a tremendous crack. As the vibrations gradually die out, the sound echoes and reverberates, generating the rumbling we call thunder. We can hear the thundering booms 10 miles or more distant from the lightning that caused it.
The audiovisual spectacle of thunder and lightning is a combination of the dynamics of
the vibration of air molecules and their disturbance by the electrical forces. It is an
awesome show-- -and one that reminds all of us of the powers of nature and our own
insignificance in relation to them.
"The outline of a hawk landing on its lunch and shows the wing outline and spread tail feathers in the snow."
MYSTERY SOLVED!
DISCOVERY STEPS UP
DUNES ACTION RECOGNIZED BY HOOSIER ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
The work of grassroots group Dunes Action to protect the pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park has received accolades from state environmental advocates.
The Hoosier Environmental Council named Dunes Action its "Frontline Advocate of the Year" Dec. 2 in Danville at the council's 10th annual "Greening the Statehouse" forum.
Dunes Action came together almost three years ago to highlight concerns about plans to sell alcohol at the pavilion and build an adjacent banquet center.
Dunes Action deserved the award, said Kim Ferraro, senior staff attorney and agriculture policy director for the council, because of its dedication to the issue.
"The dunes pavilion issue is something that's in everyone's backyard," she said. "This group has really stuck with it even after the initial outcry passed."
Plans for the state park generated a wide swath of opposition with 10,000 signatures gathered on a petition against the project.
In a public/private partnership, Pavilion Partners has a lease agreement with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to renovate the pavilion and construct the nearby banquet center. From the beginning, Dunes Action said they supported renovation of the pavilion, built around 1930, but not plans to sell liquor or build the adjacent banquet center.
Dunes pavilion renovation could start around Labor Day, spokesman says
Dunes Action has continued to hold the DNR accountable for plans at the pavilion, Ferraro said.
"They've played such an important role in protecting that important landmark," she said.
The award came at a critical time for Dunes Action, said member Norm Hellmers, because the organization is still working to have the project at the pavilion meet the public's needs and expectations.
"The award is very encouraging for us. It lets the public know we are still active. We are not giving up," he said.
Local and state boards denied Pavilion Partners' request for a liquor license for the pavilion. State law was changed last year to allow state parks to apply for permits to sell alcohol without going before county boards; months after that, the DNR received a permit for the pavilion.
The pavilion has been gutted and a new elevator shaft is visible on the roof, but no additional work has been done inside the facility. A comfort station with restrooms was constructed nearby. Officials with Pavilion Partners have yet to release their plans for the renovation.
Through public records requests,Hellmers said Dunes Action has learned plans for the pavilion include a rooftop bar, lakeside balconies and terraces between the pavilion and the beach.
"Those are elements we don't want," he said, adding Dunes Action has tried to find out more about the plans to no avail.
For now, Dunes Action is trying to get the plans, as well as to determine whether the lease agreement between Pavilion Partners and the DNR has been revised.
"The fact that we have been able to delay this project for nearly three years is a victory in itself because we want this done the way the public wants," Hellmers said.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Copyright © 2017, Post-Tribune
Also see Chesterton Tribune:
http://chestertontribune.com/Environment/dunes_action_honored_by_hoosier.htm
PCC's own Jim Sweeney and Desi Robertson played an enormous part in Dunes Action's success! Special thanks to them.