Spring Peepers

Spring has arrived in the Chequamegon National Forest. We had an incredibly mild winter, much to the dismay of the local businesses that depend on our usual 3 feet or more of snow. This is the first time I remember that the snow mobile trails didn’t open at all in my 25 years of residence in the Chequamegon. No snow = no motel rentals; no snowmobile maintenance; no gasoline sales; no snowplowing. Anyway, you get the picture. But we are through what there was of winter for the last 6 months and it is Spring out there today. The trees have not yet bloomed but there are catkins on the popple trees and my nose is a faucet. The one hallmark of spring in the Chequamegon Medford District, at least in my mind, is the two weeks of the Spring Peeper festival . It takes a lot of swamp, a little warmth, a little light, and a bunch of horny frogs seeking a mate.