Editing Isle Royale National Park (section)

==Natural history==
[[File:ISROTobin.jpg|thumb|left|Tobin Harbor Trail in the [[Laurentian Mixed Forest Province]]]]A number of habitats exist on the island, the primary being [[Taiga|boreal forest]], similar to neighboring Ontario and Minnesota. Upland areas along some of the ridges are effectively "balds" with exposed bedrock and a few scrubby trees, blueberry bushes, and hardy grasses. Occasional marshes exist, which are typically the by-product of [[beaver]] activities. There are also several lakes, often with wooded or marshy shores. The climate, especially in lowland areas, is heavily influenced by the cold waters of [[Lake Superior]].

===Flora===
According to the [[A. W. Kuchler]] U.S. [[Potential natural vegetation]] Types, Isle Royale National Park has a Great Lakes [[Spruce]]/[[Fir]] (''93'') potential vegetation type and a Northern [[Conifer]] Forest (''22'') potential vegetation form.<ref name="Conservation Biology Institute">{{cite web |title=U.S. Potential Natural Vegetation, Original Kuchler Types, v2.0 (Spatially Adjusted to Correct Geometric Distortions) |publisher=[[Data Basin]] |url=https://databasin.org/datasets/1c7a301c8e6843f2b4fe63fdb3a9fe39 |access-date=2019-07-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703145441/https://databasin.org/datasets/1c7a301c8e6843f2b4fe63fdb3a9fe39 |archive-date=July 3, 2019}}</ref>

The predominant floral habitats of Isle Royale are within the [[Laurentian Mixed Forest Province]]. The area is a [[temperate broadleaf and mixed forests]] [[biome]] transition zone between the true [[Taiga|boreal forest]] to the north and [[Big Woods]] to the south, with characteristics of each. It has areas of both broadleaf and [[Pinophyta|conifer]] forest cover, and bodies of water ranging from conifer bogs to swamps.<ref>{{cite web |year=2007 |title=Laurentian Mixed Forest Province |work=Ecological Classification System |publisher=Minnesota Department of Natural Resources |url=http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecs/212/index.html |access-date=September 21, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520001754/http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecs/212/index.html |archive-date=May 20, 2014}}</ref>

Conifers include [[jack pine]]s (''Pinus banksiana''), [[black spruce|black]] and [[Picea glauca|white spruces]] (''Picea mariana'' and ''Picea glauca''), [[balsam fir]]s (''Abies balsamea''), and [[eastern redcedar]]s (''Juniperus virginiana'').

[[Deciduous]] trees include [[quaking aspen]]s (''Populus tremuloides''), [[red oak]]s (''Quercus rubra''), [[paper birch]]es (''Betula papyrifera''), [[American mountain ash]] (''Sorbus americana''), [[red maple]]s (''Acer rubrum''), [[sugar maple]]s (''Acer saccharum''), and [[mountain maples]] (''Acer spicatum'').<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gibbon |first1=Guy E. |last2=Johnson |first2=Craig M. |last3=Hobbes |first3=Elizabeth |title=Chapter 3: Minnesota's Environment and Native American Culture History |work=A Predictive Model of Precontact Archaeological Site Location for the State of Minnesota |publisher=Minnesota Department of Transportation |year=2000 |url=http://www.mnmodel.dot.state.mn.us/chapters/chapter3.htm#ch321 |access-date=August 22, 2007  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818011134/http://www.mnmodel.dot.state.mn.us/chapters/chapter3.htm#ch321 |archive-date=August 18, 2007 }}</ref><ref name=Heinselman>{{cite book |last=Heinselman |first=Miron |title=The Boundary Waters Wilderness Ecosystem |place=Minneapolis |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1996 |pages=16–31 |isbn=0-8166-2804-1}}.</ref> There are over 600 species of flowering plants found in Isle Royale National Park such as wild sarsaparilla, marsh-marigold, wood lily and prickly wild rose.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flowering Plants - Isle Royale National Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/flowering-plants.htm |url-status=live |access-date=2021-11-11 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en |archive-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111203441/https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/flowering-plants.htm }}</ref>

===Fauna===
{{see also|Wolves and moose on Isle Royale|List of fish of Isle Royale National Park}}
[[File:Moose swimming in the Rock Harbor channel.jpg|thumb|Moose swimming at Isle Royale.]]
Isle Royale National Park is known for its [[eastern wolf|timber wolf]] and [[western moose|moose]] populations, which are studied by scientists investigating [[Predation|predator-prey relationships]] in a closed environment. There is a cyclical relationship between the two animals: as the moose increase in population, so do the wolves. Eventually, the wolves kill too many moose and begin to starve and lower their reproductive rates.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/isro/faqs.htm National Park Service.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629132109/https://www.nps.gov/isro/faqs.htm |date=June 29, 2021 }} Retrieved May 10, 2014.</ref> This is made easier because Isle Royale has been colonized by roughly just one third of the mainland mammal species, because it is so remote.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/overview/overview/the_setting.html |title=A chronology of some events in the history of Isle Royale |work=The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale |access-date=August 22, 2011 |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930015146/http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/overview/overview/the_setting.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, the environment is unique in that it is the only known place where wolves and moose coexist without the presence of bears.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/upload/mammal%20list.pdf |title=Isle Royale: Mammals |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=August 22, 2011 |archive-date=November 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108183151/http://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/upload/mammal%20list.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Other common mammals are [[red fox]]es, [[American beaver|beavers]], and [[American red squirrel|red squirrels]]. Some foxes are accustomed to human contact and can be seen prowling the campgrounds at dawn, looking for stray scraps left by unwary campers. For its part, the [[Eastern timber wolf|wolf]] is an elusive species which avoids human interaction. Few documented cases of direct wolf/human contact existed for most of the island's history. In the 2024 season dozens of wolf sightings were reported around the Rock Harbor area. [[Stoat|Ermine]] have been periodically sighted around docks. Other mammals that can be seen include [[mink]] along the various lake shores and [[muskrats]] (occasionally) at beaver ponds. Several species of [[bat]] also exist on the island.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mammal List |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/isro/NR_Profile_Internal/NR_pages/mammalslist.htm  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221231627/https://www.nps.gov/archive/isro/nr_profile_internal/nr_pages/mammalslist.htm |archive-date=21 February 2007 |work=Isle Royale National Park, Nature and Science |publisher=U. S. National Park Service}}</ref> Reptiles include the [[eastern garter snake]], [[painted turtle]], and [[northern redbelly snake]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Reptiles |url=http://www.nps.gov/isro/naturescience/reptiles.htm |access-date=August 25, 2010 |work=Isle Royale National Park, Nature and Science |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |archive-date=July 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724023409/http://www.nps.gov/isro/naturescience/reptiles.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Six species of [[frogs]] and three species of [[salamander]] also live on the island.<ref>{{cite web |title=Amphibians |url=http://www.nps.gov/isro/naturescience/amphibians.htm |access-date=August 25, 2010 |work=Isle Royale National Park |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |archive-date=July 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724014214/http://www.nps.gov/isro/naturescience/amphibians.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Historically neither moose nor wolves inhabited Isle Royale. Just prior to becoming a national park the large mammals on Isle Royale were [[Canada lynx]] and the [[boreal woodland caribou]]. Archeological evidence indicates both of these species were present on Isle Royale for 3,500 years prior to being removed by direct human actions (hunting, trapping, mining, logging, fires, competition for resources from exotic species and possibly disease due to the introduction of invasive species). The last caribou documented on Isle Royale was in 1925. Though lynx were removed by the 1930s, some have periodically crossed the ice bridge from neighboring [[Ontario]], Canada, the most recent being an individual sighting in 1980.<ref name="npsmammals">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/Mammals_ver7.pdf |title=Mammals on Isle Royale-Historical Context |publisher=National park Service |access-date=November 4, 2017 |archive-date=June 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623132730/https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/Mammals_ver7.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Although lynx are no longer present on
the island, their primary prey, [[snowshoe hare]]s, remain. Before the appearance of wolves, [[coyote]]s were also predators on the island. Coyotes appeared around 1905 and disappeared shortly after wolves arrived in the 1950s. Four wolves were brought from Minnesota in 2018<ref>{{cite news |date=October 13, 2018 |title=Isle Royale wolf project wraps up for the year, four relocated to island |work=Detroit Free Press |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/10/13/isle-royale-wolf-relocation-project/1634106002/ |access-date=August 7, 2021 |archive-date=August 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807173548/https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/10/13/isle-royale-wolf-relocation-project/1634106002/ |url-status=live }}</ref> after some debate as to whether or not the introduction was an unnatural intervention.<ref name="reasonable2">''A Reasonable Illusion'' by Conor Mihell Sierra Club magazine November/December 2018 issue Pages 30–35</ref>

[[File:Isro-ImageF 00002 rocky shore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Rocky shoreline]]
Moose are believed to have colonized Isle Royale sometime between 1905 and 1912. It was initially believed that a small herd of moose (moose typically do not travel in herds) colonized the islands by crossing the ice from the adjacent mainland; later this theory was modified to a herd of moose swimming 20 miles across [[Lake Superior]] from the nearest mainland. The improbability of these theories received little scrutiny until recent years. Although no thorough scientific investigation to determine how moose arrived on Isle Royale has been carried out to date, both cultural and genetic evidence indicates they were likely introduced by humans to create a private hunting preserve in the early 1900s. The cultural evidence that moose were trapped in northwestern [[Minnesota]] and transported to Isle Royale seemed unlikely until decades later when genetic evidence revealed the moose on Isle Royale were more closely related to moose in the far northwestern Minnesota/Manitoba border area than the mainland adjacent to Isle Royale in far northeastern Minnesota bordering Ontario. Further evidence has also shown that the [[Washington Harbor Club]], a group of well-to-do businessmen, owned various buildings on Isle Royale in addition to railroads that ran from [[Baudette]] to [[Duluth]] and [[Two Harbors, Minnesota|Two Harbors]] and so had the means to transport moose from northwestern Minnesota to Two Harbors.<ref name="npsnature">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/index.htm |title=Isle Royale: Nature & Science |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-date=October 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022141645/https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/index.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="gwf">{{cite journal |url=http://www.georgewright.org/303cochrane.pdf |title=Island Complications: Should We Retain Wolves on Isle Royale? |last=Cochrane |first=Tim |journal=[[George Wright Society#Scope and activities|The George Wright Forum]] |volume=30 |number=3 |pages=313–325 |date=2013 |access-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-date=August 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802182914/http://www.georgewright.org/303cochrane.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

There are usually around 25 wolves and 1000 moose on the island, but the numbers change greatly year to year. In the 2006–2007 winter, a survey found 385 moose and 21 wolves in 3 packs. In spring 2008, 23 wolves and approximately 650 moose were counted.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lydersen |first=Kari |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001591.html?hpid=moreheadlines |title=Warming Alters Predator-Prey Balance |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=July 21, 2008 |access-date=October 31, 2017 |archive-date=October 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021164552/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001591.html?hpid=moreheadlines |url-status=live }}</ref> However, recent reductions in winter pack ice had ended replenishment of the wolf population from the mainland.<ref name="freep2017">{{cite news |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/12/04/one-wolf-isle-royale-pack/902023001/ |title=Isle Royale likely down to 1 wolf — here's why it's a big problem |last=Matheny |first=Keith |date=December 4, 2017 |newspaper=[[Detroit Free Press]] |access-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171204133746/https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/12/04/one-wolf-isle-royale-pack/902023001/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Due to genetic inbreeding, the wolf population had declined to two individuals in 2016, causing researchers to expect that the island's wolf population would eventually become extinct.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/wolfhome/ann_rep.html |title=Annual Reports |work=The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale |publisher=Michigan Tech |access-date=August 14, 2016 |archive-date=August 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814233119/http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/wolfhome/ann_rep.html |url-status=live }}</ref> At the same time, the island's moose population had exploded to an estimated 1600.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Annual Report 2016-2017 |url=https://isleroyalewolf.org/sites/default/files/annual-report-pdf/Annual%20Report%202016-2017_0.pdf |access-date=June 24, 2020 |website=Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029023108/https://isleroyalewolf.org/sites/default/files/annual-report-pdf/Annual%20Report%202016-2017_0.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> By November 2017, the wolf population was down to one, a female.<ref name="freep2017" />

In December 2016, the National Park Service put forward an initial plan to bring additional wolves to the island in order to prevent the pack from disappearing completely.<ref>{{cite web |title=Isle Royale may add 20-30 wolves to keep pack from disappearing |url=http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/12/16/isle-royale-wolves-michigan/95486866/ |work=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=December 16, 2016 |access-date=January 14, 2017 |archive-date=January 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116172205/http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/12/16/isle-royale-wolves-michigan/95486866/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The decision to relocate 20–30 wolves to the island was approved and from September 2018 to September 2019, 19 wolves were relocated to Isle Royale from various locations in Minnesota, Michigan, and Ontario. As of April 14, 2020, there were an estimated 14 wolves remaining on the island.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Romanski |first1=Mark C. |last2=Orning |first2=Elizabeth K. |last3=Kellner |first3=Kenneth F. |last4=Beyer |first4=Dean E. Jr. |last5=Brzeski |first5=Kristin E. |last6=Hart |first6=John |last7=Lonsway |first7=Donald H. Jr. |last8=McLaren |first8=Ashley A.D. |last9=Moore |first9=Seth A. |last10=Patterson |first10=Brent R. |last11=Potvin |first11=Lynette R. |last12=Verant |first12=Michelle L. |last13=Wolf |first13=Tiffany M. |last14=Belant |first14=Jerrold L. |display-authors=1 |title=Wolves and the Isle Royale Environment: Restoring and Island Ecosystem 2018–2020 |publisher=National Park Service |url=https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/NPS-SUNY-ISRO_Web_Accessible_Isle-Royale-Wolf-Summary-Report-2018-2020_Compressed.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529083220/https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/NPS-SUNY-ISRO_Web_Accessible_Isle-Royale-Wolf-Summary-Report-2018-2020_Compressed.pdf |archive-date=May 29, 2021}}</ref>

===Geology===
[[File:USGS Isle Royale geologic map.png|thumb|300px|Isle Royale [[geological map]]]]
[[File:Keweenaw_structure.jpg|thumb|Cross-section of the Lake Superior basin showing the tilted strata of volcanic rock that form Isle Royale]]
The island is composed largely of ridges, running roughly southwest-to-northeast. The main ridge, Greenstone Ridge, is over {{cvt|1000|ft|m|-2}} in many places. [[Greenstone belt]]s are exposed, with rounded stones of [[chlorastrolite]], also known as greenstone, near and in the lake.

The two main rock assemblages found on the island include the Portage Lake [[Volcanics]] and the Copper Harbor [[conglomerate (geology)|Conglomerate]], both [[Precambrian]] in age. The volcanics are mainly [[Poikilitic#Ophitic|ophitic]] [[flood basalt]]s, some 100 individual flows over an accumulated thickness of at least 10,000 feet. The conglomerate [[outcrop]]s on the southwestern portion of the island and consists of [[sedimentary rock]] derived from volcanic rocks in present-day Minnesota. [[Glacial erosion]] accentuated the ridge and valley topography from pre-glacial stream erosion. [[Glacial striation]]s indicate a generally westward movement of the glaciers as do the [[recessional moraine]]s west of Lake Desor. [[Drumlin]]s are found west of Siskiwit Lake.<ref name="Huber" />{{rp|8,14–15,21,25,42,45}}

Recent analyses by the USGS of both unmineralized basalt and copper-mineralized rock show that a small amount of naturally occurring mercury is associated with mineralization.

[[Native copper]] and [[chlorastrolite]], the official state [[gemstone|gem]] of Michigan, are [[primary minerals|secondary minerals]] filling [[pore space]]s formed by [[vesicular texture|vesicles]] and [[fracture (geology)|fractures]] within the volcanic rocks. [[Prehnite]] and [[agate]] [[amygdule]]s are also plentiful island gemstones.<ref name=Huber/>{{rp|55,58–61}}