Chambers Island Nature Preserve Partners in Conservation
Krause Family’s Foresight 40 Years Ago Changed the Future of Our Island Reinhart Krause, best known to islanders as Reiny, first came to Chambers Island in 1948 to check out the timber. That was the beginning of the Krause family’s story on Chambers, and it continues today.
Above: Temporary North Bay logging dock in 1983; Right: Reiny Krause with his ubiquitous cigar
chunk of property. It is becoming the core of the Chambers Island Nature Preserve. This decision Owner of the Algoma Lumber Co., Reiny bought was consistent with 640 acres, including the south point area. “In 1950, Reiny’s attitude toward he logged pine and hemlock with horses and rafted the land. In 1994, he the logs to Berns Brothers Lumber Co. in Sister Bay,” received the “Award of according to his son, Jeff Krause, now a co-owner of Algoma Lumber and manager of the logging operation Excellence in the Wood Industry for Responsible Utilization of our Renewable on the island in 2015. The Krauses also logged Resource” from the Lake States Lumber Association. Chambers in 1967, 1983 and 2000 along with other logging families, including the Theises, Kruegers and Reiny was a friend to many on the island and at one Sperbers. point served as president of the Chambers Island Their family has played a significant role in preserving Chambers Island in its natural state. In the 1970’s, Reiny received an attractive offer for his land from someone who wanted to build a resort on the island. “Dad didn’t usually ask our opinions about business decisions, but in this case, he asked all of us over for a family meeting to discuss the offer,” Reiny’s daughter Sharon Krause Busch remembers. “We all wanted to keep the island as it was, so he turned it down.” We have Reiny Krause and his family to thank for their foresight in protecting the island’s largest interior Below: Great grandchildren Nora, Cooper, Rex and Lexi carry on the Krause fishing tradition
Association. “Dad was very friendly,” said Sharon. “He was soft-spoken. I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice. We all respected him.” Jeff remembers good times on Chambers hunting and fishing with Reiny, who “also enjoyed playing piano, guitar, mandolin and harmonica and, of course, puffing on a good cigar.” Later in life, Reiny took up running and won the “Oldest Runner” award in the 5K Chambers Walk/Run. Organized by Cindy Lardinois and Sig Weber, the race will celebrate its 40th year in 2016. Reiny had a big impact on the younger generation as well. Jeff’s son Josh said he and his young family love the island and cherish their friendships there. “When I was younger, I really valued spending time fishing with Grandpa and three months in 1998 building our cabin. Now that I’m older, I enjoy spending time logging on the island with my Dad and brother Ryan, and bringing my family to the island. My children love Chambers much like I did at their age.” Reiny passed away in 2011, and his wife Virginia in 2004, but the Krause legacy continues with the three more generations of their family who have cabins on the island. Sharon started coming to Chambers more Continued on back page
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Chambers Island Nature Preserve Save — Sustain — Study
Our Nature Study Committee: A Team of Experts
Our small island abounds in diversity—not only in the riches of our natural environment, but also in the talents, skills and knowledge of our islanders. And it is not just about plumbing and garage building. Their contributions enlighten us about the island’s role in protecting the environment of the entire Great Lakes region. Their knowledge is key in convincing government and foundation funders to contribute to our preservation efforts. They educate us about Chambers’ rare and endangered species, its critical role as a stopover for migratory birds, and its range of natural habitats from muskeg to hemlock clusters. Co-chairs Russ and Debbie Feirer are biologists who met as undergraduates in the laboratory at UW-Eau Claire. Russ, a PhD from UW, is a faculty member at St. Norbert College, teaching genetics, cell biology and botany. Deb has a master’s in education and teaches biology and human anatomy and physiology at Wrightstown High School near Greenleaf, WI where they live. Deb and Russ have spearheaded efforts to reduce invasive species, helped Land Trust staff in their survey work, and led nature hikes. If you were lucky enough to have gone on their tours of the bog and Lost Lake, you have experienced their expertise and enthusiasm. Russ and Deb said that “over the years, we have noticed a profound disconnect of many people from nature and the outdoors.” They believe Chambers’ seclusion, quietness and slower pace, protected by the Nature Preserve, helps strengthen our connection with ourselves and the natural world.
Robin Squier describes herself as a citizen scientist. She is the volunteer leader of the five-year study of Chambers Island birds for the Wisconsin Bird Atlas and relies on interested islanders to help her fill out the picture of the island’s breeding and migratory birds (see link). Her lifelong interest in ornithology was inspired by her father, John Squier, and nurtured through college courses and work at The Bowdoin College Field Station in the Bay of Fundy and The International Crane Foundation. During her career as an inner-city school teacher in Milwaukee, she expanded her life-list of bird sightings in summers on the island at the family’s log cabin, built from a kit in 1960. Since her retirement, the island has been an exceptional place to indulge her passion for and study of birds, walking the island’s woods and shore, and banding birds in the cabin’s meadow. Her work, and that of Naseem Reza’s, laid the foundation for an extensive list of island birds that is now being expanded through the bird atlas. The high point of last year’s study was her discovery of the elusive Northern saw-whet owl near the Retreat House. “It was just this little fluffy ball, cowering at the bottom of a tree,” she said in amazement. “I was drawn to the tree by the chatter of other birds The most important harassing the fledgling, otherwise I factor in determining never would have seen it!” Robin’s the future of the sighting makes the owl a confirmed Northern saw-whet breeding bird on the island. “The owl in the state designation is really special for will be the extent Chambers,” she proclaimed. “This to which larger owl is a diminutive and secretive blocks of forest bird that has not been sighted habitat like those on anywhere else in Door County.” Chambers survive.
Above, from left: Debbie and Russ Feirer, Robin Squier, Naseem Reza, Carol Grelck and Tim Fitzgerald
Naseem Reza found a “birder’s paradise” on Chambers Island when he retired in 2004 as Director of Information Technology for the Virginia State Police. It all started with a camera. Naseem and his wife Lou began to spend more time at the Wright family’s 1945 “Block House” on the island’s southwest shore. “Lou was the photographer in the family, but she gave me a digital camera when I retired. That sparked my interest in nature photography,” he said. He joined the Audubon Society in Richmond, VA where they live and put his camera to use, capturing the diversity of birds and butterflies that breed on and migrate through the island. “I’ve been coming to the island since 1972, but being there for extended time periods, I’ve come to really appreciate how important the bird population is to the ecology of the Island and how critical it is to maintain their habitat,” he noted. Naseem now has photos of 120 different birds and 36 species of butterflies on the Preserve website. He is actively involved in the Wisconsin Bird Atlas for Chambers and has given talks about our birds to islanders, to gatherings sponsored by the Door County Land Trust and to foundation visitors. Having recently returned from a birding trip to Ecuador with Lou, he is anxious to get back to the island’s birds. He remembers how amazed he was to learn they had an active American woodcock mating site right in their island yard, and his surprise when he first opened his garage last year and startled a mother turkey who charged at him to protect one of her small chicks.
Carol Grelck is a nature junkie. The island provides her with the perfect outdoor laboratory. “Chambers gives me the opportunity to put my nose down to smell the wonderful earth again,” she said. She has degrees in biology and comparative endocrinology, and has taught biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology, and embryology at the college level. Carol has also taken many photos of Chambers’ insects, plants, fungi, and monarch butterflies. The diversity of the rocks on Chambers’ beaches stimulated Carol’s interest in island geology. In 2010, she invited geologist Dr. Eric Carlson to the island to present his work on Door County’s geologic and glacial history. For the island association’s 50th anniversary in 2012, she asked Samantha Russell from The Butterfly House on Washington Island to join her and Naseem Reza for a presentation on monarch butterflies. She also propagates monarch butterflies—50-60 each summer—and gave a presentation about this process at a Land Trust outing on Chambers. She’s passionate in spreading the word about protecting milkweed plants, the only source of food for monarch caterpillars. “Most islanders have a deep respect for the land,” she said, adding that the Preserve will protect the island as a great place to learn and study without commercial interference. Monarch butterfly
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frequently after she married Moss in 1970. An Algoma Lumber Co. employee, he often worked on the island. (By the way, Moss’ nickname comes from C.W. Moss, getaway driver in the movie “Bonnie and Clyde,” whom he resembles.) Jeff and his wife Terri, and Moss and Sharon plan to be on Chambers for many years to come. Their children enjoy Chambers and come whenever they can. Jeff
Above: Timber harvest, October 2000
and Terri are taking over the two family cabins on Lake Mackaysee, one of which formerly belonged to Gene (“Sox”) Sperber. Moss and Sharon have a beautiful cabin on Baseline Road across from the barge dock. Sharon said, “We are happy that the Chambers Island Nature Preserve will keep Chambers as it is, and as nature intended it to be.”
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Our Nature Study Committee: A Team of Experts Tim Fitzgerald, a DNR Forest Ranger for 25 years, is our own forestry expert. He has a degree in forest management and is a DNR-certified “independent consulting forester.” He also assists the Land Trust on technical forestry questions and survey work. One of our most athletic islanders, he can hike the entire island in a half-day and clear fallen timber at an impressive rate. Tim says he lives for small craft advisories and spends these windy days windsurfing or kiting island shores. He has spent summers on Chambers since 1960 and cross country skis to the island many winters. Tim believes the Wisconsin Managed Forest Law (MFL) has resulted in a win-win for everyone: preservation of more forest, less intensive harvesting of timber, tax breaks helpful to land owners, and a good source of income for our state and local governments. The Nature Preserve will enhance these benefits with even more focus on larger trees, a more dense forest and aesthetics.
Related Photo and Research Links Find links to all these resources at
www.ChambersIslandNaturePreserve.org Naseem Reza’s bird photographs www.picasaweb.google.com/vabirder/ ChambersIslandBirdsMay2014 Wisconsin Bird Atlas for Chambers Island: How You Can Help www.ChambersIslandNaturePreserve.org/ resources Birds of Chambers Island and other nature information www.ChambersIslandNaturePreserve.org/ resources Meet the Flora and Fauna of Chambers Island www.ChambersIslandNaturePreserve.org/ tour/flora-and-fauna 6