Stutrud to be honored at 2019 Howl at the Moon Gala on April 11
Contact:
Chad Richardson
Communications Director
International Wolf Center
763-560-7374, ext. 225
chad@wolf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – These days, it seems like a new brewery is opening in Minnesota on a weekly basis. In the mid 1980s, though, there wasn’t a craft beer scene, there were no taprooms and nobody had even heard of a growler.
Despite that, Mark Stutrud wanted to change careers, going from a social worker to a brewer. He wrote the nationwide brewer’s association about his idea and, to his surprise, they discouraged him from launching a brewery. He wouldn’t make it in the business, they said.
Stutrud ignored their advice and, in September 1986, the first kegs rolled off the line at Summit Brewing Co. and into Twin Cities bars. Since then, the Minnesota institution has kept growing. Summit is the state’s second-biggest brewery.
This pioneering spirit and dedication to his craft led to the International Wolf Center to name Stutrud as its 2019 Leader of the Pack Award winner. Stutrud will be given the award and honored at the Howl at the Moon Gala on Thursday, April 11, at Midland Hills Country Club.
“I’m very honored,” Stutrud said. “Absolutely surprised and very honored. The International Wolf Center, I know, is very focused on education. Wolves are an example of how absolutely complex our ecosystems are. When organizations like the International Wolf Center can provide education on the earth and all of its inhabitants, that’s a very important function.”
The Center’s Executive Director, Rob Schultz, said Stutrud was nominated by a member of the gala committee and was quickly endorsed.
“Mark’s brave decision to open a brewery, against the advice of several people, shows he’s a man of firm convictions and a decisive leader,” Schultz said. “Those are traits we love to honor with this award. We’re thrilled he will be the recipient of this award at our upcoming gala.”
Tickets for the gala are available by visiting this link.
Stutrud will be joined at the gala by his wife, Susan, and several members of Summit’s leadership team. For many years, Summit has given back to food banks, art museums, music causes and numerous charitable fundraisers and events.
“A part of our longevity is connected to the fact that we’re very engaged in the Twin Cities community,” said Stutrud. “We’ve been deeply supportive of a number of causes through the years. That also really helps us to be a consistent part of the fabric of the community.
More about the brewery
When Summit opened, Stutrud did so with a wealth of brewing knowledge in his back pocket. He received professional training from brewing legends Charles A. McElevey and Frederick H. Thomasser. He completed the courses of Brewing Theory and Practice and Brewing Microbiology and Microscopy at the Siebel Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois. In July of 1991, Stutrud was awarded the J.E. Siebel Memorial Scholarship and received his Diploma in Brewing Technology from the Siebel Institute. That technical background meant that Stutrud had the necessary tools to produce consistently great beer.
“I think our longevity has to do with the fact that we were technically sound when we introduced Extra Pale Ale and, a few months after that, Great Northern Porter,” he said. “We knew that we had to understand the industry and the different tiers of business within the brewing industry, as well as being very good technically.”
Summit, the first Minnesota brewery built in Minnesota since the repeal of Prohibition, laid the framework for others to follow. And follow they have. There are now approximately 180 breweries operating in Minnesota.
“We were sodbusters,” Stutrud said. “That’s not easy work. You’re turning over that virgin soil and it allows other people behind you to cultivate a little more easy. That’s been a part of our role.”
The International Wolf Center, founded in 1985, is known worldwide as the premier source for wolf information and education. The mission of the Center is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. The Center educates through its website, its ambassador wolves, museum exhibits, educational outreach programs, International Wolf magazine, and a beautiful interpretive center in Ely, Minnesota.
State Of Idaho Funds Controversial Wolf Bounty Program
From Boise State Public Radio in Idaho:
If you kill a wolf in Idaho, your effort might be worth $1,000.
A nonprofit in North Idaho covers costs for hunters and trappers who successfully harvest wolves. The group, called the Foundation for Wildlife Management pays up to $1,000 per wolf harvest.
Click here for the full story.
New study reveals the origin of Sweden’s wolves
From The Local.SE in Sweden:
Researchers at Uppsala University used new methods to investigate the origin of Sweden’s wolf population.
Although Scandinavian wolves are thought to have more or less died out during the 1960s, the animal made a sudden comeback in the Värmland region two decades later.
Click here for the full story.
Isle Royale’s new black wolf moves away from others, GPS tracker shows why
From MLive.com:
ISLE ROYALE, MI – Early reports show Isle Royale’s new wolves are settling in well. The remote island and national park in Lake Superior saw its longtime wolf population of two rise to 15 over the past several months, the result of an effort to bring in more wolves from Canada and Minnesota.
The latest batch of seven wolves arrived last weekend. One black wolf was net-trapped on mainland Ontario, and the remaining six were caught on Canada’s Michipicoten Island Provincial Park, where they had been facing starvation.
Click here for the full story.
Government-funded study says red wolves are distinct species
From the Charlotte Observer:
A panel of top scientists concluded Thursday that the endangered red wolf of the southeastern U.S. is a species unto itself, giving the beleaguered canine a scientific and political boost as its numbers plummet in the wild.
The government-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences also found that the Mexican gray wolf of New Mexico and Arizona is a subspecies, which advocates say should support conservation efforts.
Click here for the full story.
Summit Brewing founder to be honored with Leader of the Pack Award by International Wolf Center
Stutrud to be honored at 2019 Howl at the Moon Gala on April 11
Contact:
Chad Richardson
Communications Director
International Wolf Center
763-560-7374, ext. 225
chad@wolf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – These days, it seems like a new brewery is opening in Minnesota on a weekly basis. In the mid 1980s, though, there wasn’t a craft beer scene, there were no taprooms and nobody had even heard of a growler.
Despite that, Mark Stutrud wanted to change careers, going from a social worker to a brewer. He wrote the nationwide brewer’s association about his idea and, to his surprise, they discouraged him from launching a brewery. He wouldn’t make it in the business, they said.
Stutrud ignored their advice and, in September 1986, the first kegs rolled off the line at Summit Brewing Co. and into Twin Cities bars. Since then, the Minnesota institution has kept growing. Summit is the state’s second-biggest brewery.
This pioneering spirit and dedication to his craft led to the International Wolf Center to name Stutrud as its 2019 Leader of the Pack Award winner. Stutrud will be given the award and honored at the Howl at the Moon Gala on Thursday, April 11, at Midland Hills Country Club.
“I’m very honored,” Stutrud said. “Absolutely surprised and very honored. The International Wolf Center, I know, is very focused on education. Wolves are an example of how absolutely complex our ecosystems are. When organizations like the International Wolf Center can provide education on the earth and all of its inhabitants, that’s a very important function.”
The Center’s Executive Director, Rob Schultz, said Stutrud was nominated by a member of the gala committee and was quickly endorsed.
“Mark’s brave decision to open a brewery, against the advice of several people, shows he’s a man of firm convictions and a decisive leader,” Schultz said. “Those are traits we love to honor with this award. We’re thrilled he will be the recipient of this award at our upcoming gala.”
Tickets for the gala are available by visiting this link.
Stutrud will be joined at the gala by his wife, Susan, and several members of Summit’s leadership team. For many years, Summit has given back to food banks, art museums, music causes and numerous charitable fundraisers and events.
“A part of our longevity is connected to the fact that we’re very engaged in the Twin Cities community,” said Stutrud. “We’ve been deeply supportive of a number of causes through the years. That also really helps us to be a consistent part of the fabric of the community.
More about the brewery
When Summit opened, Stutrud did so with a wealth of brewing knowledge in his back pocket. He received professional training from brewing legends Charles A. McElevey and Frederick H. Thomasser. He completed the courses of Brewing Theory and Practice and Brewing Microbiology and Microscopy at the Siebel Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois. In July of 1991, Stutrud was awarded the J.E. Siebel Memorial Scholarship and received his Diploma in Brewing Technology from the Siebel Institute. That technical background meant that Stutrud had the necessary tools to produce consistently great beer.
“I think our longevity has to do with the fact that we were technically sound when we introduced Extra Pale Ale and, a few months after that, Great Northern Porter,” he said. “We knew that we had to understand the industry and the different tiers of business within the brewing industry, as well as being very good technically.”
Summit, the first Minnesota brewery built in Minnesota since the repeal of Prohibition, laid the framework for others to follow. And follow they have. There are now approximately 180 breweries operating in Minnesota.
“We were sodbusters,” Stutrud said. “That’s not easy work. You’re turning over that virgin soil and it allows other people behind you to cultivate a little more easy. That’s been a part of our role.”
The International Wolf Center, founded in 1985, is known worldwide as the premier source for wolf information and education. The mission of the Center is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. The Center educates through its website, its ambassador wolves, museum exhibits, educational outreach programs, International Wolf magazine, and a beautiful interpretive center in Ely, Minnesota.
Public comment period on potential wolf delisting is open to the public
The United States Fish & Wildlife Service has opened the public comment period on its plan to remove gray wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
More information, including a link to leave comments, can be found on this page.
Weekend effort to move seven wolves to Isle Royale a major success
The project was funded by the International Wolf Center, the Lake Superior National Parks Foundation and private donors
Contact:
Chad Richardson
Communications Director
International Wolf Center
763-560-7374, ext. 225
chad@wolf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – An urgent effort to relocate seven gray wolves from Michipicoten Island and Canada’s mainland to Isle Royale has ended with success. The effort, which ran from Friday through Sunday, successfully and efficiently moved seven gray wolves at risk of death because of a shortage of prey.
The operation was funded with $45,000 from the International Wolf Center and $30,000 from the Lake Superior National Parks Foundation. Through a GoFundMe account online, another $11,500 was raised.
“We are honored to have played a role in this important operation,” said Rob Schultz, the executive director of the International Wolf Center. “We have been relaying updates of the capture and transfer progress to media and the public throughout the weekend.”
Isle Royale National Park superintendent Phyllis Green said the project on Michipicoten this weekend to save those hungry wolves would not have happened if countless donors didn’t step forward.
“I just want to thank everyone who donated,” she said. “On Saturday, we were watching the money aspects of this. It really helped to have all the donations that came in. We were pretty much right on the mark for what the estimate was and what came in from donors. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Three wolves were captured and moved Friday by teams of professionals. On Saturday, another four were moved. Of the seven, three were female. Six came from Michipicoten Island and one came from Canada’s mainland.
“They were long days, but we had a really wonderful result,” Green said. “We were coordinating five aircraft and seven wolves, arriving independently. It was very intense.”
It is believed that a 2-year-old female that was moved from Michipicoten to Isle Royale may be pregnant. If she were to give birth on Isle Royale this spring, those would be the first pups born on the island since 2014, according to Rolf Peterson, the lead researcher studying wolves and moose on the island.
“Any reproduction on the island this year would be pretty remarkable,” Peterson said. Peterson followed the weekend’s events closely.
“I was just glad it was successfully concluded,” he said. “There are so many ways it can go wrong. You’re nervous until it’s over.”
Peterson and the researchers now will wait to see how the island’s new inhabitants form their packs
“We just have to wait now until the wolves organize their personal lives and get on with things,” he said. “It’s been seven years out there since wolf predation had any impact on moose out there. It will be good to see that going again.”
The males captured on Michipicoten were close to healthy weights, but the females weighed between 50 and 60 pounds, far below what is considered healthy. The low female weights are due to the fact that the wolves on Michipicoten had run out of prey. Meanwhile, Isle Royale is populated by more than 1,600 moose, which is far above what biologists think is viable for the island to sustain. Too many moose on Isle Royale will lead to the overconsumption of vegetation, eventually causing severe damage to the the island’s ecosystem and raising concerns that the moose population may collapse.
By reintroducing wolves to the island, the moose will again have a natural predator to keep their population at sustainable levels. Scientists expect the two populations to again manage themselves as they had done on the island for decades. These seven new wolves join eight that were already on the island, including six that have been reintroduced since September through other efforts.
“Now our focus will turn to following the researchers as they study the impact of these new wolves on Isle Royale,” Schultz said. “As we move into the summer months, we look forward to working closely with the National Park Service and the Lake Superior National Parks Foundation to begin planning the next phase of wolf reintroduction efforts that are expected to occur this fall.”
About 20 to 30 new gray wolves are expected to be introduced to Isle Royale National Park over the next three to five years.
The International Wolf Center, founded in 1985, is known worldwide as the premier source for wolf information and education. The mission of the Center is to advance the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. The Center educates through its website, its ambassador wolves, museum exhibits, educational outreach programs, International Wolf magazine, and a beautiful interpretive center in Ely, Minnesota.
Wolf population in Latvia stable and growing slightly
From The Baltic Times:
RIGA – According to the State Forest Service, the wolf population in Latvia is stable and growing slightly.
At the same time, the Forest Service informed that 280 wolves were hunted during the 2018/2019 hunting season.
Click here for the full story.
ISLE ROYALE UPDATE: Total of seven wolves on Michipicoten Island captured
This is the breeding female from Michipicoten Island. Photo by M. Verant, National Park Service
Update at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, March 24: Three wolves were saved from Michipicoten Island on Saturday. There were two females and one male.
The scars on the breeding female’s face document a hard-fought life. She is in poor body condition and is probably at the end of her reproductive life cycle. However, she will be able to join her mate on Isle Royale where abundant prey is available and define how many chapters will remain for her life.
Her daughter is a 2-year-old female, number 15. She had a colon full of small plastic bits and was far away from bait piles where the males were captured. With weight differences it would have been hard to hold her own at a bait pile with males tipping the scales at more than 90 pounds. The females were weighed between 50 and 60 pounds. She appeared to be in the early stages of pregnancy. Parks staff will monitor her progress and success. Food has been scarce for the last year and there is no evidence that 2018 pups survived. These pups will have a better chance and the female has the opportunity to breed again.
This black male is a pack mate of the two black wolves previously transported to Isle Royale. Photograph by Jess Lenthe
Most of the beaver huts had multiple wolf tracks all over top of them as the wolves waited for the first signs of spring break up. One of the captured Michipicoten males had recently caught a beaver. Any remaining wolves on Michipicoten will have slim pickings as spring evolves into summer. The research project will continue on the remaining. There may be one or two wolves remaining on Michipicoten, but none could be located and the operation shifted to the mainland to see if an additional wolf could be added to the black pack as the donor funds were running down. Within an hour, a healthy 99-pound male was caught from the original pack.
With the remaining funding, OMNRF had just enough funding to complete the transfers of all the wolves caught on Friday and Saturday to Isle Royale National Park with the operation coming to a close at sunset.
Carol Brady of the National Parks of Lake Superior foundation said: “We were on the phone all day keeping the agencies informed of the donations and the last minute donors made the difference on finishing out the day. The International Wolf Center and NPLSF foundation want to thank everyone involved in this extremely successful wolf mission that met our goals of moving six Michipicoten wolves to Isle Royale and a bolstering of the two black pack members on Isle Royale from February’s translocation with the addition of a 99-pound black male in better shape than all the other wolves moved during this effort.”
Update as of Saturday, March 23, 7 p.m.: Two females (the breeding female and a second, which is possibly her daughter) were captured on Michipicoten Island. Later Saturday, the crew found a 100-pound black male wolf on the island. All three are going to be released on Isle Royale either tonight or Sunday, March 24. We should have photos soon.
Update as of Saturday, March 23, 7 a.m: On Thursday, March 21, the professional capture team from Bighorn Helicopter indicated they were available for the Michipicoten wolf capture effort if Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the National Park Service could start early on Friday, March 22.
SUNY Professor Jerry Belant lending a hand to Ashley McCleran to conduct a field check of female wolf. Photo courtesy of National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, J. Graham.
Bighorn Helicopter owner (R) Clay Wilson and net gunner Clayton Thibeault ready to begin operations. Photo courtesy of National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, J. Graham.
Michipicoten Park Superintendent Bob Elliott holding an anesthetized wolf for transport to vet check stations. Photo courtesy of National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, J. Graham.
National Park Service Veterinarian Michelle Verant and Thunder Bay Veterinarian Nicole Chandler thoroughly examine wolf 009 from Michipicoten. Photo courtesy of National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, J. Graham.
The team mobilized early and by the end of Friday, four Michipicoten wolves were caught on the island and transported for veterinary checks in the Wawa area. Three males and one female were captured, with one male weighing in at 99 pounds. The wolves ranged from poor to good condition, and all were deemed suitable for transport to Isle Royale National Park. The wolves are being held overnight due to darkness and air transport availability.
A number of critical factors fell into place for the team Friday. The first was that the professional contract crew, the pilots, could actually see Michipicoten Island from the mainland when they headed out and had smooth flying weather. Second, the remaining wolves had banded into small packs making capture less disruptive to non-targeted wolves. The alpha female was sighted and appeared to be in good health, running with two other wolves. The capture crews are returning to the island Saturday morning to target her capture while the four wolves captured on Friday will make the journey across Lake Superior Saturday to arrive on Isle Royale National Park in the late afternoon.
All photos are courtesy of the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, J. Graham.
To see where Michipicoten Island is, click here.
When images and more details from today’s efforts become available, we will post them here.
Friday, March 22, 2 p.m.: the International Wolf Center learned that two of the remaining wolves on Michipicoten Island were captured. The wolves are en route to a facility where their health will be assessed. If they are deemed healthy, they will be flown to Isle Royale where they will be released as quickly and carefully as possible.
9 a.m. Friday, March 22. The International Wolf Center will be posting daily updates this weekend on the progress of an urgent operation to move about six wolves to Isle Royale.
Those updates will be posted on this page.
Work is expected to begin today and we should have an update early this evening.
Of course, all of this depends on numerous factors out of our control. We do promise to do our best to get the updates posted on a timely basis.
International Wolf Center plans online videoconferences with students in Vietnam and Nigeria over one-week span
Contact:
Chad Richardson, communications director
International Wolf Center
Office: 763-560-7374, ext. 225
chad@wolf.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – A small group of students in Vietnam will have a unique experience March 23. Teachers there will connect their students through the internet to the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, for a science-based program about wolves.
This program comes just a few days after the International Wolf Center presented a similar program to students in Nigeria.
“Since we were founded, we’ve worked hard to educate the world about wolves,” Executive Director Rob Schultz said. “These two programs shine some light on the important work we do across the world.”
These two programs aren’t the first time the Center has connected to such faraway places, but it is unique for two of the international programs to be so close together on the calendar.
“Students at each school will be amazed by our WolfLink videoconferences,” Schultz said. “They’ll even get a live view of our wolves in Ely during their live program.”
WolfLink videoconferences teach science-based facts about wolves to audiences around the world. Classrooms get a chance to see live wolves from the facility in Ely and learn from lesson plans developed specifically for their grade level. Most programs are $75.
Teachers can order a Wolf Discovery Kit, which includes hands-on learning materials such as bones, fur and teeth for them to observe and pass around.
Similar programs are held hundreds of times every year for classrooms around North America and Europe.
In addition to the videoconferences, the International Wolf Center has educators who travel into schools to present programs to more than 15,000 students every year. That program is called Wolves at Our Door.
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The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. For more information about the International Wolf Center, visit website.