Moles, Moose and Melania's Husband

I saw my dermatologist this week. It’s weird getting naked in front of him and his male nurse. I pretend they’re a gay couple but I doubt that’s true. The doctor is an older polish immigrant with a thick accent and his nurse is an x-military field nurse---a young, good looking and confident type. I hate the indignity of these yearly mole checks but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Given his background, I’m sure the younger man has seen worse than rolls and bulges on an old woman with enough moles on her back that he could play connect-a-dot and come up with a map of the galaxy. This time the doctor only found two suspicious moles. They were small enough to burn off but they were right above my lip and the shot to deaden the area was so painful! I tried my best not to show it to the nurse who gave the shot, knowing he’s dressed battlefield wounds but I was doing a low groan. They told me the swelling would be gone in two hours but it’s two days later and my lip still looks lopsided. The two burn spots will scab over and the scabs will fall off in two weeks. Until then, I’ll be studying my toes a lot when I’m out in public.

Recently I also attended a lecture about Isle Royale's yearly moose and wolf study. Isle Royale is an island in Lake Superior, which is a designated U.S. National Wilderness Park (along with its surrounding water). Its 45 miles long, 9 miles wide, an isolated island that’s billed as “unparalleled solitude and adventures for backpackers, hikers, boaters, kayakers, canoeists and scuba divers” and its home to some flowers and birds that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. If Mr. Trump has his way all the national parks will be privatized. Already he's used an executive order to dismantle protections Obama put in place to protect the parks against oil drilling and mineral mining. One day, we may see a luxury Trump Hunting Lodge on Isle Royale so his sons can slaughter all the wildlife for fun and wall décor. But I digress. 

The island is inaccessible in the winter but that’s when they use a helicopter to do a head count of the (1,400) moose and (3) wolves and in the spring teams of volunteers comb the island looking for moose skulls and femur bones that they backpack out to a command post. Teeth and femurs are sent to college labs for the purpose of studying the health, age, causes of death and the effects climate and disease has on the moose community. This yearly study has been going on for fifty years and looking at the flow charts that resulted was fascinating. The moose don’t fall subject to problems of inbreeding because moose looking for love are known to swim the eighteen miles of icy water from Canada to get to the island. The wolf population is not so lucky plus someone smuggled a sick dog onto the island that resulted in killing most of the wolves. Unless Trump’s administration puts a stop to it---a real worry to those in charge---20-30 wolves are will be moved to the island for the first time ever. Canada will be trapping and putting tracking collars on them, and then release them to wait until they’re sure they’ve got an entire wolf pack tagged before they’ll be moved all together. Of course, the people in favor of privatizing the national parks would rather just open Royal Isle up to hunters and not worry about the dwindling wolf population. Everything boils down to politics in the end, doesn’t it. Preserving a unique Eco-system for future generations verse spending the same money on a few more guns for the military---a no brainer decision for Melania’s husband who has a visceral love of phallus symbols. 

Technically, Isle Royale in part of my state, Michigan, but it’s not easily accessible less you rent a sea plane or take a ferry from Minnesota or the Upper Peninsula. With just 18,000 visitors a year it’s considered to be the most under used park in the U.S. Wilderness Park system and when you find out the only wheels allowed on the island are on push carts used to get your gear from the ferry to the lodge or campsites, you’ll understand this isn’t a place you visit unless you’re relatively healthy and fit. 98% of the island is designated as primitive America wilderness. We used to have friends who’d go every year to scuba dive, the place is a mecca for divers because it’s got the world largest collection of intact, underwater ship wrecks in the world. Others in our family went for the hiking. The place is so unique that the United Nations designated Isle Royale as an International Biosphere Reserve because of its “global scientific and educational significance.” Privatizing a place like that and the other national parks so rich men can get richer and/or turn them into personal playgrounds? I hate that Melania’s husband is making so many of us fight on so many fronts for what should be settled and noble values of society! Okay, I’ll put politics and my snide remarks back in the box of topics not to write about. Sorry. ©