Q: My family and I would like to spend some time this summer at a family camp. Can you suggest one?

A: Family camps — traditional summer camps that are open to the entire family — are a great vacation option for families who enjoy the outdoors and the inherent hokiness (think skits and “repeat after me” songs) that comes with the summer camp experience. Several Minnesota children’s camps offer  family sessions in addition to their regular programs. But when it comes to camps that are devoted solely to families, the best known and loved is Camp du Nord, on Burntside Lake outside of Ely.  Run by the YMCA of Greater St. Paul, du Nord hosts sessions throughout the year. Their extremely popular summer sessions are filled by a lottery in the dead of winter, but the camp’s website shows they still have openings, especially at the begining and end of summer. Please note that some of those sessions take place before the full-team of counselors — whose grace and wit are the hallmark of the du Nord experience — is in place and that there may not be as many organized activities as there are during the peak of the season.

According to the Minnesota Climate Working Group, many of the lakes in the northern tip of Minnesota are still covered with ice. As the state’s fishermen know, that won’t be the case for long and we can now start to think in earnest about our longed-for summer getaways. We love Burntside Lake outside of Ely, home to YMCA camps and classic resorts such as the iconic Burntside Lodge. We especially love Camp Van Vac, a rustic resort that keeps to the simple traditions of a bygone era. Get into the spirit of the place with this video. 

I’ve spent more than 20 years in Minnesota, and I’ve explored all corners of the state. Part of the reason I wanted to take a fellowship for a year of study was my fascination with the state’s forests, and particularly the piney woods of the Arrowhead Region, which is mostly made up of Superior National Forest. It’s an area roughly equal in size to Vermont (which says a lot about how big Minnesota is). SNF includes the biggest Wilderness Area in the Lower 48 (the Boundary Waters) and it includes thousands and thousands more acres that are available for a wider range of uses, from mining to logging to fishing and hunting. I’ve spent a lot of the last semester at the University of Colorado studying the history of the laws that govern the country’s public lands, and I’m going to spend a lot of the next semester focused on researching the history, present and future of Minnesota’s public lands. The nation’s forests are undergoing rapid change. In Colorado and the mountain states to the north and west of it, lodgepole pines are being wiped out by mountain pine beetle. Aspen trees, another iconic trait of Colorado’s landscape, are also struggling mightily with warmer weather and nastier pests. In the East, western hemlock is being wiped out by a tiny Asian bug with no natural predators in North America. Moving from the east, the ash borer is leveling groves of ash trees across the country. Some of these phenomena are linked directly to climate change, while others have more to do with human manipulation of the landscape. In Colorado, biologists blame a variety of factors for the downfall of the lodgepole pines. Climate change may be part of the equation, but the larger issues have to do with overcrowding of trees, and that is linked to suppression of fire. As I move into the next phase of my research, I’ll be updating you on what I find in Minnesota’s forests, but I’m also wanting to hear what you’re seeing and observing. I’ve noticed more burr oak saplings in Voyageurs National Park for example. Are you aware of proposed mine claims? (They’re coming.) New trails? Midnight rule changes? The next months will tell much about the future uses of our public land in Minnesota.