What is this?

This page is about my MS thesis on the vegetation and geography of islands in Lakes Baikal and Superior.

The degree was granted from Western Michigan in August 1998, and is on file in the Western Michigan University Library.  There's a lot of potentially interesting natural history-type stuff given there on the islands, some notes on the curiosities (isolated populations, human influences, etc.), and background and ideas on the conservation problems.  Plus you can learn something about the mysterious Caribou Island and the enigmatic Lake Baikal!

Unfortunately, I've been spooked by the inordinate amount of interest in Caribou Island. It's consistently the most searched for term that directs people to my website (this is for December 2006):

Well, you get the idea. What scares me about this is the relentless hunt by people hyped up on out$ide magazine and the like to conquer, dominate, and "do" any and all remaining unscarred places in this formerly great wild place called the world. Living and working in Denali National Park (biggest mountain, etc.), I see too much of this. I'm scared they're now stalking Caribou Island, too.

So, to maybe slow this a little, or at least to resist the inevitable outcome, I've taken the Caribou Island and Thesis stuff down. If you've got some questions on the islands of my project that is not related to tourism or going to the islands just because they're remote and not full of people, contact me and I'll oblige. Sorry to sound so dismal, but that's the world we live in, and this is the nature we have to try to save.