Coalition Announces Winners of Great Lakes Story & Photo Contest

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (October 4)—A father’s decision to fish with his sons before being deployed to Iraq. A woman’s relationship with Lake Michigan during milestones in her life.  A child’s chase down the beach. A teenager’s leap for joy on a sand dune.

These are some of the subjects of the winning entries for the month of August and the contest as a whole in the Great Lakes story and photo contest, which concluded in late August.

“People’s love for the Great Lakes is clear by looking at the winning entries—and all of the entries that we received during the contest,” said Jeff Skelding, national campaign director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, sponsor of the contest. “The contest shows how important the Great Lakes are to our lives, and we thank all of the people who have shared their stories, memories and pictures.”

The contest attracted more than 200 photos and 100 stories from across the country.

All of the winning entries can be found online at: http://www.healthylakes.org/

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS

In the photo contest:

Brian Lisek from La Grange Park, Ill., captures a grand prize with a shot of his children having fun at a day at the beach, at: http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/07/12/fun-and-laughter-on-the-beach

Ed Peterson from Sugar Grove, Ill., wins with his photo of a playful chase of a young man and his dog, at: http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/swimming/2007/07/20/a-chase-in-lake-michigan

In the story contest:

Deborah Jones of Muskegon, Mich., describes the presence of Lake Michigan during important events in her life, at:
http://www.healthylakes.org/your-lake-you/lake-michigan/2007/08/08/lake-michigan-at-first-sight

Staff Sergeant Darrald Martin of Harrison, Mich., currently stationed in Iraq, explains why he chose fishing with his sons upon learning of his impending deployment at: http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/fishing-hunting/2007/07/16/fishing-on-the-eve-of-a-deployment-to-iraq

AUGUST WINNERS:

The PHOTO CONTEST featured five winners:

Andrew, of Midland, Mich., wins in the children’s category for a scenic shot of sand dunes, in “Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/15/sleeping-bear-sand-dunes

High school student Evy of Oak Brook, Ill., wins with a shot of an exuberant leap into the air, “Jumping for Joy.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/02/jumping-for-joy-in-muskegon

Paul Kops of Twin Lake, Mich., wins in the adult category for his shot of several boys jumping in the dunes, “Kids Having Fun.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/20/kids-having-fun

Mark Vipond of Elm Grove, Wisc., also took home a prize in the adult category for a photo of his children romping on the beach, with “Driftwood Chase.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/07/29/driftwood-chase

Andrew Sawyer of Saint Joseph, Mich., also placed with “Two Hearted Fly Fishing,” a photo he took of his son fly-fishing.
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/18/in-the-steps-of-nick-adams-%e2%80%93-two-hearted-river-flyfishing

In the story contest:

The GENERAL DIVISION featured three winners:

In the children’s general category, Addy, from Reed City, Mich., wins for her story, “The Lake That Had a Lighthouse in the Middle of It.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/12/the-lake-that-had-a-lighthouse-in-the-middle-of-it

In the general category, high school student, Victoria, of Ann Arbor, Mich., provides her musings on our love for lighthouses, with “Great Lakes Lighthouses.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/20/great-lakes-lighthouses 

In the adult general category, Golden, Colo., resident Christine Weeber wins for “Breaking Skin,” which states: “Sometimes it helps to have input from those you love when deciding on a long-term mate.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/general/2007/08/20/breaking-skin

The FISHING DIVISION featured two winners:

In the children’s fishing category, Izek in Warsaw, Ohio, gives a humorous account of his day on the lake in “Fishing on Lake Erie.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/your-lake-you/lake-erie/2007/08/20/fishing-on-lake-erie

In the adult fishing category, Joe Polasek of Downers Grove, Ill., shares his memories of smelt fishing as a child, in “Senses.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/fishing-hunting/2007/08/20/senses

The CAMPING DIVISION featured four winners:

In the children’s camping story category, Robbie of Redford, Mich., tells of his “Most Memorable Hike Ever” at:
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/general/2007/08/17/the-most-memorable-hike-ever

Also in the children’s camping division, Ian of Western Springs, Ill., takes home a prize for his story, “Camping, Camping, Camping.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/camping/2007/08/14/camping-camping-camping

In the high school category, Maddie from Waterville, Ohio, takes home a prize for “Our Night in the Woods.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/camping/2007/08/20/our-night-in-the-woods

In the adult camping division, Amy Peterson, from Haslett, Mich., tells of a camping and canoeing trip for her dogs in, “Pups Vacation.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/camping/2007/08/20/pups-vacation

Past Winners:

July:

In the photo contest:

Ed Peterson from Sugar Grove, Ill., captures a chase between son and dog, at: http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/swimming/2007/07/20/a-chase-in-lake-michigan

Jane Solow from Grand Rapids, Mich., shot her daughter and granddaughter fishing:
http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/fishing-hunting/2007/07/16/fishing-off-the-dock-of-the-bay

Brian Lisek from La Grange Park, Ill., captures the pure joy of the beach at: http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/07/12/fun-and-laughter-on-the-beach

In the children’s category, Brigid from Oak Park, Ill., sends some toes in the water:
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/07/20/water-tickling-some-little-toes

In the story contest, the fishing division winners:

Diane Neese from Manhattan, Ill., took first place for her amusing, “Me and My Bass.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/fishing-hunting/2007/07/06/me-and-my-bass

While Paul Lender from Willowick, Ohio, did not miss out with his “First Catch.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/fishing/2007/07/17/first-catch

The children’s category featured some sage advice from Hayden from Rockford, Mich.
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/fishing/2007/07/02/a-fishermans-advice

Camping winner of the month, Kathy Noskey from Lowell, Mich., tells us about an experience that she will never forget in “Experience of My Life.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/camping/2007/07/09/experience-of-my-life

In the children’s category, Bonnie of Rockford, Mich., wins for her “Camping at the Beach.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/camping/2007/07/02/camping-at-the-beach

The general story category winners:

Crystal A. Proxmire from Royal Oak, Mich., took first place with her story, “Waves,” about her friendship with her dad and their fondness of the Great Lakes:
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/general/2007/07/20/waves

Ann Joachim from Oak Park, Ill., also placed with her story, “Wild River Flowing.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/general/2007/07/12/wild-river-flowing

In the children’s category, Sarah from Clarendon Hills, Ill., was selected for her story,
“A Great Lake,” about mentoring her younger sister while having fun at the beach.
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/general/2007/07/12/a-great-lake

June:

Randy Edwards from Columbus, Ohio, writes about a fishing trip with a buddy in “A $5 Trip to Au Sable River.” You can read it at:
http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/camping/2007/06/20/a-5-trip-to-au-sable-river

Nancy Hulka from Muskegon, Michigan, writes about Native American traditions and the state of the lakes in “Michigan Ndoonjibaa: Michigan Where My Spirit is From.”
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/2007/06/20/michigan-ndoonjibaa-michigan-where-my-spirit-is-from

Daniel Lezman from Holland, Michigan, tells a story about how the power of Lake Michigan showed itself when he and his sons were not expecting it in “Display of the Power of Lake Michigan.” You can read it at:
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/2007/06/19/display-of-the-power-of-lake-michigan

Albert Wouters from Byron Center, Michigan, photographed several men fishing on a breaker wall, braving the wind, cold and ice of a Michigan winter. You can view it at:
http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/06/08/ice-fishing-in-ludington

The contest sought to inspire people of all ages to submit their stories and photos for a chance to win prizes and awarded prizes in four contest categories:

-General story
-Fishing story
-Camping story
-Photo

The contest featured three awards per category, in the following age groups:

-Child (K-8th grade)
-High school student (9-12th grade)
-Adult

For the month of August, as in July, some categories featured more than one prizewinner due to either leftover prizes from the previous month or extra prizes donated by sponsoring institutions.

Corporate sponsors were Meijer and REI. Educational sponsors include the Akron Zoo, Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, John Ball Zoo, and Shedd Aquarium. 

The Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Campaign is directed by the Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition. The coalition consists of more than 90 zoos, aquariums, museums, and hunting, fishing, and environmental organizations representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes.

For more information, visit http://www.healthylakes.org/

Immediate Release: 
October 4, 2007

Contact:
Jordan Lubetkin, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, (734) 887-7109, Lubetkin@nwf.org
Tanya Cabala, Great Lakes Consulting, (231) 981-0016, tcabala@charter.net

Great Lakes Story and Photo Contest – June Winners Announced

Entry deadline for July awards: Midnight, Friday July 20

Coalition Announces June Winners of Great Lakes Photo & Story Contest

Monthly Prizes Awarded Through End of August

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (July 18)—A summer fishing trip on the Au Sable River. A Native American meditation on the importance of the Great Lakes. The power of Lake Michigan. Ice fishing from a pier in February.

These are the subjects of the winning entries for the month of June in the Great Lakes Story and Photo Contest.

The contest continues to run through August 20 and will award monthly prizes at the end of July and August. Grand prizes include two outdoor adventure packages—including a kayak, tent and sleeping bag—and two photography packages—including a digital camera. Over $7,500 in prizes will be awarded.

“These entries show how important the Great Lakes are to the lives of people,” said Jeff Skelding, national campaign director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which is sponsoring the contest. “We applaud the people who have won this month and remind people that the contest runs through August. Send us your compelling photo or great story and you too could win some great prizes.”

The contest awards monthly prizes, June, July and August and runs through Aug. 20.

June winners include:

Randy Edwards from Columbus, Ohio, writes about a fishing trip with a buddy in “A $5 Trip to Au Sable River.” You can read it at:

http://www.healthylakes.org/activities/camping/2007/06/20/a-5-trip-to-au-sable-river

Nancy Hulka from Muskegon, Michigan, writes about Native American traditions and the state of the lakes in “Michigan Ndoonjibaa: Michigan Where My Spirit is From.”

http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/2007/06/20/michigan-ndoonjibaa-michigan-where-my-spirit-is-from


Daniel Lezman from Holland, Michigan, tells a story about how the power of Lake Michigan showed itself when he and his sons were not expecting it in “Display of the Power of Lake Michigan.” You can read it at:

http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/2007/06/19/display-of-the-power-of-lake-michigan

Albert Wouters from Byron Center, Michigan, photographed several men fishing on a breaker wall, braving the wind, cold and ice of a Michigan winter. You can view it at:

http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/06/08/ice-fishing-in-ludington

The contest, which runs through August 20, seeks to inspire people of all ages to submit their stories and photos for a chance to win prizes.

The contest awards prizes in four contest categories and three age groups. Categories include:

-General story
-Fishing story
-Camping story
-Photograph

Every month in June, July and August, the contest will award prizes in each of the above-mentioned categories in the following age groups:

-Child (K-8th grade)
-High school student (9-12th grade)
-Adult

Corporate sponsors include Meijer and REI.

Educational sponsors include the Akron Zoo, Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, John Ball Zoo, and Shedd Aquarium.

Entry guidelines and rules can be found by visiting www.healthylakes.org, or by mailing a request to: Great Lakes Story & Photo Contest, National Wildlife Federation, 213 W. Liberty St., Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104.

The Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Campaign is directed by the Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition. The coalition consists of more than 90 zoos, aquariums, museums, and hunting, fishing, and environmental organizations representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes.

Rustic Camping in the Dunes of Lake Michigan

This story for our adult general category comes to use from Keli in Eaton Rapids, Mich. In submitting her story, she writes: 

“I’ve had so many wonderful adventures in all of the Great Lakes that it was hard to select only one story! The attached events live in my mind as one of the most memorable. If you haven’t been there, Nordhouse Dunes Lake Michigan Recreation Area is a MUST. Several years ago many of us fought hard to keep slant oil drilling from taking place there – thank goodness. We remain vigilant protectors of the area and will do so until the last breath is drawn, then hopefully we’ve inspired another generation to do the same.”

Sounds like Keli’s got the right idea. Here’s her story:

It warms the heart and replenishes the soul– rustic camping in the sand dunes of the Lake Michigan Recreation Area. 

We stopped at the store in Ludington for supplies on our way north and arrived at the campground early one July afternoon.  Even in the shade, it was hot.  We shook the 6 person tent (which really holds two, three if you’re cozy) from its nylon bag and pitched it under a gigantic pine tree on what appeared to be level ground.  Then we ran, all three of us toward the beach, kicking off our shoes once we reached the end of the boardwalk.  The sand was so hot we had to dig our feet under the surface until we reached the cool azure blue water.  Then we dove beneath the waves and frolicked in the surf of fresh, clean water.  We spent the afternoon beachcombing for ancient Petoskey stones and other treasures, and making castles of sand.

Later that evening, after a meal of Lake Michigan salmon and potatoes fried in a cast iron pan over coals glowing in our fire ring, we ascended the seeming hundreds of wooden stairs to the top of the dune ridge for sunset.  Cocktails in hand, we sat inhaling fresh air and waited.  Thoughts of the ancient Indian people who once inhabited this very same place floated through our heads.  We could see them sitting along side us reveling in the beauty of nature.  The sun grew larger as it approached the horizon casting red and orange hues upon little puffy clouds that dotted the evening sky.  Vibrant colors faded to pinks and purples as the sun disappeared below the horizon.  Stars began to appear, slowly at first, Polaris, Aldebaran, Spica, Arcturus, then more until the night sky was filled.  We lay on our backs in the sand staring upward hoping to see a shooting star or two, and we weren’t disappointed.  Silent wishes were transmitted to the heavens.

First we heard the fast approaching storm; thunder rumbling in the distance.  Then we saw the lightening and clouds out over the lake.  The wind picked up as the beast drew near.  It was not large in size, but was intense in ferocity.  Our hair blown back, we giggled like children.  The wind began to roar.  Our words were too weak to travel through its ravages.  We bolted and rolled down the sand dune racing against the storm to reach our tent.  Just as the final zipper was closed and we were safely inside, rain came down in sheets.  Still giggling we zipped ourselves into our sleeping bags and waited until the sandman took us for yet another adventure, while the sounds of the waves soothed our souls.

Thanks, Keli. While that concludes Keli’s story, we couldn’t resist including a short note that she included in her entry. It reads: “Act now to protect these rare gifts. We must acknowledge and fight against global warming and water diversion. We must regulate ballast water and always care deeply about our precious Great Lakes. The power of one is to educate all – share the passion.”

Amen. You can get involved today in the effort to restore the Great Lakes. Take action to protect our lakes, our economy, our drinking water, and our way of life.

You can also enter the Great Lakes story and photo contest today for your chance to win prizes.

Experience of My Life

This story comes to us from Kathy in Lowell, Mich. It is entered in our camping category, adult division. Kathy relates a story that, as she put it, was “the experience of my life.” I think you’ll see why! She writes:

We camped at Grand Haven for many years.

We ride our bikes up and down the boardwalk when we are staying at the campground.

July 2, 2004 I had the experience of my life.

I was riding my bike on the board walk and came upon a city truck parked right in front of me. I had to make a decision of which side I would go around the truck. I chose the channel side. I was going around the truck and did not allow enough room for the side mirror. I bumped the side of the truck with my bike and both my bike and I went into the channel. Scared to death I yelled, “Oh my God.” Everything happened so fast. I was then looking up and saw sunlight. I knew I had to swim to the top of the water if I was going to survive.

I started to swim the best I could toward the top of the water.

My dear husband, who didn’t give it a second thought, threw his bike down and dove in after I went in. He was there at the very minute I started to try and swim up. He pushed me to the side wall where there was a ladder to grab on to.

The boardwalk filled up with concerned onlookers, coaxing me to climb up the ladder. I could not. My shoulder and legs tangled with the bike and were not cooperating.

There were police cars, emergency units, and an ambulance above me on the boardwalk. I could not make it to the top. The Coast Guard then pulled up beneath me and got me into their boat. I was taken down the channel with their sirens and flashing lights to the boat launch where the ambulance was waiting for me.

I entered the hospital and the nurses were there to meet me. They said, “We’ve been waiting for you Mrs. Kneivel.”

Praise God. I only ended up with a dislocated shoulder and two badly bruised legs.

Divers pulled my bike out of the channel. There were many onlookers and the story went like this:

“Did she make it?”

“No. They just found the bike.”

I made the paper and the local radio station.

I received many items and comments during my recovery. I received swimmies and the newspaper clippings. I came home one day and one of my grandsons had made a sign and posted it to the front porch. It read, “Kathy Kneivel.”

People still say things when I am riding my bike by my house and it is by the river.

My other grandson made a remark as I was writing this story. He said, “She dodged the mirror and fell off the pier.”

Thanks, Kathy, for that tale. Glad to see you made it! You, too, can enter the Great Lakes story and photo contest for a chance to win prizes.

You can also participate in the effort to restore the Great Lakes—which are seriously threatened by sewage contamination and invasive species. Get involved today to help protect our lakes, our drinking water, our public health, our economy, and our way of life.

The Lake Is Calling Me Home

This story comes to us from Sharon in Beaver Fall, Pa. She writes: 

The exhilaration of lake breezes buffeting me always makes My Favorite Things list.  I was raised in Erie, PA and our family’s trips to Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie are memorable.  As a young child, I remember being bustled out of bed in early morning hours to prepare breakfast on the beach, the aroma of bacon frying in a cast iron skillet mingling with the balmy smell of the Lake as it sent its waves crashing onto the shoreline. Breakfast, and all other picnics for that matter, was punctuated by the haunting calls of the sea gulls as they soared overhead.   Many summer afternoons were spent lounging in the warm sands of Presque Isle, emerging from our repose long enough to take cool dips in the welcoming waters of Lake Erie.  Leisurely walks along the shore always yielded watery treasures — smooth-edged sea glass, driftwood and the occasional mussel shell.  
 
Presque Isle later became a romantic date destination, whether it was for a day of sunbathing and volleyball, or watching the sun slip below the horizon in a blaze of burnt orange.  Left alone in the sky, the clouds turned to shades of rich pinks and deep, dusky lavenders.  Lake Erie’s beach was the perfect stage for blooming romances and hand-in-hand walks in the sand.
 
When I married and became a mother, Presque Isle remained a regular getaway destination.  We relaxed in our lounge chairs while our young son built castles and caves in the sand, chased the gulls and swam like a fish in the waters of Lake Erie.  Our constant comment was that when comfortably parked in the sand, gazing out at the sailboats on the horizon, one never knew if the azure pool stretching out before us was the ocean or a lake.  We laughed at those traveling for hours and hours to the ocean, often at great expense, to enjoy the same setting as we had right in our own backyard.  
 
When summer days were waning and the tug of the beach lost its urgency, our path turned toward the Nature Walk where we discovered the peninsula’s plant and wildlife.  The exercise warmed us as we walked in the shaded canopy of gold and bronze, the lake air full of the promise of the coming season change.  When the leaves fell and the winds turned sharp, we enjoyed a drive to view the breathtaking ice dunes created by the Lake’s refusal to lie still in the dead of winter.
 
My family moved away from Erie — “inland” as we called it — beckoned by a career.  An opportunity arose once with a local newspaper to extol the virtues of western Pennsylvania in autumn.  Of course, my essay and invitation was to visit Lake Erie, experience Presque Isle out-of-season, test the wineries dotting the lakeshore and watch the metamorphosis of summer into autumn. 

We return to Lake Erie often, drawn as much by memories as opportunities for new experiences.  The Lake always calls me home.

Thanks, Sharon, for that tale. You, too, can enter the Great Lakes story and photo contest for a chance to win prizes.

You can also participate in the effort to restore the Great Lakes—which are seriously threatened by sewage contamination and invasive species. Get involved today to help protect our lakes, our drinking water, our public health, our economy, and our way of life.

Photo: Sunset on Trout Bay

Dan from Rochester Hills, Mich., sends us this photo. He writes:

“This photograph was taken of a sunset in Trout Bay (Lake Superior) on Grand Island, Munising, Michigan in late June 2007 during a 4 day backpacking trip on the island.”

Looks like a great time. Thanks, Dan.

You, too, can enter the Great Lakes story and photo contest for a chance to win prizes.

You can also participate in the effort to restore the Great Lakes—which are threatened by sewage contamination and invasive species. Get involved today to help protect our lakes, our drinking water, our public health, our economy, and our way of life.

A $5 Trip to Au Sable River

This entry in our story contest’s camping category comes by way of Randy in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a humorous look of a camping trip that experiences some surprises along the way.

 You can enter the contest too.

Many among my friends and family find my love for camping to be frivolous, if not downright weird. A fine thing for scouts and church youth groups, perhaps, but an adult sensibility clearly holds that sleeping on the ground, skipping daily showers and cooking from a small propane stove is a silly way to spend precious vacation time.

It’s true, camping involves some self-denial, perhaps even a little discomfort, and a bit of planning.  Bad weather, always a spoiler for any outing, is more acutely experienced when one’s shelter is small and nylon. Yet there are benefits, both tangible and intangible, to sleeping in a tent in a remote area and carrying in most of what you need.

Or so I argued to a fishing buddy, in persuading him to camp during a trip to Michigan’s famed Au Sable River in June. I agreed to bring all the gear and food in the back of my car. We could get a campsite in the Huron National Forest, within 50 yards of the banks of the Au Sable, for $5 a week, I argued, and save money by bringing our own food. The friend agreed to a 4-day trip to Michigan’s North Country (despite some grumbled predictions about backaches, respiratory distress and other discomforts).

After bouncing over a couple of miles of Michigan “two-track,” we pitched our tent in a secluded spot within a 3-minute walk of a fishing access point. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, but after setting up camp we headed straight to the river. The Au Sable was flowing wide between its tree-lined banks, its waters moving gracefully on the journey to Lake Huron. We fished until after 10 p.m., stopping once to watch a mink make its way along the far bank. Then a barred owl inquired: Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you all?

Indeed, who would cook for us? We would, on a propane stove, by the light of our headlamps. And we would discover that I’d forgotten all the eating utensils. Surprisingly, my friend didn’t complain. We built a campfire, and used hunks of bread to sop up a pot of chili. I wondered how we would eat spaghetti without forks. As it turned out, I’d forgotten the spaghetti, too.

The weekend went on like that. Our close proximity to the river allowed us to be on the water as early as possible each day, and we could stay until the owls bid us goodnight well after dark.

On the final night, we stood in the middle of the river we had come to think of as our own, and watched as thousands of cream-colored caddis flies emerged above the flowing water. The dark shadow of a nighthawk passed over us, snatching caddis from the air.  To have all this, a short walk from your sleeping bag, was a heck of a deal for five bucks, I offered.

My friend agreed.

 You can enter the story contest here.

 Or, get involved in the effort to restore the Great Lakes. It’s quick and easy. And, it will make a difference.

Struggle for a Healthy Great Lakes

The Great Lakes have been around for 12,000 years or so, a hiccup in geological time. Still magnificent but far from pristine, the lakes have been altered dramatically in the last 150 years by settlers who scythed the forests, gouged out the minerals, exiled the indigenous peoples, drained vast wetlands, planted chemically dependent corn and beans, straightened and dredged feeder rivers, dug canals that let in invaders. Too, they and those who followed flushed their untreated and toxic effluent into a freshwater cistern mistakenly thought large enough to absorb it all.

The location of some of North America’s greatest cities — Toronto, Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland — also provides the setting for some of humanity’s great ecological blunders: the extinction of the blue pike of Lake Erie and the Atlantic salmon of Lake Ontario; the wipeout of the eastern elk and the passenger pigeon; the poisoning of birds to near-extirpation; the tainting of subsistence fish species with mercury and other chemicals; the introduction of non-native life forms that have significantly altered the food web and threaten to push some native species into oblivion. Where thousands of Huron and Eries once lived on abundant fish and game, millions of commuters now compete for space among tracts of sprawl and monoculture.

Wildness can still be touched north of Superior and every time a fall nor’easter kicks up 20-foot waves that roll across breakwaters and cast white spray into the shoreline air. Glimpses come, too, with the circling of a lone eagle, with the migratory rivers of waterfowl, with a climb up giant sand dunes, with the leap of a fighting muskellunge and with a hike through evergreen forests to splendid, hiding waterfalls.

Despite the fact that much of today’s Great Lakes shoreline and surrounds would be unrecognizable to yesterday’s Native Americans residents and European explorers, the great watershed clings to its past both despite human exploitation and because of human intervention. The fishing remains superior in Erie and the landscape eerily primal near Superior. Each of the lakes has its unique charm and special niches. Some of the hemisphere’s finest birding, camping, boating, hiking, hunting and fishing remain mostly because a portion of the public has refused to let the region’s signature natural resource go to waste. The struggle is far from over, however, and surrender would have devastating consequences for those who depend on the Great Lakes as a refuge from the world we have built for ourselves.