Habitat Destruction

The Day after Tomorrow: The Great Lakes in Crisis

Close your eyes and think of the worst disaster movie you’ve ever seen, OK, do you have it set in your mind’s eye? The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is releasing a report that shows the expected impacts of global warming on the Great Lakes – nearly 95 percent of this nation’s fresh surface water – are much more devastating than anything you could have imagined.

Great Lakes Restoration and the Threat of Global Warming makes it clear that the Great Lakes are poised to reach an irrevocable crisis Read More » »

HOW is Naming Names

How many times have we heard our Washington politicians wax on about the Great Lakes being a “national treasure” that must be protected for future generations? Countless. That is why it is mindboggling that there are still a significant number of Great Lakes Members of Congress who have yet to co-sponsor the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Michigan’s Candice Miller has oft cited the need for sustained federal action to deal with the challenges the lakes face – challenges that in her words hamper the protection and preservation of “our precious Great Lakes” and “our magnificent Great Lakes.” Read More » »

Talking Turkey and Giving Thanks

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, take a moment this week to call your elected officials in the U.S. Congress and thank them for standing up for the Great Lakes.
 
While a lot of work remains to be done in the effort to restore the Great Lakes, we have made some significant gains this year:
 
The Daddy of them all would be the Asian carp barrier that just passed into law. We will finally have a permanent barrier to prevent the insidious invasive fish from destorying the Great Lakes ecosystem and sport fishery.
 
The U.S. House also went to bat in the effort to Read More » »

Original Intent

Using the Clean Water Act as their compass, Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) are navigating murky political waters to deliver legislation that would return the brawn and intent to the original Act signed by President Nixon in 1972.

More than one-third of America’s waterways are subject to “No Fishing and No Swimming” signs because polluters continue to evade the rules set by the Clean Water Act. After years of poisonous industrial waste invading U.S. waterways, the Clean Water Act was passed by Congress in 1972. It was Read More » »

They Asked For It

When the first public meeting in nearly two years of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration opens in Chicago today, conveners will get an earful from representatives of the Healing Our Waters Coalition. The litany of grievances is long, but it can be boiled down to an indictment of the Environmental Protection Agency’s miserable leadership.

Let’s start with the meeting – thanks for calling it, but why wait two years? Did a recent letter signed by over 30 members of Congress and directed Read More » »

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Michigan Ballast Law Declared Sound

Great Lakes States take heart, and action! There is now no excuse for not passing ballast laws to protect the region from invasive species. A federal court dismissed a lawsuit brought by shipping companies in an attempt to reverse a Michigan law requiring them to either not discharge ballast water or use approved methods to treat it before releasing it into Lake Michigan. The state is the first in the region to enact a ballast law.

“Michigan did take action because we could no longer wait,” said Robert McCann, spokesman for Michigan’s Department Read More » »

Indiana Gov Calls for Review of BP Decision

Sorry, Mitch, the BP permit issue is not going away, but then you know that don’t you? After a rather loud public outcry, including a spanking from the U.S. Congress, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has called for a review of the state environmental agency’s decision to allow British Petroleum to expand their Whiting Refinery on Lake Michigan. 

While calling for a “credible, independent evaluation of the permitting decision and outcome” might lead readers to think the Governor may reconsider the permit, it is more likely he is looking for a heavy rubber stamp to squelch protests. BP spokesman Tom Read More » »

PROPOSED TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK FOR GREAT LAKES HABITAT/SPECIES CONSERVATION

As Great Lakes Tribal peoples continue to remind us, the health of Great Lakes health is dependent on the health of these systems as well; they provide services we for pollinators and biocontrol agents. Healthy systems are the natural capital of the habitats and species is dependent on sustaining the processes and functioning of the depend on for our very existence. The Lakes, for example, provide us with drinking Great Lakes.following systems: open/nearshore waters; coastal wetlands; coastal shore; streams, water; wetlands help control floodwaters; forests reduce erosion and sedimentation;tributaries, connecting channels; inland lakes and wetlands; and uplands. Human coastal habitats Read More » »