Your Lake & You

Challenge Hopes to Stop US Army Corps Practice of “Open Lake Dumping”

Poor Lake Erie, as if it didn’t have enough challenges to deal with – sewage overflows, invasive species and habitat destruction. Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has gotten the green light to dump massive amounts of sediment – as much as 800,000 cubic yards – directly into the Western Basin of the Lake. This practice – so-called “open lake dumping” – harms fish, destroys habitat and encourages slick, stinky algae. The practice undermines efforts to restore the Great Lakes ecology and economy. That’s why leading conservation groups recently challenged the U.S. Army Corps in court.

“Open-lake dumping harms Read More » »

Great Lakes Aquarium a Source of Restoration Education

There is a very clever exhibit at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, Minn. that every lawmaker in Washington should see. One hundred silver metal buckets displayed in the shape of a pyramid represent all the water in the world. Three of those buckets are painted blue – just three – and they represent all the fresh water in the world (including ground water and water still trapped in ice). This visual drives home the essence of our argument for Great Lakes restoration. It conveys the need for us to be more than stewards of this resource Read More » »

Congress Says No To “Bad Polluter” Sludge

Just because British Petroleum’s moniker is green and they spent millions in ads trying to convince themselves and others that they are environmentally conscious doesn’t make it so. Perhaps they think BP stands for Bullet Proof – well, then, they are in for a shocker if the US Congress passes a resolution today, that condemns the energy profiteer and Indiana’s decision to let the company dump more ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan. 

“BP is a company spending millions to brand itself as a friend of the environment, but we know what BP stands for: Bad Polluter,” Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)said Read More » »

A First Salmon, A Spectacular Sunrise, and A Tradition Continues

This story comes to use from Rob in Maple Grove, Minn. He writes:

Our family was in Algoma, Wisconsin in August of 2005 visiting my wife’s parents. While we were there we like to fish for salmon on Lake Michigan. We have two young boys and they had never been fishing on the big lake before. We had asked them if they wanted to go fishing and our oldest son, Evan, said he would like to go. He was five years old at the time so we didn’t want to take him Read More » »

Rare bald eagle born in Southeast Wisconsin

At least one baby eagle was born near the shore of Lake Michigan in Southeast Wisconsin. The Department of Natural Resources confirmed the first baby bald eagle born in the region in over a century.

This encouraging story is an important reminder that not all wild animals that depend on the Great Lakes live underwater—animals that live in the watershed are part of an ecosystem that includes birds, bugs, deer, foxes, fish, and other wildlife that define the heritage of the Great Lakes.

Without quick action in Congress to start funding Great Read More » »

Photos of Ontario

Lake Ontario is the most polluted Great Lake, suffering from industrial pollution and waste disposal that comes from having one of the most populous watersheds along the Great Lakes. You wouldn’t know it, though, by looking at some of the gorgeous photos on Gary Wood’s Flickr stream. You can see how his fellow Canadians are working with New York legislators to restore the wildlife and beauty of the Lake here.

The photos illustrate an important point: While the Great Lakes appear majestic, beautiful, vast and impervious to harm–in fact they are very vulnerable.

Read a report that details the Read More » »

Erie: A Popular and Endangered Jewel

Erie is one of the most bountiful of the Great Lakes—it provides more fish for human consumption that any Great Lake, and 11 million people rely on it for drinking water.

Unfortunately, Erie is also one of the most polluted Great Lakes, filled almost beyond repair with sewage and agricultural runoff. One of the Lake’s major tributaries, the Cuyahoga River, infamously caught fire in 1969, the publicity around which led to the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of federal and state Environmental Protection Agencies.

Scientists have warned that the problems facing fragile Lake Erie and the Read More » »

Huron: The Great Lakes’ Best Kept Secret

The watershed of Lake Huron isn’t as densely populated as Michigan’s, Erie’s, or Ontario’s, but it is among the largest in the system—larger even than the Lake itself—and contains some of the most beautiful scenery in the region. Its northern section, Georgian Bay, is cut off from the rest of the lake by Manatoulin Island, the largest lake island in the world. The sandy beaches of its main body and the rocky shores of Georgian Bay are some of the Great Lakes’ gorgeous hidden treasures.

Huron’s wide-reaching basin contains very active agricultural economies. The many rivers and streams that flow into Read More » »

Michigan: America’s Diverse Lake Shore

Lake Michigan, the only Great Lake entirely in the United States, boasts a wide range of geographies and populations. The diverse scenery found along its waters include the Chicago skyline, the forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the Dunes of Indiana.

Along with the natural and metropolitan attractions on Lake Michigan come serious threats to the health of its waters and wildlife. Industrial waste has been dumped into the Lake and the rivers that feed it for years. Growing urban development and populations lead to increased sewage run off, and invasive species from ballast water and river tributaries threaten the Lake’s Read More » »

Ontario: The Lakes’ Link to the Atlantic

Although Lake Ontario is the smallest in size of the Great Lakes, it plays an important role—its watershed is the Great Lakes system’s only connection to the Atlantic Ocean.

The watershed includes some of the most impressive and important bodies of water in all of North America. Niagara Falls, the Finger Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway and other key Ontario arteries are not only popular and beautiful tourist destinations, but they are also critical to the health of the Great Lakes watershed.

But many of these arteries are clogged with over 50 years’ worth of toxins and contaminants, and they are contributing Read More » »