The Round River

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

It’s almost impossible in any discussion of fresh water resources not to run up against what by now should be an obvious fact; our Earth is a closed system, so the same water that was here millions of years ago is still here now, it just keeps getting recycled through the water cycle we all [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Anti-frack Attacks www.colbertnation.com Stephen Colbert lets the air out of the defense of hydro-fracking in this hilarious bit of satire. Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Don’t you just love Comedy Central?

There are two types of commercial freighters that use the Great Lakes for moving bulk goods like iron ore, crushed limestone, and grain.  Salties, or the ships that come down the Saint Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean; and Lakers, which are properly called boats and spend their working lives entirely in the Great Lakes.  [...]

The International Joint Commission (IJC) invites public comment on progress to reduce the impacts of transboundary air pollution under the 1991 Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement. Achievements in both countries to meet Agreement goals are described in the Air Quality Agreement Progress Report 2010. From the IJC website. The IJC has been around for over [...]

I’m not one to post quotations much, but this one really spoke to me.  There have been many such times in my life when I needed to get away from all of the claptrap of my fellow man and immerse myself in pure nature in order to achieve some perspective and to heal.  The duration [...]

Today the New York General Assembly voted to halt the process of hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas trapped in shale deposits. It’s about time we had some good fracking news!  (Sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.) It was good to see that the gas lobby wasn’t caught without a response.  They promptly pointed [...]

Here are my recommendations to the GLRI folks.  You can give them your ideas at http://greatlakesrestoration.us Construct wetlands to filter run-off and address water quality issues from urban and agricultural areas.  Use remediated brownfield sites where possible. Develop and implement a comprehensive restoration plan for coaster brook trout throughout their historical range (not just Lake [...]

Mail from Senator Debbie Stabenow Dear Brian, Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about new legislation I authored to permanently separate the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes, to keep out Asian carp and other invasive species. This afternoon, as Chair of the Water and Power Subcommittee, I will be holding a hearing [...]

Here is a resource for north country landowners seeking to learn more about the whole mineral rights thing. Emmet County Cooperative Extension Oil & Gas Leasing page.

There is new legislation in Congress to push the Army Corps to engineer a permanent physical separation of the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes at Chicago, reversing over 100 years of  diversion of Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes watershed and closing the door on invasive species, like the Asian carp, [...]

I don’t have HBO, so haven’t seen all of this, but here is the trailer to the movie everybody is talking about.  It’s certainly powerful stuff.  Depressing, but powerful.  Where’s Erin Brockovitch when you need her? Anybody know if the whole thing is available on-line somewhere?

I was bushed, but decided to check my e-mail before bed last night after fishing over a great Hex hatch on a local river until well after midnight. Found this piece on Fracking over at Pro Publica.  Falling asleep wasn’t so easy after reading it.  With new deep reserves of natural gas having been discovered [...]

“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry and selfishness in our name, and who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin as if they had never lived. Remember [...]

With apologies to Barbara Mandrell *I wrote this originally in October of 2008, before we knew the outcome of the election, the extent of this recession, that Copenhagen would fizzle (shoulda seen that one coming) and that many of the suppositions made in “Hot, Flat, etc.” would be put in storage because there wasn’t any [...]

Over at the BBC, Richard Black reports that bookies are taking bets on which Gulf of Mexico species will be the first to go extinct as a result of BP’s oil well catastrophe, and how doing so may lead to greater environmental awareness in non-environmentally aware populations.  He goes on to discuss just how many [...]

Dateline:  South Branch Township, Crawford County, Michigan, May 19, 2010. The Meridian Fire has burned upwards of 7500 acres here in the Pine Barrens of north central Michigan in the last couple of days, and is still burning.  Hell, this ain’t news! The whole place is a pine forest on top of a sandbox, and [...]

To paraphrase Sir Mick, You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you just might find, You get what you measure. If you are going to change something, build something, or fix something it sure helps if at the beginning of the enterprise you have a good idea of what the [...]

I am as disgusted with the tragedy of coal and the un-sustainability and certain environmental trauma of oil as the next guy.  But I need to address the creeping, incipient danger of windmills. I cannot imagine waking up some fine June morning on Michigan’s North Manitou Island, stretching, and crawling out of the tent for [...]

Just a very short up-date and a link to an article on Marcellus Shale gas well problems over at Pro Publica. As I’ve said here before, there are numerous impacts to water resources from hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing shales.  It’s not a ‘what if,’ but just a question of when and how much impact. The [...]

While I can’t be certain (it was a while ago) I seem to remember my younger brother getting reprimanded for something or other when he was in grade school, and he stormed out of the room shouting, “I always get blamed for everything I do!!”  Well, now it’s the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) [...]

(*What the Frack?  Research indicates that you have to use some variant of this pun in any discussion of the topic.  Sorry.) There has been a lot of interest lately in the implications of increased use of hydraulic fracturing technology in gas and oil bearing shales to enable extraction of stocks of gas or oil [...]

It just dawned on me that we have a sociological divide between the rest of the Great Lakes states (and our Canadian cousins, eh?) and Illinois.  We define our existence by the lakes and our cultures are deeply steeped in their lore and legend. (Well, not so much Indiana or Pennsylvania, but they aren’t being [...]

There hasn’t been a post here in a looooong time, and I apologize for that.  I’ve been consumed with creating a new web site for my native landscape design business, Wildside Associates.  It’s still in beta, but will launch Wednesday come Hell or high water! I’d love to hear what you think of the new [...]

I am very concerned about the cumulative effects on our environment and economy from the dependence on using high levels of petroleum-based materials in the average farming operation today, though it may be getting better in this era of peak oil.  I am equally concerned about the impact that irrigation, soil erosion and agricultural run-off [...]

Rep. James Oberstar (D – MN8) did a nice job of chairing a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the Asian Carp problem the Great Lakes faces.  It was the first time I have watched a webcast of a Congressional hearing, and I have to say I liked it a lot [...]

The farming life touches a deep emotional chord in most Americans.  Most of us aren’t that far removed from the farm, particularly here in the Midwest.  The choice to be a farmer or rancher is very much a lifestyle choice, but most of us don’t understand what a difficult business farming is today. I was [...]

This morning I found an email from Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office in my in-basket announcing that she and Dave Camp (R – Michigan), have introduced legislation to take immediate action against the Asian carp threat to the Great Lakes. Here is an excerpt. I have been working to ensure that federal and state experts have [...]

Seems the Prez is not pleased with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on campaign finance. I know how he feels.  I’ve been disappointed by the High Court a couple times myself.  Once when I was trying to build a rail trail in Indiana, and most recently when they decided Asian Carp aren’t a clear and [...]

The US Army Corps of Engineers failed to inform the Solicitor General or the US Supreme Court that they had DNA evidence that the fish had entered Lake Michigan.  This was data that they had been sitting on for four days!  This makes it seem likely that they knew in time for the Supreme Court’s [...]

In  a piece titled, The attack of the killer everything, the BBC’s Richard Black makes a pretty good case for the world-wide decline in amphibians and bees being linked to the piling on of environmental stress including lack of habitat, food, and perhaps most interesting, diversity. So its not just humans who are not eating [...]

If you have ever complained about the DNR’s management of cold water fisheries here is your chance to tell them what you would like them to do in the way of changing fishing regulations for your favorite stream. From the DNR’s website here’s the introduction.  The whole document can be read as a .pdf by [...]

From the January 14, 2010 Chicago Tribune 10 Lake County suburbs look to tap Lake Michigan water As I said a while back in What Climate Change May Mean For the Great Lakes , there is no way that communities that are running out of water are not going to be eying the Great Lakes.  [...]

Just before Christmas Michigan filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Illinois to stop the advance of Asian carp into Lake Michigan and to re-open a supreme court decree from the 1920′s allowing Chicago to divert billions of gallons from Lake Michigan Daily, the only major, permitted withdrawal of water [...]

The following is a letter I received in response to a letter I sent to Senator Carl Levin (D – MI) some time back.  In fact, I wrote before eDNA evidence from the Asian carp was found above the electric barrier. Thank you for contacting me regarding the electric dispersal barriers in the Chicago Sanitary [...]

(*NOTE – I moved this over from the old blog to provide some background for the next entry.) 2009 October 21 by JP Savage The AP reports that the Federal Government is putting up a whole $6 million to keep Asian Carp from destroying the great lakes. Wow. Considering the catastrophic damage this fish could [...]

The dirtiest remaining industrial polluter in the Midwest floats.  It is the fleet of 133 giant lake freighters (Lakers) that hauls bulk material like salt, iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain up and down the Great Lakes to ports in both the USA and Canada, passing close to the greatest concentrations of people in the [...]

Sean Hannity notwithstanding, we have a real problem coming down the pike if we don’t get a handle on CO2 emissions.  I won’t even pretend to legitimize the climate change deniers by arguing about this.  The vast majority of the scientific community agrees on this, you can read to your heart’s content at the International [...]

The dirtiest remaining industrial polluter in the Midwest floats.  It is the fleet of 133 giant lake freighters (Lakers) that hauls bulk material like salt, iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain up and down the Great Lakes to ports in both the USA and Canada, passing close to the greatest concentrations of people in the [...]

In  a piece titled, The attack of the killer everything, the BBC’s Richard Black makes a pretty good case for the world-wide decline in amphibians and bees being linked to the piling on of environmental stress including lack of habitat, food, and perhaps most interesting, diversity. So its not just humans who are not eating [...]

Rep. James Oberstar (D – MN8) did a nice job of chairing a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the Asian Carp problem the Great Lakes faces.  It was the first time I have watched a webcast of a Congressional hearing, and I have to say I liked it a lot [...]

(*What the Frack?  Research indicates that you have to use some variant of this pun in any discussion of the topic.  Sorry.) There has been a lot of interest lately in the implications of increased use of hydraulic fracturing technology in gas and oil bearing shales to enable extraction of stocks of gas or oil [...]

While I can’t be certain (it was a while ago) I seem to remember my younger brother getting reprimanded for something or other when he was in grade school, and he stormed out of the room shouting, “I always get blamed for everything I do!!”  Well, now it’s the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) [...]

Just a very short up-date and a link to an article on Marcellus Shale gas well problems over at Pro Publica. As I’ve said here before, there are numerous impacts to water resources from hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing shales.  It’s not a ‘what if,’ but just a question of when and how much impact. The [...]

Over at the BBC, Richard Black reports that bookies are taking bets on which Gulf of Mexico species will be the first to go extinct as a result of BP’s oil well catastrophe, and how doing so may lead to greater environmental awareness in non-environmentally aware populations.  He goes on to discuss just how many [...]

With apologies to Barbara Mandrell *I wrote this originally in October of 2008, before we knew the outcome of the election, the extent of this recession, that Copenhagen would fizzle (shoulda seen that one coming) and that many of the suppositions made in “Hot, Flat, etc.” would be put in storage because there wasn’t any [...]

I was bushed, but decided to check my e-mail before bed last night after fishing over a great Hex hatch on a local river until well after midnight. Found this piece on Fracking over at Pro Publica.  Falling asleep wasn’t so easy after reading it.  With new deep reserves of natural gas having been discovered [...]

I don’t have HBO, so haven’t seen all of this, but here is the trailer to the movie everybody is talking about.  It’s certainly powerful stuff.  Depressing, but powerful.  Where’s Erin Brockovitch when you need her? Anybody know if the whole thing is available on-line somewhere?

There is new legislation in Congress to push the Army Corps to engineer a permanent physical separation of the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes at Chicago, reversing over 100 years of  diversion of Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes watershed and closing the door on invasive species, like the Asian carp, [...]

Here are my recommendations to the GLRI folks.  You can give them your ideas at http://greatlakesrestoration.us Construct wetlands to filter run-off and address water quality issues from urban and agricultural areas.  Use remediated brownfield sites where possible. Develop and implement a comprehensive restoration plan for coaster brook trout throughout their historical range (not just Lake [...]

Today the New York General Assembly voted to halt the process of hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas trapped in shale deposits. It’s about time we had some good fracking news!  (Sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.) It was good to see that the gas lobby wasn’t caught without a response.  They promptly pointed [...]

There are two types of commercial freighters that use the Great Lakes for moving bulk goods like iron ore, crushed limestone, and grain.  Salties, or the ships that come down the Saint Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean; and Lakers, which are properly called boats and spend their working lives entirely in the Great Lakes.  [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

It’s almost impossible in any discussion of fresh water resources not to run up against what by now should be an obvious fact; our Earth is a closed system, so the same water that was here millions of years ago is still here now, it just keeps getting recycled through the water cycle we all [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

In  a piece titled, The attack of the killer everything, the BBC’s Richard Black makes a pretty good case for the world-wide decline in amphibians and bees being linked to the piling on of environmental stress including lack of habitat, food, and perhaps most interesting, diversity. So its not just humans who are not eating [...]

The farming life touches a deep emotional chord in most Americans.  Most of us aren’t that far removed from the farm, particularly here in the Midwest.  The choice to be a farmer or rancher is very much a lifestyle choice, but most of us don’t understand what a difficult business farming is today. I was [...]

I am very concerned about the cumulative effects on our environment and economy from the dependence on using high levels of petroleum-based materials in the average farming operation today, though it may be getting better in this era of peak oil.  I am equally concerned about the impact that irrigation, soil erosion and agricultural run-off [...]

I am as disgusted with the tragedy of coal and the un-sustainability and certain environmental trauma of oil as the next guy.  But I need to address the creeping, incipient danger of windmills. I cannot imagine waking up some fine June morning on Michigan’s North Manitou Island, stretching, and crawling out of the tent for [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

Sean Hannity notwithstanding, we have a real problem coming down the pike if we don’t get a handle on CO2 emissions.  I won’t even pretend to legitimize the climate change deniers by arguing about this.  The vast majority of the scientific community agrees on this, you can read to your heart’s content at the International [...]

The dirtiest remaining industrial polluter in the Midwest floats.  It is the fleet of 133 giant lake freighters (Lakers) that hauls bulk material like salt, iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain up and down the Great Lakes to ports in both the USA and Canada, passing close to the greatest concentrations of people in the [...]

(*NOTE – I moved this over from the old blog to provide some background for the next entry.) 2009 October 21 by JP Savage The AP reports that the Federal Government is putting up a whole $6 million to keep Asian Carp from destroying the great lakes. Wow. Considering the catastrophic damage this fish could [...]

The following is a letter I received in response to a letter I sent to Senator Carl Levin (D – MI) some time back.  In fact, I wrote before eDNA evidence from the Asian carp was found above the electric barrier. Thank you for contacting me regarding the electric dispersal barriers in the Chicago Sanitary [...]

Just before Christmas Michigan filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Illinois to stop the advance of Asian carp into Lake Michigan and to re-open a supreme court decree from the 1920′s allowing Chicago to divert billions of gallons from Lake Michigan Daily, the only major, permitted withdrawal of water [...]

From the January 14, 2010 Chicago Tribune 10 Lake County suburbs look to tap Lake Michigan water As I said a while back in What Climate Change May Mean For the Great Lakes , there is no way that communities that are running out of water are not going to be eying the Great Lakes.  [...]

In  a piece titled, The attack of the killer everything, the BBC’s Richard Black makes a pretty good case for the world-wide decline in amphibians and bees being linked to the piling on of environmental stress including lack of habitat, food, and perhaps most interesting, diversity. So its not just humans who are not eating [...]

The US Army Corps of Engineers failed to inform the Solicitor General or the US Supreme Court that they had DNA evidence that the fish had entered Lake Michigan.  This was data that they had been sitting on for four days!  This makes it seem likely that they knew in time for the Supreme Court’s [...]

Seems the Prez is not pleased with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on campaign finance. I know how he feels.  I’ve been disappointed by the High Court a couple times myself.  Once when I was trying to build a rail trail in Indiana, and most recently when they decided Asian Carp aren’t a clear and [...]

This morning I found an email from Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office in my in-basket announcing that she and Dave Camp (R – Michigan), have introduced legislation to take immediate action against the Asian carp threat to the Great Lakes. Here is an excerpt. I have been working to ensure that federal and state experts have [...]

The farming life touches a deep emotional chord in most Americans.  Most of us aren’t that far removed from the farm, particularly here in the Midwest.  The choice to be a farmer or rancher is very much a lifestyle choice, but most of us don’t understand what a difficult business farming is today. I was [...]

Rep. James Oberstar (D – MN8) did a nice job of chairing a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the Asian Carp problem the Great Lakes faces.  It was the first time I have watched a webcast of a Congressional hearing, and I have to say I liked it a lot [...]

I am very concerned about the cumulative effects on our environment and economy from the dependence on using high levels of petroleum-based materials in the average farming operation today, though it may be getting better in this era of peak oil.  I am equally concerned about the impact that irrigation, soil erosion and agricultural run-off [...]

It just dawned on me that we have a sociological divide between the rest of the Great Lakes states (and our Canadian cousins, eh?) and Illinois.  We define our existence by the lakes and our cultures are deeply steeped in their lore and legend. (Well, not so much Indiana or Pennsylvania, but they aren’t being [...]

(*What the Frack?  Research indicates that you have to use some variant of this pun in any discussion of the topic.  Sorry.) There has been a lot of interest lately in the implications of increased use of hydraulic fracturing technology in gas and oil bearing shales to enable extraction of stocks of gas or oil [...]

While I can’t be certain (it was a while ago) I seem to remember my younger brother getting reprimanded for something or other when he was in grade school, and he stormed out of the room shouting, “I always get blamed for everything I do!!”  Well, now it’s the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) [...]

Just a very short up-date and a link to an article on Marcellus Shale gas well problems over at Pro Publica. As I’ve said here before, there are numerous impacts to water resources from hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing shales.  It’s not a ‘what if,’ but just a question of when and how much impact. The [...]

I am as disgusted with the tragedy of coal and the un-sustainability and certain environmental trauma of oil as the next guy.  But I need to address the creeping, incipient danger of windmills. I cannot imagine waking up some fine June morning on Michigan’s North Manitou Island, stretching, and crawling out of the tent for [...]

To paraphrase Sir Mick, You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you just might find, You get what you measure. If you are going to change something, build something, or fix something it sure helps if at the beginning of the enterprise you have a good idea of what the [...]

Dateline:  South Branch Township, Crawford County, Michigan, May 19, 2010. The Meridian Fire has burned upwards of 7500 acres here in the Pine Barrens of north central Michigan in the last couple of days, and is still burning.  Hell, this ain’t news! The whole place is a pine forest on top of a sandbox, and [...]

Over at the BBC, Richard Black reports that bookies are taking bets on which Gulf of Mexico species will be the first to go extinct as a result of BP’s oil well catastrophe, and how doing so may lead to greater environmental awareness in non-environmentally aware populations.  He goes on to discuss just how many [...]

With apologies to Barbara Mandrell *I wrote this originally in October of 2008, before we knew the outcome of the election, the extent of this recession, that Copenhagen would fizzle (shoulda seen that one coming) and that many of the suppositions made in “Hot, Flat, etc.” would be put in storage because there wasn’t any [...]

I was bushed, but decided to check my e-mail before bed last night after fishing over a great Hex hatch on a local river until well after midnight. Found this piece on Fracking over at Pro Publica.  Falling asleep wasn’t so easy after reading it.  With new deep reserves of natural gas having been discovered [...]

I don’t have HBO, so haven’t seen all of this, but here is the trailer to the movie everybody is talking about.  It’s certainly powerful stuff.  Depressing, but powerful.  Where’s Erin Brockovitch when you need her? Anybody know if the whole thing is available on-line somewhere?

There is new legislation in Congress to push the Army Corps to engineer a permanent physical separation of the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes at Chicago, reversing over 100 years of  diversion of Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes watershed and closing the door on invasive species, like the Asian carp, [...]

Here is a resource for north country landowners seeking to learn more about the whole mineral rights thing. Emmet County Cooperative Extension Oil & Gas Leasing page.

Mail from Senator Debbie Stabenow Dear Brian, Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about new legislation I authored to permanently separate the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes, to keep out Asian carp and other invasive species. This afternoon, as Chair of the Water and Power Subcommittee, I will be holding a hearing [...]

Here are my recommendations to the GLRI folks.  You can give them your ideas at http://greatlakesrestoration.us Construct wetlands to filter run-off and address water quality issues from urban and agricultural areas.  Use remediated brownfield sites where possible. Develop and implement a comprehensive restoration plan for coaster brook trout throughout their historical range (not just Lake [...]

Today the New York General Assembly voted to halt the process of hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas trapped in shale deposits. It’s about time we had some good fracking news!  (Sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.) It was good to see that the gas lobby wasn’t caught without a response.  They promptly pointed [...]

I’m not one to post quotations much, but this one really spoke to me.  There have been many such times in my life when I needed to get away from all of the claptrap of my fellow man and immerse myself in pure nature in order to achieve some perspective and to heal.  The duration [...]

There are two types of commercial freighters that use the Great Lakes for moving bulk goods like iron ore, crushed limestone, and grain.  Salties, or the ships that come down the Saint Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean; and Lakers, which are properly called boats and spend their working lives entirely in the Great Lakes.  [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

It’s almost impossible in any discussion of fresh water resources not to run up against what by now should be an obvious fact; our Earth is a closed system, so the same water that was here millions of years ago is still here now, it just keeps getting recycled through the water cycle we all [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

It’s almost impossible in any discussion of fresh water resources not to run up against what by now should be an obvious fact; our Earth is a closed system, so the same water that was here millions of years ago is still here now, it just keeps getting recycled through the water cycle we all [...]

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

If you have ever complained about the DNR’s management of cold water fisheries here is your chance to tell them what you would like them to do in the way of changing fishing regulations for your favorite stream. From the DNR’s website here’s the introduction.  The whole document can be read as a .pdf by [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

Global warming will have serious effects on the Great Lakes.  We rely on abundant water and cooler summer temperatures to keep the regional ecology stable and healthy, and for our giant tourism industry. With only a half inch of rain recorded for all of July; a departure of 2.7-inches below normal precipitation amounts, Gaylord experienced [...]

To paraphrase Sir Mick, You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you just might find, You get what you measure. If you are going to change something, build something, or fix something it sure helps if at the beginning of the enterprise you have a good idea of what the [...]

Here are my recommendations to the GLRI folks.  You can give them your ideas at http://greatlakesrestoration.us Construct wetlands to filter run-off and address water quality issues from urban and agricultural areas.  Use remediated brownfield sites where possible. Develop and implement a comprehensive restoration plan for coaster brook trout throughout their historical range (not just Lake [...]

There are two types of commercial freighters that use the Great Lakes for moving bulk goods like iron ore, crushed limestone, and grain.  Salties, or the ships that come down the Saint Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean; and Lakers, which are properly called boats and spend their working lives entirely in the Great Lakes.  [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

The following is a letter I received in response to a letter I sent to Senator Carl Levin (D – MI) some time back.  In fact, I wrote before eDNA evidence from the Asian carp was found above the electric barrier. Thank you for contacting me regarding the electric dispersal barriers in the Chicago Sanitary [...]

Just before Christmas Michigan filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Illinois to stop the advance of Asian carp into Lake Michigan and to re-open a supreme court decree from the 1920′s allowing Chicago to divert billions of gallons from Lake Michigan Daily, the only major, permitted withdrawal of water [...]

The US Army Corps of Engineers failed to inform the Solicitor General or the US Supreme Court that they had DNA evidence that the fish had entered Lake Michigan.  This was data that they had been sitting on for four days!  This makes it seem likely that they knew in time for the Supreme Court’s [...]

Seems the Prez is not pleased with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on campaign finance. I know how he feels.  I’ve been disappointed by the High Court a couple times myself.  Once when I was trying to build a rail trail in Indiana, and most recently when they decided Asian Carp aren’t a clear and [...]

This morning I found an email from Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office in my in-basket announcing that she and Dave Camp (R – Michigan), have introduced legislation to take immediate action against the Asian carp threat to the Great Lakes. Here is an excerpt. I have been working to ensure that federal and state experts have [...]

Rep. James Oberstar (D – MN8) did a nice job of chairing a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the Asian Carp problem the Great Lakes faces.  It was the first time I have watched a webcast of a Congressional hearing, and I have to say I liked it a lot [...]

It just dawned on me that we have a sociological divide between the rest of the Great Lakes states (and our Canadian cousins, eh?) and Illinois.  We define our existence by the lakes and our cultures are deeply steeped in their lore and legend. (Well, not so much Indiana or Pennsylvania, but they aren’t being [...]

There is new legislation in Congress to push the Army Corps to engineer a permanent physical separation of the Mississippi River drainage and the Great Lakes at Chicago, reversing over 100 years of  diversion of Lake Michigan water out of the Great Lakes watershed and closing the door on invasive species, like the Asian carp, [...]

Mail from Senator Debbie Stabenow Dear Brian, Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about new legislation I authored to permanently separate the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes, to keep out Asian carp and other invasive species. This afternoon, as Chair of the Water and Power Subcommittee, I will be holding a hearing [...]

Here are my recommendations to the GLRI folks.  You can give them your ideas at http://greatlakesrestoration.us Construct wetlands to filter run-off and address water quality issues from urban and agricultural areas.  Use remediated brownfield sites where possible. Develop and implement a comprehensive restoration plan for coaster brook trout throughout their historical range (not just Lake [...]

There are two types of commercial freighters that use the Great Lakes for moving bulk goods like iron ore, crushed limestone, and grain.  Salties, or the ships that come down the Saint Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean; and Lakers, which are properly called boats and spend their working lives entirely in the Great Lakes.  [...]

National Lampoon’s “Vacation” series from Warner Brothers Pictures is vintage comedy that only National Lampoon could create.*   Perhaps the best (certainly the most memorable) caricature in the Vacation saga is   Cousin Eddie Johnson (played by Randy Quaid), a big, loveable, rough, simple, uncultured, unlucky bastard who bungles his way through life blissfully unaware that he [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

With apologies to Barbara Mandrell *I wrote this originally in October of 2008, before we knew the outcome of the election, the extent of this recession, that Copenhagen would fizzle (shoulda seen that one coming) and that many of the suppositions made in “Hot, Flat, etc.” would be put in storage because there wasn’t any [...]

I’m not one to post quotations much, but this one really spoke to me.  There have been many such times in my life when I needed to get away from all of the claptrap of my fellow man and immerse myself in pure nature in order to achieve some perspective and to heal.  The duration [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

If you have ever complained about the DNR’s management of cold water fisheries here is your chance to tell them what you would like them to do in the way of changing fishing regulations for your favorite stream. From the DNR’s website here’s the introduction.  The whole document can be read as a .pdf by [...]

Dateline:  South Branch Township, Crawford County, Michigan, May 19, 2010. The Meridian Fire has burned upwards of 7500 acres here in the Pine Barrens of north central Michigan in the last couple of days, and is still burning.  Hell, this ain’t news! The whole place is a pine forest on top of a sandbox, and [...]

With apologies to Barbara Mandrell *I wrote this originally in October of 2008, before we knew the outcome of the election, the extent of this recession, that Copenhagen would fizzle (shoulda seen that one coming) and that many of the suppositions made in “Hot, Flat, etc.” would be put in storage because there wasn’t any [...]

I’m not one to post quotations much, but this one really spoke to me.  There have been many such times in my life when I needed to get away from all of the claptrap of my fellow man and immerse myself in pure nature in order to achieve some perspective and to heal.  The duration [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

Everyone who has spent time on and around the Great Lakes knows that they each have very  different personalities, and I believe that they each have that quality I call Spirit of Place.  You probably know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a favorite or secret spot where you return again and [...]

The farming life touches a deep emotional chord in most Americans.  Most of us aren’t that far removed from the farm, particularly here in the Midwest.  The choice to be a farmer or rancher is very much a lifestyle choice, but most of us don’t understand what a difficult business farming is today. I was [...]

I am very concerned about the cumulative effects on our environment and economy from the dependence on using high levels of petroleum-based materials in the average farming operation today, though it may be getting better in this era of peak oil.  I am equally concerned about the impact that irrigation, soil erosion and agricultural run-off [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

There hasn’t been a post here in a looooong time, and I apologize for that.  I’ve been consumed with creating a new web site for my native landscape design business, Wildside Associates.  It’s still in beta, but will launch Wednesday come Hell or high water! I’d love to hear what you think of the new [...]

“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry and selfishness in our name, and who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin as if they had never lived. Remember [...]

The International Joint Commission (IJC) invites public comment on progress to reduce the impacts of transboundary air pollution under the 1991 Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement. Achievements in both countries to meet Agreement goals are described in the Air Quality Agreement Progress Report 2010. From the IJC website. The IJC has been around for over [...]

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Anti-frack Attacks www.colbertnation.com Stephen Colbert lets the air out of the defense of hydro-fracking in this hilarious bit of satire. Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Don’t you just love Comedy Central?

It’s almost impossible in any discussion of fresh water resources not to run up against what by now should be an obvious fact; our Earth is a closed system, so the same water that was here millions of years ago is still here now, it just keeps getting recycled through the water cycle we all [...]

  The good folks at Save the Wild UP are among the hardest working environmental organizers around, and are fighting to stop a giant sulfide mine right on top of the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s UP, a tributary to Lake Superior.  If you have the time, join them for their Protect [...]

I am as disgusted with the tragedy of coal and the un-sustainability and certain environmental trauma of oil as the next guy.  But I need to address the creeping, incipient danger of windmills. I cannot imagine waking up some fine June morning on Michigan’s North Manitou Island, stretching, and crawling out of the tent for [...]