Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
Photo: Sea lamprey have a large oral disk filled with sharp, horn-shaped teeth that surround a toothed tongue. Many Great Lakes invasions of non-native species begin unnoticed—but not so with one of the most destructive invasions of all, the attack of the sea lamprey. The scourge of the Great Lakes fishery, the lamprey is believed to have appeared… Read more »
Editor’s note: The following is a press statement from Zach Welcker, Legal Director of FLOW (For Love of Water), the Great Lakes law and policy center based, in response to U.S. District Judge Janet Neff’s 13-page decision today to deny the motion to remand the case to state court in Nessel v. Enbridge, filed by Michigan… Read more »
When Michiganders want to point out where a specific location lies in the state, we often raise our hands and point at a spot somewhere on our palms. Indeed, our identity is tied up in nicknames like The Mitten State. But the legal boundaries of Michigan look nothing like a mitten or a hand. They… Read more »
Ten years to save the planet from climate change. PFAS, microplastics, and invasive species. Wetland destruction and failing, polluting septic systems. Sometimes it seems as though the only environmental news is bad news. Here’s an antidote, borne in a glass half-full. Great Lakes Piping Plover An endearing, small shorebird that nests on Great Lakes beaches,… Read more »
Is More of the Same Good Enough for the Great Lakes? Give the U.S. EPA and its Canadian counterpart points for recycling. When they released the 2022 State of the Great Lakes report last week, they offered the same characterization as in previous reports: overall, the Great Lakes are fair and unchanging. Merriam-Webster defines “fair”… Read more »
Editor’s note: This is a FLOW media release issued August 3, 2022. Members of the media can reach open water swimmer Jake Bright at jake@jakebright.com, 347-204-7576; FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood at liz@flowforwater.org, 570-872-4956; and NMLK President Daniel Oginsky at dan@northmanitoulightkeepers.org, 810-360-3768. The event’s fundraising page can be found here at GoFundMe or https://gofund.me/267456f4. TRAVERSE… Read more »
This summer, Kelli Fitzpatrick has assisted FLOW in researching and writing about the threat of water commercialization and the ethics of water stewardship. Originally from Beaverton, Michigan, she now lives in Iowa, where she attends graduate school at Iowa State University. We asked her a few questions about her background, plans, and writing interests.
Our newly constituted Supreme Court acted more like “supreme rulers” than an independent judiciary, choosing politics and their fixation on narrow legal ideology over the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases under a realistic and fair reading of federal law—the Clean Air Act, writes Jim Olson.
The Great Lakes have spawned a multitude of institutions from research to governance to the arts—but no library. Several leaders say it’s overdue. Inspired by a 2016 New York Times article about work to establish a Rocky Mountain Land Library, co-founder Deborah Burand said, “We need to do this, but make it a land and water library, a Library of the Great Lakes.”
FLOW is thrilled to welcome our ambitious and talented pair of Milliken law and policy summer interns, Irene Namae and Mary Basso. We recently interviewed Irene and Mary to get to know them, their roots, their passion for environmental advocacy, and what attracted them to FLOW.
“At FLOW, our interns jump into the fray and immediately work together with our staff to protect our precious waters,” said Executive Director Liz Kirkwood. “We are thrilled to welcome Irene and Mary to the team, and excited to benefit from their fresh energy and ideas. As our Milliken interns, they have the skills and attributes to help extend the legacy of environmental protection left by Gov. William and Helen Milliken.”
