Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
Are the Great Lakes getting better or worse? Any good scientist will tell you that’s a short question with a long answer, a simple question with a complicated answer. And after a half hour of trying to explain it to you, they will have made it only a little simpler. If you’re lucky. So why… Read more »
FLOW’s organizing principle is the public trust doctrine. What sounds like an exotic concept is quite simple. This 1500-year-old principle of common law holds that there are some resources, like water and submerged lands, that by their nature cannot be privately owned. Rather, this commons – including the Great Lakes — belongs to the public. … Read more »
Last week, the U.S. EPA acknowledged the serious algae problem sickening western Lake Erie. It withdrew its approval of the State of Ohio’s decision not to declare the western Erie basin to be impaired. Does that mean the lake will be cleaned up soon? Hardly. EPA’s determination bounces the ball back to Ohio for reconsideration. … Read more »
“It is said in the desert that possession of water in great amount can inflict a man with fatal carelessness.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune As a youngster, my favorite novel was Frank Herbert’s Dune, which takes place on a fictional desert planet. Unsurprisingly, this planet houses plenty of sand but precious little water. Climbing the sand dunes… Read more »
We have many important public trust resources in our region, but one of them gets little attention —Lake Michigan-Huron. Lake Michigan-Huron is one water body, despite its appearance to the eye and mind. People living in Empire or Alpena live on the same lake. They’re in the same watershed and tread a single uninterrupted shore. When… Read more »
Advocates of shutting down dangerous Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac presented a detailed plan for its decommissioning yesterday. The plan gives the state officials who are accountable, Attorney General Bill Schuette and Governor Rick Snyder, a detailed, realistic plan for protecting the Great Lakes from a catastrophic oil spill while assuring energy to… Read more »
At the core of its plain meaning, public trust means that future generations depend on us – trust us – to protect the water, air, and land upon which their wellbeing will depend. Public trust principles are enshrined in law. The people who serve in positions of leadership and authority are legally responsible to all… Read more »
Raised on Schoolhouse Rock!, I learned from a very young age that “knowledge is power.” While at first just a witticism I repeated in the show’s quirky inflection, the saying soon became real. This was one of the first bits of power I acquired, and I ran with it. I learned to read at a… Read more »
A big lake requires a big book. Lake Superior, the largest lake by surface area in the world, now has one. Nancy Langston’s Sustaining Lake Superior: An Extraordinary Lake in a Changing World offers a sweeping panorama of the lake’s environmental history, its present challenges and a glimpse of the future. A professor at Michigan… Read more »
In 1949, renowned conservationist and fellow Midwesterner Aldo Leopold wrote about a land ethic in a seminal piece published in his classic, A Sand County Almanac. He wrote: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin… Read more »
