Blog posts by FLOW team and guest writers
Ask any ship captain or sailor along the shores of the Great Lakes, and they will tell you how important it is to follow the rules of navigation, including honoring those lighthouse beacons and green and red channel buoys. In short, boat captains must exercise utmost caution at all times. The same is true for… Read more »
A recent article on the New York Times Opinion Editorial Page features the public trust doctrine as basis for citizens, including the children atmospheric trust cases, to bring court actions to order governments to take affirmative action to drastically reduce greenhouse gases and minimize climate change. All water, air, and wildlife are legally viewed as public commons. Water and… Read more »
The Great Lakes are not and cannot be a “gold mine” for any private person or corporation. They are owned by the State in public trust for each citizen. The Supreme Courts of Michigan, the U.S. and other states have ruled for more than 120 years that public trust bottomlands and waters cannot be transferred… Read more »
Observations by some that the State of Michigan has no regulatory authority over hazardous liquid pipelines is correct to the extent that it is understood in the context of safety regulations — standards, inspection and enforcement; safety code enforcement is covered by the federal PHMSA law, regulation and agency. However, it is not true that… Read more »
FLOW founder and president Jim Olson made the case against Enbridge recently for the need to eliminate crude oil in Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. Read the full debate in Riparian Magazine here.
The launch of FLOW’s new website comes at the same time FLOW’s work (beginning back in 2009 when Terry Swier, President of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, my brother Eric Olson, Ted Curran, and a few others, saw the need to educate leaders and the public on the overarching principle known as the public trust… Read more »
By Jim Olson This has been a long time coming, inevitable really: Since the California Supreme Court’s decision in the National Audubon “Mono Lake” case back in the 1980s, courts have recognized the hydrologic connection between navigable and non-navigable but tributary streams and the groundwater that replenishes them. Indeed, it would be archaic to recognize… Read more »
By Jim Olson President, FLOW For Love of Water, Traverse City Attorney, Olson, Bzdok & Howard, P.C., Traverse City When I look back over the past year, I can’t help but feel hope in the common goodness of people and communities. I say this not without heart felt… Read more »
By Jim Olson, President FLOW (For Love of Water) We can be thankful that nations of the world have opened the door to the foyer to address climate change. Most encouraging is the senses of cooperation to protect this home we call earth. The other end of the promise and hope of the Paris… Read more »
Court Confirms Indiana’s 45-Mile Shoreline on Lake Michigan Owned and Held by State for Public Recreation Under Public Trust Doctrine By Jim Olson[1] Another state court confirms that the 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline are owned by states in public trust for citizens to enjoy for walking, swimming, sunbathing and similar beach and… Read more »
