Anyone who visits Traverse City can easily see how important freshwater is to this region. The iconic Grand Traverse Bay, numerous inland lakes and the Boardman River winding through downtown make freshwater an essential part of Traverse City’s landscape and culture. Our unique freshwater resources provide remarkable recreational opportunities that bring thousands of visitors to… Read more »
After more than 30 years of working on environmental policy, I moved to within a few hundred feet of one of the Great Lakes. Given the opportunity to stroll along the shore as often as I wanted, I suddenly realized I didn’t know what I could legally do when the water’s edge traversed private property. … Read more »
Editor’s note: Tom Bailey has served as executive director of the Little Traverse Conservancy for more than 30 years. He retires next month. Michigan State University Press has published a collection of Tom’s essays, entitled North Country Almanac. Tom will be signing and discussing his book Saturday at Horizon Books in Traverse City from 4 to 6 pm…. Read more »
ArchiveGrandparents for Grandchildren and the Great Lakes: The Future is NowJune 4, 2024By Jim Olson “With my Grandma I like to walk along the beach and find Petoskey stones. With my Grandpa I like to go in Lake Michigan and body surf the waves,” my 11-year-old granddaughter Ava Bachmann reflected in late August when she… Read more »
ArchiveDon’t Do It in the RiverJune 4, 2024Photo: A lack of septic regulations can lead to waste in our treasured waters. You wouldn’t “do it in the river,” would you? Michigan prides itself on being an environmental leader, particularly in curbing water pollution. But in one area of water policy, Michigan is dead last among… Read more »
Roughly 500 million straws are used and disposed of in the United States every day.[1] Even though you might want to think that the majority of those straws end up in recycling facilities, the reality is that they do not. These tiny unnecessary tubes end up in landfills, city streets, beaches, oceans, and even the… Read more »
It’s not often that more than 200 people collaborate to create a work of art – but the experience of Northport suggests that more communities should try. Last September, the Village of Northport dedicated a 32” high, 109’ long Marina Mural, Bay Presents (as in “gifts”), which is quickly becoming a local icon. Michigan officials… Read more »
Flint is still dealing with the lead poisoning of residents’ drinking water. Residents of Detroit are once again experiencing water shutoffs. Ontario has the highest number of Drinking Water Advisories in First Nations out of all the provinces in Canada. All the while Nestlé is allowed to pump millions of litres of water from Ontario… Read more »
With neither review nor transparency, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on June 1, 2018, granted permits to Michigan Potash Operating for three deep-injection wells to dispose of brine waste in the heart of a wetland complex about five miles southwest of the city of Evart, in southern Osceola County. The latest approval comes after the MDEQ last… Read more »
Over Memorial Day Weekend, the Great Lakes get their first official burst of summer. Stores and restaurants of coastal towns extend their hours and see the first long lines of the season. The beaches and bays fill with laughter and people and boats. Not much compares to summertime on the Great Lakes. I headed up… Read more »
