What Is The Public Trust? Think of a public park near you or the better-known Boston Common, or think of the public beaches and waters of our Great Lakes. Who owns these public spaces and resources? The short answer is that you do, meaning you the public. This concept of public spaces and resources like water… Read more »
Taking a Look at Bottled Water Bottled water costs up to 2,000 times more per volume than tap water. About 64% of commercial bottled water is just tap water that’s been filtered or purified. Approximately 70% of plastic water bottles are not recycled — and still people drink from them. Getting Off the Bottle is… Read more »
Strengthening Local Control Over the Water and Public Health Impacts of Fracking FLOW is partnering with select counties and townships in Michigan to develop local zoning or police power ordinances to protect their communities and their water from the industrial land-use impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a water-intensive oil and gas extraction method. These… Read more »
Fluctuating Great Lakes water levels are nothing new. Since records have been kept, Great Lakes levels have varied by approximately 6 feet. What is new is a rapid swing from low levels as recently as 2013 to record highs today. There is good reason to believe that this dramatic increase is associated with climate change. The… Read more »
Protecting the Great Lakes through Education and Public Policy At the heart of our mission, FLOW is dedicated to educating and empowering citizens and leaders to know and use their rights under the public trust doctrine — with the government as trustee of our shared resources and citizens as beneficiaries — to solve systemic threats… Read more »
Protecting the Vital Resource Beneath Michigan’s Ground Watershed art by Glenn Wolff. 2023 Report—Making Polluters Pay: How to Fix State Law and Policy to Protect Groundwater and Michigan Taxpayers On October 24, 2023, FLOW published Making Polluters Pay: How to Fix State Law and Policy to Protect Groundwater and Michigan Taxpayers (PDF) to provide the… Read more »
THANK YOU! Year after year, we are overwhelmed by the commitment and generosity of our donors. We are deeply grateful to the individuals and families whose gifts have supported our mission to protect the Great Lakes for current and future generations to enjoy. We pledge to make a lasting difference with your investment in FLOW. (Click… Read more »
Current Board Gary Appel Tom Baird Mike Dettmer Phil Ellis Katie Horvath Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt Rick Kane Emma Lui Sarah Naperala Bob Otwell Skip Pruss Royce Ragland Keith Schneider Kate Thornhill Mike Vickery Emily Wurth Former Board Ross Biederman Lew Coulter Ted Curran Eric Olson Rich Vanderveen Current Staff Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director Dave Dempsey,… Read more »
FLOW applies tools drawn from science, art, and public trust law to protect the Great Lakes and their tributaries, and the public’s right to use these wondrous waters. We educate and empower citizens and communities to wield the power of the public trust doctrine to defend the public ownership of water against privatization schemes. We… Read more »
Prioritizing Great Lakes Protection in Key Discussions about Our Shared FutureThe Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the earth’s fresh surface water. More than 35 million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, jobs, and a way of life. Yet all too often protecting our water is not part of the equation when leaders… Read more »
