Tag: FLOW

Well May the World Go: Mills Community House, Benzonia

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - News

By Gretchen Eichberger of the Northwest Michigan Folklife Center

Editor’s Note: Gretchen, along with Tim Joseph of the Spirit of the Woods Music Association, organized the 3-part concert series “Well May the World Go” to honor the legacy of folk music icon and social activist Pete Seeger (1919-2014). Gretchen and Tim graciously offered to donate the proceeds of these events to FLOW, and we are honored to be a part of the great community that has come together to celebrate Seeger’s legacy. Read Gretchen’s blog on her site here. All photos credit Gretchen Eichberger.

Throughout the nation and around the world, people are gathering to celebrate the life and legacy of Pete Seeger. A revered folk musician and activist, Mr. Seeger championed for many environmental causes and social justice. He believed in the power of song and the power of community. Here in northwest lower Michigan, we are rallying together to keep Pete’s spirit and cause alive, as there is so much to work for in THIS PLACE. The spirit of community filled the century old Mills Community House with the songs, stories and poetry honoring legendary folk music musician and activist, Pete Seeger. Approximately 120 people filled in the late afternoon. As the concert ended, the light of the setting sun poured in through the windows.

Singing out at the Mills

This series of concerts could not come at a more timely fashion. Along with celebrating the life of this American icon, the concert series is taking donations at the door, with proceeds benefiting FLOW for Water. Flow’s mission is to advance Great Lakes policies that protect our common waters. Flow educates decision makers and communities about the public trust doctrine and the commons as a ways to protect the priceless Great Lakes. We were fortunate to have both Liz Kirkwood and Jim Olson, of FLOW to share the organization’s important work. Jim spoke of the work of late Joseph Sax, a University of Colorado law professor.

Sax asked: “How come there’s no public dimension to natural resource law, and the public who uses these areas and actually owns most of them doesn’t have a say in what goes on? His answer, in 1970, was “The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention,” in the Michigan Law Review — a piece that went on to become one of the most influential law review articles ever. To read a about Joseph Sax’s quest, click here.

The final concet of this series (although we hope there will be more) is slated for 3:00 pm, Sunday, April 13 at the INSIDE OUT GALLERY in the Warehouse District, Downtown Traverse City. We welcome all singers, poets, and storytellers to sign up to lead and inspire and build community. Please visit this page to be part of this project.

FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood and FLOW Founder and President Jim Olson speak to the group about the public trust doctrine and the commons as a way to protect our great lakes

http://fox17online.com/2014/03/25/bp-confirms-oil-spill-into-lake-michigan-from-whiting-refinery/#zdeo6c59ezxkXu8E.01

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/25/294454330/bp-says-oil-spill-in-lake-michigan-has-been-contained

Luan shares her encounters with Pete Seeger

A captivated audience for John

A heart-felt thank you to all the musicians, storytellers, poets who shared their voices with us. Tim Joseph, Marlene Woods, Victor MacManemy, Luan Lechler, Renee Herman, Carol Voights, Ingemar and Lisa Johansson, Sue and Gary Wood, Marley Jablonski-Demers, John Storms-Rohm, Fred Kraimer, Patrick Niemsto, Tim Burke, Barbara Stowe, and Michael Hughes.

A trio of powerful women before the show

Carol on accordion and John on mandolin

Jacob Wheeler of the Betsie Current inquiries with Jim Olson, Founder of FLOW

Well May the World Go PART III

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - News

traverse city pete seeger community concert well may the world go

By Gretchen Eichberger of the Northwest Michigan Folklife Center

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AROUND…… BY SONJA…

The INSIDE OUT GALLERY was the site for the final concert of the WELL MAY THE WORLD GO concert series. We sincerely hope there are more, as all around the nation and world, people continue to gather and pay tribute to Pete Seeger. Sponsored by Spirit of the Woods Music Association, Northwest Michigan Folklife Center, and Institute for Sustainable Living Art and Natural Design, these concerts celebrated the life and legacy of Pete Seeger, a champion for civil rights and environmental protection.

FLOW for Water was our beneficiary, and we are proud to say that through these concerts, generous financial support was raised for their mission of protecting our Great Lakes.

Regional folk music artists Robin Lee Berry, Ingemar and Lisa Johannsen, Tim Joseph, Byron Joseph, Patrick Niemisto, Norm Wheeler, Luan Lechler, Sonja Shoup, Glenn Wolf, John Storms Rohm, Tim Burke, Marley Demers, Peacemeal, Bob Downs, Frank Youngman, Michael Hughes, and Victor McManemy along with many others, turned out to lead the Traverse City community in a high energy afternoon of singing and activisim. The singing built more emotional ties and harmonies- literally and figuratively. It appears we as a people in this little pocket of Michigan are a strong unit – proud and strong of our homeland and the waters that give us life.

At the halfway mark, Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director of FLOW for Water and it’s Founder, Jim Olson, spoke to us about their work. They are truly folk heros, working for our common good, educating the PEOPLE about the PUBLIC TRUST.

A sincere THANK YOU to everyone who came to sing out , contribute their hard earned money, build community and advocate for our most precious natural resource – WATER.

I recently stumbled upon the most recent issue of The Sun, and I wish to include this interview excerpt by Howard Jay Rubin with Pete Seeger in 1981 for The Sun magazine. The interview was reprinted in the 2014. April/May issue

HR: Do you think we’re really making progress in this fight against pollution?

PS: To a certain extent we kid ourselves by thinking we are having successes. Perhaps we are only slowing down inevitable disaster. It’s perfectly possible. T.S. Elliot says “This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Maybe we’ll just poison ourselves to death. On the other hand who knows? We have made progress. The middle Hudson is swimmable now, where it was not swimmable ten years ago. And now CLEARWATER is trying to organize a petition campaign in New Jersey and New York State to demand that the cleanup be continued, no slowed down simply because President Reagan wants to balance the budget a little better. There are lots of ways to balance the budget. It’s going to take about 1 billion more to complete the sewage plants along the Hudson, and that’s a lot of money. It’s five dollars for every man, woman, and child in the USA. But we spend a couple of billion dollars on sking; we spend a couple of billlion on T-Bone steaks and fancy foods; we spend more than a couple of billion on vacation homes for our well-to-do people, and several billion dollars on pleasure and boating and trips. Don’t let anybody tell you that America cannot afford $1 billion to make the water that flows past the Statue of Liberty swimable again.

LOOKING DOWN FROM PYRAMID POINT, LAKE MICHIGAN – LATE APRIL 2014

BAYLIFE North: For Love of Water FLOW

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - News

Frankfort Lighthouse with Surfer - John Russell

Click here to read the article in BAYLIFE North Magazine (page 40)

By Allison Voglesong

The vast Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the whole world’s fresh surface water, but they are not infinite. That’s one reason why James Olson helped found FLOW, a Traverse City-based nonprofit. FLOW’s acronym means “For Love of Water,” and FLOW’s policy and education programs protect the Great Lakes.

It started when veteran attorney Olson represented a community group battling a Nestle water bottling plant lowering a nearby stream. Since the beginning, FLOW has worked to protect this limited fresh water supply.

How did FLOW go from protecting one stream in Michigan to protecting 90 percent of the nation’s freshwater supply? “The water cycle connects it all,” explains Olson, “whether it’s your backyard creek or rain watering your garden. And it needs to be protected at every point in this water cycle.”

The water cycle doesn’t just connect the Great Lakes to the pond at the park; it connects the people who use it. Fresh water for drinking and sanitation is a human right, and Executive Director Liz Kirkwood points out that FLOW’s programs safeguarding certain public protected uses that rely on clean and abundant Great Lakes water, like fishing, swimming, boating, navigation, and commerce.

FLOW Staff Allison Voglesong Eric Olson Jim Olson Liz Kirkwood

FLOW Team: Allison Voglesong, Communications Designer, Eric Olson, Communications Director, Jim Olson, Founder, President and Advisor, Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director

“These protected uses are all special for health, for happiness, for our jobs and economy. And because water is a common resource that is shared, we have to make sure that what we do with the water protects it for everyone,” says Kirkwood.

That’s a lot to think about when watching the sun’s opalescent reflection across the lake horizon. It’s also a tough pill to swallow realizing that your neighbor’s loud motorboat has the same right to use the waters as the quietude of your fly rod.

Above all, Olson and Kirkwood hope that the idea of protecting our common waters empowers citizens who live, play, and visit in the Great Lakes. “Once you realize these uses are legally protected, you’ve got a starting point for taking action,” says Kirkwood. That’s why FLOW’s offer legal strategies for people to address the issues that hit close to home. Between climate change, invasive species, algal blooms, pollution, and thirsty communities looking to tap our water, there has never been a better time to act than now.

As the tourist season in the Grand Traverse area simmers through spring and summer boils it to a fever pitch, we might forget that we should want to share our common waters when all we really want is a place to unfurl our beach towel, undisturbed. Yet our capacity and willingness to share our beautiful waters is what defines the culture of Grand Traverse just as much as the contour of the bay shores defines our remarkable landscape. The mission of FLOW’s Great Lakes Society citizen contingency captures this trait in four words: “Common waters, common purpose.”

For more about FLOW’s programs, the Great Lakes Society, and to follow their updates, please visit www.flowforwater.org.

OP-ED – Great Lakes Echo: Public trust demands Great Lakes phosphorus cuts

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - News

Click here to read the article in the Great Lakes Echo

Commentary

Editor’s note, Jim Olson is president of FLOW, a Traverse City-based non-profit legal policy and action organization whose mission is to advance public trust solutions to save the waters of the Great Lakes Basin.

By Jim Olson

The health and public use and enjoyment of the Great Lakes is under siege from systemic threats like climate change, extreme water levels, Asian Carp and other invasive species, and nutrient pollution.

One of the most pernicious dangers is the resurgent excessive phosphorous and other nutrient runoff from farming practices and lack of proper sewage treatment. Moreover, the situation is worsening because of climate change. This nutrient loading has resulted in devastating, harmful algal blooms like the “dead zone” that extended over western Lake Erie in the summer of 2011, covering an area the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut. These algal blooms turn the surface and shores of the Great Lakes into a toxic soup, closing beaches and drinking water plants, killing fish and fishing, marring private property and public beaches, and discouraging tourism.

Lake Erie harmful algal bloom dead zone fish kill These impacts strike at the heart of the Great Lakes and the uses enjoyed and valued by the 40 million residents who live in the Basin. In 2013, Toledo had to spend $1 million to treat its drinking water from toxic globs of algae. Unchecked, this chronic, worsening problem will strike a blow to the economy and quality of life in the Great Lakes region.

Binational report urges action

Fortunately – with a sense of urgency – the International Joint Commission (“IJC”), the bi-national United States and Canadian governing board charged with protecting the Great Lakes, issued its Report of the Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority(February 2014) – A Balanced Diet for Lake Erie: Reducing Phosphorus Loadings and Harmful Algal Blooms.The report calls on Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, and the province of Ontario to take immediate steps to stop this devastating toxic nuisance before conditions worsen, not only in Lake Erie but also in Lake Huron and on the shores of Lake Michigan as far north as the pristine Door Peninsula and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Unfortunately, efforts to date have not reduced phosphorus or curtailed this massive problem, which is too large, too harmful, and too costly to the lakes, their ecosystem, and the 40 million people who live in the Great Lakes region to let this languish a year longer.

While the challenge is daunting, the IJC has taken the helm and focused its scientific studies and strong policies on the responsibility of the states, province, and others whose practices are causing the harm to Lake Erie and parts of the other Great Lakes. The IJC has recommended at a minimum a cut in phosphorus loading from farming and sewage overflows and other runoff by nearly 50 percent. Possible actions include the setting of a total phosphorus limit in Lake Erie and adoption of best practices for the management and use of fertilizers on farms and lawns.

Not only has the IJC set the target at nearly 50 percent and fingered the actions that need to be taken through voluntary cooperation, it has established a fresh legal and policy framework – or blueprint – for sharing responsibility, taking action, and, if necessary, implementing enforcement. The IJC has invoked a fundamental principle embedded in custom and law of the states and province on the Great Lakes – the duties imposed under “public trust” law in navigable waters and their tributary watersheds. In its report, the IJC recognized and urged states and Ontario to apply public trust principles as an overarching measure to address and solve the systemic threat of phosphorus and algal blooms in Lake Erie.

A framework for the public trust

The governments of Canada, the United States, Ontario and the states that share a common boundary on Lake Erie could apply a public trust framework, a set of important common law principles shared by the states, provinces, and both countries. Under these principles the governments should hold Lake Erie as a public trust for their citizens. The public trust framework would provide the governments with an affirmative obligation to assure that the rights of the public with respect to navigation, fishing, swimming, and the water and ecosystem on which these uses depend are protected and not significantly impaired.

In 1892, the United States Supreme Court established a principle that the Great Lakes and their protected public trust uses for boating, swimming, fishing, and other recreation can never be interfered with or significantly impaired now or in the future. A framework with a benchmark is necessary for the immediate reduction of phosphorus in Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. The framework for cooperation and enforcement to achieve this benchmark is the public trust – a refreshing, straightforward contrast to the layers of rules and regulations that have been unable to stop the spread of devastating toxic algal blooms.

Lake Erie Nutrient Pollution Harmful Algal Bloom Dead Zone public trust Algal blooms and toxic algae “dead zones” can be prevented and Lake Erie restored by reducing phosphorous loading from farming, sewage overflows, and fugitive residential and commercial fertilizing. If we continue to engage in dialogue but chose not to implement measures or options that will reduce phosphorous and restore Lake Erie, more beaches will close, commercial fishing will dry up, and tourism, riparian property values, public use of the lakes for recreation and enjoyment will continue to sink. The public trust provides a fresh approach based on traditional, time-tested principles that will provide the framework from which the states, stakeholders, and all citizens, who are the legal beneficiaries of this trust, can work together with shared responsibility to save this magnificent shared commons.

The IJC should be commended for this bold and positive step and for its leadership in urging the states and Ontario to implement the public trust principles that apply to all of the states and Ontario and their citizens. These principles move this bi-national issue to a higher level centered on our core values – water protection and restoration, quality of life, and a sustainable economy – that honor the public trust that, in the long run, will protect the waters and uses on which we, our children, and grandchildren depend.

As a citizen beneficiary of the public trust in our Great Lakes, read the report, send the IJC a letter or email thanking the commissioners for taking the action they did in issuing it. Send an email, a letter, and make a phone call to the leader of your state or province, urging application of this public trust framework and these principles. If we follow the benchmark through public trust principles, we will establish a framework for these common waters and interdependent economy and quality of life for this and future centuries.

All hands on deck – for implementing the public trust for water!

Reach Jim Olson at FLOW, 153 ½ E. Front Street, Traverse City, MI 49684. Phone: 231.944.1568. Additional background on the author and FLOW. On May 13 FLOW is hosting a webinar on nutrient pollution and algal blooms. Space is limited; registration required.

World Renowned Water Activist, Maude Barlow, to Speak on Regional Water Issues in Detroit

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - Reports & Media Releases

Click here to view and download the press release as a PDF.

May 14, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Liz Kirkwoood, Executive Director

231 944 1568 or liz@flowforwater.org

World Renowned Water Activist, Maude Barlow, to Speak on Regional Water Issues in Detroit

Detroit, Mich. – On Thursday, May 22 at 6:30 p.m. the People’s Water Board Coalition will partner with Wayne State University’s Office of Sustainability to host a special discussion on regional Great Lakes water issues and public trust with Maude Barlow.

Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of the national consumer advocacy organization Food & Water Watch. Barlow is the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Awards, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. She is also the best-selling author or co-author of 17 books.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) recently announced its plan to shut-off water at thousands of Detroit residences. At the same time Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager, Kevyn Orr, has announced his intention to privatize DWSD, the drinking water provider for roughly four-million people in southeast Michigan. This event will highlight the benefits of protecting our water systems from private interests, and why public control is the key to ensuring safe, clean, affordable water for all.

Barlow will be available after the event to sign copies of her new book Blue Future.

This event is free and open to the public.

Who: People’s Water Board Coalition

Speakers: Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians; Jim Olson, Founder, President and Advisor of FLOW (For Love of Water); others to be announced.

When: Thursday, May 22, 2014, Doors at 6:00 p.m. Program 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Where: Marvin I. Danto Engineering Development Center
5050 Anthony Wayne Drive
Engineering Development Center (EDC)
Auditorium, Room 1507,
Detroit, MI 48202

Parking: Parking Structure 2 – 5150 Lodge Service Drive, Detroit, MI 48202

The cost is $6.50. There is also metered 2-hour parking located on the street. The cost for 2 hours is $2 at a meter.

The People’s Water Board includes: AFSCME Local 207, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Green Party, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Food & Water Watch, FLOW, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, Matrix Theater, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, Sierra Club and Voices for Earth Justice.

# # #

FLOW is the Great Lakes Basin’s only public trust policy and education 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to advance public trust solutions to save the Great Lakes.

Great-Lakes-tabloid-Detroit

OP-ED – Toledo Blade: To restore Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes, cut phosphorus

Published on June 4th, 2024 by Jim Olson - News

Click here to read the article on the Toledo Blade.

May 18, 2014

GUEST EDITORIAL

By Jim Olson

To restore Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes, cut phosphorus

The principle of public trust, and the duties it imposes, can help clean up Lake Erie

One of the most pernicious sources of harm to Lake Erie, and to public use and enjoyment of the lake, is excessive runoff of phosphorous and other nutrients caused by farming practices and a lack of proper sewage treatment.

This condition will only worsen without immediate action. Defining such action as a matter of public trust can help ensure that it occurs.

Exacerbated by climate change, nutrient loading has caused devastating, harmful blooms of algae such as the dead zone that extended over western Lake Erie in 2011, covering an area the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined.

These noxious blooms turn the surface and shores of the Great Lakes into a toxic soup — closing beaches and drinking-water plants, killing fish and fishing, marring private property, and discouraging tourism. Such effects strike at the heart of Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes, which contribute immeasurably to the quality of life of the 40 million residents of the lakes region.

Nutrient loading also threatens public health and increases costs to taxpayers. Last year, the city of Toledo had to spend an additional $1 million to treat its drinking water for toxins in algae.

With a sense of urgency, the International Joint Commission — the American-Canadian governing board that is charged with protecting the Great Lakes — issued a recent report on Lake Erie’s ecosystem. It urges both federal governments and the Great Lakes states and provinces to take immediate steps to stop the lake’s toxic plague.

Jim Olson FLOW Founder The joint commission recommends an immediate cut of nearly 50 percent in phosphorus loading from excessive use of farm fertilizers and municipal sewage overflows, through modifications of current practices. It calls for a fresh legal and policy framework for sharing responsibility and achieving the necessary reduction in phosphorus to restore Lake Erie and renew its beaches, fishing, and other natural advantages.

Specifically, the commission proposes that the affected nations, states, and provinces hold Lake Erie as a “public trust” for their citizens. That framework “would provide the governments with an affirmative obligation to assure that the rights of the public with respect to navigation, fishing, swimming, and the water and ecosystem on which these uses depend are protected and not significantly impaired,” the report says.

The principle of public trust, and the duties it imposes in navigable waters and tributary watersheds, are embedded in the law of the states and provinces on the Great Lakes. In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government has a duty to its citizens to ensure that their use and enjoyment of the lakes are never measurably impaired, now or in the future.

This trust principle provides a benchmark, easy to understand and equally applicable to everyone. That’s a sharp contrast to the layers of rules that have been unable to stop the spread of devastating blooms of toxic algae.

These blooms and toxic dead zones can be prevented. If we continue just to talk, but choose not to take the measures necessary to restore Lake Erie, more beaches will close, commercial fishing will dry up, and tourism, property values, and public use of the lake for recreation and enjoyment will continue to sink.

By contrast, if we choose to follow the joint commission’s public-trust recommendation, our government leaders, stakeholders, and citizens — who are the legal beneficiaries of this trust — will have a strong opportunity to save this magnificent shared resource.

The commission should be commended for its bold leadership in urging public-trust principles for Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. We should urge our government leaders to apply these principles, to reduce phosphorus pollution, and to restore Lake Erie.

Jim Olson is founder and president of FLOW (For Love of Water), a policy organization based in northern Michigan that promotes preservation of the Great Lakes basin.

Name the Five Great Lakes: Summer Internship

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - H2Olson, News

My name is Eliza Somsel and I am currently an intern here at FLOW. I am from Grand Rapids, MI originally, but after I graduated high school in 2011, my parents moved to Traverse City. While I have not lived here long, I have always enjoyed Crystal Lake, Lake Michigan and the rest of Northern Michigan at my grandparent’s home in Beulah. I am a rising junior at the College of Wooster in Ohio, studying Communication and Environmental Studies.

As FLOW’s summer Grassroots Outreach Intern, I wear numerous hats. I write press releases, assist in event planning and advertising, and work on expanding our Great Lakes Society. My favorite work, however, is finding new ways to expand FLOW’s presence in the greater Grand Traverse community and Great Lakes Basin.

Here I am (left), with Allison Voglesong (center), and Justin Sterk (right), showing off our “Wheel of Water” at Green Day

On Friday, July 5th, FLOW participated in the National Cherry Festival’s DTE Energy Green Day with our newly invented “Wheel of Water.” Along with FLOW staff and volunteers, I developed a Great Lakes trivia game and constructed a spinning game wheel to draw the attention of festivalgoers. My goal was to get people thinking about the importance of the Great Lakes and the work that FLOW does to protect the waters both now and for future generations. The wheel was divided into four colors that aligned with a category of questions: science, geography, people/economy, and history/politics. The process of creating the game was enjoyable itself, but I was absolutely in my element when interacting with kids and adults alike who share my passion and interest in the Great Lakes. I even got my picture in the Record Eagle!

For the kids, I asked a preliminary question before playing the game. “Can you name the five Great Lakes?” I was fortunate enough to have a variety of entertaining answers throughout the day. Some kids blew me away by naming them off without a blink of an eye, while others could only name one or two at best. I often heard that Crystal Lake, Torch Lake, Silver Lake, or whichever lake they loved was considered to be a Great Lake in their opinion. While by definition this may not be true, I must agree that any lake is a pretty “great” lake and worth protecting.

This is me showing a boy from Missouri what the Great Lakes are!

Like many of you, I have always loved the Great Lakes and want my future (way in the future) children and grandchildren to get to experience them as I have. FLOW strives to ensure this through the public trust. While a seemingly complex concept at first, I have come to understand the public trust as the best way to protect our waters. The public trust doctrine essentially says that water is shared and owned by the public and therefore cannot be privately owned. Uses of the waters have to be balanced in such a way that protected uses, like swimming and fishing, are maintained. FLOW works to ensure these rights are not forgotten or ignored. Activities or projects such as the Enbridge pipeline expansion across the Straits of Mackinac—which will transport tar sands through the Great Lakes—is a violation of the public trust. Using this principle is, to me, the most obvious solution to many similar threats to the Great Lakes. For this issue in particular, I am attending Oil and Water Don’t Mix: A Rally for the Great Lakes this Sunday, July 14th.

Also, join me on Friday, August 9th in downtown Traverse City during Friday Night Live to test your knowledge of the Great Lakes and spin the “Wheel of Water!”

Beans4Blue Coffee Now in Three Blends at Stores Statewide

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - Reports & Media Releases

Click here to view and download the full press release as a PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director, FLOW
liz@flowforwater.org or 231-944-1568
or
Jack Davis, Owner, Great Northern Roasting Company
jack@greatnoroco.com or 231-943-3917

Beans4Blue Coffee Now in Three Blends at Stores Statewide

3% of Sales to Benefit the FLOW Great Lakes Policy and Education Center

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – A new series of three coffee blends aims to caffeinate and conserve water for Great Lakes lovers. The Beans 4 Blue coffee line from Traverse City-based Great Northern Roasting Company (GNRC) has three blends: the original Lake Effect blend, the Wake 5 dark roast, and the Shoreline light roast. All three blends are now on the shelves at grocers throughout Michigan’s lower peninsula. Three percent of every bag benefits FLOW, a Traverse City-based policy and education center working to protect the Great Lakes.

All three blends of Beans 4 Blue by Great Northern Roasting Company will now benefit FLOW

The GNRC has been roasting and selling coffee beans since 2001 when it was founded by Jack and Sarah Davis. GNRC is dedicated to providing the most exclusive and unique coffees, all of which are drum roasted by hand and held to the highest standard in quality and freshness. Embedded within their business standards is Jack and Sarah Davis’s love for the Great Lakes. Now with three blends available in the Beans 4 Blue coffee line, the GNRC is happy to announce that their customers can join them to help protect the Great Lakes.

“After all, coffee is just filtered water” says GNRC Owner Jack Davis, “and you just won’t get a good cup of coffee without fresh, clean water. That’s why we decided to create a product that includes protecting the Great Lakes as a part of the bottom line.” Teaming up with the Traverse City-based nonprofit FLOW “was a no-brainer” says Mr. Davis, because of their common goal to protect the Great Lakes.

FLOW’s mission is to advance solutions to save the Great Lakes and their expert team of attorneys and professionals specialize in the legal strategies known as the public trust doctrine. Through educational presentations and advanced policy research, FLOW develops legal strategies that all add up to better protections for the waters of the Great Lakes.

“Sometimes folks can feel helpless when big issues threaten to harm the Great Lakes,” says FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood, “and that’s where FLOW comes in, to empower people with tools for taking action that will ultimately create a better future for these waters.”

This rang true and captured the attention of Mr. Davis, whose daughter goes to the same school in Traverse City as both of Mrs. Kirkwood’s kids. A longtime vision that had yet to come to life, Mr. Davis had always wanted to find a way for his company to give back to the community. When he learned about FLOW’s action-oriented policy and education programs that address Great Lakes issues, “right away I knew that we should collaborate to create a coffee that benefits the Great Lakes,” he says. And so, Beans 4 Blue was created.

The first Beans 4 Blue coffee, the Lake Effect blend, premiered in stores in late fall of 2013. Now, GNRC is in full-tilt production and fulfilling requests for Lake Effect blend as well as the new dark roast, Wake 5 blend, and the light roast, Shoreline blend. All blends of the Beans 4 Blue Coffee are 100% shade grown Arabica, and Rainforest Alliance certified.

Not unlike FLOW’s educational programs, and in the spirit of ensuring an excellent coffee experience to customers, GNRC also offers informational workshops on coffee, roasting, tasting, and human and economic impact of global coffee markets. GNRC specializes in direct trade and fair trade, and are committed to upholding the highest standards for human and labor rights as well as environmental protection, including biodiversity and sustainability.

For more information, to find a store near you that carries Beans 4 Blue, or to place an online order, please visit: http://beans4blue.com

Contact: Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director, FLOW
liz@flowforwater.org or 231-944-1568
or
Jack Davis, Owner, Great Northern Roasting Company
jack@greatnoroco.com or 231-943-3917

Water cut offs in Detroit a violation of human rights

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - H2Olson, News

By Guest Blogger Maude Barlow, National Chairperson for the Council of the Canadians and longtime partner of FLOW.
Read the original post here.

Maude Barlow speaks in Detroit, MI

I recently visited Detroit, Michigan and am shocked and deeply disturbed at what I witnessed. I went as part of a Great Lakes project where a number of communities and organizations around the basin are calling for citizens to come together to protect the Great Lakes as a Lived Commons, a Public Trust and a Protected Bioregion. We are also deeply worried about the threat of extreme energy such as diluted bitumen from the tar sands of Alberta and fracked oil and fracking wastewater from North Dakota being transported by pipeline and rail near the lakes and on barges on the lakes and are calling for a ban of these dangerous toxins around and on the Great Lakes.

But the people of Detroit face another sinister enemy. Every day, thousands of them, in a city that is situated right by a body of water carrying one fifth of the world’s water supply, are having their water ruthlessly cut off by men working for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Most of the residents are African American and two thirds of the cut offs involve children, which means that in some cases, child welfare authorities are moving in to remove children from their homes as it is a requirement that there be working utilities in all homes housing children.

People are given no warning and no time to fill buckets, sinks and tubs. Sick people are left without running water and running toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe and parents cannot cook. Is this a small number of victims? No. The water department has decreed that it will turn the water off to all 120,000 residences that owe it money by the end of the summer although it has made no such threat to the many corporations and institutions that are in arrears on their bills as well. How did it come to this?

Detroit is a victim of decades of market driven neoliberal policy that put business and profit ahead of public good. Social security programs have been slashed and their delivery privatized. Investment in essential infrastructure has been slashed. Every winter, hundreds of aging pipes spew water from leaks and the water has not been turned off in thousands of abandoned houses and boarded up businesses where frozen pipes also lose huge amounts of water.

With globalization and the hollowing out of the once mighty auto industry, wealth and businesses fled to he suburbs, draining the city of its tax base and the water department of its revenues. (There are one million fewer people living in Detroit than there were in the 1950s.)

The burden of paying for the water and sewer services landed squarely on those who stayed, mostly poor African Americans. Rates rose 119% in a decade in a city with record high unemployment and a 40% poverty rate.

To make matters worse, as a cost cutting measure, the water department stopped sending bills, expecting residents to just figure out their own bills. It then installed “smart metres” that read backwards and many families were hit with bills in the thousands of dollars. Many of these bills were from former tenants, and many included water bills from near by abandoned houses but that didn’t matter to the authorities.

Recently, the city of Detroit was declared bankrupt by the state and a high priced bankruptcy lawyer was named Emergency Manager with a mandate to get the city back on its feet financially. Nothing is off the chopping block, not the city’s famous art collection or its water utilities which are about to be privatized. As the feisty Charity Hicks, a leader of the resistance to the cuts and a founding member of the Detroit People’s Water Board, which includes welfare and human rights groups and environmentalists, points out, authorities see these unpaid bills as a “bad debt” and want to sweeten the pot for a private buyer. Hence the rush to implement a ruthless plan of cut offs for anyone more than two months behind in payments.

It is important to acknowledge the class and race dimension of this assault. There have been no stories on the cut offs in the mainstream US media. One cannot imagine that fact if the people losing their water were middle class white people. But the feeling is that Detroit is a lost cause and the people there deserve what they are getting.

L Brooks Patterson is the elected CEO of the affluent Detroit suburb of Oakland. In a recent interview in the New Yorker, he affirmed that a statement he had made 30 years ago was still valid. “A number of years ago I made a prediction and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a wall around it and then throw in blankets and corn.'”

This man wins his elections with huge majorities.

What is happening in Detroit is a social crime and a violation of the human right to water and sanitation as recognized by the United Nations. It is a violation of the “Obligation to Respect,” whereby a right once realized cannot be removed.

The situation in Detroit is a travesty and the governments of Michigan and the United States itself must be held accountable.

President Obama must step in.

As more and more of the public space is privatized and sold off to corporations, is this our collective future? Never before have the differences between the 1% and the poor been greater in America.

The daily cut offs of water in Detroit, water needed for life and dignity, are an affront to the notion that we have advanced very far in our understanding of human rights or in its practice. We all stand guilty if we do not shout out against this terrible injustice on our continent.

Intern Adventures: Courtney Hammer

Published on June 4th, 2024 by FLOW Editor - H2Olson, News

Hello! My name is Courtney Hammer, and I am thrilled to be spending twelve weeks this summer up in the beautiful Traverse City, Michigan interning with FLOW (For Love of Water). I was raised down south in Roswell, Georgia, but Traverse City is home away from home for me, as I have vacationed up here every summer visiting my grandparents, relatives, and friends.

I will be a senior at Michigan State University this fall. My family bleeds green and white, so I have been a Spartan since birth. I am in the James Madison College at MSU majoring in Comparative Cultures and Politics. I am also working towards a minor in Spanish and a Science, Technology, Environment, and Public Policy Specialization. Throughout my time at MSU, I have been a member of the varsity women’s soccer team.

Over the next few months I will be applying to law schools, and the plan is to start that next chapter of my life in the fall of 2015. I am passionate about both the environment and human rights, so I want to do something that involves an intersection of those two areas.

At FLOW, I am helping out with research and writing projects for our variety of programs, especially concerning nutrient pollution, and I am assisting Jim Olson with the curriculum development for the Water Policy and Sustainability (for the 21^st Century) course he will teach at Northwestern Michigan College this fall. I have already learned a tremendous amount about the endless applicability of the public trust doctrine and just how vital of an overarching legal tool it is for the Great Lakes and environmental policies at large. For instance, I have specifically seen how it should impact local government capabilities with fracking and the State’s regulation of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. Additionally, with nutrient pollution, I have learned just how crucial it is in terms of enforcing best management practices to mitigate both agricultural and stormwater runoff.

That is just a snippet of who I am and what I have been doing at FLOW. I am excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me!

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