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 Each week the Town Hall solicits thoughtful contributions from Great Lakes writers, scientists, business owners, politicians, agency staff, environmentalists, artists, concerned citizens and more. Guest speakers contribute content on a Great Lakes topic of their choice for five days.
Guest Speaker Archive
You will find an archive of Town Hall Guest Speakers' entries below. Guest Speakers are listed chronologically, with those featured most recently at the top.
|  Gary Becker (top photograph), a native of Racine, decided in 1995 that the time was right to run for alderman of Racine’s 15th District and served two terms. In 2003, after winning a five way primary, he was elected Mayor of the City of Racine. Mayor Becker is now in his second term, after running unopposed in 2007. In addition to the city committees he sits on and chairs, the mayor is active in a number of regional and national organizations. Mayor Becker is a member of the Housing and Development Committee, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Committee, the Ad Hoc Committee on Climate Change and the Mayors Water Council for the US Conference of Mayors. Mayor Becker also is Vice-Chair of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, Chair of the Wisconsin Coastal Management Council, Chair of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Wisconsin Chapter President of the National Brownsfield Association and Sustainable Development Co-Chair of the Regional Collaboration for the Great lakes. Mayor Becker and his wife Julie were married on Valentine’s Day in 1981 and are the proud parents of two daughters, Lindsay and Maggie.
Larry MacDonald (bottom photograph) is beginning his 7th term as Mayor of the eco-municipality of Bayfield, Wisconsin. He has combined serving on the Chequamegon Bay Alliance for Sustainability, the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Advisory Council, the Wisconsin Coastal Management Council, the Friends of the Apostle Islands and most recently the Arts Wisconsin Board while aggressively supporting the passage of the Great Lakes Water Compact and other community oriented activities to provide a well rounded and practical approach to working toward goals for community preservation and sustainability. Larry and his wife Julie have owned a bed & breakfast in the City of Bayfield since 1989.
Posts by Mayors Challenge:
| | The Challenge, 09/08/2008 |
|  The Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP) is a coalition of organizations committed to the protection and restoration of Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, streams, forests, natural areas, parks and trails. In total, more than 80 nonprofit conservation and environmental organizations from throughout Minnesota belong to MEP, representing a combined membership of more than 450,000 Minnesotans.
Julie O’Leary is northeast program coordinator for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP), a state-wide coalition of more than 80 non-profit conservation and environmental organizations. Julie lives and works in Duluth, Minnesota, where she supports the efforts of local organizations and citizen’s groups on Great Lakes issues, and covers Great Lakes issues for MEP. A childhood spent on Michigan beaches sparked Julie’s interest in Great Lakes advocacy work, which has included a focus on water quality, wastewater, and pollution prevention. Julie is a native of Detroit, Michigan, a graduate of Michigan Technological University, and has worked, lived, and travelled throughout the Great Lakes region. She represents the Lake Superior region on the board of Great Lakes United and serves on the Lake Superior BiNational Forum.
Cathy Podeszwa is an ecologist and science writer from Duluth, Minnesota. She has served on the boards of Duluth Audubon Society and Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, and she is currently the board chair of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. Cathy is particularly concerned about habitat loss around Lake Superior.
Chuck Laszewski is communications director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy which has worked on the Great Lakes Compact, asbestos fibers in the air over Lake Superior, and sulfide mining issues in the watershed. Laszewski first spent time on Lake Michigan as a Wisconsin youth and still is awestruck when he tops the Interstate 35 hill outside Duluth and first catches sight of Lake Superior.
Darrell Gerber is Program Coordinator in the Clean Water Action Midwest Office focusing on Energy and Water issues. His work primarily concentrates on Global Warming, the Great Lakes and the Clean Water Restoration Act. He came to Clean Water in May of 2007 out of the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota where he studied Science, Technology and Environmental Policy. Darrell works across Minnesota to build awareness of Great Lakes issues and to bring policy solutions to state and federal decision makers. Clean Water Action is a national grassroots organization working for clean water, health, safe jobs and making democracy work. Clean Water Action has 1.2 million members nationally including over 90,000 in Minnesota.
Posts by Great Lakes Cluster of MEP:
| | Michigan, Minnesota, the Great Lakes and the U.S., 09/05/2008 | | It’s always good to have a dream, 09/04/2008 | | The love comes from everywhere, 09/03/2008 | | Increasing Pressures on Lake Superior's Shoreline Habitats, 09/01/2008 | | Republican Nat'l Convention Meets the Land of 10,000 Lakes, 09/01/2008 |
|  David Ullrich is the Executive Director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. His responsibilities include working with U.S. and Canadian mayors from across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin to advance the restoration and protection of the resource. The Initiative shares best practices among the cities, towns, and counties so that all have the benefits of the successful efforts of each other. The Initiative also works on restoration legislation, planning, and implementation.
Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Ullrich served for thirty years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes regional office in Chicago, working on environmental issues in the six states of the upper Midwest. He worked in many capacities over the years, including Acting Regional Administrator, Deputy Regional Administrator, Waste Management Division Director, Deputy Regional Counsel, Air Enforcement Chief, and Water Enforcement Attorney. For six years, he was the U.S. Chair of the Water Quality Board for the International Joint Commission, and was a founding member and chair of the Midwest Natural Resources Group. He continues to serve on the Water Quality Board, and in 2006 was appointed by the President to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. In 1986, he completed a six month executive exchange assignment with the German Interior Ministry. U.S. EPA recognized Mr. Ullrich for a number of his accomplishments during his public service career.
Mr. Ullrich graduated from Dartmouth College in 1970 with a degree in English and received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1973, with an emphasis in environmental law. He is a runner and outdoor sportsman. He is married to Polly Ullrich, an art critic, curator, and ceramic artist, and their son Eric, who was born in 1990, is active in a variety of competitive and recreational sports.
Posts by David Ullrich:
| | Cities of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, 08/29/2008 | | Beaches of the Great Lakes, 08/28/2008 | | Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, 08/27/2008 | | Climate Change and the Great Lakes, 08/26/2008 | | Great Lakes Management and Accountability, 08/25/2008 |
|  Rachel Hood became WMEAC’s Executive Director in January of 2007. Ms. Hood is charged with the work of leading WMEAC toward its new future and ensuring its sustainability. Rachel’s professional background is focused on organizational and community development. Non-profit program and fund development development, strategic planning and program management are Rachel’s areas of expertise.
Rachel holds a BA in Social Relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University. From 2000 to 2004, she served as the Executive Director of West Grand Neighborhood Organization in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following this Rachel served as a community relations consultant for Jones, Gavan & Helmholdt, LLC. In 2005, she joined Metro Health Hospital as their Corporate Community Advocate.
Implementing sustainable development concepts has been a core aspect of Rachel’s career. She was instrumental in the program design and funding for the Turner Gateway Project, one of Michigan’s Cool Cities projects and a low impact development best practice site. Ms. Hood’s work was essential to the launch of Local First, an initiative to educate Greater Grand Rapids about the value of locally owned business.
Rachel lives with her husband, Dave Petroelje, an environmental consultant, in Grand Rapids. She provides leadership to the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Green Infrastructure Task Force of the West Michigan Strategic Alliance, Green Grand Rapids Advisory Committee, Grand Rapids Youth Boxing Foundation, the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, and the Michigan Clean Water Action Political Action Committee. Rachel is an avid collector of interesting friends. She enjoys gardening, good food and conversation, hiking, biking and time in and around Michigan’s fresh water.
Posts by Rachel Hood:
| | Discovering Our Unique Dunes, 08/18/2008 |
|  Rebecca Shilt’s passion for the Great Lakes began when she was 5 years old and came with her family to Saugatuck, Michigan. She stood with her feet in the water, looked to the horizon, and saw nothing but water and an incredible sunset, accompanied by a natural soundtrack of breaking waves and seagull cries, and fell in love with Lake Michigan. She grew up in South Haven, Michigan, and as soon as she was able, walked or biked to the beach every day, regardless of the weather or season.
Her love of the natural environment led her to volunteer with West Michigan Environmental Action Council’s Stream Search program as a stream search leader, to be a Vice President with a local chapter of Wild Ones (a native plant club), a native plant landscape designer (RiverMaid Designs), a participant in the Monarch Watch program, and a volunteer designer/speaker with the Rain Garden project. As a musician with Hawks and Owls string band, she uses her art to promote social change by working to put on the Grand Rapids Water Festival and raising awareness of water quality issues. She was part of a group that was invited to University of Michigan to present to the art students how art can be used to create change and to talk about the festival. She is currently writing a book on gardening in rhythm with the natural elements around us.
Posts by Rebecca Shilt:
| | ANTICIPATION: 2009 GRAND RAPIDS WATER FESTIVAL, 08/15/2008 | | 2008 GRAND RAPIDS WATER FESTIVAL, 08/14/2008 | | 2007 WATER FESTIVAL – GRAND RAPIDS, 08/13/2008 | | 2006 WATER FESTIVAL – MACKINAW CITY, 08/12/2008 | | Using Art to Create Social Change, 08/11/2008 |
|  Jane Elder's enthusiasm for the Great Lakes began with a wade into the chilly waters of Lake Superior when she was five years old. In the 1980s she founded Sierra Club's Great Lakes program and helped lead efforts to strengthen the U.S. Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other federal programs to better protect the Great Lakes. She served as a citizen observer on the American diplomatic team that helped developed the 1987 Protocol to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Between 1995 and 2005 Jane was the director of the Biodiversity Project, an organization focused on building public awareness and U.S. response to the rapid worldwide loss of species, habitat and healthy ecosystems.
Jane currently consults on strategic communications for social change, with an emphasis on complex environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, global warming, ecosystem restoration, and the role of participatory democracy in achieving effective solutions.
Posts by Jane Elder:
| | Water Quality Begins at Home, 08/08/2008 | | Ecosystems in a time of rapid change, 08/06/2008 | | La Dolce Vita on Lake Michigan, 08/05/2008 | | Remembering the champions, 08/04/2008 |
|  Rachael Shwom is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University in the Sociology Department and Environmental Science and Policy Program. She will be an assistant professor specializing in Climate and Society in the Human Ecology Department of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in January 2009. For the past four years Rachael has worked on surveys of Michiganders and Virginians about their support of various climate change policies. She has also been peripherally involved with an effort to investigate decision-making around climate change in the Great Lakes.
Rachael first encountered the Great Lakes when she went to Syracuse University for her bachelors in English and Textual Studies and environmental sciences and had the chance to go hiking around Lake Eerie. She subsequently received her Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University’s Nicholas School of Environment where her master’s project focused on how climate change scientists communicated uncertainty to congress. A three year job at the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, a non-profit organization in Boston Massachusetts, provided Rachael with experience managing programs that helped coordinate state and local energy efficiency programs and has led her to her current dissertation on the relationships between non-profits, government and businesses in energy efficiency policy.
Growing up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, many of her family and friends (most of whom are fishers and lobstermen for a living) were mortified when she moved to the “land locked” Midwest. Rachael has made it her personal mission to convince her east coast family and friends that the Great Lakes region is pretty cool.
Posts by Rachael Shwom-Evelich:
| | If Only They Knew..., 07/30/2008 | | Why Don't You Care: The Social Organization of Denial, 07/29/2008 | | Why Do You Care?, 07/28/2008 |
|  Roberto Michel is a freelance writer and editor who resides in De Forest, Wisconsin, near Madison. Michel has been a newspaper reporter for the Tomah Journal in western Wisconsin, as well as correspondent for various newspapers. For the past 15 years, he has been an editor and senior contributing writer to various trade magazines, including Manufacturing Business Technology and Modern Materials Handling.
Michel’s interest in the Great Lakes are as a life-long fisherman and outdoorsman. While he has occasionally covered environmental topics, his perspective on the Great Lakes is as a common outdoors enthusiast with a background in industry and journalism. Michel’s outdoor hobbies include fishing, canoeing, biking, and hiking.
Most recently, Michel’s work has appeared in the Capital Region Business Journal, where his coverage has included the use of alternative fuel vehicles and biofuels by business owners. Michel’s blog (http://robertomichel.typepad.com) also covers environmental and green technology issues.
Posts by Roberto Michel:
| | Recreation that respects interconnected waters, 07/25/2008 | | Weaning ourselves off huge power boats, 07/24/2008 | | Stream restoration combines angling & water purity, 07/23/2008 | | VHS in fish: adjusting to new era of resource protection, 07/22/2008 | | An angler’s view of the Great Lakes as resource, 07/21/2008 |
|  The Lake Superior Binational Program is a partnership of governments, businesses, industries, native organizations, universities, environmental groups, and the public from the U.S. and Canada that are dedicated to protecting and restoring the Lake Superior basin's air, land, and water resources. The Program achieves its objectives through a Zero Discharge Demonstration Program, a binational Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP), and joint outreach projects.
The Program consists of four main components that work together to meet LaMP goals and objectives: A Task Force, a Superior Work Group, a public Forum, and the general public.
Each day this week we will describe these four groups, as well as highlight the 2008 recipients of an annual environmental stewardship awards program, and Lake Superior Day, which is this Sunday, July 20.
Posts by Lake Superior Binational Program:
| | Making a Difference: Lake Superior Day Events on July 20, 07/18/2008 | | On Lake Superior Day, Go Fly a Kite and Jump in the Lake!, 07/17/2008 | | Lake Superior Environmental Stewardship Award Winners, 07/17/2008 | | Lake Stewards Go the Extra (Nautical) Mile to Protect Lakes, 07/15/2008 | | Meet the Lake Superior Binational Forum!, 07/15/2008 |
|  Alex Mayer’s research and educational interests include integrated, sustainable water resources management, groundwater resources and remediation, and sustainability of rural communities. Dr. Mayer has served as project director or co-principal investigator for more than $5.6 million in externally funded research, has published more than 50 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and has authored or co-authored more than 100 presentations at professional meetings. Dr. Mayer has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses at Michigan Technological University, including fluid mechanics, introductory environmental engineering, groundwater hydrology, groundwater remediation, and mathematical modeling of earth and environmental systems.
Dr. Mayer has been active in several professional societies, including the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the International Water Association. He has been associate editor for Water Resources Research and has served on the editorial boards of Advances in Water Resources and Journal of Contaminant Hydrology. He has served as an invited professor at the University of Sonora, Mexico, and the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. In 2000, Dr. Mayer was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research and teaching in The Netherlands. Dr. Mayer also has served as consultant for several consulting firms, legal firms, and non-profit groups in Michigan. He is a registered Professional Engineer.
Dr. Mayer’s Great Lake’s interests include valuation of Great Lakes water resources, impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes, design of monitoring systems for Lake Superior, sustainable economic development in the Great Lakes region, groundwater-surface water exchange in the Salmon-Trout River, Michigan, and modeling water quantity and quality in the Great Lakes.
Posts by Alex Mayer:
| | from California to Sonora to the Great Lakes and back, 07/07/2008 |
|  As the former Executive Director of West Michigan Environmental Action Council, and long-time Secretary-Treasurer of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, Tom Leonard was deeply involved in the sustainability movement beginning in the mid 1990’s . His views on sustainability topics have been solicited by members of Congress and the U.S. Senate, among others. He has rendered assistance and consultation to such familiar names in the field as Amory Lovins, Janine Benyus, and Theodore Roosevelt IV. He was also a close advisor on environmental and sustainability issues to the current Mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan, George Heartwell.
Now retired, Tom and his wife Susan divide their time between their 1883 home in Grand Rapids’ Cherry Hill historic district, and Tom’s ancestral home on Gun Lake; while Tom divides his attention between (far too many) competing hobbies and interests.
Posts by Tom Leonard:
| | Spirits of the Great Lakes, 06/30/2008 |
|  Brennain Lloyd is a community organizer with Northwatch, the regional coalition of environmental groups in northeastern Ontario formed in 1988 to address regional issues related to energy, forests, waste management and water quality. Brennain works primarily as an advocate and organizer around energy, land use and natural resource concerns, and has served in a number of key advisory positions on mineral and forest policy. A strong communicator, Brennain is a frequent guest lecturer on a range of issues related to the public role in environmental decision-making.
Brennain is currently project coordinator with Northwatch, and is one of a three-person-team with Northwatch's Forest Project, a multi-year initiative to support public participation in forest management planning.
Brennain has worked as case manager or coordinator for Northwatch interventions in environmental assessments of timber management planning and Ontario Hydro demand/supply plans, in Ontario energy board rate reviews and federal environmental assessments for mining and energy projects, and has coordinated numerous public education projects for Northwatch, such as the EnviroVan, a mobile environmental resource centre which has completed four successful tours of northeastern Ontario. She is primary writer and editor of the quarterly publication Northwatch News; and maintains Northwatch's resource centre and database.
Brennain lives in North Bay, Ontario, with her partner and two children.
Posts by Brennain Lloyd:
| | The Nuclear Legacy - Uranium mine wastes, 06/27/2008 | | Nuclear Sacrifice on the North Shore, 06/26/2008 | | The legacy that lasts – nuclear waste at Bruce, 06/25/2008 | | The Nuclear Bootprint, 06/24/2008 | | Huron calling, 06/23/2008 |
|  Rockford, Michigan resident Stacy Niedzwiecki began her studies in traditional illustration and graphic design at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Afterwards, she served six years in the Army Reserves as an illustrator and graphics specialist. Following her military service, she studied computer graphic design, earning a certificate in Electronic Publishing by completing courses in web page design, digital photo retouching and page layout. She was employed for ten years at the Amway Corporation in the marketing, photography and employee communications areas.
Eight years ago, she launched her own successful Rockford-based graphic design business. Stacy offers innovative design solutions for a wide variety of clients in the West Michigan area. Her areas of expertise are reflected in a portfolio of logos, brochures, fliers, advertisements, newsletters and event promotion materials. In addition to traditional design projects, she also serves as webmaster for a number of organizations.
Although her core skills remain focused on graphic design and layout, Stacy now leverages her talents in digital photography and digital art. Her fascination with nature's beauty has found its way through the camera lens, earning awards in many art and photography competitions. Her work has been featured in the Michigan 24/7 photography book, Whisper in the Woods Nature Journal, and the Explore St. Louis Official Visitors' Guide.
Her most recent recognition is the installation of 46 of her nature images for the permanent art collection at the new Grand Rapids Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, which opens June 30, 2008.
Some others things folks might want to see:
Current news (blog): http://niedzwiecki.blogspot.com
Online store: http://www.stacyn.com/store/store.html
Awards & Accomplishments: http://www.stacyn.com/portfolio/portfolio_awards.html
Posts by Stacy Niedzwiecki:
| | Simply Sunsets..., 06/19/2008 | | Worth Fighting For..., 06/18/2008 | | The Natural Connection..., 06/17/2008 | | What Did YOU See Today?, 06/16/2008 |
|  Katherine Nadeau is the Water & Natural Resources Program Associate at Environmental Advocates of New York. She joined the state's environmental watchdog group in January 2007 and spends much of her time working on Great Lakes issues. She worked with statewide coalition partners to pass the Great Lakes Compact and lobbied successfully for increased funding for New York’s Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council. Katherine’s current work focuses on Great Lakes Compact implementation, wastewater infrastructure and funding, wetlands restoration and policy, and lake levels.
Katherine has a B.A. in Political Science from St. John Fisher College. Prior to joining Environmental Advocates, she worked as a communications consultant and community organizer for the Onondaga Nation, a sovereign Native American nation whose homelands lie in Central New York. Katherine has also worked as an organizer, community outreach director, and legislative associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group, and as an organizer for the Working Families Party.
While Katherine’s Great Lakes work focuses on policy, she takes every opportunity she can to get out sailing on Lake Ontario and loves to camp and hike along the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Posts by Katherine Nadeau:
| | Who loves their lake?, 06/12/2008 | | Dateline Chicago, 06/11/2008 | | Managing Lake Levels With an Eye to the Future – The Key to, 06/10/2008 | | New York – A Great Lakes State? Heck yeah!, 06/09/2008 |
|  Matthew Killion is the Senior Program Coordinator for the National Parks Conservation Association (www.NPCA.org). NPCA is the leading non-profit, non-partisan voice for protecting and enhancing our National Parks. Working at NPCA since January of this year, Matthew works on a 10-state region that includes many parks of the Great Lakes. Prior to joining NPCA, Matthew worked in the fundraising department of America’s Second Harvest, America’s largest network of food banks across the country. He graduated from the College of Wooster with a degree in Philosophy and participated in several environmental groups while there.
Bob Krumenaker has served as the US National Park Service superintendent of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, located in Wisconsin, on Lake Superior, since 2002. Bob also served as the staff coordinator of the National Park Service's Natural Resource Challenge (www.nature.nps.gov/challenge), a major (and successful) national initiative to refocus the agency on resource preservation and management. In addition, Bob served as the president of the George Wright Society, an organization (www.georgewright.org) dedicated to the protection, preservation, and management of natural and cultural resources of national parks and protected areas around the world.
Locally, Bob is active with the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce, previously serving on its board of directors, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Alliance for Sustainability. Bob has been instrumental in the founding of the Friends of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (www.friendsoftheapostleislands.org) and the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation (www.nplsf.org).
Since 2006, Bob has been part of a bottom-up effort within the NPS to raise the flag on climate change and the need to address both the scientific and policy implications of it for parks, their gateway communities, and the people use love and use these nationally-significant preserves.
Posts by Matthew Killion:
| | Challenges and Opportunities, 06/06/2008 | | Global Warming and the HOW report, 06/05/2008 | | The response so far to VHS, 06/04/2008 | | Lake Superior fish threatened by a new disease, 06/03/2008 | | Intro to NPCA and our work in the Great Lakes, 06/02/2008 |
|  Raina Clark is an environmental communicator, maritime writer and part of a Coast Guard family.
She’s a former US Coast Guard officer and her husband currently serves aboard the USCG Cutter Alder out of Duluth, Minnesota. “Sometimes I get a little envious of the stories and photos my husband brings back, but less so of the long hours and seemingly endless cruises.”
Instead, Raina stays on land as the half-time Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
“I love being part of so many grassroots collaborations on campus, in the community and throughout the UW system. My job at UW-Stout is about creativity and people who want to make a difference.” Raina manages campus environmental communications, monitors compliance with environmental initiatives and leads the campus sustainability committee. See the UW-Stout Environmental Sustainability website at www.uwstout.edu/sustainability.
“The rest of my work week is spent on freelance projects. I’ve learned so much covering the Great Lakes for MarineNews and Maritime Reporter & Engineering News and like to take on the occasional media relations project.” Raina also writes the Great Lakes Maritime Industry blog at www.roclark.com, focusing on issues like ballast water management, dredging, water levels and shipping markets.
Outside of work Raina explores new activities with her five-year old son (karate and theater this year) and squeezes in a few hours a week for her pet project, a memoir about her experience in the Coast Guard as the lone female on a remote Alaskan base.
You can visit Raina’s personal website at www.rainaclark.com.
Posts by roclark:
| | Shipping emissions, 05/23/2008 | | Dredging the Great Lakes, 05/22/2008 | | Ballast water management, 05/20/2008 | | Can Great Lakes shipping ever be environmentally sustainable, 05/19/2008 |
|  Colin Brooks has 15 years of experience in applying remote sensing and GIS to addressing issues in agricultural systems, contaminated areas, transportation problems, and ecosystems undergoing land cover change. He is currently manager of the Michigan Tech Research Institute’s (MTRI) Environmental Science Lab in Ann Arbor, MI, where he is a Research Scientist. As part of MTRI, Colin has been working with the Michigan NRCS on analyzing the environmental impact of conservation programs and the relationship between land use and water quality. He has also applied high-resolution remote sensing to solving transportation-related issues such as mapping wetlands and hydrologic flow near transportation corridors and creating inventories of roadway assets. Colin has helped to develop decision support tools to analyze impacts of contaminated sediments in the Great Lakes as part of the GLEAMS Center project.
Previously, Colin ran a GIS lab for the University of California - Berkeley from 1996 to 2005 as part of the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program (IHRMP). He focused on analyzing patterns of vineyard expansion and the impacts on oak woodlands, as well as using geospatial data for effective salmonid restoration. From 1993 to 1996, he was a GIS Specialist with the USDA Forest Service – Savannah River (South Carolina), applying spatial tools to forest management and hardwood research.
- Colin Brooks, colin.brooks@mtu.edu, 734-913-6858
Posts by colinbrooks:
| | Where do we go from here?, 05/16/2008 | | The Future and the Past of the Great Lakes, 05/12/2008 |
|  Chris Winters is the staff photographer at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Smitten with the lore of lake boats, and the mythology surrounding the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, he is a lifelong student of Great Lakes maritime history. A board member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, and an Associate member of the International Shipmasters Association, he is currently at work on several photographic documentary efforts around the region.
His Faces of the Lakes effort is
an ambitious decade-long portrait study encompassing people in all facets of Great Lakes maritime life. Throughout 2001 Chris lived aboard the classic lake freighter Edward L. Ryerson, documenting her from keel to masthead for a gallery exhibit sponsored by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum entitled: Sleeping Giant. Recent work has found him shipping out on the Lakes’ oldest operational vessel–the S.S. St. Marys Challenger–as she approached the centennial anniversary of her maiden voyage in 2006, and capturing the high points of the final season of the legendary Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw.
Chris is an advertising an editorial photojournalist based in Milwaukee, WI. A dynamic lecturer and frequent contributor to Great Laker magazine, his first book pf photographs titled: Centennial: Steaming Through the American Century will be published in June of 2008. His maritime artwork and documentary photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the region.
Posts by Chris Winters:
| | Image gallery, 05/02/2008 | | Good Tidings from the Apex, 05/01/2008 | | Great Lakes Library, 04/30/2008 | | Centennial: Steaming Through the American Century, 04/29/2008 | | Ghosts of the Shipwreck Coast, 04/29/2008 |
|  Kami Dolney is the Marketing Communications Manager for Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) in Cleveland, Ohio. For those new to the company, GLBC is a principle-centered, environmentally respectful and socially conscious company committed to crafting fresh, flavorful, high-quality beer and food for the Great Lakes region.
Kami graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, in 1999 with a degree in Economics. No longer interested in crunching statistics, but blessed with a penchant for writing and communication, she spent three and a half years crafting her position as the Director of Marketing & Communications at West Side Ecumenical Ministry (WSEM), a Cleveland social service agency serving those in need. Because of the energy spent on the social service aspect of the organization, the environmental aspect needed particular grooming. Kami took initiative and began a paper recycling program by not only placing recycling bins throughout the complex, but also sorting, separating and delivering the weekly load to the local paper recycling plant...until she got smart and had a recycling dumpster dropped onsite.
Through an interesting turn of events in 2002, Kami ended up as the Marketing Coordinator for GLBC after meeting one of the co-owners at a GLBC-WSEM sponsored event. GLBC had a need (at the time) for a Green Coordinator, which she originally applied for because of her interest in GLBC's "zero waste initiatives" which included running a shuttlebus on biodiesel, utilizing worms for composting office paper and kitchen scraps and recycling spent brewer's grain as cattle feed used by local farmers. The need for marketing supplanted the need for a green coordinator (again at the time) and thus, Kami's role in marketing continued.
Aside from engaging in and communicating about the zero waste initiatives that GLBC executes on a daily basis, Kami has been instrumental in planning GLBC's annual environmental and music fest called the Great Lakes Burning River Fest (www.burningriverfest.org) and serving on GLBC's 501c3 foundation, the Burning River Foundation. In addition, she was an Education Assistant at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (where she met her husband!) and a volunteer with Youth Outdoors, which introduces inner-city youth to the great outdoors. A Northeast Ohio native her entire life, she considers Lake Erie the crown jewel of this region and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe an oceanfront villa in the Mediterranean).
Posts by Kami Dolney:
| | Can Cleveland Really Become a Green Hub?, 04/21/2008 |
|  Nina Gadomski started freelance writing in 1989 and contributed articles to Chicago area newspapers until the early 2000s. These included lead feature stories for The Pioneer Press (local businesses, summer travel sections), Safety + Health (National Safety Council magazine), The Daily Herald (Travel, Neighbor), The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (summer travel section), The Chicago Tribune (Sunday Tempo zoned, Sunday Real Estate).
Her first book, Great Midwest Country Escapes: Farms, Foods, and Festivals, was published by Trails Books (Black Earth, WI) in 2005. It is an agri-tourism guidebook to six Midwestern states, and available online, in major bookstores throughout the Midwest, and in gift shops at the places she visited. These include buffalo ranches, apple orchards, restored pioneer mills and many more. She has spoken on the subject at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin, and at the Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park, Illinois, and has done several radio interviews.
Nina's second book, Lake Michigan Travel Guide, was published in March 2008 by Trails Books. It takes readers all the way around the lakeshore, stopping at maritime museums, lighthouses, beaches, lakefront parks and unusual sites such as an Indian burial mound. It also takes readers out on the lake, aboard cross-lake ferries, replica sailing schooners, tour boats and more.
Nina has won several regional poetry awards, including one sponsored by Illinois' Starved Rock State Park. She was graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, with a B.S. in Advertising Communications. She currently lives ten miles west of Lake Michigan in the Chicago area.
Posts by Nina Gadomski:
| | Excerpt from Lake Michigan Travel Guide, 04/18/2008 | | Excerpt from Lake Michigan Travel Guide, 04/17/2008 | | Excerpt from Lake Michigan Travel Guide, 04/16/2008 | | Research Notes: In the Water and On the Road, 04/15/2008 | | Getting Out on the Water, 04/14/2008 |
|  Stephanie Smith has been on staff with the Alliance since 2001, and serves as the education director for the organization. Her responsibilities include education to students of all ages. She is responsible for developing and implementing Great Lakes in My World, a comprehensive K-8 educational resource. She oversees and coordinates the Alliance’s Adopt-a-Beach program.
In her spare time, she enjoys spending time at Lake Michigan with her husband and 18 month old daughter.
Jamie S. Cross joined the staff at the Alliance in 1999, and serves as Outreach Program Manager for the organization. She coordinates the Alliance’s Adopt-a-Beach program in Michigan and oversees the September Adopt-a-Beach event
in Michigan. She also serves as the coordinator for the Partner Network, a coalition of more than 200 community-based and regional organizations from around the Great Lakes basin focused on restoring and maintaining the land and waters that feed into the lakes.
In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her teenage daughter Alex and walks along the Lake Michigan shoreline near her home in West Michigan.
Frances Canonizado joined the Alliance staff in 2007, and serves as Outreach Coordinator for Illinois and Indiana. Her responsibilities include coordinating the Adopt-a-Beach program in Illinois and Indiana and overseeing the September Adopt-a-Beach cleanup events in those states. Additionally, she coordinates the Lake Michigan Watershed Ecosystem Partnership, a coalition of public, private and not-for-profit entities created to promote, preserve, protect and enhance the natural, cultural, recreational and sustainable economic resources of Lake Michigan and its watershed in Illinois.
Frances and her husband, Dennis, live in the Chicago area. Enjoying the beauty of Lake Michigan has always been part of their lives -- now more than ever, since they adopted their dachshund, Marley, who loves to play in the sand.
Todd Brennan joined the Alliance staff in April 2008, and serves as the Wisconsin Outreach Coordinator..His responsibilities include outreach to schools, residents and organizations while coordinating the Adopt-a-Beach program in Wisconsin. In addition, he will assist the Alliance’s policy and advocacy program staff with work on water conservation and the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact.
Todd has spent the last five years sailing nearly 20,000 nautical miles on all five Great Lakes, the East Coast and the Caribbean engaging learners of all ages in immersive marine/aquatic experiential education and scientific research. He is happiest spending time with his daughter gardening, sailing and exploring their world together.
Posts by Adopt-a-Beach:
| | Transcending Trash: Adopters Test Waters of Great Lakes Stew, 04/11/2008 | | Beyond the Beach: Clearing Shorelines … and So Much More, 04/10/2008 | | Youth Stewardship: More than Just the “Right” Thing to Do, 04/09/2008 | | Volunteer Beach Adopters: “Part of Much Bigger Effort”, 04/08/2008 | | ABC's for Adopt-a-Beach, 04/07/2008 |
|  Patricia Pennell is environmental educator, photographer and writer with a lifelong interest in watershed ecology and botany. She specializes in using rain gardens for stormwater management and stormwater education. She is a recognized authority on rain garden construction and design. She has consulted on or installed over thirty rain gardens as head of the rain garden program for West Michigan Environmental Action Council in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the author of raingardens.org. Through the website, she responds to rain garden questions from all over the world. She consults on environmental education and communications projects for businesses, municipalities, and non-profit organizations.
She is a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Education. She is a member of the River Photography Society of American Rivers.
She has enjoyed working for WMEAC since 2000. She lives on a beautiful river in Kent County, Michigan, where she watches bald eagles and osprey fish, river otters and kayakers play, and hummingbirds feed at her window.
Posts by Patricia Pennell:
| | River Life, 04/05/2008 | | Making Great Lakes Traditions, 04/03/2008 | | Growing Up Great Lakes, 04/02/2008 | | The Bay City Chronicles, 03/31/2008 | | Your special places in the Great Lakes, 03/31/2008 |
|  Judy Martin met her husband Ned while attending university in Thunder Bay and the couple settled for a while on a farm north west of that city. Her view of the magnificent Sleeping Giant peninsula stretching into Lake Superior was the inspiration for her first art quilt.
Ned and Judy are proud to have raised four young adults; each of whom has chosen a career grounded in environmental activism. The parents believe that the boating and camping experiences on Lake of the Woods and on Georgian Bay while growing up provided their children with a profound connection with nature.
Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron has been home for fifteen years now, and Judy’s daily view is of the Wikwemikong Peninsula. She continues to make artwork in a variety of media about her life and the environment and her guest spot on the Great Lakes Town Hall will provide visual energy to the ongoing forum.
View more of her work at www.judithmartin.info.
Posts by Judith Martin:
| | Walk the Walk, 03/28/2008 | | Moisture and Greenness, 03/27/2008 | | Planet Earth, 03/26/2008 | | Hand Over Hand, 03/25/2008 | | Ecology and Memories of the Sleeping Giant, 03/24/2008 |
|  My wife and I moved into our house in the wooded dunes about one mile from the Lake Michigan shoreline in 1980. While doing some work in our yard that fall, I noticed all these colorful birds moving through the trees. I later realized what I had witnessed that day were wood warblers migrating south. I purchased a Peterson field guide for Eastern Birds to help with identification, which became a hobby.
Our property in Bridgman is a Backyard Wildlife Habitat #19096, certified by the National Wildlife Federation.
We feed the birds in our back yard and contribute bird counts to the Cornell Feeder Watch project and the Michigan Audubon Feeder Survey.
I am currently participating in several studies of birds including a citizen science project for Cornell University, Birds in Forested Landscapes, and an MDNR sponsored Michigan Bird Atlas project. I am a member of the Berrien Birding Club, sponsored by Berrien County Parks. My wife and I participate in the yearly Christmas Bird Count sponsored by the National Audubon Society.
Other interests include golfing and photography. I retired in 2004 and work part-time, on a contractual basis, for my former employer.
Posts by Brad Anderson:
| | HUMMINGBIRD MIGRATION, 03/21/2008 | | TURKEY VULTURE, Clean-up Crew, 03/20/2008 | | COMMON REDPOLL, Irruptive Finch, 03/19/2008 | | SAFE PASSAGE for Avian Migrants, 03/18/2008 | | AVIAN MIGRATION, Why do Birds Migrate?, 03/17/2008 |
|  After teaching in elementary school classrooms for 15 years, Wendy Lutzke joined the staff of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc as educator in 2003. Since that time she and her part-time educators have developed a curriculum that includes 18 maritime related school programs, a variety of weekend activities for families and adults, and hands-on outreach opportunities at schools, seminars, and community events.
Wendy considers herself a lifelong learner, and working at the museum provides endless opportunities to be immersed in the history and ecology of the Great Lakes. She is pleased that her position has allowed her many opportunities to form partnerships with people and institutions in the community and region whose goals allow them to reach out together to enrich people’s lives through learning about our beautiful Great Lakes.
A native of inland Lower Michigan, Wendy always thought she would end up living close to one of the Great Lakes. She and her husband Steve love spending time in their backyard, which is less than a mile from Lake Michigan, and Wendy often takes her early morning runs near the beach watching the sunrise over the lake.
Posts by Wendy Lutzke:
| | On the Beach, 03/14/2008 | | Awesome Opportunities, 03/13/2008 | | The View from Eighteen, 03/12/2008 | | Challenged and Inspired, 03/11/2008 | | Boundless Enthusiasm, 03/10/2008 |
|  From the first time Steven Huyser-Honig vacationed along the Lake Michigan shore as a small boy, he’s been captivated by the beauty of the Great Lakes. Beaches and dunes, lighthouses and breakwaters, farms and orchards, forests and streams, small towns and big cities—all are essential to the character of this timeless region.
As a self-taught photographer, Steve’s been extremely fortunate to be able to turn his passion into his profession. It began when his wife, Joan, a writer, needed illustrations to accompany her freelance articles. Soon they were collaborating as travel journalists. They loved the challenge of communicating a place’s singular beauty and people in photographs and words.
When family life dictated they spend their time closer to home, they formed Huyser-Honig Creative Services (http://www.hhcreatives.com) and focused on telling the stories of nonprofit organizations. Their lives have been greatly enriched by close association with so many people doing so much good.
In recent years Steve has once again been able to travel and photograph extensively in the Great Lakes. He formed Great Lakes Editions (http://www.greatlakeseditions.com) to share his love for the beauty of this region…and his dedication to preserving it for future generations.
To do his part to inform public opinion, Steve authors a blog on Great Lakes environmental issues: http://www.greatlakesforall.com. As a lighthouse enthusiast, Steve authors a blog on international lighthouse news: http://www.lighthouseforever.com.
Posts by Steven Huyser-Honig:
| | Show me the money, 03/05/2008 | | Sustained by beauty, 03/04/2008 | | Start where you are, 03/03/2008 |
|  I, Matt Jones, currently hold a position as the Water Resource Education specialist for the Allen County (IN) Partnership for Water Quality. The position was created with the formation of the Partnership in 2003; I’ve held it for the last two years.
I am a native “Hoosier” (we still don’t have a single explanation for what that means) and have lived in Fort Wayne most of my life. I spent some time in other locations, including the Grand Canyon (I worked there) but I live just east of the eastern sub-continental divide that defines the major watersheds of our county. I graduated from Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.- Ft. Wayne with a concentration in Environmental Studies back in 1992. My family grew up enjoying the rivers and the nature they provided. Specifically, we have a strong connection to the St. Joseph of the Maumee, or in the native tongue, Ke,mem,sh,wak,sh,piwi-“Bean River” (Natives and First Nations ; please forgive my sophomoric attempt at the Oumiamika tongue).
I still have so much more to explore of the Great Lakes. I have spent some time on or by all of them. I have almost completed visiting all of the Lake Erie islands and love the idea of island-hopping through all of the Great Lakes. My favorite interests are: Travel; Nature; Art; Music; History; Camping (in all 4 seasons); Hiking and anything to do with boats (mostly small, human or wind-powered crafts).
Posts by Matt Jones:
| | A Great Lakes National Park, 02/29/2008 | | "A Watershed Mentality", 02/28/2008 | | A Reflection on Sediment-laden Water, 02/27/2008 | | Storm Water Detention- Who Cares? Who Doesn't?, 02/26/2008 | | The Allen County Partnership for Water Quality, 02/25/2008 |
|  Wayne Grady was born on the Great Lakes in Windsor, Ontario, just south of Detroit, Michigan in 1948. His father's family came to Windsor from Michigan in the 1880s, and he still has relatives in the Cassopolis area. When Wayne began writing Great Lakes: A Natural History two years ago, he realized he'd lived his entire life in the Great Lakes basin, and that more than any mere political definition -- city, privince, state, even country -- the Great Lakes ecosystem is his home.
Wayne has been writing about science and nature since the 1980s. As editor of Harrowsmith, a Canadian back-to-the-land magazine published from a small town near Kingston, Ontario, until about 1990, he began writing and reading about nature. And it was through nature writing that he became aware of threats to the environment. He still believes that the best way to make readers care about the environment is to make them care about nature, and the best way to make them care about nature is to inform them about it. Most people do care about their environment, which is of course their habitat, and would do something about it if they knew enough about what is happening to it.
Wayne has written 10 books of nonfiction, including two books about paleontology (one on the connection between dinosaurs and birds); a book about nature in the city; books about coyotes and vultures and a
single Douglas-fir tree (which he co-authored with David Suzuki); and a book of essays about the relationships between humans, technology and wilderness. In all of his work, the theme has been the complex interractions that exist between the natural and the unnatural worlds we live in.
Wayne's most recent book, The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region, was published in October of 2007 by Greystone Books, and is available in fine bookstores everywhere.
Posts by Wayne Grady:
| | Invasive Species, 02/18/2008 |
|  Lori Taylor is a native Michigan artist. Long inspired by nature, she blends natural history and story in her mixed media paintings. Not only does she create original works of art for show and sale, but she also researches, designs, and produces educational exhibits and murals for Michigan nature centers out of her Pinckney studio.
She is also employed through Oakland County Parks & Rec. as a seasonal program specialist/naturalist for the Lewis Wint Nature Center in Clarkston and was selected as the 2007 Sleeping Bear Artist-in-Residence. The painting that she created during her three week stay hangs in the Philip Hart Visitor Center in Empire Michigan, entitled: “Sleeping Bear: The Legend”. Taking the area’s legend, flora, and fauna, she produced a mixed media piece telling the famous legend of the mother bear and her two cubs.
She enjoys kayaking, swimming, fossil hunting and looking for flora and fauna of the Great Lakes and need to always be within reach of the water and shore.
Posts by Lori Taylor:
| | Lake Collections and Recollections, 02/15/2008 | | Lake Michigan Artist-In-Residence, 02/14/2008 | | Superior Stories Old and New, 02/13/2008 | | Lake Huron Fauna, Flora, and Fossils, 02/12/2008 | | Great Lakes Memories of an Artist, 02/11/2008 |
|  Brent Gibson is Director of Communications for Great Lakes United. While managing the day-to-day communication needs of the coalition, Brent is also working to better understand how the values that move people to protect the environment can inspire others to view the natural world as a basic part of our social and cultural identity.
Brent recently completed a Master of Arts in Communication at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. For his thesis, he examined Canadian and U.S. news coverage of Great Lakes bulk water export, analyzing how sources framed the threat of export and the discussed the nature of potential policy solutions. In this work he reconsidered the role non-governmental organizations have traditionally been thought to play in policy reporting, suggesting that NGOs can act as elite sources, giving greater balance to a news system that heavily favours government and business voices.
Since joining Great Lakes United, Brent has resolved to take a swim in each of the Great Lakes. So far, three down, two to go.
Posts by Brent Gibson:
| | You Don't Know Me But...., 02/08/2008 | | (Why) Does the News Matter?, 02/06/2008 | | It’s About Burn Barrels, 02/05/2008 | | Big Lakes Syndrome, 02/04/2008 |
|  Last winter, Brenin Wertz-Roth took a leave of absence from school in Portland, Oregon to study the Great Lake of his native Michigan. The following summer, he sailed the shoreline of Lake Michigan in a 25-foot sailboat, sharing what he had learned and seeking to learn from the people he met.
Giving presentations at State Parks, libraries, schools, museums, and on tall ships, Brenin spoke about the history of the lakes, the urgent need to care for them and what it is like to live alone on the water. Keeping an online journal at www.greatlakesodeyssey.com, he shared stories from the water and the shoreline community with family and friends he made along the way.
Posts by Brenin Wertz-Roth:
| | Listening to the Lakes, 01/30/2008 |
|  Naomi Mjelde is a senior at the University of Minnesota. She will graduate this spring with a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science, Policy and Management with a focus on Education and Communication.
She grew up in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and spent much of her time at family cabins. After high school she spent a couple of months working on a farm in Costa Rica with the organization ANAI. These experiences developed her interest in encouraging sustainable community actions in water resources, agriculture and beyond.
After completing her Associates Degree at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, she was enthusiastic about beginning a degree through the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately, after her first semester she realized that design was not her passion. Thankfully, she discovered the degree she is currently pursing and is happy with the choice she made.
The last two years she has spent at the University of Minnesota have helped her to learn both about the problems that we face with environmental protection, but more importantly, the necessity of this protection.
Posts by Naomi Mjelde:
| | Celebrities as Environmental Advocates, 01/24/2008 | | The Problem or the Solution?, 01/23/2008 | | A Struggle for Sustainability, 01/22/2008 | | The Debate It Creates, 01/21/2008 |
|  Lee Trotta was born in Kenosha on the shore of Lake Michigan and earned his bachelor’s degree in geology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Since then Lee has spent his career defining, quantifying, and protecting the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin. He has published over 50 articles in the primary literature. While employed as a Hydrogeologist by Crispell-Snyder, he drafted proposals to help Waukesha and New Berlin meet their water needs without access to Great Lakes water and to delist impairments noted by EPA in the Milwaukee Estuary area.
Lee is the current President Elect and former news editor, Treasurer, and Membership Chair of the Wisconsin Ground Water Association. Prior to those duties, he was news editor and Treasurer of the Minnesota Ground Water Association. So he’s been around the Great Lakes a long time. Long enough to manage the Minnesota Water Use Program, design the Great Lakes Water Use Data Base, help draft water legislation for Wisconsin, publish outreach materials for the Pewaukee River Partnership, and catch his limit of salmon in Lake Michigan.
From 1969 to 1988, as a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, he focused on geology and water quality in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He then spent 3 years in Washington DC as Director of the Water-Quality Constituents Team for the National Water Information System.
Posts by Lee Trotta:
| | The Role of WGWA, 01/18/2008 | | The Radium Story - the role of water use, 01/17/2008 | | The Radium Story - Origins, 01/16/2008 | | The relation of rivers, lakes, and ground water, 01/15/2008 | | Containers of Great Lakes Water Flow, 01/15/2008 |
|  Amalia Baldwin spent her early years in the lovely town of Traverse City, Michigan, amongst cherry trees, dunes, forests, and, of course, Lake Michigan. The love she cultivated for the outdoors and the Great Lakes during her upbringing remains with her today, and she strives to share that love with others in all that she does. She earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology - focusing on the relationships that different cultures form with their natural landscapes. After a semester abroad in Australia, where she learned that native people were permitted to live within national parks, she returned to the U.S. and wrote a senior thesis about “cultural” national parks in Australia.
After college she worked seasonally as an interpretive park ranger/naturalist in national parks around the United States and traveled the world (visiting parks along the way) between seasons. She spent the summers of 1999, 2001, 2004, and 2006 as an interpretive ranger/naturalist at the western end of Isle Royale National Park (Windigo) – one of her favorite places in the world. Continuing the theme of exploring people’s relationships with the land, she returned to school (UW-Madison) in 2006 to work on an M.S. in Environmental Resources. Her thesis is an environmental history of the early national park movement at Isle Royale – in which she considers the place of humans in wilderness areas. She hopes to graduate in May and head into the world of either environmental/outdoor education or natural resources management. She is thrilled to be writing about Isle Royale, people, and place for the Great Lakes Town Hall.
Posts by Amalia Baldwin:
| | Out There, 01/05/2008 | | "Wild" Life?, 01/04/2008 | | From Home to Wilderness to Wilderness Home?, 01/03/2008 | | Visiting Wilderness, 01/02/2008 | | The Island and Me, 01/01/2008 |
|  Kyle Gill is a recent graduate (last week, if everything went correctly) of the University of Minnesota where he majored in natural resource management. Within this field he focused on environmental education and forestry. He has worked last two years during the summers and while in school for the Peter Reich Forest Ecology Lab doing lab and fieldwork. Most of his fieldwork took place in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northeastern Minnesota where he was collecting fire severity data following the recent Cavity Lake (summer 2006) and Ham Lake (spring 2007) wildfires. This work has not made him a forest ecology expert of any sorts but has given him a first-hand look at how the fires affected the forests and how the forests are reacting. The extended time in the BWCAW has also given Kyle time to think about why wilderness may be important and has affected how he views the wilderness area. Additionally, he also has some interesting stories about being and working in the wilderness.
Much of Kyle’s life has been spent around Minnesota. Rochester is where he grew up, but he has also spent time in Western Australia, Alberta, Germany, Latin America, and Haiti. He sees writing for the Great Lakes Town Hall as an adventure because it will allow him to write creatively and relatively informally for a broad audience, which he hasn’t been doing while getting his B.S. During the week you’ll see a mix of stories, reflection, and questions. These pieces will be based out of his work in the BWCAW but will also draw on issues that have come up during school and life in general while living in the Great Lakes region and experiencing other parts of the world. He hopes that through his writing you will fondly reflect on your own outdoor experiences and also ask questions about their meaning for moving forward in a changing world.
Posts by kylegill:
| | Don't touch that zebra mussel! It's just trying to survive., 12/21/2007 | | Wilderness Restoration?, 12/20/2007 | | Our trip to the moon, 12/19/2007 | | A 40 foot spider web, 12/18/2007 | | Wolves and a Rookie, 12/17/2007 |
|  Dick Huey grew up and lived on the shore of Lake Michigan for 50 years in the center of what is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and has lived on Lake Superior’s southern shore in the Upper Peninsula since 1991. He holds a Master’s degree from Stanford. Dick is a Realtor specializing in whole private lakes and large tracts of land with rivers, streams or lakes in the U.P. He is particularly proud that in 16 years of selling these kinds of properties only one has been subsequently divided.
Dick started Save the Wild UP in November of 2004 and devotes much of his time to that organization. “SWUP” has been a public face of the opposition to Kennecott’s metallic sulfide mine proposed for the Yellow Dog Plains near Marquette, but its vision for the future is “saving the wild U.P.” from division and unsustainable development using a variety of tools such as conservation easements, seminars, field trips and public education.
Posts by Richard K. Huey:
| | DEQ Permits U.P. Sulphide Mine, 12/14/2007 | | Great odds for Great Lakes?, 12/13/2007 | | Risky Business, 12/12/2007 | | Sulphide Mining Between the Lakes, 12/11/2007 | | Real Estate, 12/10/2007 |
|  At three weeks old, Catherine Williams made her first journey to Northern Michigan from Columbus, Ohio. Her family vacationed at Walloon Lake, near Petoskey, and in the twenty-eight years since, Catherine has not missed a summer. During this time, her family has added new members, made many friends, and created lasting memories. She has visited in almost every month of the year. Though Catherine has traveled to and lived in many beautiful places, when she closes her eyes and imagines comfort and relaxation, the water of Walloon appears vividly in her mind.
Since graduating from Bowdoin College in 2001, Catherine has pursued a career in environmental and outdoor education. She has taught programs near Portland, Oregon, and in Yosemite National Park, led backpacking trips in the Olympic Mountains, North Cascades, Sierra Nevadas, US and Canadian Rockies, has been a certified whitewater kayaking instructor and raft guide, and generally enjoys the outdoors.
Through her most recent employer, Yosemite Institute, Catherine received the Matthew A. Baxter Memorial Fund to set out on an exploration of the Great Lakes by kayak. This past summer she journeyed nearly 350 miles, mostly by herself, along the shores of Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior. Through this humbling experience, Catherine has developed a deeper respect for these bodies of water, as well as for the people who surround them.
Posts by cwilliatwo:
| | Part IV, 12/07/2007 | | Part III, 12/06/2007 | | Part II, 12/05/2007 | | Part I, 12/04/2007 | | Why I Wanted To Go, 12/03/2007 |
|  Jim Te Selle grew up spending the summers on Lake Michigan at his grandparents' cottage right on the beach. From little on, he's loved nature. Upon gaining adulthood, a condition he's not really sure he likes, he went to college, got a job, a mortgage, a wife, and twin boys - all the trappings of the 'successful' American male. But it wasn't enough. Lately retired, Jim now finds that he has an opportunity to help give Mother Nature a hand in dealing with all the problems humankind has dealt her.
Jim has traveled extensively around the world, speaks several languages, and has even lived in China. The experience has taught him a lot. He likes to point out that we Americans don't appreciate what we've got, and need to put more effort into keeping our environment and our quality of life healthy. Too few people today bother to take note of environmental problems until it's in their back yard, and then of course it's too late.
Today he is the president of a group of Lake Michigan shoreline property owners, the Wisconsin Great Lakes Coalition (WGLC), which acts as an advocacy group to encourage a successful Great Lakes Restoration.
Posts by Jim Te Selle:
| | "I didn't do it!", 11/30/2007 | | The Fattest Worms in the World, 11/28/2007 | | Pancakes and Bacon, 11/28/2007 | | "Jesus Wept", 11/27/2007 | | Throwing Sand Was Against the Rules, 11/26/2007 |
|  Christy McGillivray grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, but graduated from high school in Birmingham, MI—a suburb of metro-Detroit. After attending Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, MI for three semesters she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in Bonxville, NY and graduated with a liberal arts degree in 2004. At Sarah Lawrence College she concentrated her studies in political science, history, and the Italian language. During her senior year of college she interned for New York City Councilman Eric Gioia and the Working Families Party.
After graduating in 2004 Christy returned to Michigan and was hired as a canvasser for Clean Water Action in June of 2004. She worked full-time as a Clean Water Action canvasser and field manager for over a year, going door-to-door to educate communities on environmental issues, fundraising a minimum of $150 a day, and organizing political power for the environmental movement in Michigan.
In the fall of 2005 Christy was hired as the Lake St. Clair Community Organizer for Clean Water Action, and has been working since then to build on the grassroots support generated by the CWA canvass. As an organizer she worked on Clean Water Action’s electoral accountability work in 2006, and on Clean Water Action’s legislative campaigns to stop large scale diversions of Great Lakes waters, reform chemical policy through a collaborative environmental health perspective, and to stop the importation of out-of-state and Canadian trash into Michigan. Since the spring of 2007 she has worked as Clean Water Action’s Senior Organizer in Michigan—offering support and training to other CWA staff in Michigan.
Posts by Christy McGillivray:
| | Forget what your parents told you: talk to strangers!, 11/21/2007 | | Public Pressure = Public Control, 11/20/2007 | | Lower Lake Levels? There's a lot more coming on the horizon., 11/19/2007 |
|  Jared Bartley is the Rocky River Watershed Coordinator for the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District, on the shores of Lake Erie in Northeast Ohio. In this role, he is tasked with coordinating the implementation of the Rocky River Watershed Action Plan, which calls for the protection and restoration of streamside forest buffers, the reduction of excess nutrients and fecal bacteria in the Rocky River and its tributaries, and increased public involvement in the stewardship of the watershed.
Jared has a degree in Geology from Case Western Reserve University, and recently returned to northeast Ohio after spending five years promoting agroforestry and organic farming methods in El Salvador as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and providing technical and organizational assistance to watershed groups in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia as a Circuit Rider for Canaan Valley Institute.
Posts by Jared Bartley:
| | The Rocky River Backyard Buffers Program, 11/16/2007 | | The Rocky River Watershed Festival, 11/15/2007 | | Where we are and how we got here…, 11/13/2007 | | A Brief Introduction to the Rocky River Watershed, 11/11/2007 |
|  Cameron Davis is the President and Chief Executive Director of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Prior to starting this position, he was a litigating attorney and served as an adjunct clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School. He also served with the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, and U.S. EPA's Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago.
He graduated from Boston University in 1986, and received his J.D. and certification in environmental law from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1992. He began his career in environmental advocacy as a volunteer for the Lake Michigan Federation in 1986. Today Cameron lives on the shores of Lake Michigan and tries to swim in it at least three times a week, but only when it's warm enough.
Posts by Cameron Davis:
| | Congress’ Next Step for the Great Lakes, 11/09/2007 | | Next President: New Standard of Care for the Great Lakes, 11/08/2007 | | Water as the Campaign Issue, 11/07/2007 | | Reviewing the Candidates' Records, 11/06/2007 | | It’s Time for Great Lakes Voters to Flex their Mussels, 11/05/2007 |
|  Sandy Bihn became Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper in 2004. Elected to the City Council of Oregon, Ohio in 2005, Sandy is also the former finance director for the city. She led the city team that changed Oregon's logo to "Oregon on the Bay" from a chemical beacon. She established HELP, a grassroots organization, to help limit out of state waste dumping and migration of hazardous waste to Lake Erie, and was active in establishing the city's recycling program.
Sandy serves as Western Lake Erie Sierra Club Conservation Chair; as a board member of Ohio Citizen Action, as a board member Duck and Otter Creek Watershed, on the advisory committee of the Maumee Area of Concern remedial action plan, and numerous other committees and projects. She serves as Executive Director of the Maumee Bay Association and president of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society.
The Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper designated area includes the Western Basin of Lake Erie, beginning at the Ohio line of the Maumee River, extending to Sandusky/Point Pelee in Lake Erie. Sandy's waterkeeper work is affiliated with the Water Alliance, whose president is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Posts by Sandy Bihn:
| | New Permits - New Issues Great Lakes, 11/01/2007 | | Coal Plant and More Mercury, 10/31/2007 | | Green Waters - Lake Erie, 10/30/2007 | | A New Invasive... Who Do You Call??, 10/28/2007 |
|  Lynn McClure is the Midwest Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association (www.NPCA.org). NPCA, the leading voice for protecting and enhancing our National Park System, just opened the Midwest office in August of this year. As Midwest director, Lynn covers a 10-state region, including the parks of the Great Lakes: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan; Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Grand Portage National Monument, and Keewenaw National Historical Park on Lake Superior.
Prior to joining NPCA, Lynn was a consultant working on environmental and conservation issues, such as climate change and open space preservation. She was a founding member of Partners for Parks & Wildlife, the successful, award-winning campaign to secure $34 million of open space funding in Illinois.
Posts by Lynn McClure:
| | What goes around, comes around, 10/19/2007 | | Threats and challenges from visitors, 10/18/2007 | | Sleeping Bear's challenge with invasives, 10/17/2007 | | Isle Royale show signs of global warming, 10/16/2007 | | NPCA's role in the Great Lakes, 10/15/2007 |
|  Peter Bakken is Coordinator for Public Policy at the Wisconsin Council of Churches. He earned his B.A. in English and Religion from Concordia College, and his Ph. D. in Theology from the University of Chicago. From 1991 to 2005 he was Coordinator of Outreach and Research Fellow at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. He serves on the boards of the Biodiversity Project, the Lutheran Office for Public Policy in Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign. He was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife and daughter, where they are members of Advent Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
Posts by Peter Bakken:
| | Spiritual Value of Place, 10/12/2007 | | A Place to Share, 10/11/2007 | | The Landscape of Home, 10/10/2007 | | Home Places, one being Lake Michigan, 10/09/2007 | | Landscape of Grace, 10/08/2007 |
|  Jennifer Malinowski has a Masters degree in Natural Resources (Environmental Education) from The Ohio State University. She is in her third year as Program Manager for the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association. Programs that Jennifer has taken the lead on include the upcoming Michigan Solar Tour and the Michigan Energy Fair. In 2007, the Michigan Energy Fair educated over 4000 attendees about sustainable energy practices. For more information about GLREA programs, please visit www.glrea.org.
Posts by Jennifer Malinowski:
| | Michigan Needs a RPS Today!, 10/05/2007 | | Notes from "A Conversation on Energy...", 10/04/2007 | | GLREA Project Aims to Facilitate Wind Development in Michiga, 10/03/2007 | | See Renewable Energy in Action!, 10/02/2007 | | Wind Energy in Michigan, 10/01/2007 |
|  This week Great Lakes Town Hall co-moderators Dave Dempsey and Gary Wilson will be coming to us live from the Third Annual Healing Our Waters Conference in Chicago. This year's conference will feature sessions organized around the unveiling of the HOW Economics Report and identify tangible next steps for restoration.
Posts by Notes from the HOW Conference:
| | "Politics is the currency by which things get done", 09/08/2007 | | A Surprise Visit from Senator Durbin!, 09/07/2007 | | Rep. Corey Mason is a hit, 09/07/2007 | | talk, not action, so far, 09/07/2007 | | "Obama will be a Great Lakes President"..., 09/06/2007 | | HOW Kickoff: Lakes Restoration = $50 Billion Gain, 09/05/2007 | | 3rd Healing Our Waters Conference Starts Thursday in Chicago, 09/05/2007 |
|  Carolyn A. Marsh lives in Whiting, Indiana. She became a bird watcher in the late 1980?s after she moved from Chicago to Whiting. Because of her new intense interest in migratory birds in her community along Lake Michigan, she began to watchdog a plan in Hammond to build one of the nation?s largest marinas next to a hot spot for migratory birds then referred to as the ?migrant trap?. The vacant property was owned by NIPSCO and was a construction landfill that migrants used as a stopover.
She successfully led the campaign, one of the broadest coalitions ever to protect bird habitat, in Indiana. The 16-acre property is now the Hammond Lakefront Park and Sanctuary and 9.5 acres are protected under a bird conservation easement with the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation. It is recognized by the National Audubon Society as an Indiana Important Bird Area.
She has also been involved in wetland projects, one involving an area targeted for redevelopment from a brownfield to a golf course.
As the Great Blue Heron Project Leader for the Sand Ridge Audubon Society, the organization convinced the Town of Highland to protect the Highland rookery as a Nature Area.
Carolyn is the founder and convener of the Lake Michigan Calumet Advisory Council, which is a watchdog group advocating more green space along the Indiana shoreline.
She was appointed by BP to the BP Citizens? Advisory Committee as an environmentalist in February 2006 after attending a meeting conducted by the Baker Panel.
Posts by Carolyn A. Marsh:
| | Asphalt Plant Public Hearing Postponed, 08/31/2007 | | Outstanding Questions, 08/31/2007 | | Other BP Permits Slip Under the Radar Screen - Part 2, 08/29/2007 | | Other BP Permits Slip Under the Radar Screen - Part 1, 08/28/2007 | | BP Stakeholders Unduly Informed, 08/20/2007 |
|  Marci Singer joined Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in 2004 as Program Associate of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network & Fund. In the summer of 2005, Marci transitioned to the Communications and Development team, with a focus on policy, to support Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council through her experience in communications, marketing and project management. Having grown up in northern Michigan, Marci is excited to use her strategic concept creation, grace with grammar, energy and perseverance to make a difference not only in helping to protect water quality in northern Michigan, but also throughout the Great Lakes Basin.
Posts by Marci Singer:
| | What will your legacy be?, 08/17/2007 | | Doing your part to keep our waters clean, 08/16/2007 | | Simple actions you can take that will make a difference, 08/15/2007 | | The ripple effect, 08/14/2007 | | What do the Great Lakes mean to you?, 08/13/2007 |
|  Kevin Mercer & Jennifer Hounsell's story on the connection between what we do at home and the health of our rivers and lakes is excerpted from ?Let it Rain - from Runoff to Renewal: Stories of Successful Stormwater Management Projects from the Field? a new publication of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund (GLAHNF).
Kevin Mercer is the founding Executive Director of RiverSides Stewardship Alliance. Jennifer Hounsell is the former RiverSides Program Director. RiverSides is dedicated to a future in which healthy rivers, free from polluted runoff and stormwater flows, contribute to ecologically sustainable communities. RiverSides protects rivers by reducing runoff pollution from individual properties. They deliver the knowledge and tools people need to make the connection between personal action and healthy rivers.
"Let It Rain" features Great Lakes advocates, like RiverSides, who have turned the challenges of stormwater management - including polluted runoff and flooding - into opportunities for environmental and community renewal.
Posts by Kevin Mercer & Jennifer Hounsell:
| | Getting to Know Your Rain - Pt. 5, 07/20/2007 | | Getting to Know Your Rain - Pt. 4, 07/19/2007 | | Getting to Know Your Rain - Pt. 3, 07/18/2007 | | Getting to Know Your Rain - Pt. 2, 07/17/2007 | | Getting to Know Your Rain, 07/16/2007 |
|  A native of Flushing, Michigan, Lauri Kay Elbing received a B.A. from Michigan State University where she studied Interdisciplinary Humanities, which included three minors; world literature, political science and Japanese language and culture, including studying abroad for one calender year in Japan.
Lauri has served on the staffs of state and federal legislators, the Michigan Democratic Party, the National Wildlife Federation and was appointed to the Planning Commission for the City of Ann Arbor. She has worked on countless political campaigns and ballot initiatives for the last 20 years. During her tenure with Congressman John D. Dingell, Lauri was his primary community liaison representing both him and the interests of his constituents and she provided leadership on key regional projects, including: the MotorCities Automobile National Heritage Area, Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, Downriver Linked Greenways, Greater Detroit American Heritage River Partnership, Downriver Summit and the Downriver Area Brownfield Consortium. Lauri remains engaged in politics to support wise public policy and great public servants.
Lauri is drafting a thesis to complete the requirements for a Master of Science Degree from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment with an emphasis on Natural Resource Policy and Behavior.
Posts by Lauri Kay Elbing:
| | Have You Seen the Effects of Global Warming?, 07/13/2007 | | Collaborative Conservation, 07/12/2007 | | A Wild Dream, 07/11/2007 |
|  Dorothy Lagerroos's story on restoring fish-friendly culverts in Northern Wisconsin's Bad River watershed is excerpted from ?Let it Rain - from Runoff to Renewal: Stories of Successful Stormwater Management Projects from the Field? a new publication of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund (GLAHNF).
Dorothy is Professor of Environmental Studies at Northland College and a founding member of the Bad River Watershed Association. Since 2002 the BRWA has been working to promote the healthy interconnection between the human and natural communities of the watershed by involving all citizens in maintaining the integrity o
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