We started our trip around the Great Lakes almost a year ago with a post about Lake Superior. We’ve moved from west to east, as the waters flow, through the largest freshwater system on earth. Today we’re moving to the final, easternmost lake, and the only one that does not border the state of Michigan – Lake Ontario.  

Lake Ontario is the smallest Great Lake by surface area, although only slightly smaller than Lake Erie. However, it is significantly deeper at an average of 283 feet (Erie’s average depth: 66 feet). This means that it has almost four times the volume of water of Lake Erie. This fact will be important for a future post about Toronto’s deep lake water cooling system. Stay tuned on that front!

Water comes into the lake from the Niagara River which famously drops over Niagara Falls. In the eastern basin of the lake, water flows out into the St. Lawrence River on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s thought that “Ontario” means “lake of shining waters” in the native Huron language. However, Lake Ontario lacks some of the physical and maritime beauty of some of the other Great Lakes. Several factors also make it the least productive commercial fishery of the Great Lakes.  

The dynamics of wind across Lake Ontario has a number of impacts. One is substantial lake effect snow which famously dumps snow on places like Syracuse, NY (the snowiest city in the United States). But another impact of the wind are some pocket areas of microclimates that allow for a vibrant wine industry – notably right near Niagara Falls.

The human and built world on Lake Ontario’s shores has several remarkable places. 

The first is Toronto which, with a population of around 2.9 million people, is the fourth largest city in North America. It’s a dynamic, bustling, global city. We had a terrific three days there in the summer of 2023 that I’ll share about in a future post. 

buildings near body of water at night

Little known fact: It’s said that Babe Ruth hit his first home run ever in 1914 out of a ballpark in Toronto and into Lake Ontario.

Across the lake, Rochester is New York’s third largest city. While the city has experienced economic challenges over the past half-century, it has a rich history in the fields of photography, xerography, and optics as the home of Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb among other companies.

Areas to the west of Rochester attract millions of visitors to see Niagara Falls. There are actually three water falls – Horseshoe Falls, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. 3,160 tons of water flow over the three every second. Niagara Falls is the oldest state park in America. It opened in 1885 and over 8 million people visit every year.

waterfalls near gray paved road surrounded by green leaf trees during daytime

Some tourists make their way to Niagara-by-the-Lake, a popular summer destination at the mouth of the Niagara River with wineries and a well-known summer theater festival.

In my post on the Great Lakes as characters of the 1980s movie The Breakfast Club, I said that Lake Ontario would be like Brian Johnson as played by Anthony Michael Hall – the small and cerebral lake. But it has ambitions for something larger. As waters flow into the St. Lawrence River, the freshwater of the Great Lakes is ocean-bound. It will eventually meet the saltwater and will no longer be of the inland seas, but of the enormous expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

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With the calendar turning to October, summer 2024 has officially closed out. It’s time to reflect and celebrate the “ta das” of summer (the flip side of the “to dos”).

person writing a to do list

In a mid-May post I outlined my six Great Lakes summer intentions – specific things I wanted to do by the end of the season. I shared that this is part of a strategy called design your summer that I’ve implemented for quite a few years after hearing about it on the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Each year I have found that setting, and then often completing, my summer intentions makes the season more vivid and memorable. 

As of this post, I have completed five of my six intentions. The one that I did not get to – a trip out to one of my favorite lakefront parks, Lake Erie Bluffs – is on the calendar for this coming weekend, paired with taking the girls out for breakfast and buying pumpkins and mums, which abound in the counties east of us. 

Additional Great Lakes moments happened unexpectedly or spontaneously over the summer. See my post from August that shares a couple – the playful Great Lakes water table at the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the gem that is Edgewater Beach in Cleveland on a sunny Friday.

Our family outing to see the sunset from the Solstice Steps in Lakewood Park will remain an exceptionally rich memory. Since moving to Cleveland in 2014, we have always loved this park. It has an enormous playground that both of the girls have always looked forward to visiting. On our very first visit to the park, likely in 2015, we wandered down to the waterfront and found the lookout at the furthest east point of the promenade along the water. It looks directly east at the downtown Cleveland skyline. My husband, who grew up on the east side of the city, said that it was a completely new view of the city to him. It’s amazing how we end up living somewhere and, for no fault of our own, often end up with informally drawn boundaries, angles, and perspectives from which we see and experience it.

We went on a beautiful night, although the sky was very clear and so the sunset was attractive, but not unique. Catching a good sunset is tricky. It’s some clouds in the sky that create the sweeping, radiant, glowing sunsets where light ricochets around the sky. For optimal sunsets, you are looking for mid-level and high clouds with 50% cloud coverage.

As we sat on the huge stone steps nestled into the hillside, we were surrounded by the sounds of people making summer linger – music, laughter, children playing during dusk. People were seated all around like an amphitheater, watching this minor miracle of each and every day. When the sun dropped below the horizon line, everyone applauded.

The curtain has dropped on the season, but we had a really great summer. It felt long and leisurely. Fall has been a pretty significant gear shift. Even when trying intentionally to not be overbooked, it often just happens. I miss the slower pace and am trying two strategies to keep some of that slower pace at other points of the year. One is blocking time on the calendar for rest. For example, there is a Sunday afternoon in October where I have blocked 2-6 as an afternoon of rest; I will not book other plans at that time. 

The other strategy is small adventure-big adventure, which is a permutation on content by the writer and podcaster Laura Vanderkam. I try to have one small adventure every week; this might be solo or it might be with the family. The scope of an adventure can be very modest – a walk at a park, a local event, coffee with a friend. I also try to have at least one big adventure each month.  The scope of this can also be fairly modest – one of our family favorites is to pair either a park walk and exploration with a meal out or in colder months perhaps a museum with a meal.  For the meals, we often look for a hidden gem that is new to the family. 

So, here’s to fall adventures! If you’d like to see a re-cap from my summer, check-out my Instagram reel posted this week.

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Today’s post is a challenge because there are multiple storylines converging. As I’m writing, I’m thinking about you, my readers, and wondering which storylines you will find interesting because I find many things interesting that not everyone does! I’ve been hearing about the looming danger of Asian carp since getting involved in Great Lakes environmental advocacy, but I know this topic may not be as familiar to many of you. 

What are Asian carp?

The term Asian carp generally refers to four invasive species of carp: bighead, silver, black and grass. These species were brought to the southern United States from Southeast Asia in the 1970s to help control algae and weeds in aquaculture ponds and wastewater treatment facilities. However, both flooding and accidental releases of the fish allowed them to get into local waterways. They made their way quickly into the Mississippi River system and have now spread across much of the US, including the Illinois River watershed. They are now wildly overpopulated in many waterways.

In November, 2021, the Illinois Department of Natural resources announced that it was proposing a new name for Asian carp: Copi. There were two reasons for the proposed name change. One was that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, anti-Asian sentiment had turned more vitriolic and there was a desire to shift from unfairly associating another challenging issue with Asian countries and peoples. The other reason was a marketing ploy to encourage people and the food industry to purchase more Asian carp for consumption, essentially as an invasive species control mechanism. I will note that both the name Copi and the fish appearing on menus have been slow to gain traction.  

Why are they a problem?

The primary threat from Asian carp is competition with native species for food. They eat native species out of existence given that some carp can grow to up to four feet in length and and 100 pounds. Given their size, which I know sounds insane, a secondary threat is boat and person safety in and on waterways when they are present. Notably silver carp are so physical that they come flying out of the water and can impact boat stability, safety and navigation. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video clip as illustration. 

How can we keep them out of the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada all take the position that the only way to preserve the Great Lakes fishery is to prevent the introduction of Asian carp into the lakes. The focal point to prevent arrival are the waterways in Illinois leading into Lake Michigan. 

It’s now that I link us to my last post on the waterways around Chicago. Asian carp have been seen as close as nine miles out from Lake Michigan in the Chicago River and their DNA has been traced to even closer but they have not yet been documented in the lake. The most specific focal point for keeping the carp out is the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River. While there are currently mechanisms in place to prevent the carp from getting past this juncture, they are a semi-coordinated effort. There have been plans for a more extensive project in the state and federal assessment and pipeline phase for several decades. 

What’s the recent good news?

In June, the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project’s funding plan was confirmed and approved to the tune of $1B and construction will start soon. The states of Illinois and Michigan will share 10% of this cost. This is a very low state cost-share and is critically enabling the project to move forward. The federal government, specifically the US Army Corps of Engineers, will cover 90% of the costs. 

The project will include air bubble curtains, electric barriers and acoustic deterrents. I heard a description from an expert at the Alliance for the Great Lakes and it literally sounds like a crazy elementary age child’s brainstorm – First we smother the fish with bubbles! Then we zap them with an electric shock! Then we deafen them with horrific noises!

But a science fair project this is not. What’s at stake is the $7B Great Lakes fishing industry as well as the tourism and recreation industry of the region. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and recognize with appreciation this enormous effort from our federal government to protect Great Lakes waters and people. 

If this storyline interests you, I highly recommend this article from Detroit Free Press about the danger of Asian carp and the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project.

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Over Labor Day weekend I accomplished another item on my Great Lakes summer intentions list. We were in Chicago for a family event but had a gap in the schedule Saturday afternoon and I made it to a Chicago area beach. We were in the northern suburbs so the closest beach was Tower Road Park and Beach in Winnetka. It was a beauty for sure. Colorful umbrellas and shade coverings dotted the wide swath of sand while boats puttered out into Lake Michigan from a nearby marina. There was a generous swimming area and playground on the beach.

Chicago’s size and expanse always impresses me whenever I visit. So much highway. So many surface roads. So many diners. There are just a heck of a lot of people living in and around the city (2.6 million in the city; 8.9 million in the metro area). All these people require a lot of built infrastructure to live, including clean water and sanitation systems. 

How Chicago managed to develop both of these for its growing population at the turn of the 20th century is one of the greatest engineering feats of its time. The flow of the Chicago River was fully reversed to prevent water polluted by industry and sewage from moving into Lake Michigan, which has always been Chicago’s drinking water source. I’m going to share the story this week because it’s incredible – but it also sets up my next post, which will be about one of the most important recent developments for the Great Lakes.

river between trees and city skyscrapers
Photo by Heather B on Pexels.com

Prior to white settlers in the Chicago area, the Chicago River was a slow, somewhat unremarkable river that flowed through a soggy wetland. Two branches merged about a mile from Lake Michigan before flowing into the lake. In a twist of geographical fate, there is a ridge running north and south through what is now the Chicago metro area that created a subtle but crucial divide. Waters on the east side flowed east into the Chicago River and out into the lake and on the west side down into the Des Plaines River and eventually out to the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico.

Starting in 1840 and extending through the Civil War, Chicago grew rapidly. Growing in parallel was Chicago’s enormous meat-packing industry. This industry contributed substantially to the pollution flowing into the river and out into Lake Michigan. By the 1880s, the situation was horrific. The river’s stench, drinking water contamination, and epidemics were constantly present. In 1886 a Citizen’s Association formed the Commission on Drainage and Water Supply. Eventually the Commission made several proposals to improve the situation, one of which was approved by the Illinois Legislature in 1889.

The proposal centered on building the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The canal would pull large amounts of water from Lake Michigan and, using a series of locks and dams, would shift the direction of the Chicago River, sending sewage out towards the Mississippi watershed while also creating a wider and deeper shipping channel that the Commission hoped might appease those downstream who were likely to be unhappy with the project.

The engineering required to build the canal throughout the 1890s is  beyond the scope of this post but it would not be too much to say that it was transformational. Equipment, tools and techniques developed in the process were replicated the world over, including in the construction of the Panama Canal. But the manpower required was also astronomical, and without question exploitative of recent immigrants and Blacks who were recruited or lured from the South to do the dangerous work. 

On January 2, 1900, a new century had dawned and with it came the initial intentional breach of a small dam holding water between the Chicago River and the new canal. It took two weeks for the canal to fill. On January 17, 1900, the controlling gates at Lockport, IL were opened, the Bear Trap Dam was lowered, and the river changed its course. The project had taken eight years from first shovel and had removed over 42 million cubic yards of soil and rock.

Technology can enable amazing things, like preserving drinking water for millions. But man-made solutions are not without environmental impacts, including sometimes wildly unexpected ones. Stay tuned for the next post to explore one directly related to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the health of all of the Great Lakes.

Much of the content of today’s post came from a terrifically informative six-page write-up on the Chicago River’s history from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of the City of Chicago.

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Summer is starting to transition here in northeast Ohio. The day of this post, August 21st, my girls go back to school, soccer practices have started, and the fall calendar is starting to fill up. Seasonally, there is still more of summer to come. I still have three summer intentions to tackle by the end of September! However, it already seems like a chance to share some moments and discoveries from my smaller adventures this summer. 

The Great Lakes Water Table in the Children’s Garden at the Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, MI. In late June my older daughter and I stopped in Grand Rapids for a night on our way up to her sleepaway camp in Northern Michigan. We spent an afternoon at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. This is a world class place – large scale sculpture, indoor gardens, outdoor gardens including one of the most extensive Japanese gardens I’ve visited. We also found an incredible way to splash around in all five lakes at one time! In the children’s garden there was an expansive water table for splash and play in the shape of the full Great Lakes system. 

Beach Clean-up at Huntington Beach, Bay Village, OH. In early August I registered to do an early morning beach clean-up with the Cleveland Metroparks at this beach several miles west of Cleveland. As I usually find to be true, once up and going, I loved being out early for a 7 AM start. The weather was a bit unsettled that morning and when I arrived at Huntington, I could hear thunder in the far distance, with dark clouds hovering and shifting to the north, over the lake. Over the next hour while I walked the beach, I was able to see the sky in movement with sun and light playing hide and seek with the clouds. Eventually the clouds took over and there was local thunder, lightning and rain so I wrapped up my clean-up and headed for a cup of coffee.  

Edgewater Beach, Cleveland. This is a prominent beach and park just west of downtown Cleveland. It has a long history with some ups and downs. However, few can criticize the work to revitalize the beach that the Cleveland Metroparks have done since taking it over in 2013. I met a wonderful friend for a walk on a summer Friday. Before leaving I visited the main hub near the beach and found that there is a BookBox branch of the Cleveland Public Library right on the beach. Love this so much!  

Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve. This is a smaller property on the lake to the east of downtown. Overseen by the Port of Cleveland, it’s notable for its bird activity; it’s clearly a rest stop along the lake for our feathered friends. It’s a favorite family outing for us and we had a walk and picnic with cousins there in July.

Walking the perimeter trail of the small peninsula, on one side you are gazing eastward. On the other side you are gazing westward right at the Cleveland skyline. It’s also an angle that leaves me with some frustration. You see Interstate 90 running right along the lake and then after that Burke Lakefront Airport, a small, municipal airport used mostly for private and charter flights. Both seem like an unfortunate use of lakefront land. The city of Cleveland has long committed to reinventing the lakefront, but initiatives and projects have often seemed to stall.

I will have more small adventures before the leaves turn. But then it will be fall, which is really a miracle of a season, no?

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I have a planning tool (a Trello board) where I keep track of blog post topics. There is one that I have had on my board for months, listed with an unknown date. It’s titled “Could Great Lakes water be piped?” and the entry includes notes from conversations I’ve had on the topic as a volunteer ambassador with the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Well, this topic just got bumped up to the top of the list. On my Monday morning news scan, I picked up an Opinion piece in the New York Times by Dr. Jay Famiglietti titled “Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation?”. Thanks to those of you who emailed or texted me the article as well!

white printer paper on white table
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

When I first read it at 8 AM, there were 32 reader comments on the article. I was somewhat stunned when I revisited it at 2 PM that same day to see over 1,800 reader comments. This is a good deal of traction for an Opinion piece in that amount of time. I generally never read article comments but this was an incredibly lively thread.

Reading them gave me a dizzying array of reactions, thoughts and emotions. But the overwhelming one was a form of pride and general excitement about the energy in the conversation. There were tons of readers from the Great Lakes region saying in many different frames, “Not on my watch”.

Dr. Famiglietti’s main points in the article:

Key food producing regions of the US (far west Great Plains, California and the southwest) rely on groundwater for irrigation and groundwater is disappearing. 

In order to continue producing food in these areas, water “must” be piped from other parts of the country, including the Great Lakes.

Some places (e.g. California) are trying to manage their groundwater, but it’s not clear whether that management is effective. There are other places (e.g. Arizona) that are engaging in minimal groundwater management.

The US does not have plans for the food scarcity that would result. This food scarcity would impact us all – not just those living in the west.

There would be massive challenges to considering a pipeline for water in regards to complexity, cost, politics and environmental disruption. 

There needs to be a national water policy that would support systematic exploration and management of groundwater.

sprinkling of grass land during dawn
Photo by Süleyman Şahan on Pexels.com

Dr. Famiglietti actually makes some important points regarding food systems and national water policy that I think he buries with the headline about pumping the Great Lakes. I was left wondering if he was seriously focused on the idea of piping Great Lakes water, or was using it to attract attention to the magnitude of the issue. If he is serious, there were two key facts missing from the article from my point of view:

The first was repeatedly jumped on by many commenters. There was NO mention in the article of the fact that the Great Lakes sit squarely across the US-Canadian border. This felt like sort of a stunning oversight. The waters are governed by international treaties. I don’t see Canada being down for this idea.

flag of canada
Photo by Social Soup Social Media on Pexels.com

The second key fact missing was clarity that, at this time, the Great Lakes waters are protected by The Great Lakes Compact. The Compact was signed into federal law in 2008 and it bans the diversion of water outside of the geographical basin of the lakes other than in very limited scenarios. The geographical region that can pull water from the Great Lakes is quite limited in some places. We have friends living 10 miles further out from Cleveland who are outside of the basin.   

Now, federal law can change. And with the growth of the US population in the south and southwest, it would not be a shock (does anything shock us anymore??) to see elected officials from these areas push for policy revision, but it would be a long, drawn-out political fight. Beyond that, the price tag for the infrastructure required to transport water, a very heavy substance, would also be unfathomable.

So what should we do? There seem to be a number of avenues that need further collective examination, attention, and action:

National water policy that includes groundwater management;

Changes in farming practices; 

Changes in what we eat; 

Continued efforts to identify technological innovations in desalinization as well as pulling atmospheric water to a usable state.

What are the first steps for any of us individually? Learn more about the issue and intentionally decide what we spend our money on, where we invest it, who to vote for, and how to spend time that we can on civic or political issues and activism. 

water drop
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
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In my early post on the Great Lakes as the characters of the iconic 80s movie The Breakfast Club, I described my home lake, Lake Erie, as the black sheep of the lakes. 

If an average American with some basic knowledge of the Great Lakes was asked about Lake Erie, their response would likely be negative, perhaps thinking of it as “the worst” of the Great Lakes. Fires at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Algal blooms that create toxic conditions in the western basin of the lake. Water pollution from declining industrial cities like Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo.  

All of these things are a part of Lake Erie’s history and, to some degree, part of its current reality. However, they paint an overly-dark picture of the lake to the detriment of recognizing significantly positive developments, assets and resources.

Lake Erie was recently named by USA Today’s 10Best as THE top lake in the United States as nominated by industry experts, vetted by the 10Best editors, and voted on by readers. A note that I think the “in the United States” is a bit misleading since over half of Lake Erie’s coastline is in Canada, but the US coastline lies along places that can certainly use the positive marketing – western New York, Erie, PA area, Ohio and a touch of southeastern Michigan. 

Map of the great lakes and st lawrence river drainage aregions

Lake Erie is the southernmost Great Lake. It is also the shallowest with an average depth of 62 feet. Compare that with 279 feet for Lake Michigan or 483 feet for Lake Superior. The lake has 871 miles of shoreline with 14 million people living near the lake basin. 11 million people get their drinking water from Lake Erie. Water flows generally from the west and the Detroit River to the east, into the Welland Canal and Niagara River before dropping off Niagara Falls towards Lake Ontario. 

Given its shallow nature, it is the warmest Great Lake. A positive of its warmth is that it is the most biologically productive of all the Great Lakes. The lake’s fish population accounts for approximately 50% of all fish inhabiting the Great Lakes. Native species include steelhead, walleye, smallmouth bass, and perch. Introduced species include rainbow smelt, common carp, and rainbow trout. The commercial fishing industry is mostly located on northern shores in Ontario while recreational fishing can be found across the lake.

It isn’t wrong to associate Lake Erie with the industrial cities along its shoreline. It is the Great Lake that has been exposed to the greatest effects from agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization. The lake has played a leading role in the steel industry, with raw materials shipped around the lake to cities like Detroit, Toledo and Erie. Waste from steel and other industries was dumped into the lake or its watershed for decades. The lake hit a low point in the 1960s when many beaches and shorelines were closed due to pollution.

However, it was the fire on the Cuyahoga River in 1969 (over the years there were actually many fires) that launched the political and environmental effort that inspired the seminal Clean Water Act of 1972. Lake Erie obviously benefited from increased regulation after its passage, and the lake’s health has generally improved since the late 1970s.

Those of you who read my blog consistently know that I have many locations along Lake Erie that hold special meaning to me. Some are visually beautiful, some of them are maybe less stunning. But they all provide me with a feeling of deep connection and perspective about my place in the world. When you stand looking out at an unending expanse of water, limits and boundaries seem to disappear, while simultaneously the sheer scope of the natural world whispers to you something that I find critical for my self-conception: You are essential, but you are also only a small element of something much bigger than yourself. Do not lose sight of this.

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For 16 months I have been blogging about my interests, learnings, and experiences with the Great Lakes. Today I’m sharing about a recent decision made after much thought and deliberation.

I have lived a life of the “joy of missing out” regarding social media (JOMO – this is actually a thing). I don’t particularly like social media. I have a lot of concerns about the way that it is shaping the human experience.

However, looking back at my 39 blog posts, my experiences as an Ambassador with the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and conversations with friends and family, I think that I have important and worthwhile messages to share about the Great Lakes and this region.

In my first post on February 8, 2023, I stated that: “The goal of my blog is to inspire love and respect for the Great Lakes. They are, simply, one of the most tremendous natural resources on earth.”

This is absolutely true, and environmental advocacy remains one of my main goals. However, I’ve realized there’s another goal of my blog, and that is economic development. We need more young people to stay or move here to the Great Lakes region. I find myself motivated by the idea of inspiring others to see that you can make a good life here.

I’m not going to lean too heavily into the selling point of the region as a climate refuge; see my post on this debate and a separate one on the impact of climate change on the Great Lakes. But we do have a moderating climate, less weather disasters, and a heck of a lot of freshwater compared to some other regions of the country.

The Great Lakes region needs to shed the declining rust belt reputation and birth a new one. We need to restore dignity to the place and the people. I believe the lakes themselves can help do this. 

Social media platforms offer the tools to share these messages, especially if I want to reach the 18-50 year old demographic. I talked through my hesitations about taking my Great Lakes content to social media with one of my best friends. Her subtly brilliant response: Maybe consider social media. The Great Lakes would certainly thank you for doing it.

You know what? I think they would. 

I think that if they could tweet, post, or share, the Great Lakes’ message would be: 

We have been here and will be here. 

We have something good, and pure, to offer the world. 

Come see us. We’d love to see you.

If you are social media engaged, please now follow me and share my content on Instagram at loveourgreatlakes.

#loveourgreatlakes; #greatlakes; #greatlakesrevisited; #greatlakeslove; #greatlakesstates 

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Summer is well underway in Ohio, and I have completed three of my six Great Lakes summer intentions. Over Memorial Day weekend, our family packed a picnic and took a day trip to Presque Isle State Park in Pennsylvania, under 90 minutes from Cleveland.

Pennsylvania doesn’t generally appear on the Great Lakes states list. The state’s shoreline is limited with 77 miles along Lake Erie between the Ohio and New York borders. The stretch is notable for two things – the city of Erie and the peninsula that juts out into the lake and has become Presque Isle State Park. 

Presque Isle starts four miles west of Erie and then arches like a scythe to the east, creating Presque Isle Bay on its southern shore. The peninsula’s protection enabled Erie to grow as a natural harbor. Almost all of the peninsula is now the state park and it has 13 miles of roads, 21 miles of recreational trails and 13 beaches.  

Our first stop was the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at the base of the peninsula. We ended up spending over an hour perusing the engaging exhibits.  

The center greatly impresses on you the fact that Presque Isle is in a constant state of geographic and ecologic change. Over time, winds and water have literally blown and pushed the land mass around. Now, of course, some of this change is monitored and managed. This was apparent once in the park when we reached an area off-limits near the North Pier with a gigantic mountain of sand and an official orange state construction sign that I somehow also found lightly charming: Beach Nourishment Underway

At the center I also learned about something I’ve never heard of before. There was a small exhibit with what looked like some broken tree branches inside. They were actually fossilized lightning, also known as fulgurite. On some occasions when lightning strikes the ground, it fuses soil, rock, and sediment together into a tube or clump. Nature’s answer to instant fossilization.    

We drove onto the peninsula. On the mainland it had been bright, sunny and warm; it was notably windier, cooler and foggier as we drove further out in the park. Beaches are sequentially numbered as you make your way out. We drove by the Presque Isle Lighthouse, a popular stop for a visit and photos. We drove by Sunset Point and there were colorful kites of all shapes and sizes, including inflatable ones (mini Macy’s Day balloons!), dancing around in the light fog.

Given the weather, we mostly enjoyed the park on foot, walking some of the trails, seeing the older houseboats that dot Horseshoe Pond, and peeking onto stretches of beach. There were wooded trails and the paved recreational trails that ran right along the shore. I would consider a return to the park some time with bikes; it would also be an ideal place for kayaking and a rewarding setting for birding.

The first weekend of June, I headed downtown on Saturday morning for local non-profit Drink Local Drink Tap’s annual 4 Miles 4 Water event. My parents were visiting that weekend and, wanting to get back to them quickly, I ended up walking the 1 mile event instead of running the 4. The event is very family-friendly and I resolved to return next year with a full team of family and friends.

This year I enjoyed the pre-race atmosphere and the Cuyahoga Riverfront in the early morning hours. It seemed both funny and entirely appropriate that against the backdrop of the DJ’s peppy soundtrack, a gigantic, aged laker ship was slowly navigating the curves of the river with the aid of a tugboat.

This post is dedicated to my mother-in-law Sue whose family has contributed over generations to the city of Erie, PA and who grew up going to the beaches on Presque Isle.

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Sunday, May 19th. It’s a stunning morning in Cleveland – sunny and clear, in the high 60s. I wake both of the girls and we head to a beach clean-up on Lake Erie. The offer of a bagel and orange juice helps motivate them into the car.

Driving to Euclid Beach, a couple miles east of downtown Cleveland, we pass through some of Cleveland’s neighborhoods scarred by poverty and disinvestment. The girls want to know why some of the houses are “breaking down” and why so many stores are boarded up. We talk about why this might be. We see people waiting for buses and talk about the importance of public transportation, and the challenges that many people face to simply get to their jobs or to care for themselves or family.

We drive on a bridge that takes us over a significant corridor of train tracks. We talk about what these railways might have been like in the 1930s and 40s when Cleveland’s economy and population were booming. We talk about what still travels on the railways in and out of this city and the Great Lakes region. 

We sit at a stoplight by Collinwood High School and talk about what a school means to a community, and how beautiful this massive building is. We think about how many people have attended the school in exactly the century since it opened its doors in 1924. 

At the park, it’s quiet. A few morning joggers and walkers. Some men in reflective yellow vests working on parking lot repairs. Birds calling overhead. The lake stretching out to a barely perceptible horizon.

Cleveland Metroparks staff give us an orange Home Depot bucket and two pickers. We’ve brought our own gardening gloves. As we descend to the sand, we talk about the fact that we are here to pick-up litter – large or small. Yes, it feels like a “win” to find a plastic bag, a broken down Starbucks cup or the remnants of a paper plate. The visibility factor is high. But I tell the girls it is also a contribution to pick-up a cigar tip, a fragment of blue plastic, or a piece of a red straw. 

That red straw? Highly attractive to a fish. Probably more so than the Starbucks cup. What if the fish eats it? Perhaps that fish dies. Perhaps that fish is caught by a recreational or commercial fisherman, moving plastic particles into the human realm. Perhaps that fish is eaten by another fish, moving plastic particles further in the lake’s ecosystem.

We make our way down the beach. We see a baby bunny near the tall grasses at the back of the sandline. We say hello to another person on the beach. The girls putter at the shoreline. The water is so clear! they say. We talk about holding two truths at the same time: This clarity is both good and bad. They ask why there are a few sediments that seem to float. I’m not completely sure, I say. Maybe we can learn more.

Eventually we get to the end of the beach, circle back along the multipurpose trail above the beach, add our litter to a small dumpster, and return our bucket and pickers.

Picking up litter on a Lake Erie beach for two hours is not going to solve the problem of plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. However, it is something else: It’s an intentional act that may have greater impact than initially imagined. 

What’s a beach clean-up really about? For me, it’s about two things: place and purpose. It’s about situating ourselves in our community and in our natural world and understanding what we each mean to each other.

A third P – pollution – sits in third place. Still part of the winner’s circle. But for me, it’s not the gold or silver one.

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