Circle of Blue

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Crystal River high water: an omen and a lesson in resilience

The good news is that the Crystal River is healthy. She winds like a lazy snake through wetlands protected by the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, so when excessive rain or snowmelt inundate her environment—as happened during record flooding in early April—the extra water has a place to go. The other good news is that the removal of culverts in three locations under County Road 675 during the past five years has helped the river flow more freely and relieves pressure during high water events. The bad news is that two more culverts remain downstream of The Mill. Those culverts restrict water flow beneath Overbrook Drive. The other bad news is that scientists who study climate change in the Great Lakes region predict more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, including rainstorms.

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Cherry Republic giving campaign highlights climate change, local housing

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cherry Republic’s 31 Days of Giving annual campaign, which runs through December. Throughout the past decade, the Glen Arbor-based company has provided grants to dozens of well-deserving organizations—“from loyal stewards of our climate to big-hearted groups that care for our neighbors who need a bit of a hand up during difficult times,” the company wrote in a news release. We caught up with Sara Harding, Cherry Republic’s vice president of climate and community impact, to learn more about the giving campaign.

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Becky Thatcher Designs uses pop-up store in downtown Glen Arbor

Becky Thatcher Designs, which is based on Lake Street as you head north toward Lake Michigan, opened a pop-up store for Fourth of July weekend. Staffed by Conrad Heiderer and Juliette Sprouse, the additional outlet is on the north side of M-22, across from Art’s Tavern. It will remain open through the end of October.

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What lurks beneath

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Environmentalists, activists, citizens and a growing number of Michigan policymakers worry that if Pipeline 5 under the Mackinac Straits were to rupture and spill oil directly into the world’s largest freshwater resource, the damage could decimate aquatic ecosystems, local economies and the tourism industry. One in five Michigan jobs are tied, directly or indirectly, to safe and clean water.

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Protesting oil pipeline across Mackinac Straits

On Sunday, July 14, a group of state and national environmental organizations intend to bring the two lines out of the depths at a noon rally in St. Ignace, Michigan. The goal of “The Oil & Water Don’t Mix Rally”, say organizers, is twofold. The first is to define the potential risks of a leak or rupture to the Great Lakes, the largest body of clean surface freshwater in North America. The second, more ambitious, is to clarify the role that Enbridge and its customers are playing in expanding the transport and processing of a gusher of oil and natural gas under development on the American and Canadian Great Plains, and from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

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Michigan’s renewable energy mandate “most important clean-energy vote this year”

Proposal 3, Michigan’s Renewable Energy Mandate, in particular, would require that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable resources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydropower by 2025. The effort has been called “the most important clean-energy vote this year” (nationwide) by Grist magazine’s environmental luminary David Roberts.

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New Orleans Survived Isaac, and So Did I

Growing up in Northern Michigan, piles of snow, icy roads, and short-term power outages were the closest I ever came to experiencing the wrath of nature. Blizzards like the one that hit Michigan in March this year — which shut off power at my parents’ house for a full week after the region received 70 centimeters (27 inches) of snow in about 18 hours — can indeed be dangerous. But, as a kid, they just meant schools were closed for “snow days” filled with sledding and fort building.

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Michigan Supreme Court Decision in Au Sable River Case Shores Up Protection for Environment

Circle of Blue: By siding with the Anglers of the Au Sable in a long-running lawsuit over a state permit that threatened the celebrated trout stream, the Michigan Supreme Court has strengthened protection of all state waters in the process, according to lead attorney Jim Olson.

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Great Lakes Threats Go Beyond Asian Carp, Invasive Expert Says

Community ecologist Reuben Keller has made a career out of studying aquatic invasive species in freshwater systems like the Great Lakes, and measuring their ecological and economic costs. Now a lecturer with the University of Chicago’s Environmental Studies program, Dr. Keller outlined the threat posed by invaders like Asian carp in a presentation to attendees of an Alliance for the Great Lakes webcast in mid-November.

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