Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/commentary/page/2/)
Opinion and commentary about Great Lakes issues.
We all have different Thanksgiving favorites. Some people really look forward to that big turkey, some crave sweet potatoes, and I have to admit that I head straight for the pies. But today, I want to talk about that old Thanksgiving favorite – wet, rotting leaves.
It’s October, and the stink bugs are moving into my house for the winter. So many things stink in a deliberate attempt to be repulsive. Other things stink to be attractive, but because they’re not trying to attract us, we may not like their aromas.
Located on a strip of land that separates two of Michigan’s largest lakes, Elk and Torch, Maplehurst Natural Area is an unexpected delight to anybody who stumbles across it. The former summer camp is now a protected area of land thanks to a collaboration between Milton Township and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy.
How we name things affects how we think about them. We name fields, and forests, and marshes, and streams as separate things, so we tend to think of them as separate things. But separating these habitats in our vocabulary and in our minds obscures the innumerable connections that bind these habitats into a single working landscape.
As anyone who lives in Michigan knows, March and April are the wet months. But like so many things that Anyone knows, this is only about half true. The amount of precipitation (the water in rain and snow) doesn’t change much from month to month in Michigan.
July is our warmest month, its steamy days and sticky nights giving us a little taste of the tropics. When we look for ways to beat July’s heat, we often end up in the water – sprinklers, backyard pools, or one of Michigan’s many lakes. So let’s take a few minutes on this hot July day to think about how cool water is.
The Clean Water Act provides us with 50 years of useful imperfection. We should apply it’s lessons to the environmental challenges facing us today – and perhaps be a less patient as we chase perfect solutions.
All through the spring, baby fish hatch and laze in the sun-warmed shallows, bird chicks take their first wobbly flights, bunnies get their first taste of the greens in my garden and seedlings sprout and reach for the sky. And then they die.
Geo Rutherford is a self-described Great Lakes enthusiast that built a large following—the same number that the Washington Post has—by making educational TikTok videos about the Great Lakes and other lakes around the world.
Academic research increasingly documents how interaction with green space has a positive impact on mental health. But not everybody has access to quality green space.