Great Lakes champs are part of the ecosystem they protect

By Jada Vasser

A new book about the Great Lakes is written to reflect that their problems, solutions and champions are interrelated, much like the ecosystem it portrays. “This whole thing of bringing stakeholders together, creating a vision, co-producing knowledge, co-innovating solutions is in the book,” author John Hartig said. “You don’t get that anywhere else.”

Hartig’s “Great Lakes Champions: Grassroots Efforts to Clean Up Polluted Watersheds,” highlights 14 people who created programs and solutions to help communities that depend on the Great Lakes. These leaders took on the goal of restoring the Great Lakes through service and guidance. They all are hardworking and determined and share the same love for the Great Lakes, Hartig said.

Shocking news for Michigan fish

Walleye and pike surveys start in early spring, followed by muskie surveys. In May, the DNR starts surveying general fish communities like panfish and bass, and from July to September it surveys streams.