Lake Superior Forum to address water quality and sustainability on Lake Superior’s North Shore

Ashland, Wisconsin --- Lake Superior offers many things to those who live by her shores and to visitors who travel from around the world to experience the magnificence of the largest freshwater lake on the planet.  One of the things lake users appreciate most about the lake is its high water quality.  However, human actions on the land are affecting water quality, and there are ways to minimize these kinds of environmental damages.

“Improving Water Quality and Sustainable Economies on the Minnesota North Shore” is the title of the Lake Superior Binational Forum’s public meeting to be held in Grand Marais on Friday, September 9, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.  This meeting is free and open to the public with no need to pre-register.

"We hold Forum meetings in four communities around the lake each year in order to learn about the important issues in those communities,” said Lissa Radke, the U.S. coordinator of the Lake Superior Binational Forum, which is headquartered at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute on the Northland College campus in Ashland, Wisconsin.

Radke said one of the things mentioned in every community the Forum visits is the need for high quality water.  “The Forum’s vision statement starts with ‘Water is life, and the quality of water determines the quality of life,’ so the Forum takes this topic very seriously,” said Radke.

The Binational Forum has invited three speakers who will talk about the work their groups are doing to protect water quality or create environmentally safe and viable industries on the Minnesota North Shore.

Rick Schubert, the coordinator of the volunteer group Flute Reed River Watershed partnership, Hovland, Minn., will talk about the many actions his group has undertaken to reduce the amount of soil and sediments that clog the Flute Reed River after storms.  This sediment-laden runoff ends up in Lake Superior where it turns blue water brown and may impact fish spawning habitat.  Minnesota Waters awarded this group the 2008 Minnesota Waters Citizen Monitoring Program of the Year.

Ilena Berg, water plan coordinator with the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Biz Clark, chair of the Cook County Coalition of Lake Associations, will describe a new series of stewardship workshops that focus on how citizens can protect their lakes from aquatic invasive species, failing septic systems, and poor lakeshore management activities.  The speakers will emphasize what the public and property owners can do to prevent water contamination and reduce threats to lake ecosystems.

Bruce Carman, project manager for the Silver Bay EcoPark, will describe a new eco-industrial complex that’s designed to be as sustainable as possible with minimal environmental impacts.  The ecopark will include greenhouses, aquaculture, an education center, research and development opportunities, and a retail operation.  Ground was broken in late August for the first stage of the project which includes greenhouses for growing food.

A tour of the new outdoor education center and gardens will be offered by Gwen Carman, principal of the Cook County Public Schools, and area Boy Scout Alex Ditmanson.  The tour highlights this cooperative community project that includes vegetable gardens that will be used for growing food for the school.

The Forum has also scheduled an opportunity starting at 3:30 p.m.to hear open public comments about issues related to the lake’s natural environment.  “Participants are invited to tell the Forum their concerns, complaints, and compliments about how the lake is managed,” said Radke.  All public comments are compiled and shared with the binational governments charged with managing the lake’s ecosystems.

Offering opportunities for public comments is an important part of the Forum’s mission.  “People's input can have an impact on how environmental policies governing Lake Superior will be addressed by binational governments and agencies,” said Bruce Lindgren, the Forum’s U.S. co-chair.

"A lot of us live in the basin because of the lake.  However, we know it's not just about the environment.  The economic opportunities the lake’s environment provides is also important," he said.

Meeting guests are invited to pick up a free compact fluorescent light bulb as a first step towards reducing a household’s or business’s carbon footprint.  The bulbs were purchased through a special grant of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.  The bulbs contain less mercury and produce more energy per kilowatt hour than a traditional light bulb, which means less coal is burned at power plants.

Citizens of the North Shore are invited to register as a friend of the lake in the Forum’s new Lake Superior Stewards program.  “We hope that people will go to our web site before the meeting to sign up to get our free electronic newsletter about Lake Superior issues.  But people can also sign up at the meeting to become a friend of the lake,” said Radke.  All Stewards will receive a free window cling as a thank-you gift for registering.

The Lake Superior Binational Forum is a multi-sector stakeholder group of U.S. and Canadian volunteers that work together to provide input to governments about lake issues and educate basin residents about ways to protect and restore the lake.  Members come from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

The Forum is located in the United States at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College in Ashland, WI, and funded in the U.S. by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office.  The Canadian Forum office is at EcoSuperior in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and funded by Environment Canada.

For a full meeting agenda, poster, and a copy of the first issue of the newsletter, go to www.superiorforum.org