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Great Lakes Regional Water Program
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Monthly Newsletter July/August 2012
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| Dear Great Lakes Regional Water Program Friends and Colleagues,
I confess that staring at a computer screen is not high on my list on this beautiful August day. Just outside my door are several beautiful lakes and streams just waiting to welcome a kayak or fishing pole!
That said, I did get out this weekend. During my travels, I came across Allen Creek, or at least that's what the sign said. As a result of the severe drought of 2012 and a management choice to give cows full access to the stream bed, this year Allen Creek looks more like a mud hole without the mud.
Allen Creek
In a year like 2012, farmers will be making choices that may mean the difference between keeping and losing the farm, so I am not passing judgment here. What I do know is that agricultural management decisions are influenced by three decision-making frameworks. The first framework is ecological: how can a producer manage soil, water, sunlight, nutrients, and a given crop or livestock herd to achieve the best production? The second is economic: how will production choices affect profitability and other cost/benefit measures? The third is ethical: how do production choices fit within individual and societal values?
Understanding decision-making frameworks can help us communicate and build consensus to protect soil and water resources while maintaining farm profitability. For a more eloquent and insightful examination of the way ecology, economics, and ethics influence conservation, I invite you to read Curt Meine's keynote presentation from this year's Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference (see description below).
Curt's presentation provides important context for the work we all do, including this month's feature Great Lakes Regional Water Program initiative - "Innovations in Edge-of-Field Monitoring". This initiative is developing methods for providing farmers with information about the impacts of their activities on soil, nutrient transport, and local water resources. We hope that more user-friendly and affordable monitoring information will help farmers balance ecological, economic, and ethical considerations in their decision-making.
Rebecca Power, Co-Director, Great Lakes Regional Water Program |
| *FEATURED INITIATIVE* | | |
Innovations in Edge-of-Field Monitoring
The impacts of individual commercial farming practices on water resources have long been the focus of discussion, but only in the last decade has there been actual research on farms to document the water quality impacts. The research on these farms not only provides an important link between plot and watershed scale research, but is a way to actively engage farmers in discussions on local water quality issues.
Visit the initiative website or download the fact sheet to find out how the project team is working to implement more effective monitoring methods and identifying best practices for individual farms.
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| SWCS Conference Keynote Presentation | | |
Cultivating Community: Bringing Ecology, Economics, and Ethics Together on the Land
Curt Meine, Ph.D., a conservation biologist, historian and writer with ties to UW-Madison and the Aldo Leopold Foundation, provided the opening lecture at Soil and Water Conservation Society's 2012 annual conference. His perspectives and personal reflections on writings and history from the last century illustrate how economics, ecology, and ethics can be used together to advance conservation in the next century. A full transcript and video of the presentation are available on the SWCS website.
Video Link Transcript Link
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New Training Opportunity: Ohio Environmental Leaders Institute
| | | Presented by The Ohio State University and OSU Extension
Today's environmental professionals must face and manage complex issues on a daily basis, from energy resources to interactions between people and the environment. Yet few resources exist to help environmental managers not only gather information, but also network with other professionals facing the same problems.
The Ohio Environmental Leaders Institute is a new set of workshops that helps enable environmental professionals to address complex environmental issues and incorporate a broader range of solution strategies into their skill set through forums and hands-on learning.
Sessions will have a heavy emphasis on learning activities that actively engage participants, including small group/panel discussions and field trips. Participants will gain new leadership, negotiation, and collaboration skills, and learn how to address sustainable practices in settings where differing values may be at odds.
Visit the OELI website for a full course list and registration information.
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| In the News #1 | | |
Not all Beach Muck is Created Equal
by Dan O'Keefe, Michigan State University Extension
Landowners on Lake Michigan's Little Point Sable are all too familiar with the effects of invasive species. When a tall reed began spreading and crowding out native beach plants, they identified it as Phragmitesand took action to eradicate the aggressive invader.
Now a "sludgy green algae" has been washing up on their shores. This time the culprit is Spirogyra, a filamentous green alga that is native to the Great Lakes region. Even though it is a native species, Spirogyra thrives in conditions created by exotic zebra and quagga mussels.
Zebra and quagga mussels filter phytoplankton out of the water. This has more than doubled water clarity in Lake Michigan and led to more sunlight on the bottom of the lake, where Spirogyra thrives. In Saginaw Bay, researchers found thatSpirogyra and another filamentous green alga, Cladophora, increased dramatically after the mussel invasion. This led to major problems with "beach muck" that result when algae washes up on the shore to rot...
Click here for full article.
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| In the News #2 | |
June in Illinois: Hot and Dry
Source: Jim Angel, Illinois State Water Survey
Following the warmest spring on record, June continued to be hot and dry in Illinois, according to State Climatologist Jim Angel at the Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois. The statewide average temperature for the month was 72.9 degrees, a full degree above normal.
"There were a few cool periods during the month, but everyone will remember the hot ending to the month with highs in the upper 90s and low 100s," Angel said. "About 56 sites broke daily records on June 28 and 29."
Although the month was warm, it was far behind the hottest June on record in Illinois, which was 1934 with a state-wide average temperature of 78.5 degrees.
Every month this year has had above normal temperatures. As a result, the statewide average of 52.8 degrees for the past six months is the warmest on record. This average exceeds the previous record set for the first six months of 1921 when the statewide average temperature was 52.1 degrees...
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| In the News #3 | | |
Summer fish kills reported in Michigan inland lakes
by Jane Herbert, Michigan State Extension
The extended hot weather is warming up Michigan lakes - sometimes to temperatures that cannot be tolerated by certain fishes. To make matters worse, lakes experiencing heavy phosphorus loading from lawn fertilizer, septic systems and storm water runoff can produce overgrowths of rooted aquatic plants and algae. Both of these factors influence dissolved oxygen levels in the lake water column.
In lakes that strongly stratify, the waters above the thermocline may continue to mix and oxygenate, but also continue to warm. The warmer the water, the lower the dissolved oxygen concentrations. Below the thermocline, waters are usually cooler, but oxygen levels in deep dark waters are continually being depleted by plants and animals. (In the presence of sunlight, aquatic plants photosynthesize, adding oxygen to the water. In darkness they respire, removing oxygen from the water.) By late summer, some lakes become nearly devoid of oxygen in deep waters - again an intolerable situation for fish that can result in 'summer kill.'...
Click here for full article.
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| Future Newsletters | | |
Tell Us About Your Projects
Your contributions have placed the Great Lakes Region at the forefront of national and international water research, outreach and conservation. We would love to know about any new projects, grants or multi-state efforts you are leading or participating in. If you have ideas for e-newsletter content, please share with the GLRWP marketing specialist, John Kriva. You can contact him at john.kriva@uwex.edu.
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About Us
The Great Lakes Regional Water Program (GLRWP) is a partnership among the Land Grant universities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and the NIFA National Water Program. The overarching goal of the GLRWP is to maintain and protect natural environmental systems for agriculture, human health, recreation, and economic benefit through regional leadership and coordination of research, education, and extension/outreach efforts within Great Lakes and North Central Region states.
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