Ten Threats: Wetlands – Where Life Begins

  • Great Lakes coastal wetlands filter water, give lots of wildlife a place to live and help prevent erosion. These wetlands are also greatly responsible for feeding the fish of the Great Lakes. (Photo by Lester Graham)

The Ten Threats to the Great Lakes were identified for us by experts from all over the region.
Again and again they stressed that the shores and wetlands along the lakes were critical to the
well-being of the lakes and the life in them. Great Lakes coastal wetlands filter water, give lots of
wildlife a place to live and help prevent erosion. But the coastal wetlands are also greatly
responsible for feeding the fish of the Great Lakes. Biologists are finding that when people try to
get rid of the wetlands between them and their view of the lake, it hurts the fish populations.
Reporter Chris McCarus takes us to where life begins in the lakes:

Transcript

We’ve been bringing you the series, Ten Threats to the Great Lakes. One of the
keys to the health of the lakes is the connection between the lakes and the land.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham is our guide through the series:


The Ten Threats to the Great Lakes were identified for us by experts from all over the region.
Again and again they stressed that the shores and wetlands along the lakes were critical to the
well-being of the lakes and the life in them. Great Lakes coastal wetlands filter water, give lots of
wildlife a place to live and help prevent erosion. But the coastal wetlands are also greatly
responsible for feeding the fish of the Great Lakes. Biologists are finding that when people try to
get rid of the wetlands between them and their view of the lake, it hurts the fish populations.
Reporter Chris McCarus takes us to where life begins in the lakes:


(sound of walking in water)


About a dozen researchers have come to Saginaw Bay off of Lake Huron. They walk from the
front yard of a cottage into some tall grass and black mud out back. The coastal wetland is wide
here.


Don Uzarski is a professor from Grand Valley State University. He wants to see just how many
different kinds of microorganisms live in this wetland. He asks a colleague to dip a fine mesh net
into the muck.


“Why don’t you give us your best scoop there…”


The net’s contents are poured into a tray. The water and muck is pushed aside and tiny animals
are revealed. None of them is any bigger than an inch.


“There are a lot organisms right there. That’s a lot of fish food. Lot of water boatmen. We have
scuds swimming through here. We have snails. Probably a bloodworm. I don’t see it. But the
red thing.”


Uzarski says this is a healthy patch of wetland. It’s where Great Lakes life begins.


“The whole community starts here. And we’re talking about everything from the birds and fish
and all the things that people tend to care about more. But without this stuff we don’t have
anything.”


These microorganisms are at the bottom of the food chain. Lake trout, walleye and salmon are at
the top. But this natural order has been disturbed by humans. Only parts of the wetland are able
to work as nature intended. The bugs, snails and worms are supposed to be everywhere here. But
Uzarski says they’re not.


“Look at if we take 20 steps over there we’re not going to find the same thing. It’s gonna be
gone. And where’s that coming from? It’s coming from these disturbed edges. Which were
disturbed by? It was the spoils from dredging out that ditch right there.”


The dredging material is piled along the edge… a bit like a dike. Uzarski says that’s one of the
three main threats to coastal wetlands.


The dikes stop the natural flow of water. Farm and lawn fertilizers, sediment and chemical
pollution are not filtered out when they run off the land. Dikes also stop the water from carrying
food for fish out into the lake… and in the other direction, water can’t bring oxygen from the lake
into the wetlands. They’re at risk of becoming stagnant pools.


A second threat to the wetlands is alien invasive plants. Ornamental plants intended for gardens
have escaped. Phragmites, purple loosestrife, and European water milfoil among others all choke
out the native plants that help make the wetland systems work.


But… the greatest threat to the coastal wetlands is construction. We’ve been building homes,
buildings and parking lots right over the top of some of the Great Lakes’ most critical wetlands.


Sam Washington is Executive Director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the state’s
largest hunting and fishing advocacy group. He says we need healthy wetlands if we want to
keep fishing the Great Lakes.


“If we didn’t have wetlands, if we didn’t have the ability to regenerate the bottom foods in the
food cycle of these animals, we wouldn’t have the big fish that people go out in the Great Lakes
to catch everyday. They just wouldn’t be there.”


Washington says the way to fix the problem is easy… but it will require us to do something that
comes really hard…


“The best thing human beings can do for wetlands, even though we really believe we know how
to fix everything, is just to leave ’em alone.”


Sam Washington gets support from the biologists who tromp out into the wetlands. They say
we’ve got to protect the whole food chain… so we should leave wetlands alone and just let nature
do its job.


For the GLRC, I’m Chris McCarus.

Related Links

The Call of the Shore

Now that it’s summer, many of us long to be by the shore. Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Bob Hamma nurtures a dream of a lakeside cottage, but reflects that he really wants something more than ownership:

Transcript

Now that it’s summer, many of us long to be by the shore. Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator Bob Hamma nurtures a dream of a lakeside cottage, but reflects that
he really wants something more than ownership:


I often dream of owning some land on the shore. Living less than an hour from Lake Michigan,
I think it would be wonderful to have a place to go to, not just in the summer, but throughout the year,
a place where the ever-changing patterns of the lake and dunes can become a part of me.


I remember reading a comment by the Native American writer Brenda Peterson about her love
for Puget Sound in Washington, “I may never own land even if one day I might afford it.” Her words
challenge me.


What do I really want? Is it a cottage with a view? A private beach? No, what I long for is
not ownership, but the opportunity to let the call of the shore sink more deeply into my soul.


Being at the shore fosters a certain quality of attentiveness to life, an ability to live in the present
moment. Perhaps it’s the fact that things are always changing there, yet in another way, they are always
the same. The color of the lake, the size of the waves, the strength of the wind, the patterns of the
clouds-all these change from hour to hour. Yet the lake is always there-timeless-almost awaiting
my return.


It’s as if it were calling me to take some time away from my life and gain a new perspective. But the
shore is not just a place of retreat. It is a place of encounter, where life’s incredible complexity, its constant
struggle, its subtle rhythms are ever present for one who looks. The call of the shore is an invitation to live
in the present, to see life each day in its richness and diversity.


I don’t need a cottage for that. I simply need to be there, to put some time aside and go. But it’s
a struggle to respond to that call, to break away from the busyness of my life. Indeed, the issue is not
whether the lake belongs to me, but whether I belong to it. To truly belong there, I must listen to its call,
I must be long there.


I can’t promise that I’ll never own a piece of the shore, but for now, I’ll try to practice the kind
of attentiveness to life that it calls me to. This way, if by some amazing luck I can afford it, I’ll be ready.


Host Tag: Bob Hamma is a writer who lives in South Bend, Indiana. He comes to us by
way of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.