For perhaps the first time ever, scientists have looked at whatenvironmental indicators are being collected for Lake Michigan. Theysay the results of their inventory are not good. And they say the otherlakes are likely facing similar problems. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Dale Willman reports:
Transcript
For perhaps the first time ever, scientists have looked at what environmental indicators
are being collected for Lake Michigan. They say the results of their inventory are not
good. And they say the other lakes are likely facing similar problems. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Dale Willman reports.
Scientists use indicators, such as water quality and toxin levels, to gauge the overall
health of the Great Lakes. So workers with the Great Lakes Commission tried to
come up with a complete list of those indicators. Ric Lawson says they found two
problems. First, some much needed indicators are apparently not being collected…
“Terrestrial and aquatic habitat, amphibian diversity and abundance is, is
very unknown, and the deposition of air toxins.”
The second problem is, no one knows for sure who’s collecting what. Although this
inventory just involved Lake Michigan, Lawson says the other lakes face similar
problems. So the researchers are calling for a centralized location for data collection, and
better coordination between monitoring programs. For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, I’m Dale Willman.