Mayors from around the eight Great Lakes states met in Chicago this month and delivered a unified message: They want a voice in the future of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
Mayors from around the eight Great Lakes states met in Chicago this month and delivered a
unified message: They want a voice in the future of the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
The winter meeting of the Great Lakes Cities Initiative was hosted by Chicago Mayor Richard
Daly. Thirty-five Great Lakes mayors voted to push Congress to pass a 4-billion dollar clean-up
bill pending in the House. Superior Mayor Dave Ross says only the federal government has the
resources to do the job right.
“It’s a great burden on local governments and municipalities to take on the burden of water
quality because in any small cities such as Superior, that would be an enormous financial burden.
We certainly need financial help from outside sources, and of course the federal government
would be the prime source.”
Ross says mayors will lobby their members of Congress to support similar legislation in the
Senate.
“We can’t do it ourselves. We can’t do it alone. One new invasive species is being found in the
Great Lakes system each year. If this continues at the rate it is, we’re going to destroy the Great
Lakes.”
The mayors say until now local governments have been bypassed in Great Lakes decisions. Now
the mayors say they want to be part of the federal Great Lakes Advisory Board.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Port directors are trying to gather steam to have a new large lock built at Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. They say without the improvement, ports on Lakes Michigan and Superior will lose the ability to be major players in shipping. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
Port directors are trying to gather steam to have a new large lock built at Sault Saint Marie,
Michigan. They say without the improvement, ports on Lakes Michigan and Superior will lose
the ability to be major players in shipping. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson
reports:
The Soo Locks have been around since 1855… with the largest of the locks built around 1970.
That’s the “Poe Lock,” the only one that super-carriers, so-called “thousand footers,” can use to
get from the lower Great Lakes to Lake Superior.
Duluth Port Authority’s Captain Ray Skelton says the Poe Lock isn’t enough.
“Should something happen to, bear in mind the lock opened in 1970, 65% of our carrying
capacity would be held up. So the concept of that second, larger lock does two things: Number
one, gives us the capacity to get away from these traffic jams that occur at the Poe, and in
addition to that if they had to de-water the Poe sometime during the season, we’d still have access
for our wide beam ships.”
Skelton says 65% of the lock would be built with federal money. The rest will come from the
eight Great Lakes states. The total is expected to be $225 million. Michigan, New York and
Pennsylvania have committed money to the new lock.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Final regulations requiring all ports to be secure against terrorist attacks will be released next month by the federal government. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports that port officials are hoping the new rules come with some new money:
Transcript
Final regulations requiring all ports to be secure against terrorist attacks
will be released next month by the federal government. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports that port officials are hoping the new
rules come with some new money:
With 50 nations using the St. Lawrence Seaway,
sending
hundreds of ships, dropping off and picking up
goods, Great Lakes ports have a lot
to make secure.
The Marine Transportation
Security Act makes sure all ports big and small assess risks and come up
with a plan to make things safe from terrorism.
Duluth-Superior Port Security Official Captain Ray Skelton has been working
with Washington on these new regulations. He doesn’t expect any surprises.
“The final regs, if they came out that we have to have armed guards
at piles of limestone, I’d go back to Washington and start a fight. But if
everything stays reasonable, we’ll just go ahead and comply.”
Tighter security may mean some guards, surveillance cameras, fences and alarms.
Skelton says these things are costing ports money without much financial
help from those making up the new rules. Skelton won’t say how much
Duluth-Superior has spent, but he says so far they’ve had to foot the bill.
Ports will have one year to comply with the Marine Transportation Security
Act.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
An Ontario power company would like to see a high-powered transmission line built to Chicago. The plan includes stringing a high-voltage power line under Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
An Ontario power company would like to see a high-powered transmission
line built to Chicago. The plan would include stringing a high-voltage
power line under Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike
Simonson has more:
This plan is part of a project that would build high-capacity generating
plants in Ontario, selling excess power to the United States. Larry
Hebert is the general manager of Thunder Bay Hydro. He says this is at
least five years off. By that time, Hebert expects the demand for power
in the U.S. to increase.
“Certainly, the need for power doesn’t seem to be diminishing, despite the cries for conservation
and wise use of power. Certainly in this province of Ontario, we seem to be
using more and more every year.”
Hebert expects the most controversial part of the project will be laying
a 90-mile long cable under Lake Superior to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,
and run a high-voltage line down Wisconsin’s eastern side to Chicago.
Mary Pat Blankenheim with the Wisconsin-based American Transmission
Company says Thunder Bay Hydro’s proposal is intriguing.
“And especially given the fact that we are
looking for new ways of getting energy to the
areas where it’s needed.
But again the only way to get it there is by transmission.”
Hebert says they’re investigating permit applications with the Army Corp
of Engineers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Congress is considering spending up to 2-million dollars for a long-term study of widening and deepening the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Opponents say an expansion of the Seaway will only mean more environmental trouble for the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
Congress is considering spending up to 2-million dollars for a long-term study of widening and
deepening the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Opponents say an expansion of the Seaway will only
mean more environmental trouble for the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports:
The bone of contention is a multi-year study that looks at allowing larger ocean-going ships to get
through the Seaway. The Seaway links the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The National
Wildlife Federation’s Rick Spencer in Washington says that would rip up the Saint Lawrence
River and stir up pollution from Montreal to Milwaukee.
“Dredging hundreds of millions of cubic yard. Blasting islands. You are destroying fish habitat,
you’re going to be releasing toxic sediments. You’re going to increase the risk of new invasive
species.”
Right now channels are 25 feet deep. The study will look at digging 10 feet deeper, allowing
ships to take on more cargo at less cost. Duluth Port Director Davis Helberg says the protests are
exaggerated.
“We’re talking about a study. We’re talking about an analysis that will focus on engineering,
economics, and on the environmental aspects of keeping the Seaway competitive in the long
term.”
The proposal is in the House and Senate conference committee and will be decided later this
month.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
A four-year study on the health of the Great Lakes is halfway finished. So far, the biggest threat is private and commercial development along the region’s shorelines. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
A four-year study on the health of the Great Lakes is halfway finished. So far, the biggest threat
is private and commercial development along the region’s shorelines. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
This 6-million dollar study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency directs scientists
to find out what the greatest threats are to the five Great Lakes. Researcher Gerald Niemi says
Lakes Michigan and Erie are the hardest hit by contaminants from heavily industrialized areas
and areas with agricultural development.
Niemi says the biggest red flag for all of the Great Lakes is continuing development of
shoreland.
“They’re under quite a bit of pressure from
both residential and urban-type development, commercial development. We found that in many situations
when you remove the forests, for example, and remove the wetlands, then you have impacts and reduced
populations of birds, amphibians, etc.”
Niemi says the best solution is to put aside some shoreland as parkland and natural areas.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some experts think the Asian carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports on recent measures to stop the fish:
Transcript
Some emergency money is being spent to stop an exotic invader. Some
experts think the Asian Carp could be a ecological disaster for Lake
Michigan. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports
on measures to stop the fish:
The only thing keeping the Asian Carp from leaving the Mississippi River
system and entering Lake Michigan through a canal is an electrical barrier.
That barrier repels the fish, but a power outage could shut off the barrier, and
allow the carp to enter the Great Lakes.
The International Joint Commission and three federal agencies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency, put together 300-thousand dollars for a
back-up power source.
Tracy Mehan with the EPA says it’s important to act quickly.
“It’s a modest investment with a huge payoff in terms of avoiding, yet
another scourge to the Great Lakes fisheries. We’ve got 160 exotic species
that weren’t here in the last century and we didn’t need another one
especially something with such a high impact as the Asian Carp can have.”
Asian Carp grow up to 4-feet long and 100 pounds. They eat native fish,
and have no predator in this part of the world.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore plans to step up its education campaign about the do’s and don’ts of living in bear country. Park officials hope that will end this past summer’s encounters between campers and bears. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore plans to step up its education campaign about
the do’s and don’ts of living in bear country. Park officials hope that will end this past summer’s encounters between campers and bears. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike
Simonson reports.
With about 30 bears on Stockton Island, some of them decided to swim for a less-
crowded scrounging area. So, this summer, campers reported bears rummaging through
their food on neighboring islands – forcing the Park Service to close a couple of
campsites.
Apostle Islands Resource Specialist Julie Van Stappen says the bear population may be a
little crowded. And even though there has been an annual hunt of bears since the mid-1990’s, she doesn’t expect much help thinning out the bear population from hunters.
“Very few people do it. You have to get out to the islands and there’s no motorized equipment allowed, so it would be a very different hunt.”
Next summer, Van Stappen says instead of moving bears or closing campsites, the best
bet is to educate campers about storing food, and not attracting bears in the first place.
She says that would be the simplest way to end the close encounters of the bear kind on
the Apostle Islands.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Fishing boats that once braved Lake Superior storms now sit idle and deteriorating on the shore of a small village. Some of the local folks believe the remnants of the village’s fishing past should be preserved. Others wonder if some relics of our past should simply be allowed to slowly fade away. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
Fishing boats that once braved Lake Superior storms now sit idle and
deteriorating on the shore of a small village. Some of the local folks
believe the remnants of the village’s fishing past should be preserved.
Others wonder if some relics of our past shouldn’t simply be allowed to
slowly fade away? The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson
has more:
(soft sounds of waves)
This quiet, sandy beach in Wisconsin’s northernmost village of Cornucopia is
left with a few hints of its past. Three gray wooden fishing boats sit in
disrepair on the sand dunes…boats that were part of this harbor’s fleet of
25 vessels when the Lake Superior fishing industry was at its peak. These
days, the cool mornings are disturbed only by a town meeting of seagulls…
(seagulls)
They’re waiting for the lone fishing boat to return for a late
breakfast.
(fishing boat engine)
The 44-foot steel hulled Courtney Sue is the last of the fishing boats in
Cornucopia. Brothers Mark and Cliff Halverson continue a family
tradition…bringing in the day’s catch.
“How was the catch?”
“Good enough for what we needed today.”
(sound of boxes sliding onto dock)
“These are lawyers, this is a trout, and the rest are whitefish. Been kind of slow
this year. Gonna pick up, but the water’s real cold yet. The fish are still out deep.”
(sound of sharpening knives)
With sharpened knives, the Halversons gut the fish so fast that the catch
continue to flop about even after filleting.
(sound of slitting fish)
“Been doing it for quite a few years. (slop, slop) Takes awhile
to get used to handling ’em (slop).”
These men are the last of their kind in town. The rest of the fishermen who
sailed on boats like the three beached relics have either left Cornucopia,
retired or died.
Fishing peaked in 1955. Then, it became a casualty of over-fishing and the
invasion of the sea lamprey…a life-sucking eel with no natural enemy in the Great
Lakes. It devastated the fishing.
(fishermen playing cribbage)
Most days you can find 64-year-old “Snooks” Johnson and 74-year-old Harold
Ehlers among a friendly game of cribbage at Corny’s Village Inn.
“Sorry, Harold.”
“Well, you’re gonna get better, I know.”
“Well, I can’t get any worse (laughs).”
Ehler’s family has owned the town general store since 1915. He remembers
the men and women who made fishing their livelihood from the 1920’s till
the 50’s.
“I have to say they were very independent people. They just depended on their skill to make a living.”
Harold Ehler’s store played a critical role…making sure fish got to the
market fresh, and for good prices.
“So their market was mainly in Chicago… my dad spent most of his noon hour
on the phone, which wasn’t that great in those days. Selling the fish. Then we’d go down and tag ’em, put them on a truck and take them to the railroad station in Ashland and so they’d get there the next morning.”
(sound of waves)
The old wooden boats now weathering on the beach are just about all that’s
left of that heritage. Battered letters spell out “The Eagle,” “Ruby,” and
“Twin Sisters.” Some people in Cornucopia hope to save the old boats from
the ravages of Lake Superior. “Snooks” Johnson’s family operated “Twin
Sisters”…and he joined the crew as a teenager in 1955…the last good year.
“Yeah it looks kinda sad, doesn’t it? How it got its name, my Dad’s brother had
twin daughters so that’s what the “Twin Sisters” came from. It was a pretty good boat.”
Johnson says these homemade wooden boats were plenty seaworthy…with lots
of room for fish and a crew of four or five.
“But they all rolled and I’d always get seasick when I was on the thing. Because
when it was rough weather and you took the fish in and piled them up on the
bow so they wouldn’t roll too much, because the bow would keep them confined.
And you had a stove that burned coal just for heat. Someone would start cookin’.
So you would have the engine smells, the coal smells and the half-cooked fish
smells. I spent quite a bit of my time sticking my head out that gangway right
there to chum the fish.”
Johnson says remembers Tom Jones, the builder of these boats. The oldest
dates back to 1927. The others were built in 1935 and 1940.
“What he would do is make half a boat, a model. He’d say well
this is the way you guys want it or whoever one like this, or one like
that. They’d agree on it and that’s how it would turn out. I think he had
about a third or fourth grade education, but he was brilliant. Nobody really
knows how to work on them anymore.”
When Tom Jones passed away, so did the know-how of restoring these boats.
Now, protected only by a rope to keep people from climbing onboard, these
remnants of a more prosperous day slowly decay.
A “Save the Boats” committee was formed, but recently dissolved. This
village of 50 people just doesn’t have enough resources, says the former
co-chair of “Save the Boats,” Phyllis Johnson. She hopes somebody someday
does something for the boats…
“It’ll be as a result of someone saying, “Hey, those boats are lookin’ pretty shabby, aren’t you gonna get the young people around, have them work on them or something.”
But nothing has happened yet. Not even so much as a coat of paint protects
the boats. The sterns and hulls are cracked open. Only one boat has a
propeller. Johnson would like to do something, but she’s realistic.
“In the end they’re going to go back to nature. They’re not going to float again, never. But as a part of heritage, it’s probably better to keep them in as good as shape as we can keep them as long as we can.”
Snooks Johnson says as each season takes its toll on the old boats, it’s
likely preservation isn’t in the cards.
“I don’t know, I kind of like to see it just the way it is.
fishing went to hell, and so do the boats. So they’re kind of following
suit and they’ll still last a long time I guess. I don’t know, a lot of
memories.”
But there are fewer and fewer people to share those memories remaining in
Cornucopia. And fewer people to worry about the fate of the old fishing
boats.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
Efforts to re-introduce the trumpeter swan in the Midwest are exceeding expectations. In fact, officials in one state are trying to find out if the swan population can now grow on its own. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
Transcript
Efforts to re-introduce the trumpeter swan in the Midwest are exceeding expectations. In fact, officials in one state are trying to find out if the swan population can now grow on its own. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports:
(sound of trumpeters being released)
Six years ago, 14 trumpeter swans were released on Honest John’s Lake in
northern Wisconsin…
(honk honk honk)
The idea is to bring back the slow, low-flying bird hunted to extinction in
the 19th century for their beautiful white feathers. The goal was to have 20
nesting pairs returning to Wisconsin by the year 2000. Trumpeter Swan Recovery Program Director Sumner Mattison says they’ve passed that goal…with 51 nesting
pairs in Wisconsin.
“The wild nesting pairs are producing enough young so we don’t have to worry about restocking a this point, in fact, we have surpassed 50 young per year over the last six years.”
(sound of release)
Mattison says similar programs are also meeting success in Michigan,
Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.