A recent study finds that the benefits of eating fish could outweigh the harmful effects of slightly elevated levels of mercury in the body. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
A recent study finds that the benefits of eating fish could outweigh the
harmful effects of slightly elevated levels of mercury in the body. The
GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:
Mercury from air pollution falls into the water and accumulates in fish.
The toxin can cause health problems and birth defects.
John Dellinger is from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. He
spent 12-years looking at Native Americans, who tend to eat 10 times
more fish than the average American. He says participants had higher
than average levels of mercury in their bodies, but reported few cases of
illness or infection. Dellinger says one reason could be they types of fish
they eat.
“They’re eating primarily a wide variety of fish, and predominantly a
moderate size fish. This is different than the sport fishing person who
goes out on the Great Lakes and is going for the really big fish.”
Dellinger says big fish tend to contain more mercury. He says it’s not
known exactly how much mercury is harmful, but the federal
government says women of child-bearing age, and children, should eat
only two servings per week of fish that are low in mercury.
This is an ocean vessel in the Soo Locks, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The Soo Locks connect Lake Superior and Lake Huron, allowing for ships to travel back and forth. (Photo courtesy of EPA)
This is the Welland Canal that enables ships to go around Niagara Falls. It first opened in the 19th century, and since then, its locks have been enlarged four times to be wider and deeper to allow the shipping industry's always growing ships to just barely squeak by. (Photo courtesy of
EPA)
One of the Ten Threats to the Great Lakes identified by experts across the region is the possible
expansion of canals to allow larger ocean-going ships into the lakes. Some see the expansion of
shipping channels as a threat to the environment; others see it as great economic opportunity.
Just like in the early days of settlement, they see the shipping channels on the Great Lakes as
a way to make trade opportunities better.
Transcript
In our next report from the series, “Ten Threats to the Great Lakes,”
Lester Graham brings us a look at shipping on the lakes. Some people think
bigger ships could bring more trade to the region:
One of the Ten Threats to the Great Lakes identified by experts across the region is the possible
expansion of canals to allow larger ocean-going ships into the lakes. Some see the expansion of
shipping channels as a threat to the environment; others see it as great economic opportunity.
Just like in the early days of settlement, they see the shipping channels on the Great Lakes as
a way to make trade opportunities better.
Native Americans had canoe trade routes on the Great Lakes long before the Europeans appeared
on the scene. When French fur traders arrived, they copied what they saw. They built birch-bark
canoes to travel the lakes and to haul back fur pelts.
(Sound of Saginaw Voyageurs paddling and singing “Alouette, gentile Alouette…”)
Chuck Hoover is with the Saginaw Voyageurs, a group of re-enactors who re-trace the French
Voyageurs routes. Hoover says the large canoes were great until you ran into rapids on the rivers
connecting the lakes.
“What you had to do was pick up everything, including the boat, and carry it across the dry land to
the next place that you could put in water that was navigable.”
Those portages could be as long as seven miles. Carrying a canoe big enough to haul more than a
dozen men and the heavy bundles of fur pelts was a tough job and it slowed trade. So, some small
canals were dug to make passage easier. As the region developed even more valuable natural
resources were discovered. Bigger canals were needed.
Stanley Jacek is an Area Engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the canal and locks
at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He says by the middle of the 1800s mining around Lake Superior
had become big business.
“Back in those days they discovered iron ore and copper in the upper end of the lakes here. So,
they had to get all that commerce down to the heartland of the country, so locks had to be
built.”
With a canal and locks to help ships negotiate the drop from one lake level to the next, the ore
could be transported to the big steel mills in industrial cities such as Cleveland and Gary, Indiana.
Christopher Gilchrist is with the Great Lakes Historical Society. He says you can’t underestimate
the value of those canals.
“The water-borne transportation was critical for the creation of the industrial age in U.S. history.
There’s a reason why the steel mills are located right on the banks of these Great Lakes. All the major
steel mills were located right by the water so that they could get their raw materials cost
effectively.”
At the other end of the Great Lakes the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in the 1950s to make it
possible for ships on the Atlantic Ocean to enter the lakes, and another big canal and set of
several locks overcame another obstacle to shipping on the Great Lakes – The Niagara Falls.
The Welland canal allows ships to go around Niagara. Since it first opened in the 19th century the
Welland canal and its locks have been enlarged four times. Each time the Welland canal locks
and the St. Lawrence Seaway have been made wider and deeper, the shipping industry builds
bigger and bigger ships to the point that they literally just squeak through…
(Sound of ship squeaking against timbers)
…Often rubbing up against the timbers that act as bumpers on the locks’ concrete walls.
Throughout the history of the canals, there’s been pressure to make them bigger and bigger.
Many feel the amount of shipping through the canals is tied directly to the economic well being
of the nation. The more the canals can handle the better the economy.
(Sound of buzzing, roar of compressor)
Back at Sault Ste. Marie, the locks open to allow another big ship through.
Stanley Jacek, the engineer at the Soo Locks connecting Lakes Superior and Huron says the
economic impact is pretty easy to track.
“What we do here in the way of passing of commerce mimics what’s happening in the country. You
can actually see spikes in the economy by looking at our traffic here.”
But some say the canals could do more than just reflect the health of the economy. They could
spur the economy if even bigger ships could come into the lakes. The ships, the kind carrying
containers ready to be pulled by trucks or loaded on rail cars, could go directly to Great Lakes
ports instead of ports on the East or West coasts. More direct shipping might improve the
region’s economy.
But environmentalists are worried. They say bigger ships from all over the world might mean
more alien invasive species damaging the Great Lakes. The wider, deeper channels might
damage the environment along scenic rivers connecting the lakes, and some believe expanding
the channels will let too much water flow out of the lakes that could worsen the problem of lower
lake levels seen in recent years.
The plans for bigger ships are on hold for right now. But, given the history of the canals, many
believe expansion is only a matter of time.
A large wetland restoration project in the Midwest is expected to bring back a variety of native plants and animals. But in addition to the environmental benefits, the project is helping out an unexpected group – archeologists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
A large wetland restoration project in the Midwest is expected to bring back a variety of native
plants and animals. But in addition to the environmental benefits, the project is helping out an
unexpected group – archeologists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Alan Harn is standing on the top of a ridge overlooking a seven thousand-acre farm in Central
Illinois. Harn is the assistant curator of Archeology at the Dickson Mounds Museum in nearby
Lewistown. While he has surveyed just about all of the land in the region for archeological sites
over his forty-year career, he only recently was able to get into these bottomlands next to the
Illinois River:
“Even though I’ve walked over that land for most of my lifetime I was never forced to know it.
But we found 55 new archeological sites. And these sites have been found in areas that, had I not
been forced to look at them, I would have overlooked them.”
Harn says during his short window of opportunity to search the land, he found temporary
campsites of the Mississippian and Oneota Indians from about 900 to 1200 A-D. The discoveries
are part of a unique partnership between environmentalists and archeologists. The Nature
Conservancy purchased this land to convert it to a wetland. But before they bring back native
plants and animals to the region, they are letting archeologists survey the property. Larry Conrad
is director emeritus of the Western Illinois University Archeological Research Lab. He says
farming has done significant damage to many Native American sites in the Midwest:
“They were plowing a lot of the sites, particularly those in the bottoms, and this gradually
deteriorated the sites. And there was collecting by at least workmen. They used to bring axes
and spearheads off those sites without any documentation.”
Conrad says environmentalists may be the best hope archeologists have to protect important
pieces of land that have not yet been surveyed. He says conservation groups are one of the few
private property owners that do not abuse the land they own:
“Unfortunately, a lot of people view it as the property belongs to them and they can do whatever
they want, and if there are archeological resources, some people are irresponsible or destructive
toward the resources. We look forward to the Nature Conservancy as being an excellent steward
and they own a very large tract of land there now. So it’s a tract of land we don’t have to worry
about.”
Conrad says even after the survey of the land is over, any sites not found will be underneath water
and vegetation –not at risk of being plowed and damaged. The Nature Conservancy is happy
another group of people is benefiting from their plans to restore this piece of land. Doug Blodgett
is with the Nature Conservancy and is heading up the restoration effort. He says in this project,
the archeological element is a natural fit:
“The archeology is such an important issue here. It’s important to us because it fits right in with
our mission. It’s almost a part of our mission. It helps better explain and justify our mission.
The reason native Americans were here for twelve thousand years is because of the abundant
natural resources that were there in the flood plain. So it just enhances our story.”
But Blodgett says the Nature Conservancy’s mission is to create bio-diversity, and not protect
archeological sites. He says if digging for artifacts ever gets in the way of protecting plants and
animals, they will not hesitate to call off the archeologists. Alan Harn realizes that could be a
possibility. He says that’s why they will continue to survey this land while they have the chance
before the restoration begins:
“We have no idea what lies out there. I think that’s the fun thing about archeology is that every
time you answer a set of questions, it opens a door, and in that door is a room full of new
questions that you didn’t even know existed. We will be continuing the search for the record.”
Harn still has some time to continue his search. The Nature Conservancy is planning to begin its
restoration plan in earnest at the end of next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
Archeologists are benefiting from a wetland restoration project in the Midwest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
Archeologists are benefiting from a wetland restoration project in the Midwest. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
A conservation group is planning to convert a seven thousand-acre farm in Central Illinois into a
prairie wetland. But before the Nature Conservancy brings back native plants and animals, it’s
allowing archeologists to survey the land. So far the search has turned up fifty-five Native
American campsites dating back as far as 900 A.D. Larry Conrad is an archeology professor at
Western Illinois University.
“Perhaps the most important thing about surveying that bottom area is that if it hadn’t been
surveyed, then there would be this tract of several thousand acres that we’ll never have another
chance in our lifetime to looks at, and we wouldn’t know what was there. Now we do know.”
The Nature Conservancy is planning to start its prairie wetland restoration at the end of next year.
The archeologists say they will continue to survey the site until then.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
A soon-to-be-published study concludes that deer overpopulation is having a devastating, long-term impact on forests. The study will come out next month in the journal Ecological Applications. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cindi Deutschman-Ruiz reports:
Transcript
A soon-to-be-published study concludes that deer overpopulation is having a
devastating, long-term impact on forests. The study will come out next month in the
journal Ecological Applications. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cindi Deutschman-Ruiz reports:
The U.S. Forest Service study was conducted in Pennsylvania’s
Allegheny National Forest. It examined deer densities
ranging from 10 deer to 64 deer per square mile.
As deer increased, tree species declined.
Red maple, sugar maple, white ash, yellow poplar, and
cucumber trees were all adversely affected, and native yew has been practically eradicated in the forest.
Steve Horsley is the study’s co-author. He says the next step is to determine
whether the impact of deer on forests is as great in areas where there
are also housing developments and
farmland.
“Deer tend, for example, when agriculture is in the mix, to
spend their time eating alfalfa and corn,
which have more digestible energy than most of the
plants that you find in the woods.”
Horsely says in the meantime, deer populations must come down,
preferably to less than 20 per square mile. In the Allegheny National Forest, that would mean cutting the
population in half.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Cindi Deutschman-Ruiz.
Jim Carlson’s family has been fishing the waters of Lake Michigan for more than a century. While there used to be thousands of fishing operations like Carlson’s in the Great Lakes, that number has dwindled over the years. It’s estimated there may be only a few hundred left. Carlson says he could soon join that trend, if a year-old fishing treaty between the State of Michigan and five Native American tribes brings his family business to ruin. And that has his neighbors worried, too. That’s because on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, fishing and tourism rely on each other for survival. And the demise of Carlson’s business could have a profound impact on the local economy. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta has the story:
Polluted sediments sit at the bottom of rivers and lakes across the Great Lakes region. They can affect water quality, wildlife and human health. More than 40 highly contaminated areas in the region have been identified by the EPA’s Great Lakes Office. But so far, only about half of those sites have been cleaned up. This summer, dredging is taking place in at least three of those hot spots, all on rivers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports on the challenges of cleaning up a river bottom:
New technology is being used to expose students in the
Great Lakes states to the history and ways of the six Chippewa
tribes of the Lake Superior region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports … the C-D ROM, created with the help from tribal
leaders, has been six years in the making:
A Minnesota highway relocation project is getting national attention as
Native American tribes are attempting to stop state and federal projects
from destroying tribal lands. The Highway 55 re-route would cost an
estimated 100 million dollars and would provide a faster route from
downtown Minneapolis to the local airport and Mall of America. A
Minnesota tribal group says that if construction for the highway takes
place, they will lose sacred land. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Jesse Hardman reports:
America has seen a boom in casino gambling over the last decade, fueled
in large part by tribal casinos. Now, one New York tribe wants to cash
in, and leaders are eyeing a big payoff for the community. They say the
12-million dollar Akwesasne (aqua-saz-nee) Mohawk Casino will spark
economic benefits for members of the reservation and surrounding
areas. But some tribal members are protesting its opening, saying it
is culturally inappropriate. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Todd
Moe reports:
