Blog Posts

U of M Student Launches Study to Eliminate Balloon Litter

6/14/2019

Lara O'Brien

My name is Lara O'Brien and I am a master's student at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. I am currently researching the environmental impact of balloon releases in the Great Lakes, Here's a link to a recent article:

In order to collect more data on balloon debris sightings, I have created a Survey123 form that can be used to record the date, time, location, and photo of the debris sighting. This data can

then be used to quantify, analyze, and create visual maps of balloon debris. (Link to survey)

I am originally from Kansas City and have always been interested in the environment and how people view and interact with the natural world. I received a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Geography from the University of Missouri. I also have an M.A. degree in Geography from the University of Kansas. Using qualitative research and in-depth interviews, I focused on the effects of climate change and sea level rise on low-lying island nations in the Pacific and how indigenous communities are adapting to current and future environmental changes. When I traveled to some of these small, remote islands, I was able to talk with members of the local villages and see the direct impacts of climate change. I was also astonished at the amount of plastic littering the beaches and the lagoons and saw that plastic pollution was another huge environmental challenge for the islands.

After I graduated, I became increasingly involved in wildlife conservation and volunteered at a wildlife rehab in Kansas. There I learned more about native birds and wildlife and how they are also impacted by climate change and increasing pollution. I decided to enroll at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) to continue my studies and learn more about the science and data behind climate change and conservation as well as the latest developments in GIS and remote sensing technologies. My hope is to combine qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial methods to help raise awareness about climate change and plastic pollution and help communities protect and conserve their environment.

For years, I have been horrified when groups gather and release balloons. I hope by engaging and participating in this citizen science research, more people will become aware of the impact balloons and balloon releases have on the environment and wildlife. Hopefully, it will lead to changes in behavior and changes in policy.

Meeting this woman gives me great hope for our planet. Please support her efforts to eliminate balloons from the skies above the Great Lakes by providing her information on balloon litter sightings at https://arcg.is/1OfbKT. And PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

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860 pieces of plastic, 528 straws, and too many steps to count!

4/22/2019

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Forty-two volunteers picked up 43 balloon remnants and ribbons along the shores of Saugatuck Dunes State Park on Saturday, April 20th. They also collected 860 pieces of plastic, 528 straws, 393 plastic bottle caps, and 326 cigarette butts and cigar tips.

Our litter tells a story and it’s not a good one. And while the amount of trash collected was most likely reduced by high lake levels and waves that battered the beach and made the normal 2.5- mile continuous walk in the sand impossible, the group picked up almost 80 pounds of trash!

What an incentive to use less plastic, more reusable products and dispose of trash appropriately!

Thank you to all involved in Saturday’s Alliance for the Great Lakes Spring Kickoff and to the “Don’t Let it Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry” team committed to eliminating balloons from the skies above our lakes. Working together, we can make a difference.

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Inside the Copper Pail, a Sacred Gift

4/16/2019

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Josephine Mandamin

The message of Josephine Mandamin of the Anishinabek Nation of Ontario, Canada, was always the same.

Water, the source of all life, is a sacred gift. We, the people of this earth, need to adopt it, honor it, care for it, pray for it, fight for it.

Quoting Grand Chief E. Benton-Banaise-Bawdwayadun, a tribal elder she heard in 2002, Josephine Mandamin warned that “the abuses of water will result in severe shortages. And if we don’t do anything about it, thirty years from now our water will cost the same as gold”.

The key word, she said, was “if.” It didn’t have to happen. And when the chief finished his talk by asking, “What are you going to do about it?”  she decided to start walking. Beginning with Lake Superior in 2003, this grandmother in her sixties—and then seventies—would inspire and participate in water walks that spanned over 15,500 miles alongside all five Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and other major waterways in the region.

Unbeknownst to me, during that same chilly month of April 2008 as I hiked north up the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, she and a group of Water Walkers were traveling south, carrying the symbolic copper pail filled with Lake Michigan water, praying for its health.

Josephine Manadamin, passed in February at the age of seventy-seven. What might I have learned from this remarkable woman had our paths crossed?

She admits in journal entries and video interviews* that these walks were tough physically and, in the beginning, emotionally.  Passing motorists who did not understand taunted her, and the small group accompanying her, with war whoops and shouts like “crazy Indians” or “get a job.” But she and the others kept walking. And by 2008, the year they completed the last leg of the Great Lakes journey, there were native and nonnative people, men and women, young and old walking alongside.

“She had an aura about her that made her special,” Royce Ragland, founder of the Green Elk Rapids organization and an inductee into the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame, told me. “Something emanated from her, a quiet peacefulness that grabbed your attention, made you want to be near her.”

Ragland asked Mandamin to speak to the Elk Rapids organization in 2010, and to return in 2018.

“She had such a powerful message it gave us goose pimples. She was so modest, humble, and focused on her mission. One of the warmest and most brilliant things about Josephine was that she accommodated all of us, especially those of us who did not know indigenous cultures and traditions. She walked the talk that this mission must include everyone.”

In researching Mandamin’s journey, I learned that women, as life givers, must understand the meaning of water, and how it gives life, just as women give life. The copper pail is a reminder that it is women’s responsibility to care for the earth and her water. And copper, one of the universal elements, is a reminder of Mother Earth in her tender beginnings, before chemicals, pollution, and climate change put her health at risk.

JoAnne Cook and Josephine Mandamin

But women cannot walk alone. In addition to the copper pail, the Water Walkers carried a staff inscribed with an eagle, the symbol for caretaking and protection. “Just as men’s responsibility does not end when the seed is planted in the womb of a woman, men must accompany women on this critical work of caring for the water,” she reminded a gathering of chiefs encountered while walking Lake Huron. Men must help carry the load.

“In the culture of the indigenous people, everything is connected,” explained JoAnne Cook, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa/Chippewa Indians, a consultant, and former tribal court judge. “Peacemaking allows everyone a voice. Healing happens. The same thing for the water. When we pray, talk positively, and conduct water ceremonies, we are helping the water to heal.”

Cook participated for several days in three of the walks.

“Josephine was so inspiring. When she heard the words of the chief, she received her own personal message and followed it. It’s so easy to say ‘I’m just one person, what can I do?’ But look what she did!”

According to Ragland, she gave the term “grandmother” new meaning. “She saw something that needed to be done and she just did it. She didn’t let her age or her health get in the way.”

How do you measure the success of the Water Walk? Josephine Mandamin wrote in her journal after that first year hiking the circumference of Lake Superior. Is it the numbers of miles walked? Is it what we experienced? Is it the people we met?

I suspect it was all those things. For me, it is knowing her spirit walks alongside me as I carry a pail of copper in my heart. The pail is filled with Lake Michigan water.

*Found at the website of the organization she created, www.MotherEarthWaterWalk.com.

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What Better Way to Kick Off Spring?

4/6/2019

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Members of an Aldea cleanup team: Elly and Daniel Bollweg, Josh Manzer, Brittany Goode

“Sometimes, I feel like the lake is the only entity who truly gets me,” Brittany Goode told me.

One of the leaders for the two Grand Haven beach cleanups scheduled in April, she was “born and raised” along Lake Michigan and feels a responsibility to it.

“Those of us who spent our childhood with Lake Michigan have an innate connection to it,” the employee of Grand Haven’s Aldea Coffee

continued. “Plus, I work for a company that is committed to preserving the earth through our business practices. We compost, recycle and purchase items with intention. I see the beach cleanup as a way to get our customers engaged and to raise awareness that products used downtown and not disposed of correctly, ultimately affect the cleanliness of our beaches.”

For Drew Paloucek, the other leader of the April 20th and 27th Grand Haven “Adopt-a-Beach” cleanups scheduled for 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. respectively, her connection also stems from childhood.

“I grew up taking nine-hour car rides from Chicago to my grandparents’ home on the Les Cheneaux Islands. After I graduated from college and moved to West Michigan, I reestablished my connection to the Great Lakes. When I saw that careless lifestyles were contributing to the trash along the shoreline, I knew I had to do my part to educate and inspire others to care for our lakes.”

A mortgage lender who has led over fifteen beach cleanups from Chicago to Grand Haven, Paloucek noticed that her passion, connection and drive to protect the lakes has grown stronger with age.

“Since my first cleanup—when we pulled twenty pounds and six bags of trash off the Grand Haven beach—I have been hooked,” she admitted. “It’s a great way to give back.”

Others, she's discovered, feel the same.

Drew Paloucek

“People look forward to these cleanups. It’s something tangible almost everyone can do. And when you pick up enough straws, you think twice before using one.”

The same is true for releasing balloons.

“In addition to single use plastics like eating utensils, stirrers, straws, and cigarette filters, we have pulled dozens of balloons out of the side of the sand dunes, the ribbons wrapped and woven into dune grass,” Paloucek said.

According to Tyrone Dobson, Volunteer Manager for the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the “Adopt-a-Beach” program has been in existence since 1991, increasing in popularity each year. In 2018, there were over 900 Great Lakes beach cleanups, 15,000 volunteers, and roughly eighteen tons of trash removed—including 4,415 balloons..

“We ask leaders to have the volunteers record every piece of trash picked up,” Dobson said. “We use that information to influence change—at the local and national level.”

More than 85% of the debris is plastic. Despite the cleanups, 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up in the Great Lakes every year. Over time, the plastic breaks into smaller pieces known as microplastics. Because they are difficult to filter, microplastics eventually find their way into our drinking water, affecting our health.

Do you have a personal connection to the Great Lakes? A couple hours to spare over the next three months? Currently, there are 114 “Adopt-a-Beach” public cleanups scheduled for the Great Lakes April through June. Over half are alongside Lake Michigan—including the one sponsored by the “Don’t Let It Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry” campaign to eliminate balloons from the skies above the Great Lakes. It is scheduled for Saugatuck Dune State Park on Saturday, April 20th, at 1:00 p.m.

Please join us. And consider refusing single-use plastic items like water bottles, straws, eating utensils. Instead, opt for reusable alternatives like cloth grocery bags and personal water containers. For what if someday, instead of trash, the only colors in the sand were wildflowers—like the blush of the Pitcher’s Thistle, the exuberant gold of the Puccoon, the pink kiss of the Bearberry?

To find an event near you, visit: https://greatlakes.org/get-involved/adopt-a-beach/

And because I am partial to the “the Great Lakes State,” Michigan’s events are listed below.

Belle Isle Beach 4/7, 4/27
Oceana County 4/20
Elberta Village 4/22
Grand Haven 4/20, 4/27
Norton Shores 5/4
Manistee 4/20
Ferrysburg 6/10
Muskegon 4/20
Benton Harbor 4/24
Saugatuck Dunes 4/20
South Haven 5/5
Monroe County 4/19, 6/15
Berrien County 4/28
Whitehall 4/13

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My Take . . . As Seen In The 3/29/19 Holland Sentinel

3/30/2019

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I bought a bag of balloons recently for my 92-year-old mother who is leading an exercise class in her Holland retirement community. She wanted the balloons for an activity that involves batting about balloons with swim noodles. She tells me it is the most fun and the most strenuous of all the exercises.

I am not anti-balloons. I am against releasing them into our skies. There is a difference.

In 2018, volunteers participating in the Alliance for the Great Lakes beach cleanups picked up 4,415 balloons. Those of us who walk the beaches on a regular basis pick up thousands more. In addition to littering, balloons released into the skies cause enough damage that five states and numerous cities have banned the mass release of balloons. None are in the Great Lakes region.

The good news is we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program and the Clean Virginia Waterways of Longwood University—through grants from NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management—have created a website documenting five years of research on the damage caused by floating balloons and they provide alternative ways to celebrate. (http://preventballoonlitter.org)

The photos tell the story. Wildlife starved because they mistakenly ingested balloon remnants as food. Birds entangled in ribbons, hampering their ability to fly. Livestock spooked and injured because floating balloons caused confusion. Mylar balloons tangled in power lines, their metallic coating melting and causing power outages, even sparking fires. And while latex balloons are considered “biodegradable,” the studies show they can take as long as six years to decompose when exposed to periods of time in water.

In 2007, the fourth grades classes of Quincy Elementary School in Zeeland, under the leadership of teachers Kathy Nemeth and Donna Atman, launched a “Don’t Let it Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry” campaign to eliminate balloons from the skies above the Great Lakes. They collected enough balloon evidence while cleaning up Saugatuck Dunes State Park to convince the two high school principals and the school district of Zeeland to ban the mass release of balloons at all school functions. They graduated eight years later in balloon-free ceremonies.

What if we, in Michigan, relaunched their campaign?

#dontletitflygl. On March 23, I discovered nine ribbons within 1/3 mile of Big Red. Within 1/3 mile! I could dispose of only seven. The other two will dangle in the wind until they decompose--or worse--a bird becomes ensnared and tries to fly away.

What if every event organizer, wedding planner, funeral home director, school principal, and family in Michigan found other ways to announce, celebrate, honor, and grieve than littering our skies with balloons? What if every store selling balloons participated in the Balloon Council’s “Responsible Balloon Retailer” program promoting the correct disposal of balloons? What if communities throughout Michigan banned the mass release of balloons?

On Saturday, April 20th, at 1:00 p.m. a team of volunteers (to include myself and several from that legendary Quincy team) are returning to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park to clean up the beach and relaunch the “Don’t Let it Fly” campaign. Please consider joining us. For what if someday, the only colors we saw in the skies above the Great Lakes were those gloriously painted by God?

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"I Want to Know I Did What I Could"

3/11/2019

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Left to Right: Mike McDonnell, Lori Sickenberger, Paul Shellaway, Candy Tomes, Ron Thornton, Ron Tomes, Bill Sickenberger

“I can’t write or speak, but I can bake,” said a 90-year-old woman arriving at a fundraising bake sale with two Pennsylvania Dutch Funny cakes.

For over fourteen years, she, and others in Lower Milford Township in Eastern Pennsylvania, have been fighting to protect 629 acres from being developed into a quarry, a ready-mix asphalt plant, and a concrete plant.

I first wrote about this David versus Goliath story in December of 2016. Two years later, the Zoning Hearing Board of Lower Milford Township voted unanimously to deny Geryville Materials the special exception needed to build the quarry and the plants. And while the ruling is consistent with two Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions in favor of the people of Lower Milford Township, Geryville Materials filed yet another appeal in late January of 2019.

Where do these volunteers find the energy and strength to persevere for so long?

“To know this land is to want to protect it.” said human resource consultant and President of the Lower Milford Residents Association (LMRA), Lori Sickenberger. “I had to fight. As the years went on, I heard the stories from the elderly who grew up here, who stayed here because they love the peacefulness of this valley. People's sincere gratitude and encouragement have lifted me when I am tired. Prayers have kept me going. My husband, Bill, has stood by my side through it all. Even though the fight has been exhausting and at times a negative drain on my soul, I have never considered giving up. I can't.”

The odds are beyond scary to a 19.6 square-mile township with a population of 3,775. The long, drawn-out battle has made it hard to keep people engaged. To most LMRA members, it feels as if one of Geryville’s strategy is to wear them down.

“At the first meeting, hundreds of people showed up—angry and concerned over the threat to the community,” said Ron Tomes, a school bus driver for special needs children. “But apathy strikes quickly. In the end, eight to twelve people are left fighting against all odds. What has kept us going for so long—particularly during times of despair—is that amazing people will step forward with sizable donations, even from outside the community . . . Out of the ashes rises a phoenix, and we forge ahead.”

In addition to time and energy, the fight takes money.

“In the state of Pennsylvania, the mining industry is ruthless and well-established,” said Paul Shellaway, owner of an automobile body shop. “What mining wants, mining gets . . . but we’ve endured because what we are doing is legitimate. We’ve endured because of our resolve. They want to ram it through regardless of facts. We hired experts and good lawyers to help us find and present the facts.”

Facts matter.

In explaining the decision to deny Geryville Material’s request, the zoning board placed concerns about water at the top of the list. Any disruption to the quality or quantity of water due to the quarry “would have devastating long term effects” to nearby residents and farms whose only sources of water are the springs and groundwater running through the quarry.

The board listened to an expert in wetland ecology, who pointed out that the quarry would stand at the headwaters of five tributaries to the Hosensack Creek, all under consideration for exceptional value status—the highest quality streams in the Commonwealth. He also voiced concern the quarry would damage a downstream section of the Hosensack Creek that has been designated a Class A Wild Trout Stream.

According to the denial document, the board’s concerns had “nothing to do with the standard operating procedures of the quarry with regard to ‘water issues,’ but instead everything to do with the impact that the quarry has on this particular environment, these particular waterways, these particular neighbors, and this particular community.”

There were traffic and road infrastructure concerns associated with trucks weighing 65,000-80,000 pounds entering and leaving the site every 90 seconds. That translates to 460 trips per day on a single, narrow roadway shared with slow-moving farm vehicles. In addition to the increased burden placed on the township to maintain that road, the board expressed concern about “the onslaught of vehicles passing nearby houses on a daily basis.”

After reading the long list of issues, of which water and traffic are only two, it seems impossible that this fight has dragged on for so long. But it has. The resident association is already scheduling bake sales and spring flower sales to fund this ongoing battle.

“We are a small, but talented team,” said Michael McDonnell, owner of a graphic design business. “Sometimes all it takes is a handful of people. Sometimes it only takes one. I want to stand with that one person.”

Paraphrasing a quote from the movie Braveheart, he adds, “And, dying in my bed many years from now . . . I want to know I did what I could.”

What, you may be thinking, does this have to do with the Great Lakes? First, in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you the president of the Residents Association fighting this quarry is my sister-in-law, Lori Sickenberger. Second, she is my role model as I begin to build a grassroots effort to make the skies over the Great Lakes balloon-free.

To contribute to the work of the Lower Milford Residents Association as they prepare for this next legal battle, visit LMRA
or mail a check to:
Lower Milford Residents Association (LMRA)
PO Box 138
Limeport, PA 18060

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What If?

3/3/2019

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What if every 4th grader in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario, and Quebec followed the lead of the 4th graders in Zeeland, MI and launched a “Don’t Let it Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry?” campaign to eliminate balloon litter? What if the only colors we saw in the skies above the Great Lakes were those gloriously painted by God?

And what if if every child facing an extended stay in a hospital had a chance to participate in the campaign? What if they could make buttons? And the buttons sold in the hospital gift shop to raise money for programs to keep the kids connected to their classmates, studies, and life outside the hospital walls?

Find out more about the "What If" campaign to eliminate balloons from the skies above the Great Lakes by visiting the "Don't Let it Fly" tab on my website. Let me know if you'd like to help!

"Don't Let It Fly"

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Please Join Us and Spread the Word

2/11/2019

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What if everyone knew Mylar balloons, when released, can float into power lines--where Mylar’s metallic coating can melt, become tangled, and result in power outages? even spark fires? What if they knew power companies from California to Virginia are concerned about safety, about the damage and inconvenience of outages caused by Mylar balloons? Perhaps those balloons would disappear from our skies.

And what if people living near one of the 63 Alliance for the Great Lakes “Adopt-a-Beach Spring Kick-Off” events showed up to help? Including the cleanup of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park beach on April 20th? What if people knew the Alliance tracks the number of balloons (and all trash) picked up at these events? And that in 2018, volunteers picked up 4,415 balloons? Perhaps balloons would disappear from our skies.

As part of the “Don’t Let it Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry” campaign, I “adopted” the Saugatuck Dunes State Park beach in the Alliance for the Great Lakes “Spring Kickoff.” After all, this is the beach where the 2007 class of Quincy Elementary School 4th graders collected the evidence needed to convince the Zeeland School District to ban the mass release of balloons at all school functions.

What better place to relaunch the campaign? And get in those 10,000 steps?! Please join us! And spread the word!

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Is Chicago Up for the Challenge?

2/9/2019

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Winter scene on Lake Michigan beach

Thursday, I had the privilege of being in conversation with David Ullrich at the Union League Club of Chicago, discussing my book, Uncharted Waters. My goal—in addition to talking about the book—was to plant a seed.

I would like the city of Chicago to be the first city in the Great Lakes region to adopt a ban on the mass release of balloons.

Do you remember the 2007 class of fourth-graders at Quincy Elementary School in Zeeland? The forty-two passionate, hope-filled individuals who launched the “Don’t Let It Fly or the Great Lakes Will Cry” campaign to eliminate balloon litter? The fearless students who convinced two high school principals to cancel an order for 450 balloons slated for high school graduation ceremonies?

One of the boys told the class if we really wanted to clean up Lake Michigan beaches, we needed to get Chicago involved in the campaign.

“Everyone knows the winds are out of the southwest,” he said. “If we don’t get Chicago to quit releasing balloons, we’ll never have clean beaches!”

He was right. Twelve years later, I am still picking up balloons!

Five states have banned the mass release of balloons. They are Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, and California. None are Great Lakes states. A number of cities have also banned the practice of releasing large numbers of balloons. To my knowledge, none are in the Great Lakes region.

It’s time. Why not start with Chicago, the city upwind of the longest freshwater shoreline in the world?

I planted the seed on Thursday. With a little nurturing, hopefully it will grow. You can help. Write a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune asking for a city-wide ban on the mass release of balloons. We can find better ways to celebrate, to honor the dead, to make a statement.

Send a copy to your own city newspaper, your own mayor—asking for a ban in your community. Mayors talk. Maybe, with enough nudging, we can get a Great Lakes state added to the list of states outlawing mass balloon releases. Maybe, we can even get all eight states!

We owe it to the 2007 class of fourth-graders to try.

Sample letter for the Chicago Tribune letters@chicagotribune.com and your own mayor, governor, and local newspaper. (Be sure to include your name, city, state.)

Letter to the Editor,
I’d like to ask the city of Chicago to help clean up Lake Michigan’s shoreline, the longest freshwater shoreline in the world, by banning the mass release of balloons. If Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, California, and the Clemson Tigers can do it, why not Chicago?

Mary McKSchmidt
Author and Beach Walker
Holland, MI

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Are We Up to the Good Stuff of the 1890s?

1/4/2019

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On Thursday, February 7th, I will be the luncheon guest at the Union League Club of Chicago. It promises to be a lively and informative event as I am to be in conversation with Great Lakes advocate and ambassador David Ullrich*. For more information, visit Eventbrite.

I confess that since the talk is over a month away, I had not begun researching the organization—instead spending most of the holidays studying the history of Chicago in the 1890s. After all, that is the backdrop for my next book, a historical fiction tentatively titled, The Box.

To my astonishment, the Union League Club of Chicago was a predominant player in the 1890s, influencing a decision by Congress to select the city as the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition—more widely known as the 1893 World’s Fair. Members of this organization convinced the country that Chicago was the best place to create an exposition that would showcase the engineering and industrial strengths of the nation.

Visitors to the World’s Fair were introduced to the first Ferris wheel, the zipper, and the Telautograph (first Fax machine). They witnessed the largest AC (alternating current) station in the world—powering all the incandescent lights and lamps of the fair. They were also introduced to the first moving sidewalk in the United States, commemorative stamps and coins, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Cracker Jacks, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat, and the mass production of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum.

But the fair was more than that.

At a time when Chicago was described as filthy, foul-smelling, raucous, and smoke-filled, the designers created a city of pristine, white buildings monumental in size and design. Called the “White City,” the exposition influenced the incorporation of architecture, green spaces, and bodies of water into city planning. Designed and built in less than three years, the fair showcased the creativity and innovative spirit of the Chicago people.

That is why I am writing a book based in Chicago in the 1890s. In addition to the World’s Fair, Chicago was the site of one of the top engineering wonders of the world—the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River. Completed in ten years against insurmountable odds, the canal now known as the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, was created to protect the city’s primary source of fresh drinking water, Lake Michigan. But that canal now poses one of the greatest environmental threats facing the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River ecosystems. It provides a two-way highway for the movement of aquatic invasive species—detrimental and deadly to both sides of the canal.

In his thoughtful epilogue to his book, Building the Canal to Save Chicago, engineer and author Richard Lanyon reminds readers that maintaining the quality of Lake Michigan was what motivated the construction of the canal. That should be the driving force behind today’s decisions, too.

In February, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be sending a request for funding to Congress to stop the Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan through the canal. Once that plan hits my Congressional Representative’s desk, I plan to remind him of four things.

While I personally prefer returning the river to its natural state and permanently separating the two basins, this plan is the next best thing—and probably the only option after the 2014 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals against Michigan and other four states calling for full separation.
While the price tag could be as high as $778 million versus an original estimate of $275 million, it pales in comparison to the potential damage to the multi-billion-dollar fishing, boating, and tourism industries.
While this plan addresses the four species of Asian Carp, it does not address the other aquatic invasive species flowing in both directions. Addressing the other species must be part of the solution without slowing down an already length process.
Speed is essential. The Corps must implement this plan in less than their estimated ten-year timeframe. The Asian carp, Northern snakehead, Skipjack herring and other species aren’t waiting around.

The architect and director of the 1893 World’s Fair, Daniel Burnham, and Chief Engineer Lyman Cooley of the Sanitary District of Chicago and others overseeing construction of the canal faced similar challenges. Not enough time. Not enough money. Too many competing priorities. But they exceeded expectations and created masterpieces—both in less than ten years.

We must insist the Army Corps—under the direction of Congress—do the same.

*David Ullrich works on numerous boards, commissions, and committees to advance the protection, restoration, and long-term sustainability of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region in the United States and Canada. He is active locally in Chicago to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of all Chicagoans. He is expanding his interests to the Great Barrier Reef, Wet Tropics, and other natural features of Australia.

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