The Great Lakes Water Wars
Some books you read because you should. Some books you read because you want to. With this book, you can satisfy both.
If you love Lake Superior and intend on being prepared to
protect it, you should read this book. If you’re intrigued by what has
happened to water resources in other parts of the world and about the
history of how water became worth more than its weight in gold, then
you’ll enjoy these stories.
For the record, I first met Peter Annin when he worked for the Chicago bureau of Newsweek
magazine. Knowing of his honesty and thoroughness assured me that he
would deliver a thoughtful book about this complex topic. He has.
By examining mistakes of the past around the country and the
world and explaining the current situation, Peter gives the context
necessary for those of us who will help to frame direction for use of
Lake Superior - and the other Great Lakes.
He tackled the book, Peter explained in a conversation with
me, because the subject of water usage and the dangers of unregulated
release of water resources is too large for most newspaper, TV or
magazine reports.
“I’ve followed this issue for years. I saw how difficult it
was for journalists to get their arms around it. … It’s a natural book.”
Peter wanted his book to be a comprehensive resource and he
is an obvious advocate of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin
Water Resources Compact as a beginning tool to protect our inland seas.
“We’re really at this important juncture in Great Lakes
history. We’re entering a period of increased water tensions. Almost
everyone agrees that the current system to protect the Great Lakes is
dysfunctional.”
Only two of the eight Great Lakes states have passed the
compact restricting water removal into law - Minnesota and Illinois.
All of the other states, except for Wisconsin, have active bills before
their legislatures. (You can follow the progress through
www.greatlakeswaterwars.com.
Two parts of the book talk directly about Lake Superior. One
chapter explains how the Waboose Dam, completed in 1943, diverts water
from the Hudson Bay system into Lake Superior from Long Lac and Ogoki
in Ontario. The dam came 17 years after the recorded lowest lake levels
in 1925 and 1926 - so should that 2.4 inches added to the lake by the
diversion be subtracted from current lake levels to determine whether
it’s gone below the records? The lake may be lower than we know.
Another chapter talks about the Nova Group project that would
have sent overseas bottled water from Lake Superior. A last-minute fuss
reversed initial permitting for the plan.
Peter deftly weaves the human cost of water wars into his
reporting. Diverting water into Lake Superior flooded out lands of the
First Nations people in the Long Lac and Ogoki watersheds. In the story
of the Aral Sea - or what remains of it - is a horrifying lesson about
what can go wrong with water diversions.
By encouraging understanding of how to protect Lake
Superior’s future, this book deserves its place on your coffee table
beside those photo books showing the beauty of what Lake Superior is
now.
 – Konnie LeMay
A Country Doctor's Journal
It’s like sitting down to a comfortable cup of coffee with a
friend who happens to be a rural doctor and a heck of a storyteller.
These short recollections of an obviously lively and caring
career - actually of several careers because other doctors contribute -
will warm your heart, make you smile and occasionally cause you to
shake your head and cluck your tongue. People are just fascinating and
who can see that better than their doctor.
And as you would expect of a coffee conversation, these
stories are not ponderously told or laden with either angst or
epiphany. There are insights and quite a few chuckles - not unusual
since the memories that last with us the longest tend to make us laugh
or cry.
This could be the Doctors’ rather than Doctor’s journal
because Dr. MacDonald’s medical friends add stories of rural practices
around the state. Most, however, ring true north. My favorites involve
“old country” folk with those musical and familiar accents of their
usually Scandinavian roots - along with the practical wisdom of that
age and that original address.
You’ll enjoy the conversation between the commercial fishing
brothers and the itinerant missionary hell-bent on adding a Norwegian
soul to his flock. Asked which Lutheran congregation he belonged to,
the old fishing fellow says: “Ve never choosed up sides.” It almost
reads like an ethnic joke; but I’m assuming it’s a true story - or at
least pretty true.
The tragedies are in here, too, as there must be in the
reminiscences for any doctor concerned about his patients and their
lives beyond the medical problems they present.
In the end, that is why this book makes such a great friend to invite over for coffee.
– Konnie LeMay
Celebrating Birch
This is a book celebrating one of the most giving of all
trees. Crossing cultures and continents, the birch has for tens of
thousands of years aided people by providing shelters, containers to
preserve foods, methods of transportation and, into the future, perhaps
life-saving medicines.
So how appropriate that for its 10th anniversary, the staff
at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota, produced a book
celebrating not its own accomplishments but the history, story and
utility of the birch.
This book is a wonderful mix of materials. Woven between
sections of projects using birch bark and wood, the text covers the
ancient history of the tree, the legends from many cultures about it
and its biology, ecology and future.
The projects, beautifully and clearly illustrated with
photos, are ones that students of the folk school would tackle and
range from the simple and small to the more complex. In the bark
section, projects feature, to name just a few, baskets, boxes,
ornaments and an intriguing “seven deadly sins” rattle into which are
placed seven pebbles. Shaking it is intended to keep the rattler on the
straight and narrow.
Wood projects also have a wide range from wall hangers to carved bowls and spoons to even a Scandinavian Dala horse.
Even if you won’t grab up the tools and dive into these
projects, the other parts of the book brought fascinating insights into
this most identifiable and memorable tree.
The birch shares a lifespan similar to people, reaching 60 to
80 years - a relatively short existence among other long-lived tree
species. Its generosity in providing necessary materials for people has
been honored in stories, a few of which are related here.
After all, birch and people go way back together, as far back as the Neanderthals who found birch tar and beeswax useful.
One of my favorite narratives is about Nanabozho being saved
by a birch that refused to give him up to the attacking thunder birds.
It is how the black markings came to be on the white bark, so the story
goes.
While this is a softcover volume, the heavy flap-folded
covers, high-quality pages and good binding are meant to stand up to
use.
The book does not focus on the North House Folk School and
its 10 years, but a small piece introduces the school, sets the stage
for the projects and whets your birch whistle for a chance for a
hands-on visit.
– Konnie LeMay
|
Free Membership
