The World's Greatest Freshwater System

People who live around the Great Lakes often take them for granted. I wrote The Dynamic Great Lakes, to give people enough information to make intelligent choices in their every day lives about the world’s greatest freshwater system. The Dynamic Great Lakes is a book about their ecology and the mistakes people have made when altering the landscape by making locks for shipping, destroying wetlands or introducing new species both intentionally and unintentionally. It was my aim in writing this book to make people appreciate these lakes and understand what they might do for their betterment.

Many people do not understand the significance of the Great Lakes. They are twenty per cent of the world’s fresh surface water and need to be protected. These lakes’ freshwater will be hotly contested as more and more industries and people in arid parts of the world would like to exploit them. It is indeed happening now. Some large freshwater lakes in the world have been destroyed—drawn down to nothing through a lack of understanding.

Bottling plants have their eyes on the Great Lakes. Bottling water and shipping it out of the watershed will destroy the integrity of the lakes and their unique ecosystems. People in the Great Lakes watershed argue that the water belongs to the commons and should not be sold for private profit. There are many more issues the book addresses: directional drilling for oil, nuclear power plants, exotic species, wetlands, sand dunes and pollution from industries and municipalities.

Great Lakes Weather

A snow storm on the lakeshore is making driving difficult.  We are having lake effect snow that is blowing in from across Lake Michigan.  Moisture picked up from Lake Michigan increases snow fall.

Pictured is a snow fence on the beach that should prevent snow from blowing across the road.  We have had very little snow this winter and the snow storm on Feb. 24 is letting us know it is still winter   One day last month we had enough snow to ski on so I went out on my cross country skis.  My skis are still in the trunk of my car and all I got was one day of skiing.  Looks like I might be able to ski again.

Read more about Great Lakes weather in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes.  This book has been upadated and is available at Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores.

Piping Plover

Piping Plover


The piping plover likes to lay its eggs on the sand so be careful where you step when on the beaches of the Great Lakes.  This bird is endangered.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piping_Plover

Profile of the Great Lakes

From left to right, Lake Superior, the deepest, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron at the same sea level and considered one lake, shallow Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.  This illustration shows how the Great Lakes are one flowing river of seas that follow gravity down then flow through the St. Lawrence River and empty into the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more about this system of lakes in my critically acclaimed book, The Dynamic Great Lakes widely available on the www and in independent bookstores.

Steelhead Fishing in a Great Lakes' Tributary

Steelhead are running from Lake Michigan to tributaries.  Pictured is Norm Spring holding a steelie. He is on the Grand River that runs right through downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Norm is a founder of the Steelheaders organization.

Steelhead are a strain of rainbow trout that spend part of their lives in the Great Lakes where they grow larger than rainbow trout that stay in streams and do not migrate.

Read more about Great Lakes fish in The Dynamic Great Lakes widely available on the web and in stores such as Schuler Books and Music, The Bookman, Barnes & Noble.

Also available on Amazon's Kindle reader.

Winter on the Beach

Winter on the beach.  Snow fences keep th sand in place and then keep the snow from drifting over a nearby road.  The morning sun leaves a pattern of shadows on the snow.  I took this photo on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  There has not been much snow this winter, but there has been a lot of wind.  The surfers who are a hardy lot have been enjoying it.

Feed the Birds

Some birds stay all winter in Michigan.  We like to feed the birds.  I like to paint them.

Marram Grass Builds Sand Dunes

In West Michigan the wind and waves have built sand dunes. Some of the best dunes on the planet are found there. Marram grasses hold the dunes together.  Their roots weave a network of webs under the sand that keeps the sand from escaping.  Pictured is marram grass but there are other types of grasses.

Read more about sand dunes along the Great Lakes in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes.

This book is suitable for readers from middle school through adult and is available at bn.com, Amazon.com and is available for Amazon's Kindle e reader.