Category: Outdoors

Saving Buffalo Reef

On By Brian DayIn Life, OutdoorsLeave a comment

Please take 10 minutes out of your day and watch this excellent short film produced and directed by my friend Finn Ryan.

The film highlights how mine tailings from historic copper mines in the UP are spreading in Lake Superior and threatening to destroy one of the Lake’s most productive lake trout breeding habitats.

It’s easy to blame overfishing for falling fish stocks, but more often than not the issue is habitat destruction. If we want to have healthy fisheries for commercial and recreational harvest we must address the root causes of fisheries degradation whether they be dams, industrial pollution, urban runoff or climate change.

In this case, work is underway to mitigate and ultimately remove the stamp sands that are the source of the problem. It’s headed in the right direction. Let’s make sure it keeps going that way.

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

On By Brian DayIn Life, OutdoorsLeave a comment

I first heard of Dan Egan’s book, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes during an interview on WORT radio here in Madison. I caught the final few minutes of the discussion and made a mental note to check out the book sometime soon. It took me a few more months than intended to get a copy in my hand, but it was well worth the wait. The book is outstanding. Not only is it one of the most comprehensive summaries of the ecology and history of the Great Lakes I’ve ever read, it’s also a real page-turner.

Continue reading “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” →

Please Shut Down This Crude Oil Pipeline Under the Great Lakes

On By Brian DayIn Life, Outdoors1 Comment

Before the Spill from Adam Wells on Vimeo.

Did you know there is a crude oil pipeline under Lake Michigan? Yep, it runs under the Straits of Mackinaw and cuts from the UP to lower Michigan.  The line is old, broken down and poses a big risk to the Great Lakes. Running crude oil under the world’s biggest freshwater system doesn’t pass the common sense test.

We drink this water.

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Rock Island Rendezvous

On By Brian DayIn Life, Outdoors2 Comments

rock_island_wisconsin
Thordarson’s boathouse and ferry pier, Rock Island State Park, WI. By David Langhorst [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
It’s 11:15 PM on a Friday night when we pull up to the ferry landing at Northport in Door County.  Mark and I begin to unload sea kayaks and gear for a weekend tour from my Honda Civic.  The weather is cool–what you would expect from the first weekend of October–and the wind is moving the tips of trees above our heads.  Continue reading “Rock Island Rendezvous” →