To learn more about the Great Lakes Compact and why it was written for the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes, read Dave Dempsey’s new book, The Great Lakes for Sale: From White Caps to Bottle Caps.

I found the book extremely insightful. Here is a quote:

“To date, no one has been able to cheapen the mystery and beauty of the Great Lakes through mere rhetoric. The steps that governments have taken toward relinquishing public control of the Great Lakes, in the sway of lobbyists, have occurred after dark, out of the public view. The has been no debate and no public decision anywhere that the Great Lakes can be commercialized—yet we are perilously close to that calamity.”

In other words, the selling of Great Lakes water for private profit was a bad precedent in Michigan that slipped by us when Engler was governor of Michigan.

Dave Dempsey knows what he is talking about. He has been an environmental advisor to Michigan governor James Blanchard and has served on many state and national environmental programs for the Great Lakes.

President George Bush today signed the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, endorsing sweeping protections for the Great Lakes that culminate a decade’s-worth of work by conservationists, government agencies, businesses, the public, as well as countless local, state and federal leaders.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes -- engaged in the compact from the start -- applauded the many efforts that made today’s historic signing possible.

“This is a great day for the Great Lakes,” said Alliance President Cameron Davis. “What started as just a ripple in 1998 when the region beat back a Great Lakes water grab has given rise to a cascade of support for these waters both in the region and across the country.”

Cameron Davis

Before winning approval from the U.S. House of Representatives in September and the U.S. Senate in August, the compact was approved by the legislatures of the Great Lakes states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

The Great Lakes contain more than 90 percent of the fresh surface water in the United States, and 20 percent of the world’s supply. Seemingly abundant, less than 1 percent of the Great Lakes water is renewed each year, however, leaving the lakes vulnerable to depletion.

Work on the compact began 10 years ago when the Great Lakes governors convened a binational task force and advisory committee to respond to the threat of water diversions to Asia.

The Alliance was appointed to the advisory committee and played a major role in developing the compact and working with state and national leaders to enact the agreement.

“Now the compact begins the implementation phase in which states must launch their water conservation efforts,” Davis said of the Great Lakes states now governed by the pact.

In Michigan the colors are brilliant in October. The maple leaves are red, the first to change and soon the whole mitten and the upper peninsula will be ablaze with October's palette.

Today Obama speaks at the Calder Plaza in Grand Rapids and people have been lined up for the event since 3 a.m. I am voting for Obama, it's no secret. This is the most important election I can remember, maybe even more important than the election where Gore was defeated by Bush. I went to see Gore in Muskegon and was very impressed with his strength. This will be a blue state since we really need a good change from the old guard.

I took a walk in Rosy Mound, a beautiful park where the sand dunes of West Michigan show dune succession. The photo is of beach grasses that hold the sand in place along with certain plants adapted to the wind and weather conditions on the Lake Michigan shore.

The fall weather is beautiful here, a perfect time for taking walks. The discipline of ecology was born in dunes like this. I explain this in my book, The Dynamic Great Lakes.

For more information, go to

www.geocities.com/barbaraspring