Great Lakes Week kicks off today in Cleveland and is fitting that this conference — focusing on restoring the Great Lakes — is being held in Cleveland, near the shores of Lake Erie.
Cleveland, which was once dubbed the Mistake by the Lake, is home to the Cuyahoga River, which caught fire several times in the 1950s and 60s. Today, the river is much cleaner and Cleveland is a pretty cool city. It is, after all, the home of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
And Lake Erie, which the late comedian Johnny Carson once derided as “The Place Fish Go to Die,” now supports one of the world’s best walleye fisheries.
Lake Erie still has serious problems, including toxic algae blooms, a dead zone that forms each summer and the looming threat of an Asian carp invasion. Still, the lake is much healthier than it was in the 1970s and it is the backbone of northern Ohio’s tourism economy.
Great Lakes Week will explore ongoing efforts to restore Lake Erie and prevent an Asian carp invasion.
I’ll be covering Great Lakes Week this in a variety of online forums. I’ll share my personal observations here. Most of my blog posts about the conference will appear at healthylakes.org and most my tweets will appear on the healthylakesfeed.
Stay tuned…
