I went to a conference this past weekend on Great Lakes Restoration, which took place in Cleveland.  We’ll have much more in the future about this federal effort, so I’ll focus here on Cleveland.

I had never been to Cleveland and quite frankly, I was only able to identify a couple of people before I left who had ever been there – and that was largely just passing through.  So I didn’t really know what to expect.

It seems the city hasn’t done such a good job of providing public access to Lake Erie.  The vast majority of marinas are private.  We took a tour to Whiskey Island, which is one spot people can actually get to the water – but it is also under pressure to be turned into an industrial site. 

The city’s main connection to water is with the Cuyahoga River.  This is the river, as you might recall, that once was so polluted it actually caught on fire.  To their credit, they’ve done a seemingly nice job of developing the riverfront through downtown with the ability of boaters to dock and patronize the local establishments.  I also appreciate the way they celebrate the river’s past with such things as the Burning River Fest.  A little greenspace or some trails along the river wouldn’t be a bad thing, but that may be available farther upstream than I got. 

Cleveland also features a demonstration-size wind turbine spinning on the shore of Erie.  I like the fact that it is located between the Browns’ football stadium and Cleveland city hall because that way anyone who has a dislike of the Browns or politicians has a ready-made joke about what makes the wind blow.  Hat’s off as well to the Great Lakes Brewing Company, which provided the conference with some tasty beer.

Admittedly, I may not make it back there anytime soon.  But should you have the opportunity to spend some time in Cleveland with a good group of people, I’d recommend you take the chance.

Today’s topics: Agriculture, Business, Education, Energy, Great Lakes, Mining, Off-Highway Vehicles, Septics, Toxics, Transportation, Water, Wetlands, and Yard Waste.
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All this week, the Star Tribune has been running an excellent series of editorials on the relationship between farming, farm policy and water quality. One key point the editorials make is that in order to attain significant improvements in water quality, we don’t need to make the entire Minnesota River watershed into a pristine wilderness where no economic activity takes place. Just taking some of our most environmentally sensitive farmland and covering it with perennial plant systems like pasture grass and hay will provide huge ecological benefits. That’s an important message to get out as debate over the 2007 Farm Bill heats up here and in D.C. (more…)

The third meeting of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) took place on Tuesday, September 19. In a move to foster forward momentum on the allocation of funds from the committee, outside speakers were invited to present their cases as to why their organizations deserved ongoing funding.
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Today’s topics: Agriculture, Development, Energy, Great Outdoors, Non-Native Invasive Species, Pesticides, Transportation, Water, and Wildlife.
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To quote:

“WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has given the go-ahead to three Minnesota wind power projects, after concluding that they don’t interfere with military radar.

“The approvals were announced Thursday by Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican who urged the FAA to approve the projects. The FAA confirmed the projects had been given the go-ahead.

“More than a dozen wind developers in the Midwest had been told earlier this year that their projects might not get safety permits because of the potential impact on military radar.”Read the entire story.

While many wind power proponents initially reacted to the FAA’s concerns as trivial and obstructionist, it turns out that in an extremely small percentage of wind power installations poses real problems of interference with radar or defense installations. In addition, the fact that this concern initially was raised in association with the off-shore wind farm project off Cape Cod–the Cape Wind project–led some observers to speculate that an unholy bi-partisan effort by U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John Warner may be jeopardizing the entire national wind industry. Tempers have all cooled, bureaucracy is doing its job, and wind farm applications are getting the necessary clearances they need to proceed. Kudos to U.S. Senator Norm Coleman on this.

If you happen to call or email his office with praise (202 224 5641; email form) you can also ask for strong national action on global warming that includes a firm limit on emissions and continued ratcheting down of allowable global warming pollutants. Yesterday’s $3B global warming technology incentive by the Bush Administration is a welcome step, but it’s too little, too late and will not drive down emissions in the near-term or even the mid-term. That’s why states like California are acting on their own legally binding industries to reduce global warming pollutants.

Have you ever wanted to record a rap song about how fire benefits a grassland ecosystem?  Well someone has beaten you to it. Two people actually.  I don’t know who they are, but Patrick Sullivan and Brett Smith have their names attached to this.  Word on the street is that they are associated with a fire crew for The Nature Conservancy.

You can hear it for yourself at: Grasslands.

The lyrics are found below…
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Today’s topics: Agriculture, Development, Great Lakes, Mercury, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Pesticides, and Wildlife.
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As reported in today’s New York Times, Al Gore urged United States citizens to gather together to demand an “immediate freeze” on global warming emissions, a la the generation-old nuclear freeze campaign for arms control. Speaking to an audience at the New York University Law School yesterday, Gore stressed the need for action to avoid the worst damages of rising global temperatures.

To quote: “Merely engaging in high-minded debates about theoretical future reductions while continuing to steadily increase emissions represents a self-delusional and reckless approach,” Mr. Gore said. “In some ways, that approach is worse than doing nothing at all, because it lulls the gullible into thinking that something is actually being done, when in fact it is not.”

Gore also renewed his proposal to replace payroll taxes with taxes on pollution, including carbon dioxide.

Read the New York Times story: “Gore Calls for Immediate Freeze on Heat-Trapping Gas Emissions“

Last week the Minnesota Environmental Partnership board officially welcomed three new organizations to the partnership.  Check them out:
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