Saturday, June 9, 2018

'The Death and Life of the Great Lakes' by Dan Egan


The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, Dan Egan (4.0)
It’s hard to imagine living within miles of Lake Michigan for many years of my life and not knowing the large variety of ecological issues brewing. We definitely knew the stink of the dead alewives on the beaches, but I guess as a child, it took something so sensory to have impact. The degree to which the lake ecosystem was being tinkered with was below our radar. As a journalist for the Milwaukee Sentinel, Dan Egan followed the health of the lakes closely. With grants he was able to go back into history to fill in some of the ‘hows’ as well. While the book is quite scary with regards to the disregard many have had when making changes to the lakes (introducing new species both inadvertently and purposefully, making significant changes to ingress and egress points, etc.) Egan does give you hope that if the lakes have made it through these horrific episodes, all hope is not gone. What is possibly more frightening is how easily some of these invasive species have made it over the continental divide and now threaten many smaller lakes in the West. I found this book both interesting and important and highly recommend it for everyone.