The Royal Oak Daily Tribune has a RECOMMENDED look at a new fish habitat created by BASF and the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge in the Detroit River’s Trenton Channel.  Link:

http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2009/11/29/sports/srv0000006948301.txt

Muskegon Critic on the dailykos forums has a post related to the near-entry of Asian carp into Lake Michigan.  And his post had an interesting side angle.  Apparently, bull sharks can survive in fresh water for 4+ years.  They have been observed 2,000 miles up the Amazon.  And there have been confirmed bull shark sightings in St. Louis and parts of Illinois.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/29/2926/3038

So the question arises: Could a shark or two be alive and swimming in the Great Lakes?  Well, in fact, there have been several reports of shark encounters in the Great Lakes through the years.  A little bit of internet research has revealed most of these to be spurious.  Link:

http://conservationreport.com/2008/07/15/shark-week-lake-michigan-shark-attack/

My conclusion: Myth

It is a tantalizing fact that bull sharks seem biologically capable of living in a place like Lake Michigan for a short time period.  However, the water is too cold for them to thrive or even survive for long.  And the several reported incidents of Lake Michigan shark encounters seem specious.

Each year, the League of Michigan Bicyclists sponsors an event called the Pedal Across Lower Michigan.  This multi-day ride creates tent cities each night in a different Lower Michigan city.  This year, the event will stop in Milan before ending at Lake Erie Metropark.  Several new links give route information:

http://www.lmb.org/palm/

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/united-states/mi/-milan/154125909824157032

The Downriver News Herald has a RECOMMENDED article about recent updates to the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  Particular focus is given to a new observation deck constructed at the Humbug Marsh Unit on the border of Trenton and Gibraltar.  Link:

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2009/11/28/news/doc4b117841afb1e911736655.txt

The Big Y Fly Company website has an interesting review of fly fishing opportunities along the Detroit River.  Link:

http://bigyflyco.blogspot.com/2009/11/detroit-river.html

Jim Lynch at the Detroit News reports on two new trails that have recently opened in the Downriver area.  One connects Lake Erie Metropark with the Humbug Marsh Unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  The other connects Rockwood with Berlin Township.  Slowly, but surely, the network is building.  Link:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091128/METRO03/911280325

For many years, it has been a dream to connect Sterling State Park directly to the River Raisin Battlefield and Downtown Monroe.  That dream is now reality.

The route is well-known to many local walkers and bikers.  It follows the north side of Elm Street from the River Raisin National Battlefield Park visitor’s center, passes over a set of railroad tracks, shoots underneath an I-75 overpass and then pushes north along the Monroe Marsh until connecting with marsh loop trail system at Sterling State Park.

The new trail will allow campers at Sterling State Park to ride a bike to Downtown Monroe.  Previously, that would have required passage along Dixie Highway.  That road is so busy and convoluted for bikers that it was essentially an impossibility.  This route is more direct and it is safe.  Conversely, the trail also brings Sterling State Park into direct connection with Downtown Monroe.  A kid can now ride a bike from the east side of Monroe all the way to the beach.  Monroe once again becomes what it always has been – a lake community.

And this connector trail was also important in beginning the long-range goal of connecting important greenspace in the battlefield/marsh area.  The national battlefield is a part of that complex.  Several city parks – Hellenberg and Soldiers and Sailors – protect riverfront sites.  Heck Park honors veterans of several wars.  The Monroe Multisport complex holds a nice block of empty land.  Sterling State Park, of course, protects a growing section of marshland.  And if pollution difficulties are ever ironed out, the old Ford factory lands could add several hundred acres to this collection of greenspace.

Of course, it’s one thing to gather these lands together.  It is quite another to connect them into some useable form for residents and visitors.  This trail provides an essential east-west link across these landscapes, and not insignificantly, across I-75 and a railroad spur.

On Thanksgiving evening, my dad and I decided to work off some turkey by following this pathway from the battlefield visitors center.

The first section of the walk holds some nice river views from across Elm Avenue.  It also passes by an historic sign that commemorates the great Newton Steel sitdown strike that was an important event in America’s labor movement.  I was pleased to see that trail builders provided a small cement walkway that allows walkers to get an up-close view of the sign.

The well-known bar/restaurant Clamdiggers comes in to view in just a bit.  A party story and marina also create a bit of a nautical view as the trail pushes east.  Campers at Sterling State Park should be aware that the party store sells bait.

From there, the trail veers north, crosses the tracks and shoots underneath I-75.  This section of the trail contained what is likely to be an item of controversy.  An enterprising graffiti artist has painted several large murals on the base of the I-75 overpass.  Honestly, the murals are beautiful.  My dad and I stopped to appreciate the work.  However, graffiti is controversial.  And I would guess that this artwork was not created with a permit.  So, get down there fast if you want to see it for yourself.

From the overpass, the trail follows the edge of the Monroe Marsh north.  It is a surprisingly natural experience, given the fact that I-75 follows the route a short ways to the west and the DTE coal plant is occasionally visible to the east.  The marsh vegetation, however, softens these realities.  Wildlife abounds.  A viewing platform will provide an opportunity for families to have a nice natural experience.

It was getting dark and my dad and I decided not to go all the way to the marsh trail connection.  However, we had a very nice hike.  And I would recommend a visit to this very important new trail.

This past weekend, Kathy and I were visited by a friendly member of a national/state organization called Clean Water Action.  The man who visited was looking to drum up support for the climate bill that is currently being debated in congressional committee.  That bill is part of an international effort to limit carbon dioxide emissions that will reach a crescendo this month at international climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

And I think that the entire effort will be a disaster.

I don’t think this because I oppose the effort to limit carbon dioxide.  I believe that global warming is a very real threat.  I read on this issue widely and I am persuaded that global temperatures have increased during at least the past decade.  And I think that there are enough pieces of anecdotal evidence of ice shelfs melting and other assorted calamities to support the idea that global warming is a significant problem.

I also believe that humans are the largest cause of global warming.  Yesterday, my father and I took a walk on the new trail in Monroe that connects Sterling State Park with the River Raisin Battlefield.  And the DTE coal plant stacks are right there – massive.  Even with new scrubbers in place, the carbon dioxide released from that facility is just astounding.  In years of hiking along the shore, I have seen with my own eyes how human actions like coal emissions, water plant discharges and runoff can impact local and regional ecosystems.  These actions kill fish, impair habitat and make areas less healthy.

I am convinced that this can happen on global scale.  I am also convinced that this IS happening on a global scale.

Still, the global change talks will be a disaster.  And here’s why:

The politics aren’t right.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND a look at polling done by the Pew organization on American views towards climate change and proposed climate legislation:

http://people-press.org/report/556/global-warming

Only 35% of Americans now believe that there is serious evidence that global temperatures are rising.  That is down 11% from last year.  Only 36% now believe that humans are the cause of global warming.  Again, this is down 11% from last year.  These declines have happened across the political spectrum.  The numbers are down for Republicans, Democrats and independents.

And the study further reveals that Americans are just not focused on the issue.  55% say that they have heard nothing about the climate bill/talks.  Earlier Pew polling showed that only 30% of Americans think that climate change should be a top priority for the President and Congress.  The organization found that global warming ranks last in Americans’ rankings of twenty important issues faced by the nation.  Even Democrats ranked global warming as only the 16th most important national issue.

Midwestern views are even more dire.  Within the Great Lakes Region, there has been a twenty point drop in the percentage of people who believe that there is solid evidence of global warming.  The numbers moved from 69% in 2008 to 49% in late 2009.  That is astounding.

Those numbers are particularly disturbing because moderate Democratic senators/representatives from the Midwest and Appalachia will be the deciding votes on the climate bill in the Congress.  The man from Clean Water Action visited my house for a reason.  Both Senators Stabenow and Levin are undecided votes on the climate bill.  And both are members of a coalition of coal-state Democrats who wrote a public letter to the president asking him to take the impact on manufacturing and jobs under full consideration.

So, I do not believe that climate bill supporters are anywhere close to having the votes to pass a bill.  And this means that any promises that the President makes in Copenhagen later this month will just be talk.

T’he one bit of hope in the Pew poll is that 50% of Americans still want a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

This means that there is a significant chunk of Americans who want a carbon cap, but DO NOT believe that there is solid evidence of global warming.  Environmentalists really should let that sink in.  Why would anyone want a carbon cap without believing in the threat of global warming?  Well, maybe its all of those people who live near coal plants and see how destructive they can be to wildlife, local ecosystems and community health.

President Obama, I believe, has missed an opportunity so far to appeal to these environmental localists/moderates.  It is my belief that if Obama pushed nuclear power, clean coal and large-scale conservation programs in addition to alternative energy, he could recapture that 15% to 20% of Americans who do not fully believe in global warming, but do want a carbon cap.  He would also do well to make the carbon cap arguments as localized as possible.  The reason to pass a carbon cap is not to stop global warming.  It is so that the fish in the local park are healthy, so that the baby just born across the street doesn’t get asthma and so that state park on the lake nearby doesn’t have pollution in its bottom muck.

Environmentalism is local.

I also believe that President Obama has been remiss in NOT speaking truth to liberals in the United States and around the world.  One of the barriers to a realistic and effective climate bill will be liberals who find it difficult to support nuclear power, clean coal and jobs-related concessions to American industry. 

President Obama has massive credibility with American liberals and left-leaning political leaders around the world.  He has the stature to tell these groups that they need to support nukes, cleaner traditional energy and economic support for manufacturing communities.  He hasn’t really done that so far.  This means that liberal groups are not being prepared for the compromise that will bring meaningful climate change legislation and agreements.

As I said, the climate change bill and talks are a disaster.

The Windsor Star reported last week that the Government of Canada has dedicated $410,000 in funding for Detroit River habitat and cleanup efforts.  Link:

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Detroit+River+cleanup+projects+federal+cash/2208294/story.html