By Melissa DeSimone, MLSA Executive Director
I spend a few days last week representing Michigan’s inland lakes at the Great Lakes Conference in Chicago. I left feeling energized and full of hope for the future of our water. The representation from Michigan was incredible, it shows the importance of water to our state and the leadership we take in protecting all the water in the Great Lakes Basin.
I have two key take-aways that I want to share with you from my experience at the conference and my discussions with other organizations invested in the health and future of our water.
- There is a power in working together. At every session I attended the underlying theme was that no one organization or individual was the reason for a successful project. It takes MANY groups working together to see positive improvement to degraded lakes and streams. It will take MANY groups working together to protect our waters for future generations. Sometimes these groups come from places you would least expect. It’s so important that we invite others to work with us and create coalitions to see meaningful change.
- We need to speak up and help guide change NOW. We know things need to change in the way we use water. We cannot look at water as “single use” because there is only so much water on the planet that we’ve used over and over for generations and will continue to use into the future. The protection of water needs to be a top priority to all humans and government entities. The only way to make sure this happens is to speak up for water. Call your legislators, talk to your neighbors, think about your own use – we can and we must do better.
I hope you see this little recap as a call to action. Let’s work together to make sure water protection is a top priority, right where it belongs.