Wisconsin gets serious about its estuaries

June 23, 9:14 PMMadison Green Living ExaminerShelly Rothman

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Lake Superior: The estuaries are located along the SW coast.   Photo: NASA

    Normally, when you hear about an estuary it is on an oceanic coast.  This is a body of water where fresh mixes with salt.  Chesapeake Bay is an example, and our country’s largest.  But not all estuaries include saltwater; freshwater estuaries are found at a river’s mouth when it runs into a lake.  Wisconsin has over 35.

    In an attempt to educate the citizens of Wisconsin about these little known natural treasures, the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, created a documentary titled A String of Pearls: Wisconsin's Estuaries Along Lake Superior which recently made its way to Madison for our viewing pleasure.

    Not being a big Hollywood production, it wasn’t full of sharp editing and snazzy outfits but it served its purpose of being educational and worthy of your attention.  The Everglades of the North, as they call them, will leave you with a new found appreciation for estuaries. 

    Apart from their beautiful aesthetics, estuaries are quite crucial for filtering water and keeping it clean, housing rare plants (like bogs with orchids and carnivorous plants) and much wildlife (230+ bird species), and offering recreation and tourism for us humans.  For these reasons many groups of citizens, nonprofits, and government agencies are putting their heads and hands together to protect these waters.

    A big emphasis was put on conservation though, not preservation.  The stewards were aware that to truly save a place humans need to be able to experience it.  This forms appreciation and the want to conserve will follow.  Another big theme was saving these wild places for future generations.  Restoration is a big part of the work up there due to past generations mucking things up via logging and chemical spills.  Current generations aren’t helping either with their motorboats and housing developments but education is key to these issues and is currently underway.

    The film could have gone a little deeper into each of the estuaries’ stories, some questions were left unanswered.  The summertime filming also led to a misleading view of Lake Superior being calm, sunny, and friendly.  Try visiting in November.  But overall, it’s a good show.  They include some views of Native American tribes in the region and some of the biologists even break out their sense of humor.

     If you missed the Madison showing, you can watch it here on YouTube. 

     Last year Governor Doyle signed the St. Louis River estuary, on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota, into the country’s second freshwater National Estuarine Research Reserve.