Lake Erie Advocates
Get Informed
In this 30 minute video, Dr. Deanna Osmond, Ph.D. in Agronomy from Cornell University, and author of dozens of studies on soil nutrients, speaks at an Ohio State University conference, Sept. 8, 2021. In her very understated way she explains why many of the "Best Management Practices" the Ohio EPA is using to draft TMDLs (total maximum daily loads) for Lake Erie are either ineffective or actually increase the Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus fueling the toxic algal blooms every summer.
Chris Winslow, director of the OSU's Sea Grant program, moderates the Q&A in which he says "When giving talks like this we keep calling these 'best management practices,' but there really isn't a 'best' right? These are 'management practices' and it truly depends on which field and which management practice; that's kind of misleading folks."
Shop Organic
Download this list to see sustainable food options in the area!
Informative Films
The Erie Situation: Panel Discussion
#BoycottBigMeat Video Series
13 Reasons to #BoycottBigMeat
Consumers are key to building a better food and farming system. You can help by supporting farmers and ranchers who produce meat using practices that protect your health, the rights of food & farm workers, animal welfare, the environment, and climate stability. You’ll find these producers online, at your local farmers markets, through CSAs, and in your local organic retail stores. To buy direct from local producers of organic, regenerative pasture-raised and grass-fed meat and other products, use this map. TAKE ACTION: Demand a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms, and support the just transition to an organic regenerative food and farming system!
The Erie Situation explores the confluence of science, public sentiment, politics and the powerful farming lobby as Ohio wrestles with how to confront the drivers of toxic algae in Lake Erie. What’s at stake? Who’s at risk? The Erie Situation and our panel confront this growing crisis tonight.
For more information regarding the film, please visit: https://plasticoceans.org
Tune in to PBS WGTE on September 12th at 9:00pm to watch The Erie Situation.
Resources and Publications
Experimental Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin
The cyanobacterial (Microcystis) bloom is present in far western Lake Erie, with highest concentrations extending from Maumee Bay along the Michigan coast and offshore to West Sister Island. We identified patches of scum within Maumee Bay on Thursday. Regions of low bloom concentrations extend eastward and north of the islands, and have also moved east of the islands and Pelee Point into the central basin. Toxin concentrations remain below the recreational threshold outside of Maumee Bay.
Groups ask EPA for Impaired Watershed Designation
Saying the Lake Erie water crisis last August is a wake-up call, a coalition of environmental, agricultural and other organizations in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare the lake’s western basin an impaired watershed.