Somber Thoughts and Hope

The morning after Labor Day tends to bring out the worst in me. For a person who loves summer, this day is a cold splash of reality that the hot, sultry days of the last three months will soon disappear.  It has been an unusually hot and dry summer, hard on vegetation and in turn, the people and animals whose lives depend upon plants for sustenance. The ferns in the front yard have yellowed already, weeks ahead of their normal die off time.

The local news announced that Lake Michigan water levels had dropped this summer impacting local marinas and waterfront homeowners. Curious, I decided to see whether this fact was true across the Great Lakes. The US Army Corps of Engineers monitors water levels and in their August 2012 report, cited that all the Great Lakes, except Lake Erie, saw significant declines in precipitation in July. Their report also showed that Lakes Superior and Ontario water levels declined eight inches, Lakes Michigan and Huron 21 inches and Lake Erie, seven inches below their averages.

Source: US Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District MONTHLY BULLETIN OF LAKE LEVELS FOR THE GREAT LAKES – August 2012 http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=3887&destination=ShowItem

I can’t help but wonder what the impact of these low water levels have done to wildlife. Everything in nature is interconnected and dependent upon the fitness of all its components. Low water levels and high air temperatures increase lake water temperature reducing the amount of available oxygen in the water needed for maintaining fish populations. Too little oxygen, more dead fish. Fewer fish reduce food availability for waterfowl and other fish-eating mammals leading to their starvation and death. Low precipitation kills off terrestrial vegetation that starved herbivores leaving less food for carnivores. The cycle isn’t pleasant to think about.

What is also true of nature is its ability to correct imbalances. I awoke this morning to find that it had rained overnight. Walking down the driveway to collect the newspaper, I was greeted by a harmony of bird songs kept in rhythm by the steady sound of rain falling off the tree leaves. The music lifted my spirits and hope that the long drought had finally come to an end.