Wins 2023 Wisconsin Library Association award

In a ceremony this evening at the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) annual meeting, Anne Moser will accept the 2023 WLA President’s Volunteer Award.

“I am truly humbled to receive this award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and I share it with all the other dedicated librarians that contribute their time and passion to making WLA such a great organization,” Moser said.

Moser is the senior special librarian for the Wisconsin Water Library, supported by the Water Resources Institute and its sister organization Wisconsin Sea Grant. The Water Library holds a collection of more than 30,000 materials related to rivers, lakes, oceans and groundwater.

Person standing at a table filled with colorful teaching objects.
Anne Moser demonstrating how microplastics move through a wastewater treatment system. Photo: Sarah Congdon.

In addition to managing that collection, Moser engages in extensive outreach activities with a focus on science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics as a librarian as well as the Sea Grant education coordinator.

In announcing the award, the WLA referred to Moser as “well known and well-loved among public librarians all around Wisconsin, and their patrons, for the cheerful, fun and educational programs she presents on STEM and water-related topics.” This reflects her tireless travels across the state to bring programming to places as far flung as the northwestern community of Deer Park (population 249), to Beloit in southern Wisconsin, then east to cities and towns along Lake Michigan.

For her part, Moser credits the organization that is honoring her: “As a solo librarian, I have relied on WLA and other professional organizations for support, mentorship and friendship during my career. I encourage all new professionals to get involved!”

Moser herself supports new professionals through her work. Every year, she hosts a student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including students enrolled in the iSchool. In turn, she draws out skills from those students, including their contributions to one of Moser’s favorite projects—Maadagindan! Start Reading! It’s a book club focused on children’s literature written by Native authors, focused on Ojibwe culture and the Great Lakes. Educators, librarians and parents—in fact, all—are welcome to attend and discuss the book and learn from an invited honored Indigenous guest during these monthly virtual meetings. The club is a collaboration with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and supported by a grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The WLA also cites Moser’s skill at linking science and art. She has brought exhibits of stirring student underwater photography to libraries. Working with the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac to celebrate the sport and culture surrounding lake sturgeon, Moser led the effort to install “Ancient Survivors.” She partnered with the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison on programming to raise awareness about marine debris and plastic pollution.

Moser is a member of the Association of Wisconsin Special Libraries, a division of WLA, and is currently serving as past chair of the group. She has also served on the WLA Board of Directors and chaired the board’s Professional Development Committee

The post Water librarian releases torrent of information, programming and goodwill first appeared on WRI.

Original Article

News Release | WRI

News Release | WRI

https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/water-librarian-releases-torrent-of-information-programming-and-goodwill/

Moira Harrington

EPA: Two toxic hot spots in Michigan will take longer to clean up than many others in Great Lakes states

By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/toxic-hot-spots-michigan-great-lakes-states/

Michigan Radio

Teacher mentor program connects both teachers and students

Teachers with a passion for the Great Lakes are sharing their expertise across the region with other teachers in a program that benefits the educators and their students. The mentor program, organized by the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL), is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Wisconsin is home to five teacher mentor/mentee pairs. They’re organized by Anne Moser, senior special librarian and education coordinator for Wisconsin Sea Grant. She explained that this is the first formal year of the program and that it’s growing.

“The teachers we chose for mentoring are really dynamic Great Lakes educators,” Moser said. “They’re so committed to bringing place-based education to their students and then sharing that love for Great Lakes literacy with either colleagues in their school or with their wider community.”

The mentors were chosen from a pool of teachers who had participated in past CGLL programs. Moser explained these teachers are always, “thinking through the lens of the Great Lakes. Whatever they’re teaching, they’re drawing on their knowledge of the watershed.”

The program kicked off last June with a two-day workshop where the mentors and mentees got to know each other better and plan which activities they wanted to work on. A check-in this past fall included a professional learning opportunity, featuring a presentation by Jackson Parr, the J. Philip Keillor Flood Resilience-Wisconsin Sea Grant Fellow who is working with communities on flooding issues. In January of this year, the teachers were introduced to the Watershed Game, an interactive, educational tool that helps people understand the connection between land use and water quality.

Kelly Kollar, Bay View Middle School. Submitted photo.

One of the mentors is Kelly Koller, technology integration specialist at Bay View Middle School in Green Bay. She actually has two mentees: Mona Forbes, an eighth-grade science teacher, and Chandra Johnson, a special education teacher.

Koller first became involved in mentoring when she applied to one of the CGLL summer professional learning workshop aboard the Denis Sullivan sailing ship in 2019. That experience showed her the value of such relationships. For her current mentoring connection, she’s working with Forbes and Johnson to provide their students with opportunities like raising brown trout in the school library and growing wild rice plants.

Koller works in the library and thought the fish would be a great addition. “We didn’t have any pieces of student engagement that were living. Everything is books and decorations, and I thought fish would be an addition that would capture students’ interest.”

Koller organized the fish rearing through Trout in the Classroom, a program offered by Trout Unlimited. By raising the fish from egg stage to adult, the students gain knowledge about the fish and the environment where they live. The goal is to release the trout into a local stream, under the guidance of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The wild rice project is being done in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, which provided the seeds and equipment. The goal is to plant the rice in a wetland the university is working to restore.

Brown trout raised in the library by students at Bay View Middle School in Green Bay. Submitted photo.

Koller explained she did the heavy lifting to get the projects started so that the weight of organizing didn’t all fall on the mentee teacher’s shoulders, since they had enough challenges already teaching during a pandemic. To orient Johnson’s students to the fish’s environment, she organized a boat trip on Green Bay through Hands on Deck, a local nonprofit.

“So, even before the students started putting together our trout tank and receiving the trout eggs, they were learning about the Great Lakes through being on one of them. Any time you have a shared outdoor experience it helps build relationships and a positive sense of community,” Koller said.

After navigating two months of start-up challenges, Koller received the agency permissions needed to house the tank. Johnson’s students set up the tank and then Forbes’s students took over once the eggs arrived. Three middle-schoolers have shown impressive dedication: Mercades Bryfczynski, Sandra Thompson and Emily Jarmuskiewicz.

Students at Bay View Middle School test the water quality of their trout tank. Submitted photo.

“They do all the water measurements on their own. They take the pH level, the ammonia level, they change out water daily. They’ve been just wonderful about the caretaking involved with the trout and seeing them grow,” Koller said.

Despite a rough start one weekend after the automatic feeder malfunctioned and a third of the larval trout died, the students said the experience of caring for the fish has made them more interested in nature.

“I’ve been having a little bit more fun in science, learning about the fish,” said Bryfczynski. She also said that seeing the tank sparks interest from other students in the library. “We’ve had people come in and ask us questions about the fish, like how big they’re going to get or how old they’re going to live, and what we do with the tank.”

Jarmuskiewicz said that learning about the fish’s life cycle has sparked her interest in biology. Thompson has also enjoyed watching the fish grow under their care.

When asked if they are excited to release the fish into the wild, the girls all replied with a resounding, “Yes!”

“We hope that they’ll be healthy because they grew up healthy with us, and that they’ll stay healthy in the river once we release them,” Bryfczynski said.

A student tends to the wild rice in a project done in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Submitted photo.

At the end of the school year, Moser said the mentor/mentees and their students will gather together for a student showcase. This will offer the students an opportunity to present their project and receive feedback from other students across Wisconsin and Minnesota. In summer, mentor/mentee pairs will be invited to their own summit where they can provide the CGLL network feedback about their experiences. The goal of both events is to build a community of educators passionate about Great Lakes literacy and to build a community of youth who will be future stewards of the Great Lakes watershed.

“It’s been an exciting year, even as we have had to navigate the challenges of a global pandemic. To work with such passionate and resilient educators has been a gift,” Moser said.

A new mentor/mentee cohort will be formed in the fall of 2022. Please contact Anne Moser if you are interested in learning more.

The post Thinking through the lens of the Great Lakes first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/thinking-through-the-lens-of-the-great-lakes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thinking-through-the-lens-of-the-great-lakes

Marie Zhuikov

Federal Great Lakes restoration program should focus on protection and flexibility, says Ojibwe leader

As the U.S. EPA prepares to expand its Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with the $1 billion-dollar windfall from the infrastructure bill, Ojibwe Tribal executive Michael “Mic” Isham has a vision to bolster the program.   

Isham wants an increased emphasis on protection of the Great Lakes with a priority for Lake Superior, which Isham says is the “cultural and historic center” of the Ojibwe tribes.   

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/federal-great-lakes-restoration-program-protection-flexibility/

Gary Wilson

After years of clean-up efforts, the Ashtabula River in Ohio is no longer considered one of the “most environmentally degraded” areas in the Great Lakes Region thanks, in part, to Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding. The cleanup was a large integrated effort between the EPA, U.S. Corps of Engineers, Ohio EPA, the Ashtabula City Port Authority, and others, and included the removal of massive amounts of contaminated sediment from the bottom of the river, the installation of 2,500 feet of fish habitat, and remediation of the Fields Brook Superfund site.

“This is a clear example of how federal funding is producing results in local communities toward safe, clean drinking water, increasing recreational opportunities, and accelerating clean-up efforts in some of the most polluted communities in the region,” said Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “We are thrilled with the delisting and realize that there are other toxic sites around the region that continue to pollute the water, poison drinking water, and make the fish unsafe to eat. The additional $1 billion for the GLRI in the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill will continue and expand this important work for the health and safety of the region.”

The post Ashtabula River in Ohio Removed from Areas of Concern List appeared first on Healing Our Waters Coalition.

Original Article

Healing Our Waters Coalition

Healing Our Waters Coalition

https://healthylakes.org/ashtabula-river-in-ohio-removed-from-areas-of-concern-list/

Jordan Lubetkin

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (June 22, 2021) – The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition sent a letter to Congress advocating for full funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at $375 million for the 2022 fiscal year. The letter was signed by 93 Coalition members and can be read in full below.

 

HOW FY2022 GLRI Appropriations Final (6.22.21)

The post Coalition Members Call for Full Funding of GLRI at $375 Million appeared first on Healing Our Waters Coalition.

Original Article

Healing Our Waters Coalition

Healing Our Waters Coalition

https://healthylakes.org/coalition-members-call-for-full-funding-of-glri/

Lindsey Bacigal

Priority Shift: Great Lakes exec moves environmental justice to top of list

Chicago’s Joel Brammeier came of age advocating for the Great Lakes in an era when federal programs that are widely accepted today like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative were barely on the drawing board.

Brammeier started his advocacy work in 2001 when he managed habitat programs for the Lake Michigan Federation, which later became the Alliance for the Great Lakes as its mission expanded.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/03/great-lakes-environmental-justice-priority/

Gary Wilson

University gives St. Marys River clean, green boost

This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.

By Taylor Haelterman, Great Lakes Echo

High school students, community groups and Lake Superior State University will use landscaping this summer to reduce pollution flowing into the St. Marys River.

The project recently received $250,000 from the United States Forest Service as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program that protects Great Lakes drinking water and habitat.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/02/university-st-marys-river-clean-green-boost/

Great Lakes Echo

Congress OKs 5-year extension of Great Lakes cleanup program

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A program that has pumped $2.7 billion into healing long-term injuries to the Great Lakes environment has received authorization from Congress to continue another five years.

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously Sunday to extend the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, as the House did earlier this year.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-congress-5-year-extension-great-lakes-cleanup-program/

The Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (February 5, 2020)—In a major victory for clean water advocates, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019. The bill reauthorizes the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for 5 years, and increases the program’s funding from $300 million to $475 million per year by 2026.

Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition Director Laura Rubin said:

“This is excellent news for the 30 million Americans who rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water, jobs recreation and way of life. Over the past decade, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has been producing results for communities across the region, but serious threats remain. This reauthorization recognizes the work we have left to do to ensure that the basic need of clean drinking water is fulfilled for all who call this region home.

“We thank Reps.  David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) for their leadership in passing this vital bill, and the dozens of Republicans and Democrats who are co-sponsoring the bill and  working in a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation to make sure that Great Lakes restoration and protection remain a national priority.”

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative invests in local projects in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to clean up toxic pollution, fight invasive species, reduce runoff from cities and farms, and restore fish and wildlife habitat.

The post House Vote Paves Way for Boost to Great Lakes Funding appeared first on Healing Our Waters Coalition.

Original Article

Healing Our Waters Coalition

Healing Our Waters Coalition

https://healthylakes.org/house-vote-paves-way-for-boost-to-great-lakes-funding/

Pavan Vangipuram