dan egan death and life of the great lakes

He catalogs the history and ecology of the lakes - from creation to present day - revealing how human hands have altered, and ultimately threatened, these expansive waters. The health of the Great Lakes is the subject of a fascinating and brilliant new book by award-winning journalist Dan Egan, reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Now and then beachgoers may kick aside clumps of tiny mussel shells, unaware what tragedy they signify: the Great Lakes are in danger. The beach glints with glacier-age rocks and Paleozoic fossils, all washed clean by cool sparkling waters. It is also home to creatures like deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and frogs. Sandwiched between these icons of industry is a magnificent state park that provides crucial habitat to 352 bird species, including owls, loons, kestrels, and sandhill cranes. His work also sparked a movement to save the dunes from wholesale industrial development, though anyone who visits now will quickly notice the constant hum of steel mills, the acres of power lines marring stretches of highway, and the great cooling tower of the power plant in Michigan City, Indiana.

A few miles east is Cowles Bog - the wetland that inspired Henry Chandler Cowles to launch the science of ecology. ABOUT A YEAR AGO, we moved to a small community nestled in the Indiana Dunes, a heavily forested landscape of dramatic sand dunes that extends along the southern edge of Lake Michigan.

Dan egan death and life of the great lakes