Metro

The Power Of One

Ellie Moskowitz, 11, personally tackles the Great Lakes' Asian Carp problem.

Ellie Moskowitz
Special to the Jewish News

I

t all began with a fifth-grade class
project this last school year. In "leader-
ship and philosophy,' my teacher at the
Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills challenged
us to find an area in which we could make
a difference and a project we would actu-
ally do. My school isn't a Jewish school, but
I believe we live Jewish values everyday in
everything we do.
The Roeper School teaches and lives
openness, diversity, equality, justice, com-
munity and the belief that we can make a
difference. Similarly, at Temple Shir Shalom
in West Bloomfield, every time we gather to
learn we sing a prayer reminding us that we
have the privilege and responsibility to fix
our world. We learn that just as God gave us
our natural world, it is ours to care for and
protect. At Roeper, we have "no waste" lunch.
We compost and recycle. In both of these
homes where I learn, these values have been
given to me.
So when my teacher assigned this proj-
ect, I immediately thought of the Asian
Carp. Why are the Asian Carp a problem in
Michigan? It's pretty simple: They are big and
they don't belong here. They were brought
to fish farms in the South in the 1970s to
clean catfish ponds of algae. But in the 1990s,
floods released these carp into other natural
waterways.
Next thing you know, they are taking over
everything. They are already in the Illinois
River and, if we don't stop them, they will
make their way into the Great Lakes. They
are an invasive species that has the potential
to devastate the fish in our Great Lakes. Not
only will this damage our ecosystem, it will
hurt our economy. This problem requires
action and I was ready to do something
about it.
I've always enjoyed political activism and
getting involved. When I was 6, my dad went
to Washington to attend the Save Darfur
rally. When he told me what was going on
there, I knew we had to do more. So I took
postcards and put stamps on them and
addressed them to President Bush — and
then I gave them to each of my teachers to
send. I realized then that I liked the feeling
that our actions could affect change.
So I shared the story of the Asian Carp
and the need to take action with my class —
and I thought of starting a petition to send

18

August 5 • 2010

Ellie Moskowitz, 11, of Bloomfield Hills tells campers at the Roeper School about her petition to stop Asian Carp from entering
the Great Lakes.

to government officials. I went from class to
class and presented and collected signatures,
which took a lot of work, but was interesting
and educational. And I thought that I had
done my part and the project was over. But
then the Detroit News heard about what I
was doing and wrote a story (July 20).
Next thing you know, environmental
lobbying groups are calling school asking
if they can help get the word out. I realized
that there had to be another way to get sig-
natures; and then my friend told me about
www.change.org . That night, we set up an
online petition to collect even more signa-
tures from people across our community, the
region and the country.
At 6:30 the next morning (July 21), a
producer from a National Public Radio
show, The Takeaway, called to interview me.
Now, even more people know about this real
problem. Since then, more newspapers have
called and another lobbying group from
Lake Michigan has sent out the petition to
their entire group. I've watched this project
grow in such a short amount of time; and
I'm so encouraged by how eager people are
to learn about the issue and get involved.

Here's my hope: With the support of all
those who signed the petition, I will soon
travel to Washington, D.C., to personally
bring this problem to our president and to
our Congress. Here's my goal: that the Asian
Carp don't make it past the Illinois River
and our beautiful and historic Great Lakes
stay safe. I know the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is already working to
solve this problem; but more can, and must,
be done. And that is why I will keep working
on this issue even after my school project is
long complete.

You can help by learning about this issue
and the problem of invasive species — and
by speaking up by signing the petition.
Because all of our voices count!

❑

Ellie Moskowitz, 11, lives in Bloomfield Hills.

She will be a sixth-grader at Roeper this fall.

This blog entry was co-written with her father,

Rabbi Michael Moskowitz of Temple Shir

Shalom. To sign her petition, go to the website

environmentchange.org/petitionsiview/asking_

for action_to_stopthe_spread of asian_carp.

Facts About Asian Carp

The purpose of Ellie's petition project is to get the people of Illinois to close
their canals so the carp will not get into the Great Lakes and devastate the fish
population, ruin the ecosystem and hurt the economy.
• Of the seven types of Asian Carp, it's the big head and silver carp that
are threatening our waters.
• Asian Carp can grow to more than 100 pounds.
• The carp must eat 40 percent of their body weight each day.
• Asian Carp eat plankton and other smaller fish, thus hurting the food
supply of anything else in these waters.
• These fish can jump 8-10 feet high and they do when they are
frightened.