Monday, July 23, 2001- The Michigan Daily - 5
Spoiling a lake, DNR style
F requented by nature-lovers, pic- lakes in the Ann Arbor area. It is home to
nickers and the occasional skinny a large variety of fish, including endan-
dipper, Pickerel Lake is a pristine gered Cisco species, which can only live
jewel in the northwest corner of Washt- in the relatively deep waters that Pickerel
enaw County. This unspoiled paradise is provides. Despite this, Pickerel is not a
only a 30-minute drive from Ann Arbor. great fishing lake, as many species can-
The surrounding area is owned by the not find adequate
State of Michigan and the only access spawning grounds.
points are a small fishing pier and a Pickerel is also free
sandy beach about 20 feet wide. But from Zebra mussels
this spring-fed lake is in danger of and other invasive
becoming yet another place for power- species. Adding a
boats and jet-skiers, with the largest boat ramp would
threat coming from the caretaker of the increase the danger
lake itself, the Michigan Department of of invasive species
Natural Resources. contamination and
If the DNR has its way, it will put a JOSH strain biodiversity
boat-launch ramp where the present WICKERHAM and fish popula-
beach is located. This proposal would S C L OF ions. It would also
utterly destroy the character of this nat- THE Ci destroy the entire
ural wonder, causing pollution from beach for casual
noise, trash and oil. It would also over- swimmers.
crowd the lake and pose a danger to Additionally, Pickerel Lake is one
swimmers. Right now the scene is idyl- of a few clean watershed areas for the
lic; only rowboats, kayaks and canoes Huron River, which already suffers
frequent the spot. from E. Coli contamination. It is imper-
Comparisons to Thoreau's Walden ative that the Huron, one of Michigan's
Pond abound, but even Walden Pond cleanest rivers, remains relatively free
had a highway within sight. Pickerel is from chemical pollutants. Yet the DNR
even more secluded and smaller. Its has continued to push its agenda of
official size is recorded at 23 acres, opening Pickerel Lake, despite the fact
though lily pads and marshy areas sur- that its plan would add to erosion of the
round it, so the navigable portions of seashore and other pollution.
the lake add up to only 14 acres. Offi- In January, Hermann Weiss began a
cially, the DNR determines the capacity letter-writing campaign, which alerted
of a lake with a simple formula: One the DNR to citizen concern. Little
boat/trailer combination per 15 acres. response from the DNR came of this.
Pickerel is large enough for one boat. Since then, a core group of citizens,
So what is the DNR thinking? How can called Friends of Pickerel Lake, has
they waste time catering to a few mobilized, getting the township of Dex-
motorboat users when there are larger ter to pass a moratorium on future
problems like pollution and species development in Pickerel Lake for one
depletion to face? year. This is largely a symbolic act, as
Pickerel is one of the last untouched the DNR has the jurisdiction to override
township ordinances as it pleases.
A more fertile area for protecting
the lake from its supposed caretaker is
through another bureau of the DNR, the
Natural Areas Program. The lake could
be declared a natural area, free from
future development. But this route is
also uncertain.
A concerted effort is needed to con-
serve natural lake areas in the Washte-
naw area. The Pinckney-Waterloo
Recreation Area is one example of the
need for an overarching plan to pre-
serve the Huron River watersheds. Per-
haps this can come from a consortium
of local and state groups like the Huron
Valley Green Party, the Sierra Club, the
Ecology Center and the Natural Areas
Program.
It is absolutely ludicrous that the
DNR would spend resources to push
through a boat launch ramp at the
protest of an overwhelming number of
citizens. There is no ecological need for
additional fishing in the lake, as well as
the citizen upset; there is no logical rea-
son for this waste of time andmoney.
It is clear that we need a compre-
hensive way to protect the Pinckney
watershed area from the ravages of
man. It is also clear that the Parks and
Recreation Bureau of the Department
of Natural Resources, with its insis-
tence on accessibility to those paying
for fishing licenses, is not the organiza-
tion to do so. It is not enough to be
reactive. We must be proactive in pro-
tecting our natural treasures, lest one
more natural temple be desecrated by
bureaucratic shortsightedness.
-Josh ickerhamis column runs every
other Monday He can be reached via e-
mail atjwickerh@umich.edu.
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BY AARON MCGRUDER
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d Im d
Buy a clay mug off a poor girl, Governor?
Iwas a terrible potter. I signed up ninety degrees out and my agorapho- know. After about ten minutes some
for a ceramics class my junior bic heart was begging to stay in my passerby slow down to look and I
year because I hadn't taken an art apartment and watch TV on my only smile expectantly. Nope. They keep
class since middle school. By the sec- day off from work I had to lug my walking.
ond week I realized that I had no flair pottery down to the fair. I mean, I At one point I think I have an
for clay work and not much patience write a newspaper column about interested customer, but he just wants
either. I made lumpy asymmetrical pranks and I have directions to Dominick's. A guy in a
bowls and doubtful representative quite a lot of ugly car stops in front of me and rolls
sculptures. In the middle of the art. Perfect. down his passenger window. He leans
semester I got mono and missed three r° Maybe I'd even over. "Hey, um, do you live here? Can
weeks of school, which meant that I make some I park here?"
had to finish my ceramics class up the money. Darn. Lots of women in hats walk
following fall. I packed up by, sometimes with their husbands. At
Unfortunately, I didn't do any bet- some of the least half of them are carrying Art-
ter the second time around: My bowls smaller pieces - on-a-Stick. (Art-on-a-Stick is a staple
were still lumpy, just bigger. One of misshapen mugs, of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Basically
them actually exploded in the kiln mostly - down you've got a small, flat metal sculp-
because the bottom was too heavy. I KATIE State Street past ture - animals, flowers, whatever -
was a terrible, terrible potter. MULCRONE the Union where on a stick. There's a different theme
For our final exam we had to com- FRACILC..1ALLY the not-quite-legit every year, so they're somewhat col-
ment on aesthetics in relation to our JJK1NC artisans peddle lectible. I guess people must put them
own work. I wrote something about their wares. in their gardens.)
the value of the unconscious in art, I set my mugs up on the grass next Anyway, I sat out on State Street
i.e. my stuff doesn't look like any- to two Rasta-looking guys selling for about an hour and in that time
thing because it somehow represents metal jewelry. I think I heard them absolutely no one stopped to look at
what can't be represented. Sure, my making fun of my pottery, but I'm not my mugs. Maybe I should have tried
pots were ugly. Really ugly. But quite sure. Of course that meant that grafting them to sticks. I got some
maybe their ugliness was somehow hardly anyone came to look at my funny looks and that was it. So even-
cultivated. doubtful goods. I sat cross-legged tually I packed all of the mugs back
Ah, but it wasn't. They were ugly behind my six mugs, rearranged them into my plastic bucket and trudged up
because they were ugly. Still, I could- periodically and watched women in the hill. You may be wondering why I
n't quite bring myself to throw them hats walk by with Art-on-a-Stick. Ah, didn't throw them out at that point. I
away when the class ended, so my Art Fair! am too.
friend Bert and I loaded them into his I really feel the need to stress how Well, I guess I could try uncon-
car and took them back to my apart- ugly these cups are. They're not only scious-on-a-stick next July.
ment. I haven't used them since. poorly molded but poorly glazed. Two
Art Fair seemed like the perfect of the six leak. They're extremely -Katie Mulcrone's column runs every
opportunity to finally get rid of my heavy and yet hold no more than half other Monday. She can be reached via
pottery. Even though it was about a cup of liquid each. But you never e-mail at kmulcron@umich.edu.