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. THE BOONDOCKS BY AARON MCGRUDER OPINIONA TED.? L ' THINK OUR WORDS ARE OVERRATED.? DRAFT AN E-MAIL, DON'T DELAY - WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS TODAY! SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO 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.