Great Lakes Restoration Boat Tour: Aug. 27-30, Cleveland
One of the fastest sailboats on the Great Lakes, The Earth Voyager, 60 feet long and nearly 100 feet tall, is coming to Cleveland on Aug. 27-30, as part of a 13-city tour highlighting the need to restore Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. Organized by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, the tour is uniting local businesses, conservation groups and citizens to urge presidential candidates and the U.S. Congress to restore Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes by stopping sewage contamination, halting invasive species and confronting other serious threats.
“The boat tour is intended to light a fire under Congress and the presidential candidates to restore the Great Lakes,” said Jeff Skelding, national campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. The boat tour, which set sail in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 6, will reach its final port in Rochester, N.Y. on September 6. Cleveland is no stranger to the problems facing the lakes—the Cuyahoga River serving as both cautionary tale and inspirational success story. The Cuyahoga River gained infamy as one of the nation’s most-polluted rivers when it caught fire in the 1969—leading to some of the country’s landmark environmental laws. Leaders have helped restore the river to the point where wildlife, including many fish species and wildlife are returning. While work still needs to be done, the work completed by local partners serves as an example of the manageable solutions available to restore the lakes and its tributaries.
The Healthy Lakes Boat Tour aims to highlight such successes in an effort to get Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to show their support to the lakes by committing $20 billion over five years to restore the Great Lakes as outlined in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy—a comprehensive clean-up plan endorsed by citizens, industry, mayors, governors and the region’s congressional delegation.
Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution found that restoring the Great Lakes will bring billions of dollars to the region by way of increased economic development, tourism, fishing and recreation. Restoring the largest surface fresh water resource in the U.S. would generate between $80 billion and $100 billion in short and long-term economic gains to the region. Cleveland would experience between $2.1 billion and $3.7 billion in economic benefit.
For more information and a complete schedule of the tour visit www.healthylakes.org.
August/September 2008 Contents