A Classic Mantra of the Modern Environmental Movement: Think Globally, Act Locally

Inside the Old Woman Creek State Nature Preserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Visitors Center
-- Huron, Ohio; less than 20 miles east of Standing Rush
Photo courtesy Deb Platt & TrekOhio.com

Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time – often time when truthfully, I should be asleep –brainstorming on how to make our efforts on Sandusky Bay more relevant to a larger/broader audience. Since this project’s conception, I have dreamed of ways to ignite grassroots passion by building local buy-in to ultimately magnify it locally, regionally, and even globally.

When I allow myself to “think big” this way, I envision a multi-use facility on or near our project site that could potentially serve multiple complementary purposes:
(1) offer interpretive learning to make wetland preservation tangible and relevant;
(2) host target audiences – in my current thinking, particularly 10 to 20 year-olds – who, independent of their backgrounds or future professions, will have a significant and lasting impact on the future of wetlands and other natural areas, as the future stewards of our communities and our planet;
(3) serve as a hub for hands-on learning and field research;
(4) provide fitting refuge for a broad smattering of outdoor enthusiasts – birders, photographers, fishermen, hunters, and trappers (to name a few); and,
(5) house the managers who will continue to steward this specific land well beyond my time on this unbelievable blue marble.

Note signage for "Ecological Wetland,"
just down river of the Ipo-ri damn on the Han River,
Ipo-ri, Geumsa-myeon, Yeoju-gun, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Photo courtesy of C. Dziubek

I don’t know if this facility will ever come to fruition – or even if it needs to. As I lay awake at night, I recognize that there are plenty of worthy organizations pursuing similar ends just on the drive from Toledo to Cleveland. All are a little different, but all are important. And all are part of a much broader network of entities around the country and around the globe that are working to emphasize the importance of wetland habitats.

I have really found myself thinking globally recently. I have fallen asleep the last few nights reading a Handbook on Best Practices for the Planning, Design and Operation of Wetland Education Centres. (Who knew such a publication would exist much less be accessible from my couch?) The handbook is “organized by” the Ramsar Convention Secretariat – as in Ramsar, Iran. It is “prepared in collaboration with” the Environmental Ecosystem Research Foundation (ERF), Republic of Korea, with financial support from the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea.

"Visitor Village" at Brockholes Nature Reserve -- Preston, England

Photo sourced by tripadvisor.com

This is truly a global endeavor . . . it is written by team of professionals from around the planet who have real-world, practical experience. The various sections of the handbook all strike a chord with me for various reasons. But what really has stuck with me over the last day or two is how similar we all really are: it doesn’t matter if we are in NW Ohio or Sub-Saharan Africa, the depths of a South American rain forest or the peaks of western Europe – we all need clean water, and a subset of every population is trying to figure out how to make (or keep) clean and reliable water – and all life that relies on it – a priority.

Two quick global anecdotes that may help tie the importance of wetlands back to current events:

First, my brother-in-law has loyally served our country both in active military and civilian (reserve) capacities for his entire career. Over three decades, he has made marked professional advancements in large part because of his hard work, dedication, and unwavering critical thinking (among a much longer list of positive attributes). Earlier this spring, he was in South Korea. I don’t know – or need to know – the particulars of why he was there. But as with all of his foreign tours, I slept well knowing that he was working to be a voice of reason and peace in our world. It only seemed fitting that he texted my wife and me the photo enclosed here (click to enlarge the image above to read the road signs). As foreign and complex as the issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula might feel – we are united in a common recognition of the importance of wetland habitats. I found hope in that reality.

A satellite perspective of Kaliningrad Stadium (Kaliningrad, Russia),
constructed to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, was built atop October Island,
the last natural wetland in the region
CNES 2018, Distribution Airbus DS via AP, File

My second anecdote is less uplifting, but just as relevant. It is “torn from the headlines” of the World Cup, which is currently being hosted in Russia. My boys in particular are riveted to the TV whenever we let them watch, but as with any major sporting event (e.g., pick most any Olympics), there is so often an environmental cost. I was pretty disheartened to read this article from Weather.com -- World Cup Stadium Built Over Russian City’s Last Rare Wildlife Habitat.

We have made great strides, just in the last several decades, to put priority on our finite environmental resources. Clearly, we have a long way to go.


[ASIDE: I have adopted a common refrain voiced from agencies and advocates in and around Ohio who reference “more than 90% loss” of wetland habitat along Lake Erie’s western shoreline since European settlement. (Truth be told, the same statistic unfortunately holds true statewide.) Usually, when I explain that the habitat 150 years ago was larger than the Everglades, it gets people’s attention. But yesterday, I heard it perhaps explained even more powerfully. If the Great Lakes experienced “more than 90% loss” of the lakes’ water itself, everything except Lake Ontario would be bone dry. Think about it: Lake Superior AVERAGES nearly 500’ deep! If we lost 90%+ of our fresh water, do you think we’d be calling it a catastrophe? In my mind, losing 90%+ of the kidneys that protect our Great Lake is not much less alarming.]