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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/1/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
March 26, 2004 Great Lakes-area mystery eludes experts UWGB scientists try to gauge quality of the environment By Peter Rebhahn "There are lots of people looking right now and not that many people
that have good answers," said UWGB Professor Bob Howe. "We don't have
a good answer either at this point, but we're hoping to contribute toward
that answer."
UWGB is one of eight universities that joined the federal Environmental
Protection Agency in the Great Lakes Environmental Indicators project,
a multiyear effort to assess the condition of the coastal margins of all
five Great Lakes.
About 65 people attended Howe's talk at the KI Convention Center in
downtown Green Bay — the first of a series of four such events planned
this year designed to close the literal and figurative distance between
Green Bay and the university that bears its name.
"We need, downtown here, a creative class of people," Green Bay Mayor
Jim Schmitt told the group.
Schmitt has made downtown revitalization a primary goal and kibitzed
that, among the plentiful and free advice he's received from citizens
since becoming mayor a year ago is the suggestion that UWGB move downtown.
"Today, this is a good start — this is a great start — at
bringing the university, which isn't that far away, downtown," Schmitt
said.
Howe and other scientists are using the developing science of environmental
indicators to assess the health of the Great Lakes coastline.
An environmental indicator is an individual animal or plant species,
or a community of species, whose absence, presence and relative abundance
provides evidence of human interference in the form of pollution or habitat
destruction.
"We are on the doorstep of a world-class resource" in Green Bay despite
400 years of human activity that has left the bay of Green Bay forever
altered, Howe said.
Among people attending Thursday's presentation were Marjorie and Edward
Weidner, who said they'd be back for future installments.
"It's a great way to start this series because the environment has a
powerful message for all of us," Edward Weidner said.
Future installments in the series will explore the cultural life of
Slovakia, lesser-known aspects of Helen Keller's life and the role barns
play in understanding Wisconsin's geography and history.
More online
Learn more about the Great lakes Environmental Indicators project online
at glei.nrri.umn.edu.
More about the "UWGB Downtown: Connecting for Lunch" series is online
at www.uwgb.edu/outreach/events/downtownlunch.htm.
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