Location(s)

The Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition will come together on the shores of Lake Michigan to reunite with friends, celebrate their successes, and develop strategies to achieve Great Lakes restoration goals in 2009 and beyond. The agenda will address opportunities to advance restoration under a new presidential administration, the impacts of global warming on the Great Lakes, and ratification of the Great Lakes Compact. Register here.

The Great Lakes Compact is about keeping an eye on the level of our drinking water, which fast growing, but dry parts of the world are thirsting for. The compact would protect against diverting water outside the Great Lakes basin—any water that comes out of the lakes, has to return to the lakes.

Backers of the compact are convinced it will protect the 18% of the fresh surface water on the planet from “hot” new development areas, but also raise awareness among the states that are fortunate enough to live connected to it to use water more conservatively.

“Lake Erie is a huge economic driver for the entire state of Ohio,” Marnie Urso, Great Lakes Restoration & Policy, Grassroots Coordinator, Audubon Ohio explained at last night’s Midtown Brews.

“It’s one of the largest freshwater fisheries in the world. If that part of our economy dries up...it's just crucial.”

Combining budgets for stormwater and public art—Originally planned as three ponds surrounded by a fence and some large trees to keep the area hidden from public view, Waterworks Gardens in Kings County, Washington (near Seattle) is a wastewater treatment facility that was transformed by creative thinking and budgeting. Read more.

Making Cleveland a business center for freshwater sustainability

For many years, people in Cleveland have asked, “Why can’t we establish a major center for water here and leverage our location on the Great Lakes?”

To help answer this question, EcoCity Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission teamed up to study the feasibility of a creating such a center. The study takes a hard look at global water issues, identifies gaps in current water-related activities and organizations, and proposes an entrepreneurial model for a Cleveland center — a center that can have global impact on the sustainability of freshwater while being financially self-sustaining and contributing to the economic development of Northeast Ohio.

The research, which involved business consultants and an advisory committee of community leaders, came to the following conclusions:

Location(s)

Board of Trustees elections will be held at this meeting, and Harry Stark, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, will present the accomplishments of the Rocky River 319 implementation grant.

For more information, go here, or contact Jared Bartley, Rocky River Watershed Coordinator, at 216-524-6580 x14.  

I would like to invite you to come and learn about the current happenings in the Rocky River Watershed!  The next Rocky River Watershed Council public meeting will be held on Thursday, October 25th from 7pm-9pm in the Sycamore Room of the Cleveland Metroparks Park Operations/Ranger HQ Building, located at 4500 Valley Parkway in Fairview Park (in the Rocky River Reservation across from Big Met Golf Course). 

Agenda items include a presentation about the Ohio Clean Marina Program (through which Cleveland Metroparks was recently certified) by Keith Kessler, a summary of the recent Rocky River Watershed Festival, and the January 2008 RRWC Board of Trustees elections.

Click here for a complete agenda.

For more information, please contact Jared Bartley, Rocky River Watershed Coordinator at 216-524-6580 x14 or jbartley@cuyahogaswcd.org.

You are cordially invited to the
Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District 58th Annual Meeting Dinner and Supervisor Election

Thursday, September 27, 2007

6:30pm - 9:00pm

Seven Hills City Hall-Community Room

7325 Summitview Drive
Seven Hills, Ohio

Keynote Speaker
Carl Skalak, Blue Pike Farm
“21st Century Urban Farming”

Honorees
Mike Durkalec, Conservationist of the Year
Mike Nichols, Ph.D, Educator of the Year
Lora Lee Smith, Volunteer of the Year

Special Recognition
Eagle Scout Projects:  Adam Pullar, Charlie Yingling
Education: Cindy Giulivo, Sandra Mooney, Sarah Quick

Location(s)

Linking Land to Lake: Landscaping in Celebration of Water 

Cleveland Botanical Garden and the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes will present their third annual sustainability symposium, this year focusing on the impact of gardening and landscape design on the Lake Erie Watershed and other water systems in Northeast Ohio. As stewards of one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water and 95 percent of the U.S. supply, people living near the Great Lakes' watershed have a particular responsibility to support and inform about the importance of water and conservation. 

Registration information.

Cleveland Engineering Society Fall Engineering Extravaganza on the theme, "Engineering a Sustainable Future."

Speakers include Holly Harlan, founder and president of Entrepreneurs for Sustainability; Chris Korleski, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and David Beach of GreenCityBlueLake. Sessions on reducing your environmental footprint at home, aternative energy resources, the economics of sustainability, manufacturing, and innovative technologies for sustainability.

Registration information.

This Fall, The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District will be co-sponsoring the 2nd Annual Habitat Stewards Workshops.  Adult volunteers will become certified as Habitat Stewards and will be equipped with the knowledge to help residents in their communities transform their schools, worksites, and backyards into wildlife habitats. 

The 24 hours of training is taking place beginning the evening of Monday September 17, 2007 and continuing Monday and Wednesday evenings 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. until  October 3, 2007  at the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District offices at 6100 West Canal Road Valley View, Ohio.  Instruction will also take place on Saturdays September 22nd and September 29th from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. Certified stewards will be requested to complete 30 hours of volunteer service upon completion of the course. Registration fee is $50.00 per person and includes an instruction manual and numerous resource materials, two Saturday and evening classes of instruction and certification upon completion.

            Wildlife Habitat subjects to be included in the sessions include: four components of establishing a Natural Wildlife Habitat, use of native plants, how to attract wildlife such as birds, butterflies, and amphibians, establishing a rain garden in a habitat, composting and other topics.

To register contact the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District office weekdays at 216-524-6580 X10 or visit our website at www.cuyahogaswcd.org.