water levels

[cisco]

It was disappointing to see the continued drop in Lake Michigan water level last weekend. And, the two trout/salmon streams in SE Wis that are usually active in spring are down to almost no current because of low water. The Great Lakes watershed is starving.

The Mississippi drainage system is another matter. I was happy to catch on Chicago TV the report that Gov. Ryan was seeking to buy flooded properties to continue the move away from floodplain that Gov. Edgar started after the horrendous 1993 floods.

Maybe we'll learn in the 21st Century that setback is the best approach to flood control -- flood gates and levees are foolhardy attempts to protect upstream property without regard to those downstream. But most important, we've got to restore wetlands in urban and rural areas.

All of us here love water, we just don't know how to live with it.

[Leechboy]

Cisco:
Is it the Canadian Plains that feed Superior and Michigan? We had such snow and rain this year that I was really hoping the lakes would jump back this year, but it sounds like that is not the case.

[cisco]

Much of the Arrowhead region of Minnesota drains into Superior. And, the St. Louis River at Duluth contributes. But, even as narrow as Michigan's Upper Peninsula is, much of the water from there ends up in the Mississippi. For example, the 400 mile long Wisconsin River starts at the Michigan state line and meanders to the southwest corner of Wisconsin where it meets the Mississippi.

In the U.S. the watershed basin of the Great Lakes is pitifully small. At Kenosha, Wis., the "subcontinental divide" is a mere three miles from the lake. Water that falls west of Green Bay Road will end up in the Mississippi (via the Rock & Ill Rivers). Water that falls east of that road will flow thru the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.

Even the Ohio, PA, and NY rivers are low volume and small, with the Maumee and Sandusky being about the only sizable streams draining into Lake Erie.

As for the western portions, you all know the Red River flows north and ultimately into Hudson's Bay. LOTW watershed drains from south to north (e.g. Rainey River). Surprisingly, three systems begin in north central Minnesota and go three different directions -- north (Red) south (Mississippi) and east (Lake Superior system).

Lake Michigan is now lower than it has been since the early 1960s. And, if Lake Michigan is low, so go the others. Folks in Fargo, Granite Falls, Mankato, Davenport, LaCrosse, Winona, and elsewhere may not believe it, but the Great Lakes watershed is desparately in need of water and more water. (The Devils Lake situation in North Dakota is a whole other chapter.)