The Ticker Walks The Beach with Loreen Niewenhuis

by Luke Haase

Think you've gone for long beach walks? Battle Creek's Loreen Niewenhuis walked around Lake Michigan. Yes, all the way around. She then published "A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach" about the trek. She caught up with The Ticker to talk Traverse City, industry, the Asian Carp, and "the best Great Lake."

So why did you do it?
[Laughs] Well, several things converged in my life at the same time. We had just sent my oldest son off to college, and I had hit a wall with my day-to-day routine. I wanted to take on a big challenge, something so large there was a good possibility I'd fail at it. Lake Michigan is my place; I go there to vacation, to relax, to re-center myself. So it was a perfect place and a perfect challenge.

Share some of your recollections about Traverse City.
Traverse City is so interesting because it's so connected to the Bay; you can't drive around Traverse City without connecting to it. Chicago's like that. Unfortunately when my walk took me through there I found lots of sheltered portions of the waterfront, with wetlands or rock or inaccessible areas, so I had to take a route along M-22. Walking on the road is not my favorite way to experience the lake, but I did later get a chance to finally go up Old Mission and look back at the shoreline, which I loved.

Are your thoughts about business along the Great Lakes different now?
I understand the big big picture about needing jobs and a tax base, but the balance has swung mostly toward industry and allowing legal abuse of the lake. For instance, the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana dumps dozens of pounds of ammonia and toxic chemicals into the lake every day. I guess I was a little taken aback to realize this all goes on legally. It's not behind anyone's back. It's a societal agreement, whether we realize it or not.

You wrote a great passage about how we've screwed up the Great Lakes ecosystem over the past decades.
I think I wrote that it has been battered and blundered. We do have a long history of taking it for granted. There are 150 invasive species in the Great Lakes right now, the vast majority of which made it in ballast waters. Why is there not a way to stop that? How difficult can it be to boil the water or say ballast can't have anything alive in it?

What are your thoughts about Asian Carp?
It's been making its way here for decades and is another good example of us not caring until the last minute. Actually I believe the far more dangerous is the Quagga Mussel, which has completely populated the deeper part of lake, eroding the food basis of the lake. I'd get rid of that first. The reports are frightening to read about it, but that hasn't hit the mainstream media yet.

How's the book going?
I'm on tour promoting it now, and sales are strong. We're seeing packed events, which is kind of unusual for a first book, but it shows the passion for Lake Michigan. It's really the best Great Lake.