Wisconsin seeks estuarine reserve designation

Interesting news:

Wisconsin natural resource officials want to nominate the St. Louis River estuary to become the first in the Lake Superior region named part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

A committee is proposing the St. Louis River estuary after considering 30 possible sites on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Superior. The proposal will be unveiled at an April 3 public hearing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Superior Conference Center in Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in Superior.

The article notes that only one Great Lakes site, Old Woman Creek in Ohio, is a designated reserve. Part of the reason might be the dictionary definition of estuary:  a water passage where the tide meets a river current; especially : an arm of the sea at the lower end of a river.  The more generous definition adopted by Wisconsin is this:  Estuaries, usually widening in rivers where they meet a great lake or ocean, are considered critical ecological areas for fish and wildlife habitat, especially spawning fish. They often include wetlands, and in the case of Lake Superior, are among the most important shoreland habitats for the entire lake's food chain.

Whatever the name, it is good news that Great Lakes states are beginning to identify and seek protection for critical aquatic habitat as reserves.

Michigan should join the trend, either on its own or as part of the national system. Michigan law provides for the designation of 'bottomland preserves." Although used only to protect shipwrecks so far, the law authorizes preserves for reasons of "historical, recreational, geological, or environmental significance." Somewhere among 38,000 or so square miles of underwater resources, Michigan must possess some outstanding potential reserves/preserves.