Love Your Greats Day is Saturday, August 13, 2022
Love Your Greats Day is Saturday, August 13, 2022
What actions can you take, on Love Your Greats Day, to protect Lake Huron?
A day to celebrate and protect our Great Lakes, called Love Your Greats Day, is held the second Saturday of every August. In 2022, this special day is on Saturday, August 13.
Love Your Greats Day organizers say local citizens like you, and local communities like yours, can take positive actions to protect Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes.
There are many ways you can help Lake Huron. You may take litterless lunches to the beach, properly dispose of waste, and help clean up litter along Lake Huron. You may use reusable water bottles and refill them at local water refill stations.
“Each positive action you take adds up,” organizers say.
Organizers encourage you to think of actions you can take, as an individual, to protect and improve the Great Lakes. They invite you to choose products that don’t pollute; to reduce your plastic use; and to do projects that slow down or capture water running off of your property.
You might plant trees or donate to local tree planting programs such as Carbon Footprints to Forests. You may use rain barrels or add rain gardens or wetlands or make other stormwater management improvements. Consider adding green infrastructure to your property. This benefits creeks, rivers, and Lake Huron. This natural infrastructure can also help us adapt to extreme weather and changing climates. Learn more and watch this video now:
Green infrastructure includes forests and woodlots, wetlands and stormwater ponds, soil, and natural areas. It also includes technologies to absorb water and manage runoff. These technologies include rain barrels and permeable pavement. These green technologies filter and store stormwater and replicate ecosystem functions. Contact your local conservation authority to find out about technical expertise and grant incentives that may be available to help you.
Enhancing natural features and green infrastructure has many benefits to our Lake Huron communities. It can help to store, filter, and treat water running over land during storm events. Adding natural features to our landscape has benefits for air and water quality. It provides habitat for wildlife and pollinators. It makes our communities more resilient and better prepared to adapt during extreme weather as our climate continues to change. Green infrastructure can reduce flood risk by slowing and reducing stormwater. This is an economic benefit as well.
To find out more actions you can take to protect your Great Lake, visit the Healthy Lake Huron – Clean Water, Clean Beaches Partnership at healthylakehuron.ca (and follow Healthy Lake Huron on social media) share your stories by using #loveyourgreats or tagging @loveyourgreats on social media and visit loveyourgreats.com
Protect Lake Huron, earn a chance to win a Lake Huron hoodie
Tell us or show us with a photo how you're part of the solution protecting Lake Huron.
Tag @WaterSoilLivingThings and use the hashtags #PieceofthePuzzle #LoveYourGreats
You can be entered in a draw with a chance to win a #HereOnLakeHuron hoodie.
We all have a role when it comes to protecting Lake Huron.
Visit Love Your Greats Day is Saturday, August 13, 2022 or We are all a Piece of the Puzzle for ideas how to protect Lake Huron. Then, tell us or show us with a photo how you're part of the solution.
Bayfield-area farmer loves his soil and Lake Huron
Keeping soil, nutrients on land is one of messages for rural, urban residents as Love Your Greats Day is celebrated
“The goal is to keep dirt on the land.” This was the response from Bayfield-area farmer Rick Kaptein Jr., when asked about why he farms the way he does.
Rick uses no-till, cover crops and permanent pasture on his rolling farm, Tulip Lane, to help keep the soil on his land. The math is simple, he says. The more soil that stays on his farm, the less he has to spend on nutrient inputs. These practices help maintain a profitable agricultural operation but, at the same time, they keep valuable soil and nutrients out of the nearby Bayfield River and, ultimately, Lake Huron.
Rick started to use cover crops to feed his cattle but he soon saw the benefits of having something growing in the ground for the long term, both in terms of weed control and erosion control. He noticed that even a bad catch of Rye was able to slow down the weeds. And, when it comes to storm events with heavy rains, he is relieved to see his soil is not washing away. “You have got to have a root in the ground in the winter,” he said. “The no-till really helps keep the soil in place with those unexpected rains that might come in July and August.”
Rick admits he is continually learning when it comes to his farming practices and he is keen to see how a new pollinator cover crop mix benefits his soil. Pollinators will most certainly benefit from the Buckwheat and Crimson Clover he planted but Rick is hoping the mix also adds some nitrogen and loosens the soil using the roots.
One thing he has learned is that if he spends a little money (on cover crop seed) he can save a lot of money and this helps both his pocketbook and the lake.
Whether you are an agricultural producer, a rural non-farm resident, or an urban (e.g., town or village) resident there are actions you can take to keep your Great Lake great.