I’m finally ready to start adding other initiatives and conversations to this blog.  I’m starting with Tom Cook who is the new chair of the Michigan Nature Conservancy’s board of trustees.  He’s a real lake lover who walked 460 miles in the Upper Peninsula to foster conservation and raise funds for the Nature Conservancy. I’ll add a link to his blog in the right column, or just click here.  You can follow his Tweets @tom4tnc and click here to read what he said in an interview about his role as chair.

Here’s a 10-minute video explaining the significance of The Big UP Deal that Tom Cook describes on his blog as “a large, innovative, and very complex deal to protect over 271,000 acres of forestland in the UP”:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/15041649″>The Big UP Deal</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1132797″>Ravenswood Media</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Listen carefully to the explanation of restoration forestry and the landscape approach.

There is so much wonderful work going on in new and innovative and complex relationships and partnerships.  The Michigan Nature Conservancy and Nature Conservancy of Canada were key partners in my own Great Lakes island project.  They are carrying it on in significant ways long after our grant from the Great Lakes Regional Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ended. There are literally hundreds of unsung heroes/heroines who have dedicated their lives to improving the care of the Great Lakes and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with many of them.  They found in government, the private sector, universities, nonprofits, and just on their own.  I’ll share and link to as many people and projects over the next few years as possible.