A little true love for our lakes

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“I Love the Lakes” is a bumper sticker commonly spotted around Minneapolis. Having grown up and lived most of my adult life around Lake Harriet, Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, it is a sentiment I well understand.

For years, however, I interpreted it to mean that the person displaying the sticker merely appreciates and enjoys the lakes. A few years ago though, I was sitting on a park bench near Lake Harriet when I had what can only be described as a mystical moment. I was overcome with a deep feeling of affection for the lake — a feeling comparable to the love I feel for my wife, family and friends.

I tell you this because I recently flew into Salt Lake City and was stunned to see how emaciated the once Great Salt Lake had become. The lake is now one-third the size it was just 25 years ago and, without dramatic changes, it may be gone within five years. If this occurs, Salt Lake City would become Salt City.

This looming reality makes clear not only how dire the situation is in Utah, it also offers a stark warning to Minneapolis. It is not outside the realm of possibility that our “City of Lakes” could become little more than a colder, less-lake-filled version of Omaha.

In my 60 years of living in Minneapolis, I have never seen the lakes as low as they are now. On the northern end of Bde Maka Ska, a person must now walk out more than a hundred yards before the water reaches waist-high. On Lake Harriet, the shorelines which once offered shelter to blue herons are eroding, and the channel connecting Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake grows shallower and more narrow every day.

Some will argue that many of the city’s lakes are spring-fed — which is true — but springs can run dry. One need only consider the plight of the Ogallala Aquifer — a massive body of water resting under the middle part of America to understand the risk. (At its current depletion rates it will be depleted within 50 years, and it is estimated that it would take 6,000 years to replenish).

Others may say that droughts and floods are cyclical and that, in time, the lakes will be replenished. This may be true, but history reminds us that sometimes droughts last decades and, when they do, they forever alter the surrounding landscape.

Prayers for precipitation may help but the time is now for citizens to act. For starters, we should all be turning off the water when we brush our teeth and shave in the morning. Other easy steps to take include placing a plastic water bottle in the toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used with every flush and installing a rain barrel to capture rainwater for the purposes of watering our lawns, gardens and trees.

Next, for those with the financial means to do so, investing in more water-efficient faucets, shower heads and washing machines is a prudent step. As is planting more drought-resistant grasses, plants and shrubs in one’s yard in order to reduce the need for watering.

I realize each action may feel small, insignificant and even worthless in the face of such a daunting challenge but, as Edmund Burke once said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” A little love can go a long way toward protecting our beloved lakes.

Jack Uldrich, of Minneapolis, is a writer.