Environmental Progress - Summer/Fall 2002

Environmental Progress : Summer/Fall 2002

Making the World a Classroom

Grants for IEPA Help Build International Lakes Education Partnership

Onion-domed structures are a common architectural feature in much of Russia. This little church is in the living museum park near Lake Baikal, and is typical of the architecture in Siberia in the early settlement days. Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts are similar outdoor living museums in the States.

Lake Baikal teems with fish, and fish appear often on the table and among the offerings at the local outdoor market. Fish from Lake Baikal can be found on sale throughout Russia.

this private greenhouse in Listvianka is typical of local residents' skills in extending the growing season to provide fresh produce for their families and for use in their businesses. This structure is the greenhouse of the owner of the tiny hotel (about 16 to 20 bed operation) where the American visitors spent several days.

Cows wander freely in the area around Lake Baikal and show bovine curiosity about the contents of trash bins and dumpsters. Their interest in containered items undid some of the work done during a joint litter pickup by students at a local eco-camp and the group of American visitors, when the cows removed plastic bags of trash from the dumpster provided and proceded to open and sort through the collected litter in search of goodies.

Large lakes, even in comparatively remote areas, inevitably attract water-related commerce. Lake Baikal is no exception.

Even in summer, the waters of Lake Baikal are cold, and warmer air temperatures produced this surreal mist in the early morning, as a group of visitors head toward the beach.

The presence of a local shaman reminded the Americans that they were, indeed, far from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Ten years ago, a partnership involving people in the United States and Russia would have been almost impossible because of governmental constraints and difficulties in maintaining communications.

With the rise of perestroika and the birth of the Internet, scientists and educators in both countries suddenly had the freedom to seek out people or groups with common goals in other countries and to build bridges between them. Such a bridge has been constructed between people living near two lakes, Lake Michigan in the U.S., and Lake Baikal in Russian Siberia.

Early in 2001, Susie Schrieber, chairman of the Waukegan Harbor Citizen's Advisory Group (CAG) was contacted by a Russian scientist, Dr. Elena Kuzevanova, who wanted to learn more about the processes used to develop effective environmental standards in the United States and how we implement them. She also wanted to explore how educational initiatives to meet environmental threats are developed in the U.S. The CAG itself is the outgrowth of such an effort, a partnership of educators, environmentalists, industry representatives, sport fishermen, citizens and government officials working together to coordinate an environmental clean-up and the navigational dredging of the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern.

Dr. Kuzevanova, from the Russian Academy of Sciences Limnological Institute (Siberian branch) is director of the Baikal Ecological Network. The initital contact led to an educational and scientific partnership between the Waukegan Harbor CAG and the Baikal Ecological Network. A formal partnership resolution was created and signed by each organization in the spring of 2001.

Lake Baikal is estimated to contain 20 percent of the world's fresh water supply; the Great Lakes system, which includes Lake Michigan, encompasses another 20 percent, so between them, the Great Lakes and Lake Baikal account for an estimated 40 percent of all the fresh water on earth. Lake Michigan, the only Great Lake completely within the borders of the United States, is impacted by residential, recreational, commercial and industrial development. It is the water supply for the city of Chicago as well as many surrounding suburbs.

Lake Baikal, lying just north of Mongolia, has not been actively industrialized, nor has there been significant development of residential, commercial or recreational facilities on or near the lake. Water and air pollution from a pulp and paper mill, built in the 1970s in Baikal'sk on the southern tip of the lake, is considered to be the greatest threat to the lake's ecological balance. Another major threat to the lake is posed by contaminants entering through the Selenge River, that originates in Mongolia and is a main water source to Lake Baikal. It carries large loads of industrial contaminants.

Non-point source pollution caused by runoff in areas where tourists have cut trees and removed underbrush to create campsites is an emerging concern. Non-point source pollution, even on a small scale, could result in negative impacts on the lake's ecology.

Point source discharge comes from the estimated 90 percent of the 120 communities around the lake that discharge their wastes to the lake. Dr. Kuzevanova estimates between 1 and 10 percent of the surface water is being impacted.

Lake Baikal can freeze with clarity up to five feet deep, giving winter visitors the unique experience of walking on the frozen surface while watching fish swimming below.

Lake Baikal is estimated to be 25 to 30 million years old and is well over a mile deep. It is the oldest and deepest lake in the world. Lake Michigan and Lake Baikal are very different in geology, ecology and environmental quality.

A group of Illinois pupils and their teachers are building an educational bridge between them, supported by a common cause and buttressed by the Internet. Antioch High School (Antioch), Butterfield Elementary School (Libertyville), the Lyons Christian Mathematics and Science Academy, North Shore Country Day School and Abbott Middle School, all located in Waukegan, aided by Lakes Education Assistance Program (LEAP) grants from the Illinois EPA, have been doing classroom study and online research about the two unique lakes. The Lake County students have worked on site research at locations on the Waukegan River and the Waukegan dunal area.

Dr. Kuzevanova was able to link them via the Internet to Siberian students doing comparable research on Lake Baikal. The Illinois students send research information and questions to their Siberian counterparts, who respond with data they've compiled and questions they have. Through the exchanges, Russian and American students have developed an understanding of the differences between the lakes while exploring the principles of math, geology, geography, chemistry, ecology, art, culture and language.

"This program teaches the children about Lake Michigan, our great natural resource, enhances their technology training and helps them learn about another part of the world and the children in it," said Mrs. Christine Geiselhart, a fourth grade teacher at Butterfield Elementary School in Libertyville, Illinois.

In the fall of 2001, Mrs. Geiselhart received a $1,000 Lakes Education Assistance Program (LEAP) grant to enhance her learning for the Lake Michigan-Lake Baikal educational partnership project. The grants can be used for equipment, transportation and other activities related to lakes education. Mrs. Geiselhart used her school's grant to purchase equipment to enable the students to transmit pictures and text to Lake Baikal students via the Internet, and to support a field trip to the Lake Michigan dunal area east of Seahorse Drive in Waukegan. Scientists compiling a dunal area baseline survey for the area conducted mini lessons on various aspects of the dunal ecology.

In the summer of 2002, when Illinois was joining the nation in celebrating the 30th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act, Mrs. Geiselhart and six Waukegan CAG members and researchers made a two week visit to Irkutsk in Siberia. The Libertyville teacher was able to finally meet the Russian teacher with whom she and her students had been working via the Internet for the last year.

The group visited Lake Baikal, nearby towns, eco-camps, ecological, industrial and cultural areas.

During the trip they were able to see nerpa, fresh water seals found only in Lake Baikal. Because of its great age, Lake Baikal is a living laboratory of evolution. For instance, more than 30 species of sculpin, a large-headed spined fish, have evolved in Lake Baikal during its estimated 25-30 million year life span. For comparison, Lake Superior at a mere 10,000 years, has only four species of sculpin.

During part of their visit, the U.S. guests stayed at an eco-camp, one of many where children from the city can stay and do various environmental projects. Residents' ages range from about 7 to 14 at the camps, each of which has its own special focus. The camps are largely government sponsored, so parents pay approximately a third of the cost of their child's three-week stay. The children spend the summer conducting research, writing stories and creating artworks related to the lake and surrounding environment.

As part of the effort to educate the visiting Americans about the environmental problems that exist at Lake Baikal, host scientists arranged for visits to areas that threaten this ecology. The Americans were given a tour of the pulp and paper mill and were given an opportunity to talk to plant managers about ideas for reducing pollution from the facility.

Members of the tour group asked whether there were opportunities for recycling discarded materials in Russia, but were told that the only organized recycling program is in Moscow at this time and there is no comparable effort in Siberia. They have only been "new Russians" for a very short time and change may be a long time coming, the tour guides indicated.

The American visitors gave the Russian youngsters a small taste of American campfire culture by teaching them how to toast marshmallows and make s'mores over the campfire.

Dr. Kuzevanova plans future visits to the United States to explore additional ways citizens can work toward common goals. Her communications with the Libertyville group underscore the differences in life around the two lakes. On October 25th she wrote to Mrs. Geiselhart "Today real winter came to Baikal. There is a lot of snow is Listvyanka" where the eco-camp group had conducted a cleanup in August. "Today we finished the main part of the design work in Listvyanka Natural Park. You did "fire cookies' for the children there in August, remember?" Sometimes successful diplomacy can occur around a campfire as well as a conference table.