Dear Friend of FLOW,

I hope you are well in the new year!

I am excited about the prospects in 2023 for FLOW’s work—with you—educating and empowering community members and decision-makers to ensure the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected for all of us. Together we must marshal the facts and hold leaders at all levels accountable for safeguarding our freshwater resources and way of life.

Champions of the Great Lakes and environment are sometimes hard to find in the halls of government. So the announcement in early January that U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, is retiring in January 2025 at the end of her current term caused me to reflect on this forthcoming sea change. (Photo: U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, with microphone, joins (from left) MLive’s Sheri McWhirter, author Jerry Dennis, and FLOW’s Dave Dempsey, Aug. 25, 2022, on stage at the Traverse City Opera House. Photo credit: Shawn Roach)

Sen. Stabenow has been a consistent vote for clean water and the environment throughout her 40-year career in the Michigan Legislature and in Congress. She authored legislation to reduce farm pollution, a major source of algal blooms in Lake Erie, through voluntary incentives and partnerships. She also has been a steadfast supporter of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has invested more than $4 billion in federal funds for programs that improve Great Lakes water quality, restore habitat, and combat invasive species.

Co-sponsor of a federal law banning oil drilling under the Great Lakes, Sen. Stabenow also authored the bipartisan Stop Invasive Species Act spurring the federal government to step up action to protect the Great Lakes from non-native Asian carp. She also led the fight to prevent the siting of a high-level radioactive waste facility in the Great Lakes watershed.

Sen. Stabenow once said, “As a Michigan senator, I feel a special responsibility to protect the Great Lakes. They are not only a source of clean drinking water for more than 30 million people but are also an integral part of Michigan's heritage and its economy.”

Although many political leaders talk about their support for clean water and the Great Lakes, not as many are actually doing the work to bring about healthier Great Lakes. We hope that Sen. Stabenow’s successor will carry on her legacy of Great Lakes protection and stewardship.

Last August, we were honored when Sen. Stabenow joined FLOW Senior Policy Advisor Dave Dempsey and author Jerry Dennis on stage for a Traverse City National Writers Series event (see 50:05 mark in this video) moderated by MLive’s Sheri McWhirter to urge protection of the Great Lakes and natural world.

We at FLOW wish Sen. Stabenow success in her continuing efforts to protect the Great Lakes, groundwater, and drinking water for everyone. And we wish her well in her future plans and endeavors, which surely will include enjoying the magnificent fresh waters of this water wonderland we call home.

Onward together in 2023,




Liz Kirkwood
Executive Director

P.S.—FLOW on the Go in Traverse City! Next time you’re in the neighborhood, look for FLOW’s motif and mottos in motion around northwest Michigan’s Grand Traverse Region,  made possible through the generosity of Andrew Kohlmann and his creative and professional Image360–Traverse City team. In partnership with the Bay Area Public Transportation Authority (BATA), this initiative provides free traveling billboards for five northern Michigan conservation and natural resource–focused nonprofits, including FLOW, that will be featured on the side of multiple BATA buses. Thank you Image360!

ICYMI—Your Inside Look at FLOW with Liz Kirkwood Starts Now. Take an exclusive look behind the scenes at FLOW’s work, made possible by our generous supporters. And enjoy our 2022 Year in Review, our recent review of the nonfiction chronicle Meander, by Margaret Wooster, and our feature on Grand Valley State University’s proposal for a Michigan Coastal Research Reserve to promote scientific research of a unique string of drowned river mouth estuaries, from the St. Joseph River to the Platte Rivers, formed following the glacial retreat of approximately 14,000 years ago as rebounding sand dunes trapped melting rivers trying to reach the newly forming Lake Michigan.