Return Engagement

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and Great Lakes speaker. She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has written three books about the Great Lakes [A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach *a Heartland Indie Bestseller*, A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk *winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award*, and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure]. To learn more about her work, or to book her as a speaker at your senior community go to http://LakeTrek.com

I have spoken at many senior communities while on my book tour, but the Wyndham community is special. This group read my first book and used it to keep fit! For every 20-minutes of exercise, the residents counted that as "walking" with me for one mile of my 

1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach!

Kalamazoo senior community

 They read and exercised, learning about Lake Michigan along the way. The coordinator, Barb Fish, posted a map of the lake and gave everyone a push-pin to move along the lakeshore as they accrued "miles hiked."

Residents get ready for the presentation

This month I returned to tell them about my Great Lakes ISLAND Adventure and visit with my friends at Wyndham. 

Gail introduces me to the group

Monday Night Live

My book tour continued this week in the Kalamazoo/Portage area. 

Gloria Tiller, owner of Kazoo Books in Kalamazoo, interviewed me on Monday Night Live (see video below) about my new book.

And then I gave my Great Lakes Island presentation at Portage District Library. 

Portage District Library

Marsha (Director of Portage Library) and Gloria (of Kazoo Books)

Audience at Portage District Library 

My book tour continues all year. 

See full schedule HERE 
or in sidebar of this blog.

The Lori Moore Show

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and Great Lakes speaker. She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has written three books about the Great Lakes [A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach *a Heartland Indie Bestseller*, A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk *winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award*, and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure]. To learn more about her work, or to book her as a speaker, go to http://LakeTrek.com

WWMT in Kalamazoo

I have been interviewed by

Lori Moore many times in the past on her radio show.

Lori has made the leap to television now with her own show on WWMT/CW7.

The Lori Moore Show is all about happenings in and around Kalamazoo...from important issues and events to everything Kalamazoo.

Also on the show was 
a librarian talking about the 
"Battle Creek Reads" 
program and asking for suggestions from holders of Willard Library cards to nominate books for this year.
Hmmm...maybe a book by a local 
Great Lakes author??

Headquarters of CW7 in Kalamazoo

Great Lakes Artist

Brodbeck's studio

I had the pleasure of visiting the studio of Mary Brodbeck, an artist based in Kalamazoo.





Brodbeck works with the Japanese technique of woodcut prints called mokuhanga in Japanese. She's worked in this media for over 15 years and has recently produced a documentary about this art called "Becoming Made." The Great Lakes feature prominently in her work.

 The documentary DVD 

 The documentary will be shown at the Wellspring Theater in Kalamazoo on 
Friday, April 10 at 6pm and 7:30pm.

Learn more about her work and her events HERE.

Brodbeck holds the woodcut for the print you see below 

Ghost pier in Lake Michigan

Tales from the Book Tour: Kalamazoo Book Club

Park Club, Kalamazoo

 A Kalamazoo book club invited me to join them while they discussed my book. They meet at the Park Club, a fixture in the city for over a century.

It's always fun and instructional for me to meet with book clubs. They let me know what parts of the book they most connected with, where they had questions, and if the book challenged or changed they way they think about our Great Lakes.

And a lovely lunch!

It was a privilege to meet with these thoughtful women.

Thank you all!

Tales from the Book Tour!

I caught up with store owner Laurie Russell 

 at the Nature Connection

I do love a good ART HOP, and Kalamazoo had a wonderful hop this past Friday.

I signed many copies of my new book at Kalamazoo's Nature Connection. 

Do you seek out stores that carry items made in the U.S.? Concerned about buying local? The Nature Connection carries an inventory of unique items that are overwhelmingly manufactured in the U.S. (~80%). And 4 out of 10 items in the store are made in Michigan! They have some of the most unique gift items and toys for kids there along with a section of Michigan-themed gifts and books.

Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

The next day I drove north to Gaylord, Michigan, for a book-signing at Saturn Booksellers.

Smiling at Saturn!

This wonderful indie bookstore had me set up in the front of the store to welcome readers and talk about our Great Lakes!

My book is available ONLY at select indie bookstores through the end of May. Look HERE for full list of stores.

It will be available everywhere books are sold on June 1, but please support your local indie bookstore!

Enbridge Oil Spill...one year later

Efforts to clean up the Kalamazoo River continue one year after a leaking oil pipeline allowed over 800,000 gallons of crude oil to spill into the Kalamazoo River. For weeks following the spill, my home town of Battle Creek smelled of the thick, crude oil for weeks. People living near the origin of the spill had to leave their homes due to the smell and toxic effects of the spill.

The EPA is overseeing the clean-up. Here are the stats to help put it in perspective:

766,000 gallons of oil have been recovered
15 million gallons of oil/water mix have been recovered and disposed of
93,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil/debris have been disposed of
19,500 feet of boom have been deployed on the river
clean-up has cost $25.7 million so far
245 workers involved in these efforts

Monday Night Live

I was featured on Monday Night Live, a cable access talk show in Kalamazoo hosted by the charming Keith Roe.

Mr. Roe is Kalamazoo's own James Lipton,
and Monday Night Live is his
Inside the Actor's Studio.

That's how I felt being on the show. Gloria Tiller was also there (as she is every second Monday of the month) with Keith. Gloria is the owner of Kazoo Books in (where else) Kalamazoo!

Click HERE to view the episode.

I had a lovely time on the show. A big thanks to Keith and Gloria for the energizing conversation about writing, the publishing process, and my adventure of walking all the way around Lake Michigan!

Oil Spill in West Michigan Heading Toward Lake Michigan

The overpowering smell of oil on the river is a much stronger warning than the signs which are posted for miles along the Kalamazoo River. I stopped at three points along the river for maybe 15 minutes total, and came away with a fierce headache.















This river flows through the center of Battle Creek (where I live), then through the towns of Galesburg, Kalamazoo, Plainwell, and Allegan. Then, finally, between the cities of Douglas and Saugatuck before joining LAKE MICHIGAN. There are many wetlands along the way and the river harbors much wildlife. I've kayaked stretches of this river and have seen deer, turtles, blue heron, trout, and muskrat.

Estimates of the amount of oil have been raised to one million gallons. Why was the oil allowed to gush for hours before the flow in the pipeline was shut off? We're still waiting for an answer from Enbridge Energy.

The last photo here is of the Ceresco Dam in Marshall. The EPA is using a Coast Guard helicopter to survey the extent of the spill. This is just a mile or two from origin of the spill. The second photo shows how the crude oil is gathering in the vegetation.

Watch the video below for a closer look at the spill.

Wolf Lake Hatchery

It was back in the 1920s that the Great Lakes fish population took a drastic drop. Overfishing, deforestation (which changed the river habitats), introduction of invasive species like the lamprey and alewife, and even pollution contributed to this calamity. Some fish species -- like the blue pike -- were wiped out. Others -- especially the Lake Sturgeon which must live 20 years before it can reproduce -- were almost eradicated.

By the 1960s, the alwife had become the main fish species in the lakes because there were few predator fish to eat them. It was in the 60s that large scale hatcheries were finally established to 'grow up' large numbers of fish (mostly trout and salmon) to 'seed' back into the lakes.

I visited the Wolf Lake Hatchery just west of Kalamazoo to see their operation. The hatchery gathers eggs and sperm from salmon and steelhead migrating early in the spring and grows them up for almost a year (steelhead are 7-8 inches long by then). Then, they 'plant' them back in the rivers and streams which feed into the Great Lakes.



It's quite an operation. The Great Lakes ecosystem is managed and monitored, and the DNR plays an important role in this. Hopefully, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative can bring the lakes back to a healthier state than they are in currently.