The Return of Eagles, Ospreys, Peregrine Falcons

In 1962 Norm Spring read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.  He wondered how anyone could read the book and not do something about the harm DDT was causing to the environment. He was living right across the street from Central Park at the time and the city of Grand Haven, Michigan would spray the elm trees for Dutch Elm disease with DDT.  He was told he could move his car, but along with his wife he had two small children and the house and places where the young children played would be coated with DDT.  The problem was DDT did not kill the elm beetle. it soaked into the ground and everyone could see robins trembling in their death throes in the grass.  The spray washed down the streets and into the storm drains so DDT entered Lake Michigan where it was caught up in food chains.  The fish became highly contaminated with DDT.

 Fish eating birds such as the American Bald Eagle were affected since their eggs became thin and cracked as a result of DDT and did not hatch.  Norm went to every meeting of the Grand Haven City Council for three years and finally the Grand Haven City Council agreed to stop their DDT program.

People came from a nearby city and asked “How did you do that?” and together they formed the Michigan Pesticides Council that met at Michigan State University.  Among the members were:  Norm Spring, chairman, Joan Wolfe, ornithologists Dr. Ted Black, Dr. George Wallace, Dr. John Kitchel,  Charles Schick, Ann Van Lente, , Joseph Kleiman, Theodore Carbine.  Due to their work DDT and like pesticides were banned in Michigan in 1972 and then the ban went nation wide and Canada followed.

Today the Eagles, Ospreys and Peregrine Falcons have returned to the shores of the Great Lakes, the United States and Canada because the democratic process worked.

We see butterflies, moths and bumblebees, all part of a healthy ecosystem.

Norm was inducted into The Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame in 2014 for his work on behalf of the environment.

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Norm Spring Warrior

Norm Spring on the Front Lines in Korea  click the link

The photo of Norm was taken in front of the Gerald Ford Museum.  The occasion, The Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame 2014. The award was given for his work to ban DDT and like pesticides.  As a result, eagles, falcons, butterflies and bees have come back.

Earth Day is April 22 2015

Think globally, act locally.  This is the way to help our Mother the Earth.  Go to your local city council to persuade them to make good changes.  That is what I did and we got a new municipal wastewater treatment plant.  

Then after reading Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, Norm Spring went to the city council and pesuaded them to stop spraying elms in the park in front of our house with DDT.  It took three years of attending city council meetings and then the city of Grand Haven finally stopped the DDT program that was killing birds, and building up the food chains in the Great Lakes near where we live.  

We along with others formed the Michigan Pesticides Council and then DDT and like pesticides were banned in Michigan.  Then in the U.S.  Then in Canada.  He was recently honored for this work by the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame.

Norm Spring was instrumental in getting  an air pollution ordinance passed and saving  sand dunes in their natural state across the Grand River in Ferrysburg, Michigan.  All these things were done through the democratic process and done with the idea that we must keep the environment viable for now and for our children and the generations to come.

Encouraged by thinking globally and acting locally, I wrote The Dynamic Great Lakes. The book shows how the eagles returned to the shores of the Great Lakes after nearly being wiped out by DDT.  It shows that some bad government policies can be reversed with will and determination by ordinary people like us.

Think of what you could do by thinking globally and acting locally.

Peregrine Falcons Thriving in Grand Haven, Michigan

You can fight City Hall and win.  It takes time and patience, but sometimes the results are spectacular.

Years ago we lived across the street from the city park in Grand Haven, Michigan where the elm trees were sprayed with DDT to fight Dutch elm disease.  Long after the spraying we would see robins trembling in their death throes.  DDT is a long lasting pesticide that magnifies through food chains and the robin that had fed upon earthworms died before our eyes.

The fish in nearby Lake Michigan were affected even more since food chains in water are long.  DDT builds up in plankton and then magnifies with each step up the food chain.  Small fish and then larger fish and then the American bald eagle that feeds upon fish began to show the effects of DDT.  The young of eagles, peregrine falcons and ospreys did not hatch because DDT caused the shells of the eggs to break before the birds could hatch.

At that time, I was reading Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring,  and showed it to my husband, Norm Spring.  His reaction was visceral.  He had to do something about it.  He marched down to city hall and asked that the DDT program stop in our city park.  When it was not stopped, he brought experts to explain why it should be stopped.

City hall countered by bringing agriculture department people.  This went on for three years before he convinced city hall to stop the DDT program.

Then people from a neighboring city, Holland, Michigan came and together with others Norm Spring formed the Michigan Pesticides Council.  It met at M.S.U. with Dr. Ted Black, Dr. George Wallace, Dr. Howard Tanner, Dr. John Kitchel, Joan Wolfe and others.  Together they marshaled citizen support and by 1969 DDT was banned in Michigan and by 1972 was banned nationally. 

It took years for DDT to purge from Lake Michigan food chains, but today we often see bald eagles along the beaches and the Grand River that flows through Michigan.  On January 4, 2003, the Grand Haven Tribune reported 46 bald eagles on the ice and in the trees not far from U.S. 31.  About a third of these were mature eagles.

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June 1, 2013  Today a young peregrine falcon chick was banded in Grand Haven.  A pair of peregrines have produced a lot of young on top of the stack of the Grand Haven Municipal Power Plant.  

Grand Haven was the first city to ban the use of DDT.  Now we also see the American bald eagle has made a come back and this is wonderful.  DDT nearly wiped out all the eagles, peregrines and ospreys around the Great Lakes and other places as well.

This environmental victory inspired me to write The Dynamic Great Lakes so that people could see they have the power to change what is going wrong in the environment.

Click on the link below for images of the peregrine falcon.  It is the swiftest bird.

https://www.google.com/search?q=peregrine+falcon+in+michigan&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=AHaqUfKEI6qMyAGfloHwBA&ved=0CEMQsAQ&biw=1241&bih=593