Waterblogger

Indeed, here in Dickinson County, water quality stands for something everyone believes in and everyone desires, myself included. It keeps developers developing, businesses busy, entrepreneurs imagining, researchers researching, water quality activists activating, philanthropists philanthropizing, lobbyists lobbying - and now, bloggers blogging. And it also determines the rate at which algae and plants grow and photosynthesize and, in turn, the types, abundance and diversity of zooplankton that graze on the algae and that of the fish that eat the zooplankton, the fish that eat the fish, and all of the other aquatic life in our lakes and wetlands.

So we should be debating water quality, for here in Dickinson County - unlike most places in Iowa - the relationship between water quality, our economy and quality of life is more direct and obvious . As scientist Micheal Lannoo succinctly puts it in the introduction to his book Okoboji Wetlands, "Water permits life."

And we are fortunate in Dickinson County to live in its bounty, and we are its stewards.

Our cluster of glacial lakes are anomaly in Iowa's landscape. They include the state's largest, (Big Spirit Lake), deepest (West Okoboji) and the longest (East Okoboji and the Gar chain) lakes in Iowa, and 19% of the state's surface water. They supply our drinking water, and drive our region's unique blend of an agricultural and tourism-based economy. They have inspired generations of entrepreneurs, not only in the business sense, but in entrepreneurs in education, the arts and in the non-profit world.

Despite the significance of the lakes to our survival and imaginations in Dickinson County, there is no one single authority that protects water quality. Instead, there is a myriad of federal, state and local agencies and jurisdictions, not to mention non-governmental organizations, that play a role. So, no wonder it seems we are obsessed with water quality! Through my blog, I hope to contribute to 'water quality literacy', to help untangle who does what for water quality, and what it means through scientific, folk, policy and as many other angles as possible. But I am always climbing the learning curve, so I look forward to learning from you and what you think through this new interactive technology of blogging. I just hope I can keep up, and not get "water-blogged"!