- When people look at on our waterways, we say, "Oh, there's enough water to last forever," right?

But we don't wanna think of it that way.

- We have a resource here that's far, far more precious than all the petroleum reserves in the world.

- People have to have it for life.

It's not a luxury.

It's an essential.

- [Alan] One thing we don't wanna do is exploit them in a way that's non-sustainable.

- Having people that understand these aquatic ecosystems and can develop those policies just seem like a critical step to have.

- These are visions we need to dare to make.

We're all mostly water.

Conserving the greatest body of fresh water on the planet should be a top priority.

- [Narrator] With more than 3,000 miles of shoreline, 36,000 miles of streams, and almost 11,000 inland lakes, water is a defining feature of Michigan.

Since 1986, the Annis Water Resources Institute has dedicated itself to numerous research projects and water education.

- We help inform the community about water-related issues.

We provide information to them, data that we've collected that helps the local municipalities make better-informed decisions about water-related issues.

- We're not even limited to just the Great Lakes.

My colleagues, some of them work on the watersheds of Eastern Europe, and I work with colleagues in Spain.

- We've had folks from Poland, and most recently, we've had twice now a group of women from Africa.

- So in that sense, our footprint is bigger than not just local.

Although our focus from the beginning has been to provide science to the society here.

(inspiring music) I'm just an observer of ecosystem change.

About 15, 16 years ago, I got funded by EPA on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for having this buoy on this lake, which is one of area of concerns in the Great Lakes because of its legacy of pollution and land use impacts.

These observatories can give a very powerful image of fine-scale ecosystem change, be it in oxygen, be it in chlorophyll that traces algal biomass.

Very powerful way of repeatedly measuring an ecosystem remotely and in a way that doesn't pollute the system.

The sensors go on, and they work and then come back.

And then the most important thing is these observatories can relay information in real time.

You can share them with the world, a real-time data of how the ecosystem is behaving.

- Each lake is unique.

They each need an individual diagnosis.

We can't make generalizations about, you know, one lake applying to another one.

For Muskegon Lake in particular, which we sit on here, our research over the last 20 years has basically shown the Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, now EGLE, that the lake has met its restoration targets.

And hopefully this year, if not next year, we will be delisted as an area of concern in the Great Lakes, which will be a huge, huge achievement.

And it wouldn't happen without the science showing rigorously that we've met these restoration targets.

- I have a pending request with EPA to continue to fund it because it's very important not to declare area of concern like Muskegon Lake delisted and go away, walk away from it.

It's very important that we monitor it.

So none of those original problems reoccur.

The most meaningful thing I do is share my science with society with no limits or conditions.

Like the observing system data, it's openly, unconditionally shared, whether it's a student or as a fisherman, can figure out the science.

I think in that sense, sharing my science with society is the most meaningful work I see myself as doing in my position.

- [Narrator] From young school children to graduate students learning about water policy, AWRI's educational cruises have reached over 192,000 people.

- Planting that seed for the next generation becomes a really, really important part of what we do.

Get 'em excited about being out on the water, giving them a little bit of an understanding of how our aquatic ecosystems function, how special they are, how important they are to West Michigan and our culture.

If we can light a little spark in a young person's mind at this point, that might motivate them to look down the road into the future and think, "Boy, this is just really, just really fun."

- And I would say every fifth or seventh graduate student has been on our vessels too.

- I went to school locally and went out on the Jackson in like, sixth grade I think.

And so it's cool now to like go on it for the three times a year monitoring.

So I got my undergrad in zoology and then focused in marine biology.

So I've always been kind of aquatics-based.

And then I applied to the Master's of Biology program here and emphasized in aquatic sciences.

And so then my advisor, Dr. Biddanda reached out and was just kind of interested in having me in his lab, and I was interested in being here.

So we just came up with some research ideas.

- You know, we have two vessels.

One here, that Jackson is here.

The Angus is on Grand River in Grand Haven.

So between them, most of West Michigan school children have been on our vessels.

- So we're able to subsidize the vast majority of the expense or the cost of operating our boats, which is the expensive part of all of that, and only charge a small fee to the schools, any groups that wanna come on the boats for that educational experience.

The water policy program, I felt that that was a critical degree to start.

There's very few programs around the country that are explicitly water resource policy.

And in my mind, in the future, water is gonna be one of the most critical aspects of life.

Water is essential.

People have to have it for life.

It's not a luxury.

It's an essential.

And I've seen so many changes in the last 40 years since I've been involved in aquatic sciences in our water resources, that having good policies in place, having people that understand these aquatic ecosystems and can develop those policies just seemed like a critical step to have and a program that we could really support given our location in West Michigan.

- So I came when this building opened in 2001 as director.

We had about 15 staff and students, and now we're up to about 65.

And then this building that we're sitting in right now was the largest capital campaign that Muskegon had done to that point because they were so interested in bringing the institute to the shoreline into Muskegon Lake.

Here's one example that I think is telling.

When I got here in 01, you know, I knew people in the Great Lakes region, even though I'd come up from working on the Everglades in Florida, and I said to them, "Look, I'm new to the area.

If there's opportunities to collaborate, please let me know as we develop our own research program here in Muskegon."

And now they come to us and wanna collaborate with us because we've established ourselves in such a way that we're a go-to institute.

So I think that's really indicative of the status that we've attained over time.

There are things that we all can do as individuals.

And collectively, they will make a difference.

- We can all work at the local level, at the watershed level, to try and improve conditions within our local region.

If everybody kinda got together and took that approach, working on within their own watershed, within their own system collectively, then I think we can start to see the benefit within the Great Lakes.

- What is the one thing that we can do, Al, to make sure that, you know, we take care of the Great Lakes for future generations, I tell them it's vote wisely because their elected officials will making huge decisions about how our natural resources are treated in the future.

So that would be the ultimate solution.

- Oceans have what are called marine-protected areas where you're not allowed fishing, mining, and other things.

We need something like that for the Great Lakes.

These are visions we need to dare to make so that someday they may come true.

They're part of us.

We are all mostly water, yeah.

Conserving the greatest body of fresh water on the planet should be a top priority.

Being next to 20% of the fresh water reserves on the planet, that we have a resource here that's far, far more precious than all the petroleum reserves in the world.

It deserves sincere and serious protection for the future.

(inspiring music) (upbeat music) - Celebrating vibrant people, captivating places, and remarkable things.

This is "Living West Michigan."

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