Watermarks: Yearning for Water and Feeling Like a Kid Again

With the recent release of the IJC’s First Triennial Assessment of Progress on Great Lakes Water Quality, it’s worth noting that high-level actions by governments have an impact at home, to people who live in the Great Lakes basin. Residents have told us what they care about, including clean drinking water, access for recreation, fishing and beaches. But there are intangibles, too, like memories and emotions that help to shape generations and lives. The watermarks below are some of more than 20 recorded by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and the IJC at this year’s Healing Our Waters restoration conference in Buffalo, New York. They speak volumes on why the IJC and agencies in Canada and the US are important partners in protecting and restoring our shared waters.

David Hahn-Barker recalls the difference between plentiful beach access in Chicago and a lack of access in Buffalo.

Buffalo was built in a way that blocked the lakefront from the people, “one of the sadder things about our community,” he says.

But areas like Canalside have become an attraction in Buffalo, helping to satisfy “a yearning for water.”

Leann Sestak of Erie, Pennsylvania, remembers childhood visits to a gorge with her cousins, and spending afternoons looking for toads, frogs and other tiny creatures.

The area she used to visit has since been developed, but it’s also connected to a trail that allows more people to enjoy a natural area.  

Kathleen Blackburn, originally from Texas, now lives in Chicago and recalls stepping for the first time into Lake Michigan earlier this year.

“I was struck by how clear the water was, by kind of how bracingly cold and refreshing it was. I felt both like suddenly aware of my body and kind of lost in the experience, too. But I also felt kind of like a kid again.”

Es Jiminez of New York recalls traveling the world in the military and seeing how people were suffering for clean drinking water. J

iminez feels more connected to the land and its water by working with People United for Sustainable Housing.

“It’s helped me heal within from all the issues that I have from the military and I love doing what I do. I feel like we need to be out there helping protect our water as much as we can. Whether you're canoeing or whether you’re just like just walking down by the waterway, just make sure you go out there and enjoy it. It’s just very powerful to be able to talk to the water and actually see the work that I’ve done …”