Environmental Journalism In The Great Lakes

IJNR Fellows get hands on experience at Maumee River Watershed

A group of 12 fellows from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources (IJNR), a Joyce grantee, recently completed a weekend training in Maumee River Valley in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio to learn about environmental issues impacting the Maumee River watershed and sharpen their reporting skills. Area waterways served as classrooms. The Fellows – who came from as far away as California – inspected agricultural drainage ditches, tested water quality, and heard from experts as they boated on Lake Erie and stood beside tributaries small enough to step over.

Read one Fellow’s article about the weekend.

With past funding from Joyce, IJNR developed the Great Waters Institutes, which spent two years exploring the specific challenges and opportunities facing each of the Great Lakes and communicating that information to the public. Having toured the Great Lakes, IJNR developed a new Institute model focusing on the protection of watersheds — the area of land that drains into a particular water body.

The Foundation’s Great Lakes grantees work on three interconnected issues: preventing the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species; eliminating polluted runoff from cities and farms; and advancing and defending key state, regional, and federal Great Lakes policies and funding.

In addition to reporter training on the Maumee River Watershed, the Foundation supports Environmental Defense Fund’s and The Nature Conservancy’s work with farmers to reduce nutrient pollution in the Maumee River watershed and Western Lake Erie basin.

Learn More
IJNR in the Joyce Fall 2011 Newsletter

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