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On February 19, 2025, the Northland College Board of Trustees announced that the College will close at the end of the 2024–25 academic year.

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2021 Water Summit

Aversion to Diversion

The Burke Center convened a Water Summit on September 27, 2021, titled “Aversion to Diversion: Groundwater, Bottled Water, and the Great Lakes Compact.” Burke Center Director Peter Annin moderated the panel discussion with Todd Ambs, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin DNR, and Ken Bradbury, director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. More than 150 people attended.

The summit was prompted by a controversial proposal in Bayfield County, Wisconsin, to bottle and sell water from an artesian well. The summit focused on big-picture issues raised by the proposal and provided more context and perspective about the region’s unique artesian groundwater resources.

The White Paper

This white paper is an outgrowth from that summit and puts the hydrogeology of the region’s artesian resources into a statewide context while making several specific policy recommendations. A PDF of the white paper is available here.

Resources

2019 Water Summit

Water quality on the south shore of Lake Superior.

The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation convened a Water Summit on September 25, 2019, dedicated to “Water Quality Concerns on the South Shore of Lake Superior.” Representatives from the International Joint Commission (IJC) gathered with local experts on the Northland College campus to discuss the water quality concerns of the south shore of Lake Superior and how these concerns relate to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

The IJC is a Canadian-United States treaty organization that seeks to prevent and resolve issues facing the two countries’ boundary waters. IJC commissioners were seeking the public’s views on the health of Lake Superior and the Great Lakes. During the day-long session, experts provided briefings for the commissioners on environmental conditions, storm-driven impacts to water quality, and future threats for water quality. The hearing was attend by more than two hundred people, over half of them Northland College students.

The White Paper

The result is a white paper designed to capture and highlight the key water quality concerns that the IJC delegation heard about during its day-long visit to the area. Download a PDF of the white paper.

Resources

Summit Funders

Northland College thanks these individuals and organizations for supporting the 2019 summit:

Debbie Cervenka
George and Jane Shinners
International Joint Commission

2019 Summit Photo Gallery

2016 Water Summit

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation convened a Water Summit on October 1, 2016, dedicated to “The Future of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.” Experts from New York to Minnesota gathered on Madeline Island in Lake Superior to examine past successes and challenges of GLRI and to have a frank and robust conversation about the program’s future.

The White Paper

The result is a white paper designed to provide the presidential transition teams context and analysis about the future of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. A PDF of the white paper is available here.