While Lake Superior Falls, Some Smaller Wisconsin Lakes Disappear

Long Lake in Waushara County is pretty much Gone Lake, reports the Journal Sentinel's Meg Jones, as spring-fed lakes dry up in a continuing drought.

Part of the inland lakes' problem, as also noted in news about Lake Superior's falling levels, is that the air temperatures have trended higher, and that leads to later and thinner winter ice.

So more and more water evaporates.

Which is not good for Long Lake, Lake Superior, or the economies that these bodies of water support.

Maybe it will begin to rain and snow more regularly.

Maybe there will be more planning around conservation and less towards building and consumption statewide.

Maybe the blue-ribbon committees meeting in the State Capitol will get overcome short-sighted business and rightist ideological objections and recommend the adoption of a strong Wisconsin bill to endorse and implement the pending Great Lakes Compact.

That eight-state agreement would set up rules and standards to manage the Great Lakes precisely because the entire Great Lakes watershed is under growing and negative pressures.

We'll see if the politicians in our state can connect the dots.

Or are they comfortable reading about dwindling water resources in a state literally created because of its proximity to the Great Lakes and to land naturally-enriched by streams, rivers, lakes and underground supplies left behind by melting glaciers?