Lake Michigan’s shoreline provides a home to over 10 million annual residents and includes the nation’s third largest city – Chicago, Illinois. Many agricultural and industrial products such as iron ore, coal, limestone, metals, petroleum, coke, and chemicals are derived from the Lake Michigan basin’s resources.
What resources do the Great Lakes provide?
The Great Lakes are important sources of drinking water, irrigation, transportation, and recreation opportunities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and wildlife watching. The Great Lakes are a critical component of the regional economy on both sides of the border.
What are the 4 main benefits the Great Lakes provide?
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River help to recycle and purify the water we drink, absorb the waste we produce, provide us with food, fuel and shelter, moderate our climate, and provide outdoor recreation opportunities which contribute to healthy bodies and minds.
Is Lake Michigan a natural resource?
Perhaps the most obvious natural resources in Michigan are the Great Lakes. The five lakes – Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior and Michigan – comprise the world’s largest surface freshwater system.
Why is Lake Michigan important?
Lake Michigan provides drinking water, recreation, transport, energy, food, and homes to over 12 million people and millions of other wildlife species. It is still at risk from invasive species, resource extraction, run-off from the surrounding industries, and other pollutants.
Why are the Great Lakes such an important resource?
They hold almost one-fifth of the (world, chicago, along)’s supply of fresh surface water. (Obtains, There, The) United States obtains almost all of (its, life, fresh) fresh water supply from the Great (Lakes, around, city). North America’s freshwater lakes are (lake, paper, important) natural resources.
Can you drink water from the Great Lakes?
The Great Lakes are an extremely important water source to Canadians and Americans, as well as to the world. It is very important that the lakes be protected, so that they can continue to provide safe drinking water for the 35 million people in the Great Lakes region, as well as sustainable industry and agriculture.
How do the Great Lakes help the economy?
The U.S. Great Lakes maritime economy supports 311,000 jobs spanning every sector, from tourism and recreation to marine transportation. This translates to $8.8 billion in wages.
Who gets water from Lake Michigan?
More than 6 ½ million Illinois residents get their drinking water from Lake Michigan. As northeastern Illinois’ supply of groundwater shrinks, more municipalities are considering joining that number.
Who owns the water in the Great Lakes?
The water in the Great Lakes is owned by the general public according to the Public Trust Doctrine. The Public Trust Doctrine is an international legal theory – it applies in both Canada and the United States, so it applies to the entirety of the Great Lakes.
What natural resources does Michigan have?
Michigan’s abundant and diverse natural resources include beaches, dunes, freshwater lakes and rivers, minerals, oil and gas, forests, fertile agricultural land, wind, sun and biomass energy sources, and aquatic, avian, and terrestrial wildlife.
What is Michigan’s main natural resources?
Our land resources are also impressive, with fertile soils for agriculture, expansive forest and timberlands, large reserves of oil and gas, and many economically important mineral deposits. During the state’s early years, many of our natural resources were damaged and depleted by reckless exploitation.
What are two of Michigan’s natural resources?
Forest, Mineral and Fire Management
In addition to managing 12% of the state’s total land area, the DNR manages 6 million acres of mineral estate and leases rights to explore and develop state-owned mineral assets, including oil and gas, metallic minerals, and nonmetallic minerals.
Can you drink water from Lake Michigan?
However, despite its small size, the Illinois portion of the Lake Michigan watershed is home to half of the total population of Illinois and the lake itself is the largest public drinking water supply in the state, serving nearly 6.6 million people (of a total of over 10 million lake-wide).
Which Great Lake is the cleanest?
Lake Superior
Watershed’s surface: 209,000 square kms. Lake Superior is the largest, cleanest, and wildest of all the Great Lakes.
Do we drink from Lake Michigan?
Lake Michigan, by volume, is the second largest Great Lake and the only one located totally within the United States. It serves as a source of drinking water, as a place for swimming and fishing, and as a scenic wonderland. Water from Lake Michigan enters the intake crib at depths of 20 to 30 feet.
What is America’s most valuable resource?
America has the world’s largest reserves of coal. This abundant source of energy helped fuel U.S. growth during the Industrial Revolution.
Where is the largest supply of freshwater in the world?
Lake Baikal in Russia is considered the deepest, oldest freshwater lake in the world. It holds about 20 percent of the Earth’s unfrozen surface fresh water, the largest volume in the world.
Which Great Lake has no fish?
Lake Michigan
Nearly two decades later, the same progression is happening in Lake Michigan. “There’s an old Chinese saying, ‘When there is crystal-clear water, there is no fish,’ ” said Yu-Chun Kao, a postdoctoral scientist at Michigan State University.
How many ships have sunk in Lake Michigan?
1,500 shipwrecks
There are nearly 1,500 shipwrecks sprawled across Lake Michigan’s sandy floor, many dating back to the early 1800s! Swallowed by the water from ferocious storms, high waves, or fire, what remains of them now are wooden ribs, frames, and memories.
What is the least polluted Great Lake?
Lake Superior has the largest volume of all the Great Lakes. It is the coldest and deepest and because it has a cooler climate and poor soil conditions it is the least polluted.