Rosy Fingered Dawn boat ride with my friend Murray. Murray helped me become the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper back in 2001. Always great to get together - talk water, trees, family. Eat pizza.

Just watching the world sail by today. Lots to write about and calls to follow up on but it will have to wait until the rain tomorrow.

Just an fyi — if the Lake Ontario Blue Jays get Bo Bichette back from Mets — I will be invested in the next 70 games like, for real. Truth is, coming home for home, is what’s it’s all about. #odyssey

7 things Toronto needs before we talk about expanding into the harbour: real-time CSO monitoring, debris cleanup, swimmable access in the West End, not a Special Economic Zone that waives the rules.

Funny way of saying swimmable drinkable fishable harbours are valuable assets to cities & business. But yes, “we know knowledge workers value urban amenities and access to nature. If our waterfront becomes less attractive, Toronto becomes less attractive to knowledge workers.”

Summers are a great time to celebrate birthdays. Happy birthday to my sister Kris who is always there for her family when it counts and when no one notices.

Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day. Our Biinaagami work exists because of the Shared Circle of Knowledge Keepers. Grateful for these partnerships. #biinaagami

With today’s rain comes inevitable: sewage bypasses at treatment plants & 92 lesser-known combined sewer overflow along Toronto’s rivers & waterfront discharging untreated sewage directly into Lake. The city will notify you. They just won’t tell you what it means. open.substack.com/pub/waterkee...

So begins the Joe Burke Wolfe Island litfest. Dave Bidini reads from forthcoming novel: Goalies.

Going to be a nice sunny day for Joe Burke Wolfe Island litfest tomorrow. Fun. Great readers and guests. open.substack.com/pub/waterkee...

Slow down. Some journeys matter more than the destination. Another guardian of our watersheds reminding us who we’re really working for. Clean, swimmable, fishable water — for every creature that calls it home. @SwimDrinkFish #SnappingTurtle

Looking forward to first week of June.

Fantastic Canadian voices (and one brilliant Irish one!) are heading to the 21st Annual Joe Burke Wolfe Island Literary Festival on Brophy’s Point. An afternoon of storytelling, fiction, and award-winning poetry right by the river. It’s a Great Lakes classic

Thank everyone who came out and supported Swimmable Drinkable Fishable water last night. Means the world to our work.

Great night for water.

Today is the Swim Drink Fish Gala, supporting the Waterkeeper mission to get people back to the water’s edge. With projects like the Wave Prize & the Binnagami project, we are getting people off screens & back to the water that makes swimmable drinkable fishable water possible

In 2006, colleague shared this word cloud from my speech. It helped me see my work differently. From self correcting type writers, to word processors, wordstar, word perfect, Google Docs, Grammerly etc …tools change but only useful when furthering a mission. What’s yours?

When Elon Musk chose Queen’s, he famously said he did it just because it looked more fun than Waterloo. But Queen's has a different legacy now, shaped by Gord Edgar Downie Pier & a swimmable lake. How a pier, a poet & a swim changed the soul of a campus. open.substack.com/pub/waterkee...

These little guys are always unfazed by my runs. Just soaking up the sunlight, making the most of a perfect, lazy afternoon on the Island.

Great to see my sister receive an Honorarey Doctorate from Yale last weekend. Well deserved. Awesome yale2026.yale.edu/hd-recipient...

That time of year, the turtles are out of the water and on the move to lay their eggs. An ancient ritual that’s been going on since long before us. Watch out for them on the roads! 🐢🥚 @swimdrinkfish

Every time it rains in Toronto our sewers overflow into Lake Ontario. We are drifting toward a dangerous future, but art might just be the thing that saves us. Here is why the Swim Drink Fish Art for Water gala matters now more than ever: open.substack.com/pub/waterkee...

Such a beautiful day here on Wolfe Island. The ground is warming up, the trees are jumping and everyone is happy. Spring is great.

Art preview for @swimdrinkfish Art For Water tonight. Such amazing generosity and beauty.

54 years today since Pierre Trudeau & Richard Nixon launched the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Despite home to voters who decide elections, have not seen this level of bilateral leadership on watershed since. Need to bring that same energy back to the water. @LOWaterkeeper

2. The sign says 'Wildlife Habitat Council Gold Certified,' but the future threat of 10 new nuclear reactors. Finding hard to accept destruction Wesleyville Lake Ontario shoreline as part of Ontario’s energy plans. #PortHope #CleanEnergy #Conservation open.substack.com/pub/waterkee...

1. There’s a heavy silence at Wesleyville today. Hard to accept idea of 10 new nuclear reactors lining these Lake Ontario shores. It’s a beautiful stretch of Lake already holding breath since coal plant built by Ontario Hydro in 1980s but never operated. @swimdrinkfish

Good to see Mark Fisher at Great Lakes St Lawrence Cities Initiative meeting. The President of the Canada Water Agency has an important job working for Canada’s waters. @swimdrinkfish

Lake Ontario is not an empty canvas. It is already the most nuclear‑industrialized body of freshwater on the planet. Read why Great Lakes communities need to do more work & research before giving green light to 10 new reactors at Wesleyville. open.substack.com/pub/waterkee... @Waterkeeper

River feels right at home in the St Lawrence chasing minnows and hoping for sticks.