FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 5, 2013 Contact: Jeff Martinka, Sweet Water Executive Director, 414-477-1156 John Gurda

Presents an Illustrated History on Milwaukees Rivers and Lake Michigan An Evening Program at the Harley-Davidson Museum MILWAUKEE An historical look at our waters will be presented by John Gurda in an evening program at the Harley-Davidson Museum in the Menomonee River Valley at 400 West Canal Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday, April 25. The program is at 6:30pm to 8:30pm and costs $5 at the door. Lake Michigan and the rivers that feed it have been Milwaukee's dominant natural features since the early days of the Potawatomi. Join historian John Gurda for a lively look at the lake and its adjacent watersheds; see how they served the community as transportation routes, recreational resources, and industrial corridors, and how they have weathered a cycle of heavy use and flagrant abuse to emerge as focal points of both celebration and concern in the twenty-first century. An opening lecture from 6:30pm to 7pm called The Milwaukee Inner Harbor: Making the Vision Real will be presented by James Wasley of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Inner Harbor Project is exploring the redevelopment of the brownfield properties between the Port of Milwaukee and Second Street. This talk will share the compelling findings of this work, including updates on the new School of Freshwater Sciences, Greenfield Avenue and the restoration of the nearby Grand Trunk wetland. This event is part of Sweet Waters Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference. Full-day registrants to the conference can attend the evening lectures at no additional charge. The daytime conference registration fee is $80 and $30 for students with current ID shown at the door. More information about the conference schedule and registration can be found at Sweet Waters web site at www.swwtwater.org.

Sweet Water, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, Inc., is a unique partnership established in 2008 to achieve healthy and sustainable water resources throughout the 1,100 square mile Greater Milwaukee watersheds through coordinated, collaborative efforts. Its partners include independent units of government, special purpose districts, non-profit organizations, local residents and representatives of business and academia, all sharing common goals for our shared waters. Sweet Water partners have unified to address the issues facing our rivers and Lake Michigan through a basin-wide approach, an approach exactly like that proposed to the EPA in this project.