Could Beer Coasters Help Save the Great Lakes ?
Having fun with new environmental outreach ideas

The Great Lakes coastline is famous for its rocky beaches, sandy dunes, recreation, and now, its educational beer coasters. The coasters, developed as part of the Great Lakes Forever campaign in 2004, were added to the permanant collection of the Wisconsin State Historical Museum later that year. In requesting the coasters, museum staff noted the rare connection the coasters made between "Wisconsin's environmental heritage and beer-drinking culture."

The coasters, pictured here, featured a striking picture of the Great Lakes and the words, "Welcome to your wonderful, important, magnificent, vulnerable Great Lakes." The back side offered some educational points about Great Lakes protection concerns.

Biodiversity Project piloted the Great Lakes Forever initiative in the summer of 2004 in Wisconsin. With the help of Shedd Aquarium and other Chicago partners, Biodiversity Project is expanding the program to the "Windy City" during the summer of 2005. In addition to the coasters, the Wisconsin pilot project tested other innovative communication techniques, such as educational bathroom signs in coastal state parks and BioBlitz events, day-long biological inventories of neighborhood parks, conducted by scientists and the public.

Great Lakes coastal bar and restaurant owners were impressed with the coasters, which were distributed to them free of charge for one summer month. "We are pleased to be part of this creative initiative," noted Laurie Tomasek, co-proprietor of the popular Yardarm Bar and Grill on Lake Michigan in Racine. "Our restaurant and bar depends on tourism and the tourists depend on the Lake, so it was natural for us to support this effort." Asked how customers were responding to the coasters, Tomasek added, "The graphics are great and they're great quality coasters. These really hit home - some people have asked, 'Where can I sign up?'"

Nearly 20,000 Great Lakes Forever coasters were used at local restaurants and bars all along Wisconsin 's Great Lakes' coastline, from Racine, through Milwaukee, to Door County, Bayfield and even into Duluth, Minnesota. Nearly every restaurant and bar approached with the coasters welcomed the idea. All of them knew that protecting the Lakes was good for their lakeside establishments as well. Response was very positive and Biodiversity Project is now in discussion with several regional brewers to continue the program in 2005.

Click here for information about other Great Lakes Forever program initiatives