Invasive plants and animals are all around us. The Plain Dealer recently talked with local experts to learn more about invasive plants and animals inhabiting Northeast Ohio. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231023-invasive-species
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has lent her support to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians’ efforts to shut down part of Enbridge Energy Company’s Line 5. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231023-line-5
People in the water during potential rip current conditions at public beaches in New Buffalo, Michigan, will now be subject to fines starting at $500. Boaters also face the same penalty if heading to Lake Michigan in the city’s public channel during lake conditions viewed as too dangerous for their watercraft. Read the full story by the South Bend Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231023-swimming-fines
Trebuchets and soaring gourds continue to be a popular combination every fall in Clayton, New York, drawing in thousands who watch as machines send pumpkins flying into the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231023-punkin-chunkin
Federal attempts to clean up pollution in the Great Lakes region are increasing property values, according to a study from the University of Michigan. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-pollution-remediation
The Detroit News spent four months exploring the ways climate change will send ripple effects through the Great Lakes and their ecosystems. For this series, the article highlights an issue on each Great Lake, interviewing those on the front lines of climate-related research. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-climate-change
Republicans in the Michigan Senate are sending a letter to federal and state officials urging the start of a pipeline tunnel project under the Straits of Mackinac. The Great Lakes Tunnel project would house the Line 5 pipeline that currently runs exposed along the lakebed. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-line-5
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is revisiting proposed regulations for ballast water standards on ships to reduce the spread of invasive species. That could mean newer vessels on the Great Lakes would have to install treatment systems. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-ballast-water
Three commercial fishing companies in Door County, Wisconsin are signing on to an innovative new project on the Great Lakes called 100% Great Lakes Fish Pledge. This initiative has a goal of using 100% of each fish by the year 2025. Read the full story by WBAY-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-100-great-lakes-fish
In the quest to defend Michigan’s rivers against climate change, government officials and fish advocates are increasingly zeroing in on a simple strategy that can lower water temperatures by several degrees and open up miles of new habitat: removing dams. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-dam-removal
The Great Lakes Museum has announced the S.S. Keewatin, the oldest remaining Edwardian-era steamliner in the world, will move from the shipyard where it is currently being refurbished to its new home in Kingston, Ontario on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Read the full story by the Kingstonist.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-s.s.-keewatin
Five decades ago, the Cuyahoga River was a symbol of all that was wrong with the environment. Now it’s believed to be clean enough for the ancient lake sturgeon to make its home. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-lake-sturgeon
As the days grow shorter and the temperatures tumble, it won’t be much longer before Lake Michigan’s buoys will get pulled in for the season. This winter, however, a new type of buoy is hoping to make sure scientists have access to the vital weather data these buoys provide all year. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-weather-alert-bouy
For decades, Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula was home to more than 100 copper mines and the mining waste has impacted the shores of Lake Superior. The U.S. Forest Service is hoping that a specialized poplar tree will remove the heavy metals from the soil and stabilize the area, with the goal of preventing the stamp sands from shifting further. Read the full story by WXPR – Rhinelander, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20231020-mining-waste
The Great Lakes’ frigid fresh water used to keep shipwrecks well preserved. Now, an invasive mussel is destroying shipwrecks, forcing archeologists and amateur historians into a race against time to find as many sites as they can. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-shipwrecks-quagga-mussels
Only about 15 percent of the cumulative lake floor in the Great Lakes has ever been mapped in significant detail. Hoping to fix that is the project Lakebed 2030, an ambitious effort to map the totality of the Great Lakes by the end of the decade. Read the full story by The Leelanau Ticker.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-mapping-project
More than 9 million fish from state hatcheries have been added to the Great Lakes and inland waters across Michigan so far this year as part of the state’s annual stocking program. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-michigan-fish-stocking
t has been claimed there are 10,000 wrecks in the Great Lakes. Those in the Lower Georgian Bay represent an interesting glimpse into Ontario’s rich marine heritage. Read the full story by Barrie Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-hope-island-wrecks
Planners are in the early stages of an 18-month, $1.4 million project to plan a sustainable, climate-resilient future for Lakewood, Ohio’s coast. The plan will involve working with building owners to find a long-term erosion control measure. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-lakewood-ohio-erosion
Five flamingos have been spotted on Lake Michigan in Port Washington, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. Audubon Florida speculates the birds were flying between Cuba and the Yucatan and got diverted by Hurricane Idalia. Read the full story by WDJT-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-flamingos
The historic Great Lakes car ferry, S.S. Badger will receive a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration. The contribution will go towards an ongoing feasibility analysis to convert the coal-fired steamship into a zero-emission ferry vessel. Read the full story by Trains.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-s-s-badger
The Goodtime I, based in Sandusky, Ohio, was stalled between Kelley’s Island and Marblehead due to an engine problem. The vessel was eventually towed back to shore. Read the full story by WKYC-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-goodtime-ferry
Business groups and environmental groups filed amicus briefs in a case the Michigan Supreme Court will settle regarding manure spreading on farm fields. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-manure-spreading
Since the early 2000s, Black River, a nearly 15-mile waterway in Alcona County, Michigan that flows into Lake Huron, has had an issue where sand moves and builds up at the mouth that lets water into Lake Huron. Solutions to fix the problem vary. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230925-black-river
Steel production rose by 6,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Read the full story by The Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-steel-production
State officials say recent testing has discovered silver carp eDNA in Michigan’s St. Joseph River. Though it is likely the eDNA found in the sample was transported to the river from an out-of-state boat rather than a live fish, staff will search the area. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-silver-carp
Great Lakes drownings are down from last year. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project said several factors could be contributing to the drop including the number of people going to the beach with cooler weather to start the season. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-lake-drownings-down
For a century Joliet, Illinois and its Will County neighbors mined their sandstone aquifer but now the water is running out. A group of six communities will soon receive Lake Michigan water from Chicago via pipeline. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-chicago-pipeline
Water levels on the Great Lakes rose sharply earlier this year due to a very wet spring, but they have remained unusually steady over the summer on Lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron due to dry conditions. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-lake-levels
The third and final stage of the Randle Reef remediation project has started and is expected to finish by 2025. The $150-million project is cleaning up of the once-most contaminated site on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-hamilton-harbour
Lake Erie anglers who rely on charter guides for fishing will soon have a richer experience out on the water thanks to a new certification program from the Ohio Division of Wildlife and Ohio Sea Grant. The program, Erie PrOH, ensures fishing guides and crew members have detailed knowledge of fishery topics and can act as responsible stewards of the lake. Read the full story by The Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-erie-proh
Shipwreck hunters have discovered the intact remains of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in 1881 and is so well-preserved it still contains the crew’s possessions in its final resting spot miles from Wisconsin’s coastline. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-schooner
State agencies in Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa now are cleaning up the St. Louis River’s legacy contamination, restoring habitats for wild rice and recreation, and bringing back fish populations like lake sturgeon. Read the full story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-sturgeon
The state of Michigan is offering free water quality tests to private well owners. About a million households rely on private wells in the state for drinking water. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-free-testing-for-wells
The Great Lakes region is getting about $2.8 million for coastal conservation, restoration of wetlands, and making the coastline more resilient to the changes caused by climate disruption. Given the length of Great Lakes coastlines, that’s not a lot of money. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-shoreline-resilancy
About 90% of water samples taken over the last 10 years from the Great Lakes contain microplastic levels that are unsafe for wildlife, a new peer-reviewed paper from the University of Toronto finds. Read the full story by The Guardian.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-microplastics
Should states and Indigenous nations be able to influence energy projects they view as harmful or contrary to their laws and values? This question lies at the center of a heated debate over Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline, which carries oil and natural gas across Wisconsin and Michigan. Read the full story by The Conversation.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-pipeline
Mid-July marks the beginning of the fall shorebird migration, with early migrants moving through Great Lakes coastal mudflats, wetlands, beaches, and flooded fields into August. Here are a few Great Lakes migratory shorebirds to look for. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-fall-migration
Residents dogged by frequent flooding have finally drawn attention from city and state officials. After years of tireless work, folks in Chicago South Side community have convinced the city to study the problem of lakeside erosion to see how bad this damage from climate change will be. Read the full story by Grist.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-chicago-erosion
Environmental Defence Canada hosted the seventh annual #WeAreLakeErie Day, a call to action on social media for Ontarians to do what they can to protect Lake Erie and its water. Read the full story by News Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-lake-erie-day
It’s summer in Michigan and people flocking to lakes and other bodies of water around the state may see something they didn’t know we had – jellyfish. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-jellyfish
On Wednesday night, Defense Department officials announced plans to install two new groundwater treatment systems near the Wurtsmith base, which borders the community of Oscoda, Michigan near Lake Huron. The systems will be installed at two locations with the intent of reducing the spread of an underground PFAS plume. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-pfas-cleanup
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average surface water temperature of the Great Lakes is rising. Over the past couple of years, Lake Superior’s warmer temperatures on the surface have also increased harmful algal blooms. Read the full story by WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-algal-blooms
Port officials expected it would cost about $30 million to develop a state-of-the-art port facility with convenient access to rail and interstate highways on the former Pulliam Power Plant site. A newly received engineering cost estimate put the price tag above $48.7 million. The cost increase was attributed to increases in labor and material costs. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230818-port-of-green-bay
The U.S. Geological Survey along with conservation agencies from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario are utilizing three uncrewed research vessels in the Great Lakes. The surface vehicles, called saildrones, are wind-powered and can stay out on the water 24 hours a day for months, gathering fish population data. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-research-vessels
A Lake Ontario cruise was no summer vacation for several teachers who spent a week on board an Environmental Protection Agency ship, testing water quality on the lake. The voyage plays an important role in the future health of not just Lake Ontario, but all of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-science-reseach-trip
In 2014, New York’s Great Lakes Action Agenda was created to bridge the gap between planning and action. The plan is getting an update and this time taking aim at more targeted areas that have been identified by local organizations to need a higher level of focus. Read the full story by WROC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-action-agenda
Despite often being described as smelly and not nice to look at, charter fish captains say they find algae blooms helpful when it comes to catching more fish in Lake Erie. Researchers worry about the accumulation of toxins in the fish from the algae. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-algae-blooms
An annual Erie, Pennsylvania, conference is exploring the potential impact of Project Resolve — an initiative passed by the Erie County Council earlier this year. Project Resolve is a regional strategy to advance manufacturing while also reducing plastic and waste pollution that affects freshwater systems, like Lake Erie. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-project-resolve
Wetlands are a vital part of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Today, there are about five million acres of wetlands in Wisconsin, covering about 15 percent of the state. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230726-lake-michigan-wetlands
