U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin announced the reintroduction of the Great Lakes Winter Commerce Act Wednesday, which would expand Coast Guard icebreaking efforts across the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WKOW- TV – Madison, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-icebreaking
Lake Ontario’s water levels are nearly 2 feet lower than they were this time last year. It has Great Lakes officials optimistic shoreline communities will avoid any major flood damage this year. Read and listen to the full story by WBFO – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-ontario
As one of the few Great Lakes wetlands remaining in the state, the Arcadia Marsh Preserve in Arcadia, Michigan provides visitors with a glimpse into the region’s rich ecological history. Read the full story by Manistee News Advocate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-arcadia-marsh
Satellite observations show that more than half of seasonal freshwater level changes on Earth happen in human-managed reservoirs, underscoring the profound impact humanity has on the global water cycle. Read the full story by the Science Daily.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-human-control
Environmental experts in the Georgian Bay area say the warming of Lake Huron can have significant effects on the weather, environment and wildlife. Read the full story by Collingwood Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-georgian-bay
A report from the Pennenvironment Research and Policy Center looked at 53 Pennsylvania Waterways, including Lake Erie, Edinboro Lake, Elk Creek and Millcreek. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-pennsylvania-plastics
We can use human ingenuity to solve the climate crisis. But doing so will force us to redefine what we think of as nature. Read the full story by Wired Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-climate-lessons
The first flood outlook issued by the Northeast River Forecast Center highlights Western New York as having above normal river flood risk through mid-March.. Read the full story by WGRZ – TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-new-york-flooding
The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council is asking Gov. Tim Walz to temporarily stop the ongoing construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. Read the full story by The Circle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-line-3
After receiving over $20 million in grant funding, the city is working to bring it back better than ever. The city recently revealed the first renditions of the repairs and upgrades they plan to make, including adding streams, ponds, trees, and environmentally friendly walkways. Read the full story by WWTV/WWUP-TV Cadillac-Sault Ste. Marie, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210304-carbide-dock
The Huron River is a life force for the Michigan communities in its watershed. Throughout the years, it is women who have been a driving force in improving its quality. Read the full story by WEMU – Ypsilanti, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-woman
The International Joint Commission says it’s very unlikely Lake Ontario will severely flood this year. Lake Ontario water levels are now below average for the first time in years, despite high outflows from Lake Erie. Read the full story by WSYR-TV – Syracuse, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-ijc
The Waterfront Walkway on the east bank of the Portage River in downtown Port Clinton, Ohio, is finally going to begin this year. Bids on the $1.9 million project are expected to be put out in the coming weeks and the work could start in late summer. Read the full story by The Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-walkway
More than a month after the southern end of St. Clair County experienced widespread severe flooding, the city of Port Huron, Michigan, is preparing for potential spring flooding on the Black River. Read the full story by the Port Huron Times Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-flooding
In January 2019, a Polar Vortex arrived across much of the northern United States and Canada, causing Lake Superior to begin icing over between Isle Royale and the Canadian shore. A rare ice bridge formed and a recently re-located gray wolf made her escape off Isle Royale. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-wolf
Milwaukee’s rivers have slowly been revitalized through a variety of cleanup projects in recent years. But, the estuary — the area in which the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic Rivers meet Lake Michigan — is still one of the most environmentally degraded sites on the Great Lakes due to contamination caused by decades of industrial waste. Read the full story by WUWM – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-estuary
NOAA meteorologists have found a 5% decline in ice cover due to atmospheric warming. Our winter this year allowed for less ice coverage at the beginning of the season, with January seeing the second lowest coverage on record. Read the full story by WBNS-TV – Columbus, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-ice
A feud continues in Michigan between the cities of Detroit and Highland Park around water bills that Detroit says are unpaid. Highland Park leaders pointed to an old contract and says it has paid its fair share – and then some. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-water-bill
With all of the Great Lakes water levels below where they were at this time last year, the international body that helps regulate the Lake Ontario’s water levels is taking its foot off the gas a bit. Read the full story by WRVO – Albany, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-lake-ontario
It survived the Mataafa Storm of 1905. It sliced through the Great White Hurricane of 1913. But on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, it was fire that finally got the J. B. Ford, a 118-year-old freighter that until recently was the oldest active freighter on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210303-freighter
A new collaborative project is seeking to reduce phosphorus runoff into the Great Lakes basin. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-phosphorus-runoff
A new collaborative project is seeking to reduce phosphorus runoff into the Great Lakes basin. Read the full story by WLUK-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-phosphorus-runoff
Two caviar producers accused in a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sturgeon egg investigation could have their criminal charges dismissed. Read the full story by WBAY-TV – Fond Du Lac, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-caviar
Two caviar producers accused in a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sturgeon egg investigation could have their criminal charges dismissed. Read the full story by WBAY-TV – Fond Du Lac, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-caviar
The company that owns the Morrow Dam has begun the process of removing sediment build up in the Kalamazoo River in west Michigan. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-dredging-project
The company that owns the Morrow Dam has begun the process of removing sediment build up in the Kalamazoo River in west Michigan. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-dredging-project
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, after ice and snow cover melt on Michigan lakes this early spring, it may be more likely for people to discover dead fish or other aquatic animals. Read the full story by the Patch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-fish-kills
The long-awaited restoration of the Grand Trunk Wetland in Milwaukee’s Harbor District is projected to begin this summer through a collaborative effort by the city of Milwaukee and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Read the full story by the Bay View Compass.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-wetland-restoration
Members of the public are invited to join the Invasive Species Centre on Wednesday, March 3rd at 1pm Eastern for an online information session as part of the Ontario Invasive Species Forum. Read the full story by the Kingston Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-carp-online-event
“Under a White Sky” is a fascinating survey of novel attempts to manage natural systems of all sizes, from preserving tiny populations of desert fish to altering the entire atmosphere. Read the full story by the New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-natural-world
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is objecting to the transfer of a nuclear power plant and a spent waste storage site on Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-nuclear-plant-transfer
The Marine Pollution Control company, founded in Detroit in 1967, was the first oil spill cleanup company in the Great Lakes and one of the very first in the nation. They have been responsible for oil spill clean ups across the Michigan and North America. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-oil-spill-cleanups
Flood risk on Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River declined from moderate to low in recent months, according to the International Joint Commission. Read the full story by WHEC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-flood-risk
There have been a number of shipwrecks off the shores of Monroe County, Michigan over the centuries, but no one knows exactly how many or exactly where they lay in Lake Erie’s waters. Read the full story by the Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210302-shipwrecks
Firefighters twice released foam containing PFAS at Cherry Capital Airport in Michigan, and Traverse City will pay for the cleanup that followed. Read the full story by the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-pfas-traverse-city-michigan
For the Biden administration, a strong focus on Lake Erie and the Great Lakes is one way to remind us that not every issue is strictly partisan and that environmental protection can lead to justice and equity, as Cleveland has shown the country. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-lake-erie-environmental-protection
The growing trail movement in Western New York is on the verge of growing some more – plans are afoot for a major expansion of the Niagara River Greenway Trail along the Lake Ontario shore. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-lake-ontario-trail
The sand clogging Cow Creek in Sarnia, Ontario, is not contaminated according to tested samples, so with dredging-permit approval from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, it can hopefully be dredged and moved back into Lake Huron to create beaches. Read to the full story by The Courier Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-ontario-dredge
Although it’s illegal in Minnesota, too many anglers still release their leftover bait into lakes and rivers. The frequency of this behavior is concerning as it carries the risk of introducing fish pathogens to popular fishing waters. Read the full story by West Central Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-bait-fish
Enbridge has offered lucrative deals in an attempt to win over the Ojibwe bands in Minnesota in support of a new pipeline to replace Line 3, despite increasing tensions those efforts have caused, as construction of the controversial pipeline enters its fourth month. Read the full story by Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-line-3-enbridge
As part of the DNR’s statewide PFAS-monitoring efforts to monitor fish tissue and water chemistry at select sites around the state, smelt were collected from two sites in Lake Superior in 2019 near the Apostle Islands and off Port Wing. PFAS was detected at both locations, prompting an advisory to limit meals of smelt to one per month. Read the full story by the Brainerd Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-pollution-fish-pfas
Drivers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and other wintry parts of the world have for decades used their cold-weather street smarts to put a frozen twist on NASCAR. When the temperatures drop enough, ice racing leagues pop up on frozen lakes in communities across the Midwest and beyond. Read to the full story by Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-lake-superior-ice-racing
New research finds the annual dead zone in Lake Erie is being amplified by naturally occurring nutrients at the bottom of the lake, which speed up the process of oxygen depletion. Read the full story by Michigan Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-lake-erie-nutrient-pollution
The Wisconsin Sea Grant recently released its biennial report addressing the organization’s progress on its four pillars: healthy coastal ecosystems; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; resilient communities and economies; and environmental literacy and workforce development. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210301-wisconsin-sea-grant
Minnesota officials announced a multi-step strategy to address PFAS contamination in the environment. Read the full story by Circle of Blue.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-pfas
With warmer weather in the forecast for the foreseeable future, the United States Coast Guard issued a warning on Thursday afternoon for the public to use caution when it comes to ice conditions on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Soo Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-coast-guard
A new report shows one-third of all freshwater fish species globally are threatened by extinction, and the threat is just as serious in the Great Lakes as it is for the rest of the world. Read the full story by WOOD -TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-arctic-grayling
A new report by the Michigan Dam Safety Task Force says the state of Michigan has a lot to do to reduce the risk of future dam failures. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-michigan-dams
The Minnesota Supreme Court has reversed an appeals court’s rejection of a critical air emissions permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine and sent the case back for further proceedings. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-copper-mine
Joliet, Illinois, is the latest city to give up on groundwater deep aquifers for their public water supply, voting last month to tap into Lake Michigan water provided by Chicago. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210226-joliet-water
