Points North is a biweekly podcast hosted by Daniel Wanschura and Morgan Springer about the land, water and inhabitants of the Upper Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
In 2007, helicopters were circling over a few rivers and streams in Minnesota near Lake Superior.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/points-north-leave-it-to-beavers/
By Drew Anderson and Fatima Syed, The Narwhal
This story originally appeared in The Narwhal and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
Space lasers. That’s the reason some people gave for the catastrophic burning of Lytton, B.C., in 2021 after a historic heat wave set a new temperature record in Canada, exacerbating a wildfire that essentially destroyed the town.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/it-isnt-arson-untangling-climate-misinformation-around-canadas-raging-wildfires/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/judge-orders-segment-enbridges-line-5-shut-down-moved-native-land/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/pfas-news-roundup-everyday-items-found-contaminated-pfas-removal-minnesota-estimated-billions/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/i-speak-for-the-fish-searching-elusive-sculpin/
This article was republished here with permission from Planet Detroit.
By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to significantly reduce Clean Water Act wetlands protections has caused alarm among environmental advocates who fear it will endanger crucial habitats and human health and safety.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/what-does-the-supreme-courts-wetland-ruling-mean-for-michigan/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/nibi-chronicles-we-are-still-here-great-grandmas-lilac/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
Tax credits help lure solar-powered manufacturing plant, 60 new jobs to southern Illinois — Belleville News-Democrat
A new southern Illinois plant that will manufacture components for solar panels and electric vehicles also will be powered by a 15-acre onsite solar project.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/energy-news-roundup-minnesota-leading-clean-energy-coal-plant-closing-michigan/
By John Flesher, AP Environmental Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gray wolves are thriving at Isle Royale National Park five years after authorities began a last-ditch attempt to prevent the species from dying out on the Lake Superior island chain, scientists said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the park’s moose population continues a sharp but needed decline.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/ap-wolves-nearly-died-out-recovered-helping-ecosystem/
It was 2010 when after a decade of lobbying by Great Lakes advocates, federal funding in the U.S. to restore the Great Lakes began to flow to the tune of $475 million.
Beneath the radar in that first year, Central Michigan University received $10 million to lead a team of regional scientists who would study coastal wetlands that had been severely degraded over time.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/landmark-great-lakes-coastal-wetland-program-continues-restoration-drive-that-began-in-2010/
By Christopher T. Migliaccio, University of Montana
is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
Smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning across Canada has been rolling into North American cities far from the flames. New York City and Detroit were both listed among the five most polluted cities in the world because of the fires on June 7, 2023.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/wildfire-smoke-harm-human-health-even-when-hundreds-miles-away/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/pfas-news-roundup-3m-investigated-contamination-safety-bills-michigan/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
What do a former naval air station, a Nike missile site, and a wildlife refuge have in common?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/great-lakes-moment-trail-connects-people-secluded-detroit-river-wetlands/
The first efforts to stop the advance of invasive carp to the Great Lakes began in the early 2000s when electrical barriers in the Chicago Area Waterway System leading to Lake Michigan were thought to be a deterrent.
The fear was that if the voracious carp entered the lake, they could expand their range, wipe out the food supply and eventually devastate the multi-billion dollar Great Lakes fishery.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/illinois-feds-grapple-agreement-advance-billion-dollar-plan-stop-invasive-carp/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
House passes bill to bar officials convicted of corruption from holding public office — Capitol News Illinois
Illinois lawmakers advance an ethics bill barring anyone convicted of certain crimes while in office from serving again, two weeks after guilty verdicts were handed down in the “ComEd Four” trial.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/energy-news-roundup-illinois-house-passes-ethics-bill-epa-rule-in-indiana/
Freighters are mysterious creatures, grazing the horizon at what seems a glacier’s pace, laden with commodities like coal or iron ore. We accept them as part of the Great Lakes’ landscape, but we don’t often think about what it takes to run them.
It turns out, it takes a sizable team.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/culinary-masters-great-lakes-freighters-navigating-high-seas-flavor/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/mapping-the-great-lakes-freighters/
Science Says What? is a monthly column written by Great Lakes now contributor Sharon Oosthoek exploring what science can tell us about what’s happening beneath and above the waves of our beloved Great Lakes and their watershed.
The last couple decades have been good to southern flying squirrels in the upper reaches of the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/science-says-what-looking-love-northern-forests-heat-up/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/pfas-news-roundup-home-blood-test-developed-detect-pfas-earlier/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/restoring-what-lost-translation-one-place-name-time/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
Jury convicts all four defendants in ComEd bribery trial — and fires a warning shot at Michael Madigan — Chicago-Sun Times
A jury finds all four defendants guilty of bribery conspiracy in a case involving former ComEd executives accused of arranging jobs, contracts and money for allies of former democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for favorable legislation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/energy-news-roundup-hydrogen-fuel-plant-michigan-un-recommends-shutting-down-line-5/
Veteran fishers on Lake Erie fondly recall the late 1980s as a heyday for walleye – a time when Ohio anglers were allowed to catch 10 fish a day and the big-eyed apex predators seemed an endless resource.
At its height in 1988, the Ohio charter fishing industry supported 1,221 licensed captains and nearly 5 million walleye were taken.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/lake-erie-charter-industry-rebounding-from-slump/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/i-speak-for-the-fish-whats-the-most-popular-freshwater-fish/
What is President Abraham Lincoln’s connection to a current vexing Great Lakes threat? Traveling south to Canada, right? And why would France go to court over a Great Lakes issue?
Those are some of the questions Traverse City author Dave Dempsey asks in his latest book, The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/great-lakes-book-challenges-readers-mystery-facts-whimsy/
Broadcasting in our monthly PBS television program, The Catch is a Great Lakes Now series that brings you more news about the lakes you love. Go beyond the headlines with reporters from around the region who cover the lakes and drinking water issues. Find all the work HERE.
This month, The Catch features a story about national regulations on PFAS.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/the-catch-national-pfas-limits/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/pfas-news-roundup-nations-first-pfas-annihilator-being-used-michigan/
In his book “Great Lakes Champions: Grassroots Efforts to Clean Up Polluted Watersheds,” John Hartig looks at how 14 Great Lakes residents are working to restore some of the region’s most degraded areas. While significant challenges remain, there is much to celebrate, including the return of sentinel fish and wildlife species, lower contaminant levels in fish and wildlife populations, and greater public access to these waters.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/book-club-celebrating-environmental-success-stories-in-the-great-lakes/
By Kelly House and Lauren Gibbons, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/flush-with-cash-michigan-lawmakers-try-again-to-pass-state-septic-code/
By Katherine Roth, Associated Press
Many beaches won’t open for weeks, but already one dedicated group is quietly pacing the shore.
You might not have noticed them, but these quiet few are the ones who seem most keen on noting the shifting tides, the current, the wind.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/open-water-swimmers-chilly-choppy-water-beckons/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/pfas-news-roundup-west-michigan-pfas-levels-higher-than-national-average/
By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/us-pushes-farmers-develop-new-crop-energy/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
Chicago’s Blacks in Green gets a major boost from a $10 million EPA grant — Energy News Network
Chicago’s Blacks in Green receives a five-year, $10 million U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/energy-news-roundup-line-5-negotiations-michigan-funding-clean-energy-illinois/
TORONTO (AP) — Gordon Lightfoot, the folk singer-songwriter known for “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” and for songs that told tales of Canadian identity, died Monday. He was 84.
Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/ap-folk-singer-songwriter-gordon-lightfoot-dies/
By John Flesher, Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A company that tears down closed nuclear power plants wants to do in Michigan what has never been done in the U.S.: restore a dead one to life.
Holtec Decommissioning International bought the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station last June for the stated purpose of dismantling it, weeks after previous owner Entergy shut it down.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/ap-company-seeks-first-time-restart-shuttered-nuclear-plant/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/mapping-the-great-lakes-flood-risk/
This lesson will explore the phenomenon of disappearing ice in the Great Lakes and the impact this has on ice fishing as a result of climate change. Students will explore the global average temperatures over time, model the greenhouse effect, conduct an experiment to model ocean acidification, and create an infographic to communicate the issue of climate change and how the impacts of human activites on the natural system can be reduced.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/climate-change-lesson-plan/
Editor’s Note: “Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/nibi-chronicles-sap-boiling-moon/
By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/climate-smart-farms-slow-global-warming/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/i-speak-for-fish-eyeballing-walleye/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/i-speak-for-fish-eyeballing-walleye/
Some residents in Vickery, including Ohio State Rep. Gary Click, were upset to learn that hazardous wastewater from a Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment was being sent to their area for disposal. But the reality is that Vickery Environmental (VE), a Class 1 deep well injection site about five miles from Sandusky Bay, has been receiving and disposing liquid waste for nearly a half century.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/deep-dive-disposing-waste-east-palestine-derailment/
By Kathleen Foody, Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Michigan researchers have found the wreckage of two ships that disappeared into Lake Superior in 1914 and hope the discovery will lead them to a third that sank at the same time, killing nearly 30 people aboard the trio of lumber-shipping vessels.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/ap-michigan-researchers-find-1914-shipwrecks-in-lake-superior/
There were two differing visions on how to deal with the global water crisis at the recent United Nations World Water Conference, according to former U.N. water adviser Maude Barlow.
One, would “treat water as a commodity like oil and gas and put it on the open market for sale,” Barlow said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/former-adviser-warns-water-futures-trading-water-crisis-level-climate/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
Laptops, phones, keys, a drone, a picnic table, a meat slicer, axes, spoons, chairs, a horseshoe, guns and a 90-year-old condom are among the items Michigan’s Magnet Man has fished out of the state’s rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/michigans-magnet-man-attracts-river-trash/
Across Detroit the effects of climate change are evident. In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood on the city’s lower east side, overflowing stormwater drains, contaminated waterways and flooded basements are just a few examples of how the city’s aging infrastructure struggles to keep up with our changing climate.
The city’s combined sewer system is the crux of the problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/detroit-neighborhood-faces-uncertain-future-due-to-climate-change/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that February 2023 was Earth’s fourth-warmest on record.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/great-lakes-moment-decreasing-great-lakes-ice-cover-consequences/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/pfas-news-roundup-questions-about-the-epas-nationwide-pfas-rule-answered/
Two recently banned pesticides have all but disappeared from the atmosphere around the Great Lakes, while others phased out decades ago are still hanging around.
Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, and her team looked at air samples taken every 12 days since 1990 by the Environmental Protection Agency around the Great Lakes region, which measure the atmospheric concentration of hundreds of compounds, including pesticides, PCBs, and other persistent chemicals.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/some-banned-pesticides-fade-from-great-lakes-air-while-others-persist/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Daniel Schoenherr, Great Lakes Echo
The ecological success of artificial reefs in Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay could teach people how to restore fish populations across the world.
Ellen Marsden, a fisheries and wildlife expert from the University of Vermont, spearheaded the construction of 29 reefs built with small stones – cobble aggregate – in Thunder Bay in 2010.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/artificial-reefs-bring-wild-lake-trout-to-lake-huron/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/mapping-the-great-lakes-benefits-of-blue-spaces/
