This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Eric Freedman, Great Lakes Echo
In nature, a lot can change on a largely uninhabited Great Lakes island over the course of a century.
And a lot can stay the same.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/wildlife-changes-lake-huron-island/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Eric Freedman, Great Lakes Echo
In nature, a lot can change on a largely uninhabited Great Lakes island over the course of a century.
And a lot can stay the same.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/wildlife-changes-lake-huron-island/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/06/counting-the-kirtlands-warbler/
By Kari Lydersen
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
A Chicago-area startup says its technology could shave emissions from the global metal industry by allowing companies to recycle grimy metal slivers and sludge left over from steel and aluminum production.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/this-startup-turns-steel-and-aluminum-waste-into-usable-metals/
By Susan Cosier, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Illinois is already a top destination for data centers, and more are coming.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/as-data-centers-proliferate-across-illinois-communities-grapple-with-how-to-supply-the-necessary-water/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
The American prairie was so vast, so alien, it shattered comprehension.
Newcomers to the seemingly endless grasslands that once spanned approximately a quarter of North America often hit a psychic wall, descending into fits of mania.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/how-americas-prairie-was-nearly-destroyed-and-why-it-should-be-restored/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Conservation advocates are petitioning the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to list the gray wolf as a state-threatened or endangered species as Republicans in Congress seek to remove federal protections for the animal.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/petition-seeks-state-listing-of-wolves-as-bills-seek-to-remove-federal-protections/
For two weeks each year, the St. Clair River hosts thousands of spawning lake sturgeon.
Hundreds of six-foot females plump with eggs and thousands of 4 to 5-foot-long males gather at the base of Lake Huron. In the span of a few weeks, they will arrive, group up, deposit millions of fertilized eggs on the river bottom and depart.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/i-speak-for-the-fish-the-hardest-lake-sturgeon-dive-in-the-great-lakes/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/06/outdoors-enthusiasts-asked-to-prevent-spreading-invasive-pests/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Isabella Figueroa, Great Lakes Echo
In a new book, archeologists who study past societies of the Great Lakes and Midwest agree “you are what you eat,” but they say there’s a lot more to it than that.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/new-book-digs-into-indigenous-cuisine-through-archaeology-culture-ecology/
By Kathiann M. Kowalski
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
A new state law will require Ohio utilities and regulators to consider how technology might offer cost-effective options for improving the state’s aging electric grid.
Ohio’s grid, like those in many states, faces rising repair and maintenance costs, growing demand from data centers and other new customers, and increased risks as climate change fuels more frequent severe weather and outages.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/how-sensors-software-and-other-tech-could-help-ohios-aging-power-grid/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Wisconsin might lose federal funding that supports state staff working to keep air, water and lands clean under proposed budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/wisconsin-pollution-protections-proposed-budget-cuts-epa/
Catch the latest updates on what’s happening with PFAS in the Great Lakes region. Check back for more PFAS news roundups every other week on our website.
New, more stringent PFAS guidelines in Michigan have nearly tripled “do not eat” advisories for fish in the state’s waterways, from 33 to 98 bodies of water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/michigan-triples-do-not-eat-fish-warnings-as-pfas-contamination-concerns-rise/
President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin was clear when he released the agency’s new mission statement in February. A top priority will be “clean air, land and water for every American,” Zeldin said, when he announced, “Powering the Great American Comeback.”
In early June the EPA released its fiscal year 2026 budget.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/epa-2026-budget-cuts-target-clean-water-programs/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/06/new-pfas-guidelines-spark-more-do-not-eat-warnings-for-michigan-fish/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Clara Lincolnhol, Great Lakes Echo
A very round white throated sparrow is the heavyweight champion of the 2025 Wisconsin Fat Bird Week contest.
The bird, coined the “spherical white-throated sparrow,” won by a landslide, receiving 72% of the vote in the final round against its nearest competitor, a “rotund ruby-throated hummingbird.”
The winner made it through eight rounds in the single-elimination, March Madness-style bracket competition against seven other birds.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/white-throated-sparrow-takes-first-place-in-fattest-bird-competition/
Microplastics are turning up everywhere, including our water, our food, and even our bodies. And the Great Lakes are no exception.
Ripples of Plastic is a documentary from Ohio filmmakers Chris Langer and Josh Heese that investigates how plastic pollution is making its way into the largest freshwater system in the world.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/how-much-plastic-is-in-the-great-lakes/
By Matt Simon
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/the-smoke-from-canadas-wildfires-may-be-even-more-toxic-than-usual/
By Izzy Ross, Interlochen Public Radio
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Canadian wildfire smoke that blew into the Great Lakes region is expected to clear from northern Michigan this weekend — at least for now.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/smoke-expected-to-lift-in-northern-michigan-but-more-could-be-on-the-way/
By Zaria Johnson, Ideastream Public Media
This story was originally published by Ideastream.
Case Western Reserve University is set to install filters to washing machines across campus to reduce microplastic pollution during the laundry cycle.
Microplastics can be found virtually anywhere, and studies have found that wastewater from washing machines is a primary source.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/case-western-reserve-university-alumni-roll-out-microplastic-filtration-system-for-washing-machines/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/06/new-wetland-could-show-how-michigan-can-reduce-agricultural-runoff-polluting-lake-erie/
By Enrique Saenz, Mirror Indy
Mirror Indy is a part of Free Press Indiana, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to ensuring all Hoosiers have access to the news and information they need.
Sandy Leeds remembers the glory days of West Indianapolis.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/near-westside-residents-have-higher-rates-of-lung-disease-study-says/
Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these bimonthly Energy News Roundups.
The draft environmental review of Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel project under the Straits of Mackinac is out at last. While the findings are preliminary, the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/trump-administration-review-backs-controversial-oil-pipeline-tunnel-under-great-lakes-straits-of-mackinac/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Enbridge’s proposed $1 billion Line 5 tunnel project would harm water and wetlands, according to a draft environmental review released Friday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/federal-agency-finds-great-lakes-tunnel-project-poses-detrimental-effects-to-water-wetlands/
By Kathiann M. Kowalski
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
A decade ago, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, trade organizations, and companies found themselves in a regulatory standoff with American Electric Power over operating costs for six coal-fired power plants in Ohio.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/why-an-ohio-ban-on-settlements-to-close-base-load-power-plants-matters-for-clean-energy/
When the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Manistee, MI, decided to start a lake sturgeon restoration program, they started by hiring two recently graduated fisheries research biologists to help them set it up.
“I remember getting there and realizing that the scientific knowledge that I had was only a piece,” fisheries biologist Marty Holtgren said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/how-are-science-and-tradition-saving-sturgeon/
By Maxwell Howard, Interlochen Public Radio
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
One day in the early 1980s, diver Tom Farnquist was exploring the shipwrecked SS Comet in Lake Superior.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/points-north-the-good-thief/
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 PBS.
The Eastern Seaboard has the East Coast Greenway and the Appalachian Trail.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/06/great-lakes-moment-creating-a-u-s-great-lakes-waterfront-trail/
By Dustin Blitchok, Planet Detroit
This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.
Michigan faces an air quality advisory Friday and into Saturday morning due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.
The state could experience elevated levels of fine particulate matter, and conditions may be unhealthy for sensitive groups, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said in a statement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/wildfire-smoke-from-canadian-blazes-threatens-detroit-air-quality/
By Kathiann M. Kowalski
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
A new state law aimed at expanding gas and nuclear power plants in Ohio may also provide opportunities for solar developers — if they can overcome other policy and political barriers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/why-the-solar-industry-is-counting-ohios-newest-energy-law-as-a-win/
Catch the latest updates on what’s happening with PFAS in the Great Lakes region. Check back for more PFAS news roundups every other week on our website.
CBC News released an interactive map illustrating PFAS hotspots across Canada, revealing widespread “forever chemical” contamination in every province and territory.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/forever-chemicals-found-nationwide-in-canada-cbc-map-shows/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/illinois-wants-to-protect-the-great-lakes-from-invasive-carp-a-toxic-mess-stands-in-the-way/
By Emilio Perez Ibarguen, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/05/great-lakes-slightly-colder-than-usual-ahead-of-summer/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Manure runoff from a dairy farm in Monroe County killed hundreds of fish in nearby waterways, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The agency first received notice of the spill Saturday from a call to its violation hotline.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/hundreds-of-fish-killed-by-manure-runoff-in-monroe-county/
By Emilio Perez Ibarguen, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/05/michigans-fight-against-lake-erie-pollution-didnt-work-what-happens-next/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal 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/2025/05/great-lakes-temperature-extremes-intensifying-due-to-climate-change/
“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, she lives in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her nonfiction 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 the children’s story “A Family Tree” in 2024.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/the-legacy-of-chief-blackstone-ojibwe-resistance-in-great-lakes-history/
Shortly after Chelsea Rochman moved to Toronto to start her current faculty job at University of Toronto, she began working with the Government of Canada to sample microplastics in fish from Lake Ontario. What she found, she said, shocked her. They found microplastics in every single fish they tested. Every single fish.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/everything-to-know-about-microplastics-in-the-great-lakes/
MILWAUKEE – The confluence of the Milwaukee and Menominee rivers, in the downtown core of Wisconsin’s largest city, is a prime vantage to assess the collection of assets that define the past and future of Great Lakes water use, and the array of technology development encompassing the region’s water.
Together and in complement, universities, research labs, tech incubators, water-focused businesses, and forward-thinking utilities here and in other cities are pushing for something greater than the sum of their parts.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/despite-u-s-research-resistance-great-lakes-aims-to-be-silicon-valley-for-water/
Catch the latest energy news from around the region. Check back for these bimonthly Energy News Roundups.
The first small modular nuclear reactor in the Great Lakes region just got the green light to start construction — in Ontario.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/here-comes-the-regions-first-next-generation-nuclear-reactor/
My first glimpse of Lake Superior, in all its lore-and-song-inspiring glory, is a blurry one from the backseat of a taxi driving through Thunder Bay.
Superior, or Gitchigumi, which means Great Lake in Anishinaabemowin, is the largest of those lakes, and the second largest lake in the world, containing 10 per cent of the planet’s fresh surface water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/thunder-bay-is-bringing-its-great-lake-shoreline-back/
Significant areas of the Earth’s surface across continents are gradually sinking and that process brings environmental, social and economic consequences to urban centers in the United States. Great Lakes cities Detroit and Chicago are among those at risk.
That’s the conclusion of a recent study conducted by Columbia University researchers, published by the science journal Nature Cities.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/sinking-cities-great-lakes-cities-not-immune-from-under-recognized-threat/
Benton Harbor on Lake Michigan’s southeast coast is known to visitors for its vacation feel and beautiful beaches.
But it’s also one of the poorest cities in Michigan. In recent years, the area has struggled to find the funds to invest in critical infrastructure, most noticeably for its water supply which until recently had tested for dangerously high levels of lead.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/are-data-centers-a-threat-to-great-lakes/
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/2025/05/i-speak-for-the-fish-sturgeon-vs-salmon-prioritizing-native-great-lakes-species/
Not since DDT was introduced to U.S. agriculture to kill insects after World War Two has a farm chemical been as important to American crop production, and come under more scientific, political, and legal scrutiny as the weedkiller Roundup, and its active ingredient, glyphosate.
With the election of President Donald Trump, the conflict over glyphosate’s risks and benefits entered a new realm of confrontation that has the potential to alter its stature as the favored chemical tool in agriculture, the largest user of fresh water in the blue economy of Michigan and the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/conflict-over-a-blockbuster-farm-chemical/
By Katie Thoresen, WXPR
This story was originally published by WXPR. WXPR is a community-licensed public radio station serving north central Wisconsin and adjacent areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Listen to their stories here.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/its-all-hands-on-deck-as-hot-temps-and-strong-winds-bring-high-risk-of-wildfires-to-the-northwoods/
By Ellie Katz, Interlochen Public Radio
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
In the summer of 2015, Traci Lynn Martin’s mom was in the final weeks of a battle with cancer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/points-north-the-longest-paddle/
By Zaria Johnson, Ideastream Public Media
This story was originally published by Ideastream.
Since December, four Northeast Ohio dogs and their human companions have been hot on the trail of invasive spotted lanternflies, sniffing out egg masses laid in the Cleveland Metroparks.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/cleveland-metroparks-lets-the-dogs-out-in-the-hunt-for-spotted-lanternflies/
One of the Great Lakes region’s most critical pieces of infrastructure is in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on the St. Mary’s River, which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron and eventually to the rest of the lakes.
The locks on the river handle up to 1,000-foot-long ships, enabling them to carry bulk freight from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to ports throughout the Great Lakes region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/will-congress-and-the-president-approve-money-to-finish-the-soo-lock-expansion/
Catch the latest updates on what’s happening with PFAS in the Great Lakes region. Check back for more PFAS news roundups every other week on our website.
On May 14, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced their plan to roll back significant portions of the Biden administration’s first nationwide drinking water standard for PFAS.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2025/05/epa-outlines-new-pfas-strategy-amid-expert-concerns/
