Hot dog on a stick. Water torch. Supermarket of the swamp.
Cattails go by many names, but almost everyone can recognize the pervasive wetland plant that grows along lakes, ponds, marshes, and swamps.
Their thin green stems and leaves can reach up to nearly ten feet in height.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/04/finding-creative-new-ways-to-manage-invasive-cattails/
Increasingly, scientists and regulators are concerned about the presence of pharmaceutical pollution in our waterways, including in the Great Lakes region. This contamination has the potential to harm wildlife and make antibiotics less effective. However, more research needs to be done to understand this issue, according to scientists who have studied pharmaceuticals and other contaminants.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/through-a-glass-darkly/
On April 8, a solar eclipse will march from Maine to Mexico, darkening the skies during midday. The moon’s shadow will black out the sun completely just south of Michigan, but folks in the southeast part of the state will be close to the action and also experience almost complete darkness.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/the-solar-eclipse-is-a-great-opportunity-for-students-and-citizen-scientists-alike/
By Todd Richmond, Associated Press
RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Michigan Tech University biologists have been observing a remote Lake Superior island’s fragile wolf population every winter since 1958, but they had to cut this season’s planned seven-week survey short after just two weeks.
The ski plane they study the wolves from uses the frozen lake as a landing strip because there’s nowhere to touch down on the island.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/03/ap-fewer-fish-and-more-algae-scientists-seek-to-understand-impacts-of-historic-lack-of-great-lakes-ice/
The Lake Guardian is currently in its winter home, nestled along the docks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In warmer months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses this ship to gather data on water quality, and has for over forty years. And each year since 1991, a group of lucky educators has squeezed on board and, for nine days, also called this ship home.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/teachers-and-scientists-work-together-on-the-lake-guardian/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Kayla Nelsen, Great Lakes Echo
Researchers in Minnesota are creating a national map to identify peatlands – soggy areas of slowly decaying organic matter – and guides for how to restore them.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/preserving-minnesotas-bogs-could-fight-climate-change/
In order to do meaningful things at scale, everyone has to be at the table. This is what Curt Wolf, Managing Director of the University of Michigan’s Urban Collaboratory, said about the Michigan Center for Freshwater Innovation in an interview with Great Lakes Now. Last month, he explained the benefits of pulling together stakeholders, the Great Lakes Water Authority, and major universities like the University of Michigan, Wayne State, and Michigan State to all work alongside each other to collaborate on grand challenges, like catastrophic flooding in the region.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/the-future-of-water-management-with-curt-wolf/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; 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/2024/02/as-michigan-winters-vanish-researchers-study-snow-for-clues-about-whats-next/
By Todd Richmond, Associated Press
A stretch of unusually warm weather has forced federal officials to suspend researchers’ annual wolf-moose count in Isle Royale National Park for the first time in more than six decades.
Isle Royale is a 134,000-acre (54,200-hectare) island situated in far western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Canada.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/ap-warm-weather-forces-park-officials-to-suspend-isle-royale-wolf-count-for-first-time-in-decades/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Daniel Schoenherr, Great Lakes Echo
Lake Erie is the first of the Great Lakes getting connected to the internet with a series of offshore “smart” buoys.
And it’s not just for sending texts on the water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/smart-buoys-help-brace-great-lakes-for-environmental-challenges/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The National Science Foundation has given a consortium of Great Lakes-area universities and tech companies $15 million to develop ways to extract harmful substances from wastewater.
The foundation announced Monday that it has named the Great Lakes ReNEW group as one of 10 regional innovation engines across the country.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/ap-consortium-of-great-lakes-universities-and-tech-companies-gets-15m-to-seek-ways-to-clean-wastewater/
In Douglas, Michigan, houses dot the coast of Lake Michigan, with wooden stairs — some newly built, others with broken steps — descending the steep hillside to give shoreline residents access to the narrow sandy beach. When winds grow fierce, waves crash against the boulders and large sandbags stacked along the base of these homes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/you-cant-stop-the-lake/
By Shantal Riley, Undark
Shantal Riley is an award-winning health and environmental reporter, focused on water quality in communities of color. Her work has been featured by Frontline PBS, NOVA PBS, the Washington Post Magazine, and other publications.
This story was supported in part by The Uproot Project, which is operationally and financially supported by Grist.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/the-toxic-sands-threatening-fish-in-lake-superior/
Chelsea Volpano’s coastal erosion study began drawing attention on social media last week, but not for the reasons you would expect.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison student was gathering the final data set for her Ph.D. on October 30 when her small boat stopped responding to the remote control.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/11/coastal-erosion-researcher-appeals-for-help-in-finding-her-remote-control-boat/
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.
Thirteen years ago, a live bighead carp was caught within swimming distance of Lake Michigan.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/10/science-says-what-how-edna-research-is-evolving-to-create-a-new-era-in-conservation/
When it comes to fostering resilience in the face of climate change in the waters that border the U.S. and Canada, hydrologist Drew Gronewold wants the region to be a “role model for the world.”
Gronewald is leading a new U.S. – Canada and sovereign nations effort to establish a research center designed to strengthen climate change resilience in communities that span international boundaries and jurisdictions.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/10/new-university-michigan-led-initiative-expands-climate-research-across-borders/
The Great Lakes are facing an era of challenges and opportunities that will require new stewardship principles, and leaders who are able to work across disciplines including science, policy, economics and social science.
That is the message from an ad hoc collaborative of University of Michigan researchers in a recent paper titled Leadership for the next generation of Great Lakes stewardship.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/09/researchers-current-great-lakes-stewardship-ill-equipped-handle-future-challenges/
Eighty percent of Canadians live in urban areas, and most are disconnected from nature. To help address this, Canada is creating a network of national urban parks not only to conserve nature, but to connect people with it, and advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
Now, the University of Windsor has become a partner by creating the first university-based National Urban Park Hub.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/09/great-lakes-moment-university-windsor-build-capacity-canada-national-urban-parks/
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
Wind, solar training facility opens in Bloomington — Pantagraph
Officials unveil a new technical training center in Bloomington, Illinois, that will train at least 100 people annually for wind and solar jobs.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/energy-news-roundup-climate-action-plan-illinois-offshore-wind-lake-erie/
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/2023/08/toxins-cyanobacterial-blooms-airborne-threat-to-public-health-unclear/
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/2023/08/scientists-learning-complicated-reduce-toxic-blooms-lake-erie/
By Andrew Hazzard, Sahan Journal
This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation.
ONAMIA, MINN.—Todd Moilanen paddles gently through wild rice beds on Ogechie Lake, trying not to disturb a loon sleeping on its back on a nest of reeds a few feet away.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/survival-wild-rice-threatened-climate-change-increased-rainfall-northern-minnesota/
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, 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/2023/08/control-frog-bit-water-soldiers/
We are at a choice point when it comes to our relationship with water, says noted water expert Peter Gleick.
We can continue on our current path, which has evolved over centuries and includes unsustainable water use and ecological destruction. Both further worsened as we grapple with the effects of climate change.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/book-review-water-scientist-offers-positive-vision-avoid-dystopian-future/
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.
The idea that wilderness is untouched by man is written into law, but it’s not so accurate.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/points-north-rekindling-wilderness/
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/2023/07/harmful-algal-blooms-appearing-lake-erie-earlier-usual/
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/lake-erie-harmful-algal-bloom-expected-smaller-average/
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/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Jake Christie, Great Lakes Echo
Researchers have located a promising underground region in the Midwest that could have stores of fuel.
But they’re not looking for oil. They’re looking for hydrogen.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/potential-hydrogen-source-power-trucks-reducing-greenhouse-gases/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Jack Armstrong, Great Lakes Echo
NASA’s new satellite is a huge upgrade for measuring Earth’s surface water that could help scientists. It’s like swapping out your old iPhone for a new model with a better camera, and it could help us better understand the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/06/new-nasa-satellite-helps-scientists-understand-great-lakes/
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 Ashley Zhou 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/2023/06/inside-michigan-lab-scientists-raise-killer-bugs-save-trees/
May 16, 2023
Fresh is a biweekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Sign up for Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing, straight to your inbox, every other Tuesday.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/fresh-wisconsin-law-protect-watersheds-farm-runoff/
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 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/
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 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/2023/04/frogs-salamanders-fairy-shrimp-appearing-vernal-pool/
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/
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/
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/2023/03/i-speak-for-the-fish-playing-follow-the-leader-with-diving-ducks/
By Kelly House, 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/2023/03/michigan-mallards-decline-domestic-ducks-weakening-genes/
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.
On that September day in 1998, more than 1,000 rain-soaked and determined people stood up for what they felt was right.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/great-lakes-moment-the-event-that-saved-humbug-marsh/
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.
As spring comes to Saginaw Bay, a group of elementary school students are preparing to play an important role in a long-term scientific study.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/science-says-what-how-5th-graders-counting-plants-can-lead-to-positive-change/
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.
Microplastic pollution has been building up in the Great Lakes since at least the 1970s.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/science-says-what-how-worried-should-we-be-about-microplastic-pollution/
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/2023/02/mi-oh-spend-hundreds-millions-annually-curb-toxic-blooms-lake-erie/
Lake sturgeon, one of the largest and oldest species of fish in the Great Lakes, are in more trouble than we thought.
In December, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature downgraded its status from Least Concern to Endangered based on shrinking populations over the past three generations, which is between 250 and 300 years for this long-lived fish.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/lake-sturgeon-added-to-endangered-list-but-things-are-looking-up/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Anastasia Pirrami, Great Lakes Echo
Harmful algal blooms were much larger in Lake Erie than experts predicted for 2022.
A year-end report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the algae bloom was more severe than expected because of an increase in biomass that caused more algae.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/02/lake-erie-algae-2022-worse-predicted-plateaued/
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 Great Lakes contain a whopping 5,500 cubic miles of freshwater, making them one of largest sources of freshwater in the world – large enough in fact to influence the region’s weather which impacts the 40 million people living around the lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/science-says-what-climate-change-deluges-snow-days/
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/2023/01/nibi-chronicles-trees-of-our-homeland/
