Along the beaches and coastal areas of Saugeen Shores, Ontario don’t be surprised to see youth participants in the Coastal Conservation Youth Corps this summer. The program gives high school aged students a summer opportunity to take action on conservation and restoration projects. Read the full story by the Shoreline Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-youth-program
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is receiving a boost in its effort to designate the Bay of Green Bay as a national research site. On Thursday afternoon, the state provided nearly $49,788 to help in the process. Read and view the full story by WLUK-TV- Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-greenbay
Bay City, Michigan’s own Appledore IV is officially sailing the straits for the summer. BaySail, an environmental education non-profit, takes passengers on an hour and half sail through the Straights of Mackinaw. Read the full story by WEYI-TV- Saginaw, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-sail
Workers at Toledo Refining Company worry that they will lose their jobs if Enbridge Line 5 pipeline is shut down. The Ohio Senate this week unanimously passed a resolution urging Whitmer to stand down. Read the full story by WTVG-TV- Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-refinery
The U.S. Coast Guard honored three “good Samaritans” Wednesday for a rescue in Lake Superior last year. Read and view the full story by WLUC-TV- Munising, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-kayakers
Wisconsin regulators have ordered the Village of Somers in Kenosha County to halt construction on its project to draw water from Lake Michigan. The village began work before receiving all the necessary approvals to move forward. Read and listen to the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210618-divert
A company hired to help extinguish a fire that gutted a northern Illinois chemical plant this week used foam containing toxic compounds that have tainted surface waters and groundwater across the U.S., officials said Thursday.
The private contractor sprayed the foam for about three hours Tuesday at the Chemtool Inc.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-foam-pfas-illinois-plant-fire/
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/2021/06/pfas-bottled-water-makeup-filthy-fifty-list-corporations-toxic-packaging/
Amy Wolf speaks during the Wequiock Creek Natural Area gathering. Image credit: Daniel Meinhardt
This spring, a small but dedicated group of people gathered in the woods near the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus to commemorate restoration efforts that are beginning on the Wequiock Creek Natural Area.
Contributing to the restoration is Stephanie Dodge (formerly Stephanie King), a First Nations graduate assistant with Wisconsin Sea Grant. Dodge, an enrolled Oneida Nation Member, is incorporating Indigenous oral histories into work on the Wequiock Creek wetlands. The area is ancestral lands for the Ho-Chunk Nation, Menominee Nation, and Potawatomi, as well.
During the gathering of First Nations folks, Dodge listened to the group’s ideas, thoughts and feelings about what the wetlands means to them. Along with restoration team partners at the UW-Green Bay Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, Dodge shared intentions and goals for the land.
The gathering opened with a tobacco offering and Menominee prayer by David Grignon, tribal historic preservation officer with the Menominee Indian Tribe.
David Grignon and Stephanie Dodge. Image credit: Daniel Meinhardt
“It is my hope that good things happen at the site and a natural ecosystem can be developed and maintained,” Grignon said.
Dodge obtained the tobacco from a garden center near Wequiock Creek. The owners are friends of her mentor, Julia Noordyk, Wisconsin Sea Grant water quality and coastal communities outreach specialist. Dodge traded white corn flour products for it. Trading versus buying the tobacco is another example of incorporating traditional ways.
The group then toured the area and continued their discussions. The east shore of Green Bay, which includes Point au Sable, Wequiock Creek and Red Banks, remains a significant area for First Nations, who have been connected to this land for millennia.
“We hope this is just one of more gatherings and conversations to come,” said Bobbie Webster, natural areas ecologist for the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity.
The post Green Bay Natural Area restoration begins with gathering first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/green-bay-natural-area-restoration-begins-with-gathering/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=green-bay-natural-area-restoration-begins-with-gathering
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1261A6B54040.SpecialWeatherStatement.1261A6B56944WI.GRBSPSGRB.1079f636710c404b77bd880ef1c503b9
Green Bay, WI
https://www.weather.gov/grb/july26-28storms
Green Bay, WI
https://www.weather.gov/grb/June17SevereThunderstormsExpectedTonight
This article, first posted here, was republished with permission from Wisconsin Watch.
By Jim Malewitz, Wisconsin Watch
Archeologists have unearthed human remains of Native Americans who lived up to 2,500 years ago during excavations of the Sheboygan County site along Lake Michigan where Kohler Co.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ancient-human-remains-kohler-golf-course-wisconsin/
By Brett Walton, 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/2021/06/marine-blooms-harmful-algae-increasing/
The Great Lakes are in a period of the year when their water levels usually rise. But all of the Great Lakes are not rising or just barely rising. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-water-levels
New research has revealed a growing prevalence of highly toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS in rainwater in the Great Lakes basin, increasing fears about the negative health effects for humans and wildlife. Read the full story by The Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-pfas
One group of scientists who study the annual Lake Erie algae blooms have recently made their forecast for this summer and they’re calling for a smaller, milder algae problem than average. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-algae
Advisers to the bilateral Great Lakes Fishery Commission have passed a resolution recommending moving management of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission away from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and back to Global Affairs Canada. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-fisheries
2020 marked a grim milestone in Lake Michigan, with a record number of drownings in its waters – 56 total – the highest number since 2010, when the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project started tracking drownings. Read the full story by WBND – TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-drownings
A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day last Saturday. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-lake-michigan
A Canadian company is using underwater robots to inspect sewage pipes, nuclear plants, shipwrecks, and aquaculture nets. Read the full story by The St. Catharine Standard.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-robots
A new, preliminary flood map released by FEMA would mean that anyone included in the yellow boxed areas would have ‘flood-prone’ property. That would mean those individuals would need to obtain flood insurance. Read the full story by Finger Lakes 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-fema-floodzone
The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said Wednesday that offshore buoys and infrared satellite data indicate that cold water is upwelling at many of West Michigan’s popular beaches. Read the full story by MLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210616-water-temp
Whether you’re loyal to charcoal or have a gas grill with all the bells and whistles, summer means grilling in Wisconsin. An online event involving Wisconsin Sea Grant will help people make the most of grilling fish from the Great Lakes region.
Eat Wisconsin Fish Outreach Specialist Sharon Moen. (Photo: Marie Zhuikov)
“Fish to Fork: Grilling in the Great Lakes” will take place Wednesday, June 23, at noon central time. The one-hour event will include Sharon Moen of Wisconsin Sea Grant’s “Eat Wisconsin Fish” project. She will talk about proper seafood preparation and grilling techniques, as well as what to do with your leftovers.
Participants may register for this free, online event on Ohio Sea Grant’s website. Please note that the registration page lists Eastern time; the event begins at noon Wisconsin time.
“While people love burgers and brats on the grill, it’s fun to switch it up and offer your guests a fish or seafood skewer with colorful veggies. Kabobs are great for family gatherings since you can make individual ones to suit people’s tastes,” said Moen.
Moen will be joined by Sea Grant colleagues from a neighboring state: Lauren Jescovitch and Elliot Nelson of Michigan Sea Grant. Jescovitch will talk about food safety considerations when selecting your seafood, and Nelson will cover food safety at home.
Shrimp and veggie kabobs ready for the grill.
The event will focus on seafood raised sustainably in the Midwest through aquaculture. Featured species are shrimp, rainbow trout and catfish.
Moen, who is based in Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Lake Superior Field Office, works with Wisconsin’s commercial fishers, fish farmers and fish consumers.
An earlier webinar from the same series on cooking Great Lakes fish is now available for viewing on YouTube. That April webinar featured Wisconsin Sea Grant Fisheries Specialist Titus Seilheimer and Peter Fritsch, president of Wisconsin’s Rushing Waters Fisheries. View “Fish to Fork: Cooking Great Lakes Fish” here.
The June 23 event is hosted by the Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative, of which Wisconsin Sea Grant is a part, and Ohio Sea Grant. The National Sea Grant College Program is a federal-state-university partnership with 34 programs across the nation, including in each of the Great Lakes states. These science-based programs are centered on research, education and outreach to foster the sustainable use and care of Great Lakes resources.
For questions about this event, contact Moen at smoen@aqua.wisc.edu.
The post “Fish to Fork” event provides tips for grilling Great Lakes fish and seafood first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/fish-to-fork-event-provides-tips-for-grilling-great-lakes-fish-and-seafood/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fish-to-fork-event-provides-tips-for-grilling-great-lakes-fish-and-seafood
A Wisconsin State Park bordering the shoreline of Lake Michigan is teeming with dunes, preserved wetlands and protected plant species. It’s a great view – making it an ideal neighbor for a new golf resort that one of the state’s manufacturing giants has been fighting for years to build.
Kohler-Andre State Park is located in Sheboygan County and comprised of two state parks, Terry Andrae State Park and John Michael Kohler State Park.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/wisconsin-lake-michigan-dune-shoreline-golf-course-development/
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day on Saturday.
Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-chicago-man-jumps-into-lake-michigan-for-365th-straight-day/
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day on Saturday.
Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-chicago-man-jumps-into-lake-michigan-for-365th-straight-day/
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed state regulators’ key approvals of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project, in a dispute that drew over 1,000 protesters to northern Minnesota last week.
A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the state’s independent Public Utilities Commission correctly granted Enbridge the certificate of need and route permit that the Canadian-based company needed to begin construction on the 337-mile (542-kilometer) Minnesota segment of a larger project to replace a 1960s-era crude oil pipeline that has deteriorated and can run at only half capacity.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-minnesota-court-approves-line-3-oil-pipeline/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Keystone XL is dead after a 12-year attempt to build the oil pipeline, yet the fight over Canadian crude rages on as emboldened environmentalists target other projects and pressure President Joe Biden to intervene — all while oil imports from the north keep rising.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-fight-canadian-oil-pipelines/
As Enbridge Energy prepares to finish rebuilding an oil pipeline across rural northern Minnesota, protesters are occupying part of the construction area and pledging a “summer of resistance” on the ground and in court.
Enbridge, which has obtained all necessary state and federal permits for the Line 3 project, says it will be finished by year’s end.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-explainer-line-3-pipeline-climate/
Making tracks is nothing new for Jackson Parr, the J. Philip Keillor Flood Resilience-Wisconsin Sea Grant Fellow. A serious athlete who once committed to walking across the entire United States (his plan has morphed to running it in segments), he has also traversed the scenic towns of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula as a newspaper reporter and editor.
Jackson Parr (Photo: Len Villano)
Now, he’s getting acquainted with dozens of small communities statewide to help them build resilience to flooding hazards.
Parr began his one-year Keillor Fellowship in April. The position stems from a partnership between Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Climate and Health Program at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS).
He’ll work extensively with the Flood Resilience Scorecard, a toolkit that measures how well prepared a community is to cope with the effects of flooding—and identifies steps they can take to boost that preparedness.
The Illinois native brings a varied set of skills to this work. Parr holds two master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: one in public affairs and one in water resources management. His capstone project for the water resources degree involved analyzing the severe flooding of Coon Creek in Vernon County in August 2018. The project was suggested and advised by UW research scientist Eric Booth.
The village of Coon Valley was downstream from the breached dams during the August 2018 flood event. (Photo: John Lee)
“There were a few dam breaches in that region during that flooding event, and it devastated the area,” said Parr. Flash flooding brought on by torrential rains displaced residents and caused major damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure. “While I didn’t have an academic interest in flooding before working on that capstone project,” said Parr, “I found myself fascinated with the ways that rural communities navigate these issues.”
As he noted, sometimes smaller communities lack the administrative capacity or technical expertise required to fully address issues or tap into available funding sources that might help them. As a Keillor Fellow, Parr will be in a position to link communities with needed resources.
By March 2022, when his fellowship concludes, Parr hopes to have worked through the Flood Resilience Scorecard with 30 communities. Those locations will be chosen through collaboration with Wisconsin’s nine regional planning commissions.
First rolled out in 2019, the scorecard focuses on three key areas that affect a community’s resilience to flooding: environmental factors (such as precipitation patterns and soil composition), institutional factors (such as city planning documents) and social factors. Social factors include the socioeconomic makeup of the community, which may affect what happens after flooding.
“Since this effort is a partnership with the Department of Health Services, they’re definitely interested in the public health aspect of flooding. Demographic data is important in considering populations that might have socioeconomic vulnerabilities that would exacerbate their health outcomes related to flooding,” said Parr.
As an example, he noted that residents in low-income communities often lack the resources to find other housing when displaced. As a result, those populations face not only physical injuries related to flooding, like blunt-force trauma and hypothermia, but extreme stress and other mental health impacts.
“The goal is to identify communities that face these vulnerabilities and hopefully target more resources toward those communities to achieve health equity,” he said.
As Parr conducts this work, he has a trio of mentors. At DHS, he reports to Climate and Health Program Coordinator Margaret Thelen. On the Sea Grant side, he’s working with Climate and Tourism Outreach Specialist Natalie Chin and Coastal Engineering Specialist Adam Bechle.
Said Thelen, “The partnership between the Department of Health Services and Sea Grant has allowed us to work together to integrate our flood resiliency tools for local decision makers. These resources allow Wisconsin to better prepare for and respond to increased extreme precipitation events due to climate change. We are fortunate to have Jackson Parr, through the Keillor Fellowship, working to improve these tools and make them more accessible to municipalities across the state.”
Parr in his triathlon days. Though he no longer competes, he’s running across the United States in segments. (Submitted photo)
As university travel restrictions related to the pandemic ease, Parr hopes to complete in-person assessments, arranging visits to work through the scorecard with elected officials, administrators and planning staff in the selected communities.
“There’s a huge value in having these conversations face to face; it takes collaboration from people of different backgrounds” who actually live in those communities, said Parr.
But completing the scorecard with a community is not an end point, Parr stressed. Rather, he hopes it is a springboard for taking action.
“While community leaders would immediately get some high-level recommendations on ways to improve resilience, I’d go back and look through our conversations and come back to the municipality and work with them on implementing recommendations. It’s a whole other ballgame to actually pass an ordinance or apply for a grant or participate in a buyout program. The goal is for communities to act on the recommendations they receive,” said Parr.
Parr can be reached at jackson.parr@dhs.wisconsin.gov.
The post Keillor Fellow will enhance flood resilience in Wisconsin communities first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/keillor-fellow-will-enhance-flood-resilience-in-wisconsin-communities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=keillor-fellow-will-enhance-flood-resilience-in-wisconsin-communities
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — More than 500 wells on French Island have been contaminated with some level of PFAS chemicals, according to final results of state testing.
The La Crosse Tribune reported Friday that 538 wells on the island just west of La Crosse showed some level of the chemicals and 165 of them had levels above the state’s recommended 20 parts per trillion hazard standard.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/ap-tests-pfas-contamination-500-french-island-wells/
NCEI News Feed
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202105
Indigenous tribes are asserting their rights under a treaty that predates Michigan’s statehood while pursuing strategies to stop the construction of a new oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-tribespipeline
Those responsible for monitoring and managing water flow in the Great Lakes have deviated from their usual flow controls to address lower-than-average rainfall totals they say raise concerns for water levels in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by WBFO – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-monitors
According to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, the Midwest Energy Resources Company terminal hasn’t seen an oceangoing ship at its dock since the 1990s, but that changed this month. Read the full story by the Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-portexec
A $2.7 million project to mitigate flooding in the town of Sterling, New York, has been completed. The goal of the project was to prevent flooding along West Bay Road, which has been affected by Lake Ontario’s high water levels. Read the full story by the Auburn Citizen.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-westbayroad
A pair of piping plovers have set up housekeeping on the beach at Maumee Bay State Park on Lake Erie. They’re the first pair to nest in Ohio in at least 80 years. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-rarebirds
In New York, the Sodus Bay Historical Society is gearing up for the 2021 season with a sesquicentennial celebration of the “Old Stone” Lighthouse at Sodus Point on the bluff overlooking beautiful Lake Ontario. Read the full story by the Finger Lakes Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-sodusbay
U.S. Coast Guard crews from the Great Lakes teamed up with Michigan’s neighbors to the north for some recent training. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-coastguardtrain
A new book shares details of a Michigan couple’s decades-long search for the ship, Le Griffon, which they believe sank near the Huron Islands, a group of small, rocky islands northeast of Green Bay. Read the full story by Cleveland.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210614-legriffon
Three undergraduates and two recent graduates with bachelor’s degrees were selected through a competitive process that drew interest from students across the nation for a Wisconsin Sea Grant summer internship.
They are joined by an additional two recent graduates, one with a B.A. and the other with a certificate in geographic information services (GIS), to make up the summer intern cohort. Now that Memorial Day 2021—the unofficial start of summer—has passed, the young people have begun their summer experiences in earnest, which include:
Meet the interns who are demonstrating not only proficiency in their chosen internships, but also flexibility in the face of evolving conditions as the pandemic wanes.
Meghan Wilhelmi will work with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services on a tool that builds tribal communities’ flood resiliency. Submitted photo.
Meghan Wilhelmi is a brand-new graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in both history and gender and women’s studies. Over the coming three months, she and mentor Natalie Chin, Sea Grant’s climate and tourism outreach specialist, will offer tribal communities training in use of the resiliency features of an assessment tool developed last year in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The tool provides strategies and tactics for communities to mitigate the effects of flooding. Wilhelmi plans to take a gap year or two before pursuing a Ph.D. in history and is looking forward to the learning experience of this internship. As for her contribution, she said, “I care about the protection of Indigenous peoples and their knowledge and feel passionate about doing anything I can to help work with tribal communities about vulnerabilities to flooding.” Wilhelmi’s passion builds on her extensive college coursework and extracurricular activities focused on understanding communities of color and the importance of a protected environment.
Jumana Tanner will work in Milwaukee to educate Lake Michigan beachgoers about water safety. Submitted photo.
Jumana Tanner is relocating from her home in Madison to Milwaukee for the summer so she can hit the city’s Lake Michigan beaches and share information with McKinley and Bradford beach visitors, talking with them about water quality, staying hydrated and staying safe while swimming in the lake’s powerful waves and currents. It’s part of a beach ambassador program Sea Grant is engaged with along with Milwaukee Riverkeeper and the Milwaukee Sailing Club. This sophomore enrolled at UW-Madison is studying marine biology. She said, “The beach ambassador program for Great Lakes Water Safety internship reflects an adequate practice of my enthusiasm to learn and allows me to gain leadership skills.” She continued, “To understand more about our community waters and be able to spread that knowledge by interacting with others with the same excitement provides great opportunity for my growth in the scientific community. It is a way for everyone to care about science the way it cares for us and it breaks the comprehensive disconnect between science and society to live in a more united world.”
Paige Skenandore will identify and catalog native plants in a Green Bay-area restoration area and through an Indigenous lens. Submitted photo.
Paige Skenandore, along with mentors Julia Noordyk and Stephanie Dodge, will conduct a survey of native plants and apply Native American names to the species as part of an overall restoration project of the Wequiock Creek Natural Area near the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Skenandore is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is turtle clan. Noordyk is a water quality outreach specialist and Dodge is a First Nation’s graduate student. Skenandore will be a senior in the fall when she returns to UW-Madison where she is completing a major in Community and Nonprofit Leadership and certificates in American Indian Studies and Environmental Studies. Skenandore said, “This internship will be restoring the traditional languages of a few Wisconsin Tribes around the UW-Green Bay area. Harvesting practices, plant identification and the academics of medicinal plant species is great knowledge that I will be able to bring to the new Indigenous garden on campus, it will complement my major interests, and it will keep me connected in learning and practicing more of my own Indigenous language. While attending workshops and connecting with the surrounding Wisconsin tribal communities, I will be able to help preserve the environment through language and have the ability to connect with other tribal nations throughout the summer.”
Hunter Goldman will provide online mapping upgrades to the Eat Wisconsin Fish initiative website, as well as produce cooking videos. Submitted photo.
Hunter Goldman will get deep into the Eat Wisconsin Fish initiative—coordinating with mentor Sharon Moen, the initiative’s outreach specialist. They will collaborate on improving a web-based fish-finding map and producing cooking videos under the theme “get saucy with Sea Grant.” Goldman is pursuing a degree in Sustainable Community Development with an emphasis on international development at Northland College. He is a junior. Goldman is also securing a minor in GIS, which will contribute the mapping portion of his summer work. He said, “A requirement for my GIS minor is internship experience, so being able to be a part of this internship program would help me work toward my degree. In addition, the program I am planning for grad school has GIS listed as a desired skill, so being able to accomplish this internship would help me achieve technical skills in a setting other than academic.”
Sophie Glabius will work on GIS projects with the U.S. EPA. Submitted photo.
Sophie Glabius will work with mentor Tom Hollenhorst, a research landscape ecologist at the U.S. EPA lab in Duluth, Minnesota, on GIS projects. A May 2021 Beloit College graduate, Glabius has a degree in geology. She said the internship appeals to her because it is, “A chance to build on my existing GIS and underwater mapping knowledge and explore how geospatial data can be used in conjunction with natural and social science datasets.” As a student, Glabius completed an imaging research project that compared the spatial distribution of temperature in two different types of springs. She also studied abroad and explored the sea floor with sediment cores, grab samples, multibeam images and boomer seismic profiles. That semester allowed her to, “Engage with perspectives, values and even educational traditions that I was unfamiliar with. In New Zealand, there is a growing focus on traditional Indigenous knowledge, especially in the realm of environmental stewardship. My time there inspired a continued interest in traditional ecological knowledge and how it can influence Western science and my own scientific career,” she said.
Courtney Gunville will assess the disability access to both coastal attractions and online coastal visualization tools. Submitted photo.
UW-Madison spring 2021 recipient of a fundamental GIS certificate Courtney Gunville has long had an interest in GIS, tourism and ecology. She’ll combine those interests into an internship that’s titled, Using GIS to Examine ADA Accessibility at Coastal Access Sites in Wisconsin. This graduate of Gallaudet University will survey existing websites, the Wisconsin Coast Atlas and Wisconsin Coastal Guide, both of which were built and are maintained by Sea Grant’s Associate Director for Extension and GIS Specialist David Hart. Hart and Chin will act as Gunville’s mentors. Farther down the road could be a coffee table book version of the Wisconsin Coastal Guide. Including disability accessibility information will be critical for that print format, as well as the current online one. For her part, Gunville said, “This project is essential. We need to ensure that for anyone with a disability, the web resources are meeting their needs. We need to be inclusive.” She continued, “I want to develop more inclusion for our future generations.”
Morgan Coleman will work on building Great Lakes literacy projects. Submitted photo.
With a fresh degree in literature from UW-River Falls, Morgan Coleman will embed herself at GLIFWC for her internship, Great Lakes Literacy and Ojibwe Culture. Coleman and mentors Sea Grant’s Senior Special Librarian and Education Specialist Anne Moser and Paula Maday plan to tap into her writing and reading strengths to create content for GLIFWC’s quarterly newspaper and presentations. Maday is the public information officer for the organization. Coleman will also develop a special project (to be determined) and capitalizes on her skills and interests. She said, “I’m really excited to see what I can do with GLIFWC and Sea Grant this summer. This internship is a great opportunity to develop my skills and use them to help increase Great Lakes literacy.”
The post Meet the summer 2021 interns first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/meet-the-summer-2021-interns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-the-summer-2021-interns
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1261A678354C.SpecialWeatherStatement.1261A6785A68WI.GRBSPSGRB.5028ff567dbee03ebccd90929eb41c68
A decades-long monitoring project in the Great Lakes basin has started checking for PFAS in rain. It’s finding the forever chemicals across the basin in large amounts.
Those numbers aren’t published yet, but PFAS are showing up in concentrations higher than legacy contaminants like mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and pesticides.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/raining-pfas-outpacing-legacy-contaminants/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Chioma Lewis, Great Lakes Echo
How attached you are to your community can determine how motivated you are to tackle climate change.
Residents who are more socially attached to their community are more likely to plan for climate change adaptation to support it, according to a recent study in the Journal of Coastal Conservation.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/06/attachment-community-motivate-climate-change-action/
The National Sea Grant College Program is a federal-state-university partnership with 34 programs across the nation, including the program here in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Sea Grant Director James Hurley. Image credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant
Because federal dollars contribute to our ability to meet the needs of Wisconsin’s coastal communities, and in service to the Great Lakes ecosystem as a whole, we pay attention to funding levels proposed by the administration. Recently, the president released his Fiscal Year 2022 budget and it included a request to support the national Sea Grant program at the level of $116 million with an additional $13.1 million for Sea Grant Aquaculture, for a total request of $128.8 million.
Wisconsin Sea Grant can demonstrate over and over the merit of its efforts and how it would put those dollars to good use. There are numbers: From 2018 to 2020, Sea Grant received $4.1 million in core federal dollars that were matched by $2 million in state investment. That leveraged investments of $4.5 million in additional state, federal and outside funding.
Currently, those funds are supporting 15 Sea Grant research projects, three education projects and 32 outreach efforts happening from a base on seven Wisconsin campuses. Initiatives include addressing record-high Great Lakes water levels, the “forever” chemicals PFAS, and the transfer of skills and knowledge to the state’s growing $21 million-aquaculture industry.
It’s good news that the president recognizes the value of work such as this, and at similar Sea Grant programs throughout the U.S. The administration’s budget is considered a starting point and Congressional committees will now shape the final spending plan that, by law, needs approval in time for the new federal fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1.
We are deeply grateful for the confidence President Biden has shown in Sea Grant’s promise and delivery, particularly in the areas of resiliency and addressing the needs of underserved communities.
We are deeply grateful for confidence that members of Congress have shown in the past in our ability to make a difference in coastal communities and on behalf of the Great Lakes themselves.
Finally, and just as importantly, we are deeply grateful to our stakeholders, partners, collaborators and friends who offer an outpouring of support for our work. You know full well that Sea Grant funds lakes Michigan and Superior research, and the application of the research to ensure the sustainable use of these crown jewels that underpin the quality of life and economy of our state.
If you would like to make a comment to members of Congress regarding the value of Sea Grant and the budget being proposed for what is known as FY22, you can find your House of Representatives member at house.gov/representatives/find. Find your senators at senate.gov.
And to learn more about our current projects and impacts, check out this fact sheet.
Thank you,
Jim Hurley
Director, Wisconsin Sea Grant
Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/a-special-message-from-the-sea-grant-director/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-special-message-from-the-sea-grant-director
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Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-piping-plover
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Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-wind-energy
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Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-wetlands-epa
