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False springs aren’t just an annoying trick of nature. Under the right conditions, they can be devastating.

In 2012, an unusually warm early spring was followed by an April freeze that ravaged Michigan’s fruit crops, important agricultural products for the state.

Scientists say years like 2012 could become the new normal in just a few decades.

Learn more on the Great Lakes Now YouTube channel.

#Weather #Climate #ClimateChange #Agriculture #Meteorology

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The post False spring is more dangerous than you think appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

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Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/31/false-spring-is-more-dangerous-than-you-think/

Great Lakes Now

On:
In: Featured, Forests and Plants, invasive species, Ontario, Science, Technology, Research

By Leah Borts-Kuperman, The Narwhal

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, Michigan Public 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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Mycologist Aishwarya Veerabahu regularly walks the forests near her home in Wisconsin, marvelling at the myriad shapes and colours of mushrooms, sometimes foraging for something to bring home and sauté in garlic and butter. It’s a landscape she knows well, but in the last few years, she’s been noticing a worrying and unfamiliar presence: vibrant yellow, tightly clustered invasive making itself at home. 

Known as golden oyster, it’s a ’shroom completely altering native fungi communities in North America.

“Golden oysters will grow in an order of magnitude more than any other mushroom that you’d see. If you come up on a log with golden oysters on it, there’s always a ton of them, multiple clusters,” Veerabahu said.

The popular mushrooms, often found on menus and supermarket shelves, are native to forests in Russia and Asia. They were first brought to North America in the early 2000s for cultivation, and took to the forests by 2010, expanding their numbers and range rapidly.

“There are some times where I’ve gone through a forest and teared up because I know that there are other mushrooms that were in that wood that aren’t there anymore,” Veerabahu said. “It can be a very sad thing when now it’s just dominated by this one species.”

A researcher at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, Veerabahu published a study last August that used data from citizen scientists to confirm the trend she’s been seeing locally. Golden oyster mushrooms — scientific name Pleurotus citrinopileatus— are quickly invading North America, including Ontario. 

And, scientists say, a booming home-growing trend may be accelerating their spread into forests and impacting biodiversity.

Golden oysters have been found in 25 states, “after escaping cultivation” of commercial growers and hobbyists. They’ve made their way to Ontario, where there have been more than 80 sightings logged on the iNaturalist app of the clusters growing out of dead hardwood in forests, provincial parks and even residential neighbourhoods. 

While most golden oysters in Canada are still concentrated closer to the border with the United States, the species has already travelled as far north as Magnetawan, Ont., near Parry Sound, and is increasingly established around Georgian Bay, on Lake Huron. The speed and distance of its spread has been surprising, Veerabahu said.

“It has thoroughly been unleashed and rapidly spread over the course of a short decade,” she said, adding that the mushrooms have more recently appeared in Quebec. “The best thing that we can do now is to try and prevent it from getting to new regions.” 

Provincial invasive species regulations don’t capture golden oyster mushrooms

Cassidy Mailloux is a guide at the Ojibway Prairie Complex in Windsor, Ont., who takes guests through the nature reserves year-round. She’s also working on a biodiversity study of the region’s native mushrooms as part of her master’s degree at the University of Windsor and has posted golden oyster sightings on iNaturalist, observations that helped inform Veerabahu’s study.

“We’ve only seen it in one of our parks out of the entire complex … and that’s one of our heavily foot-trafficked and most travelled parks,” she said, adding that this is a good sign that the invasion “hasn’t fully taken off yet.”

In Ontario, there have been more than 80 sightings logged on the iNaturalist app of invasive golden oyster mushroom clusters growing out of dead hardwood in forests, provincial parks and even residential neighbourhoods. Photo: Aishwarya Veerabahu

Still, she worries about the effect of invasive golden oysters on rarer species of fungi, such as the coral pink marulius, which is uncommonly reported but in large abundance in the Ojibway Prairie Complex. 

“I’m worried the golden oyster mushroom might take precedence,” Mailloux said, given golden oysters are an aggressive species that can grow quickly and prolifically in many kinds of wood and even sawdust — unlike some native species that require specific conditions to thrive. Both the city and her organization are still trying to figure out the best way to manage the invasive — and say visitors documenting sightings can inform this work. 

“Encouraging citizens to upload these observations can really help management and our ecosystem,” Mailloux said, “and just keeping a track on how bad it might be getting in the area.”

Despite the threat, the Government of Ontario has not added live oyster mushrooms to its prohibited or restricted invasive species lists, which would make it illegal to import, buy, sell — or sometimes even possess — an ecologically harmful strain.

Without this regulation, Veerabahu said, live cultures continue to be transported across borders. And, she said once golden oysters colonize an area, fewer other unique fungal species will be found there. The communities that do exist are also entirely changed. 

“Let’s say in an uncolonized dead tree, you had a nice, rich community of fungi A, B, C, D, E. Once golden oyster colonizes, now it’s golden oyster and fungi X, Y, Z,” Veerabahu said. 

This makes her concerned about a domino effect because fungal communities are primary wood decomposers of forests, playing an important role in cycling nutrients and storing carbon. “The identity of which species are able to coexist in that space is changing.” 

Monica Liedtke, terrestrial invasive plant coordinator for the Invasive Species Centre, in Sault St. Marie, Ont., agreed. She told The Narwhal via email that non-native invasive fungi can significantly disrupt Ontario’s ecosystems and environmental processes that have developed over thousands of years.

“When non-native invasive fungi establish, they can interfere with important symbiotic relationships between native fungi, trees and plants,” Liedtke told The Narwhal. Golden oysters can quicken the rate of wood decay, which then impacts the birds and bugs that use dead and dying trees for homes and food. “Over time, these disruptions can affect biodiversity across the entire ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, climate change is creating warmer conditions that will make Ontario even more hospitable to these mushrooms, allowing them to expand their range. Veerabahu and her team used a climate prediction model developed by NASA to predict what might happen in the next 15 years. The model predicted that the North American region climatically suitable for golden oyster mushrooms to grow would almost double. 

Grow-your-own mushroom kits threaten Ontario forests

Kyle McLoughlin, an arborist and supervisor of forest planning and health for the City of Burlington, said the reason he fears golden mushrooms is exactly why they’re popular among amateur growers.

“From an ecological perspective, they don’t have a niche. They can go anywhere. They’re very wide-ranging. They’re very comfortable in a lot of different types of wood and a lot of different environments,” McLoughlin said of golden oysters. “This is also why you can grow them so well.”

Kits with detailed growing instructions are readily available on the internet, with prices between $20 and $40. These are a “major source of their invasion,” McLoughlin said. 

“It’s literally being introduced into people’s homes and their properties through grow kits,” McLoughlin said. “We shouldn’t be selling people potential invasive species to bring into their homes.”

Still, grow kits remain widely sold with little public awareness of the risks. Consumers are often not warned when they buy a grow kit that tossing spent soil onto the compost pile, or leaving a kit outdoors, could unintentionally help an invasive spread.

There are some ways people can help slow the spread if they spot oyster mushrooms. If someone sees a log on their own property pop with golden oysters for the first time, it could be helpful to burn it, Veerabahu explained. People can also forage the mushrooms from forested areas, collecting them in closed containers to prevent spores from spreading.

The challenge is to muster enough public awareness and political will before things get out of control.

“It’s kind of like cockroaches. Once you start to see them, you know there’s a heck of a lot more in your walls,” McLoughlin said. “They are putting billions of spores into the air when they’re fruiting. And this is happening constantly.”

Some companies that have sold these kits around the world, like Far West Fungi, North Spore and MycoPunks have since discontinued some products due to concern. In a blog post titled “Yellow Oyster Disaster Zone,” MycoPunks wrote: “No shade intended on any other vendors who choose to keep selling golden oyster kits … we’ve all got our own different moral codes, but it’s not something we feel able to do in good conscience any more.”

But, given a lack of regulation in the province, it’s still easy to import kits from within Canada or around the world to grow in Ontario.

“Gardeners [and] hobby farmers should carefully consider the species they are cultivating. Choosing native species helps to reduce ecological risk,” Liedtke, from the Invasive Species Centre, said. Some kits sell species such as lion’s mane or chestnut mushrooms, which are both edible and native to Ontario. 

For those who are growing golden oysters, the Invasive Species Centre advises that used grow kits should be sealed in a garbage bag and left in the sun for several days to a week; this process, called solarization, helps kill remaining spores and fungal material. Then, the bag should be disposed of in municipal waste — not compost. 

“Neither the producer nor the consumer wants to be part of that spread,” Veerabahu said. “The mushroom grow kits are a huge point of concern. They’re essentially a live culture that can be transported anywhere, but they’re not being regulated and I’ll never blame hobby mushroom growers for that.”

The post Spore loser: the DIY mushroom-growing trend invading Ontario forests appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/31/the-diy-mushroom-growing-trend-invading-ontario-forests/

The Narwhal

On:
In: Featured, Industry, Energy, Economic Development, Michigan

By Vivian La, IPR

This story is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

No one wants to drive in an ice storm.

But one year ago — during the devastating northern Michigan ice storm that knocked down trees, snapped utility poles, and took out power for thousands — Wanda Whiting had to get her husband to a hospital. He was having a heart episode and calling an ambulance to their rural home in Lewiston would take too long. She had no choice but to brave the roads.

While driving the route almost exactly a year later, Whiting recalled the mess of dropped power lines and broken poles “like matchsticks” that littered the highway shoulder along the 20-mile stretch to Gaylord

“These were all down. Everything was down. These poles are all broken, snapped,” she said. Whiting remembered getting lost on dark roads with dead streetlights. She was trying to meet an ambulance at a halfway point. Arriving at the rendezvous parking lot, she had to drive across thick wires that had fallen on the roadway.

Her husband made it to the hospital. And eventually, in the weeks that followed, the power lines and poles went back up.

But Whiting can’t help but wonder how those wires will fare whenever she sees a forecast for snow and ice. And if there’s an alternative solution.

“And if it meant going underground, then by God, go underground,” she said.

After the storm

Burying power lines often comes up as a potential solution for preventing outages and minimizing the costs of storm recovery. And for good reason — underground wires are proven to increase reliability, according to researchers, electric utilities and regulators.

Now, as recovery from the ice storm continues a year later, some residents are calling for a more reliable grid that can withstand worsening extreme weather.

But burying lines is expensive, and utilities say those costs often outweigh potential benefits.

Last year, the storm knocked out power for some 200,000 people. Recovery cost utilities hundreds of millions of dollars, leading to increased electric bills for ratepayers across the region, as emergency federal aid hit delays.

The state’s largest electric co-op, Great Lakes Energy Cooperative, saw more than 66,000 power outages last year from the storm, and recovery costs totaled more than $150 million. In response to the storm, the co-op implemented a policy in December that requires any new lines to be installed underground, in an effort to increase resiliency.

“I think there’s reliability benefits for our membership, because it’s going to help prevent outages over the long term,” said Shari Culver, chief operating officer for Great Lakes Energy.

IPR reached out to the other hard-hit electric cooperative — Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-Op — for comment about burying lines, but they declined due to ongoing discussions with federal agencies about pending storm relief funds.

Consumers Energy, another large electric provider in the region, says they hear from customers “consistently” about burying more lines. Last week, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $276.6 million rate hike for Consumers Energy — the largest increase in decades — to improve reliability for customers, which includes undergrounding some lines. Regulators said a typical residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours a month will see an increase of $6.46, or 6.1%, in their monthly bill.

“There’s no better way to improve the resilience of the grid than just to get the lines out of the way of all the trees and ice and wind. Now, it comes at a cost,” said Greg Salisbury, Consumers Energy’s senior vice president of electric distribution. The company estimates it’s about $400,000 per mile to bury a line.

This year, Consumers Energy plans to bury more than 10 miles of lines around the state. That’s a small number, compared to the nearly 100,000 miles in the utility’s system, of which about 15% is already underground.

“Our viewpoint is that each circuit needs to be treated with the right interventions to get the best outcomes for the best cost for those customers,” Salisbury said.

To bury or not to bury

Burying power lines is relatively easier and cheaper with new construction, as crews install other utilities like water or gas. It’s in relocating the existing overhead lines where expenses for construction, labor and materials can add up quickly.

Burying electric lines isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, either. Smaller utilities like Traverse City Light & Power (TCLP) are dealing with a different environment than rural co-ops, for example. In the city, there are more sidewalks, buildings, streets and other wires.

“There’s just not a lot of room to place that equipment in town without getting easements and such,” said Tony Chartrand, director of electric engineering and operations for TCLP, which has more than 170 miles of electric lines over 16 square miles in the city.

But, Chartrand said, for the municipal electric utility, there are still situations where burying makes more sense than stringing wires from poles. About half of TCLP’s lines are already buried, most running through conduit pipes, which protect wires from the elements or from accidental damage from other utility work.

TCLP tries to be proactive with burying power lines in hard-to-reach areas, like in people’s backyards, Chartrand said. In some cases, burying a residential line is cheaper than the costs of repairing aboveground wires after a tree falls on it.

Still, buried lines present their own challenges if there’s an outage. Unlike the clear visual cue of a branch hanging from overhead wires, problems underground require more equipment to find and fix.

“There’s times where, even if it is in conduit, we can’t just pull the wire out. We actually have to dig it up. And of course, that’s a whole ordeal and takes a lot of time,” Chartrand said.

There’s a lot of attention on grid reliability right now, he said.

“Part of that solution is undergrounding lines. But it’s not necessarily undergrounding everything. It’s trying to balance that cost with the benefit that we’re trying to do,” Chartrand said.

Ice storms and climate change

That balance could get harder to find as extreme weather worsens with climate change. Research suggests that northern Michigan could see more ice storms in the future, as a warming world shifts the range for freezing rain further north.

“Places where it used to be cold, below freezing all the time, it’s not always below freezing anymore,” said Richard B. Rood, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan who studies how ice and freezing rain are changing.

It often takes big storms, like last year’s, for governments, utilities and people to spend money on planning for a warming world. And Rood sees that as a problem.

“You can’t think of what we’re experiencing as, ‘this is how it used to be, and this is where it will be.’ You are right in the middle of the change here,” Rood said.

Some policy experts say we won’t see more buried lines without significantly bringing down the costs to utilities. Eric Paul Dennis, research associate of infrastructure policy at the Citizens Research Council, said that could involve improving how we coordinate infrastructure projects so you only “dig once.”

“No one thinks that the best option is to operate outdated unreliable infrastructure and just fix it when it goes down,” he said. “But there are trade-offs. Investments must be recovered in rates. No option will be one hundred percent reliable.”

Still, only considering costs to utilities leaves out how much society benefits from having reliable electric service — roads are safer, food doesn’t spoil, people contribute to the economy.

“This is not because the utilities or people who run them don’t care, this is just the system we have,” Dennis said.

The post The northern Michigan ice storm battered the electric grid. Is burying power lines the solution? appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/30/the-northern-michigan-ice-storm-battered-the-electric-grid-is-burying-power-lines-the-solution/

Interlochen Public Radio

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In: Daily News

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources surveys the Great Lakes fisheries every year between April and November. This information directly informs fisheries management decisions — such as stocking levels or regulated catch limits — and provides data on the success of past actions. Read the full story by the Iron Mountain Daily.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-fish-assessments

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

After a day and a half of the Soo Locks being open, shipping has come to a standstill. Ice conditions and a lack of heavy U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers are creating delays for American shipping and manufacturing. Some U.S. shipping companies have suffered more than 24-hour delays. Read the full story by WLUC – TV – Negaunee, MI.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-ice-jam

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Some of the most skilled construction jobs in the Great Lakes happen in the water itself. Divers often contend with thick layers of invasive mussels that completely cover the structures they’re working on. One team near Port Huron, Michigan, has developed a method for obliterating the mollusks. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-mussel-removal

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Researchers are trying to determine how blue-green algae toxins affect people’s health when breathed through the air. Residents age 10 and older, who live, work, or recreate near Lake Erie in Lucas, Ottawa, and Sandusky counties in Ohio are invited to take part in a study to understand this potential relationship. Read the full story by WTOL – TV – Toledo, OH.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-algal-bloom-health-effects

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

A new augmented-reality floor map of the Great Lakes region has arrived at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre in Ontario. The experience shares Indigenous knowledge and guides users along the path of an Anishinaabe Water Walker. Read the full story by The Owen Sound Sun Times.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-ar-map

Nichole Angell

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In: Daily News

With no end in sight for historically low water levels in Lac St. Louis and Lake of Two Mountains, plans are being put in place to draw down Lake Ontario in order to keep the St. Lawrence Seaway at required operational levels. Read the full story by the Montreal Gazette.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-water-level-manipulation

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Postage stamps featuring wildlife are helping to fund conservation and bring awareness to communities about habitat protection throughout the Great Lakes region. These stamps showcase wildlife artwork and are used as licenses for bird hunting, while also granting a free annual pass to national wildlife refuges.  Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260330-wildlife-stamps

Nichole Angell

On:
In: youtube, YouTube | Great Lakes Now

When a thousand‑year storm overwhelmed Milwaukee, one man faced a critical decision. Plus, why do false springs show up every year? What causes them? And as the Great Lakes are increasingly seen as a climate haven, are climate migrants already arriving in the region?

#GreatLakes #Weather #Climate #Floods #ClimateChange

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The post How do you manage a thousand-year flood? | Great Lakes Now | Full Episode appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

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https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/30/how-do-you-manage-a-thousand-year-flood-great-lakes-now-full-episode/

Great Lakes Now

On:
In: Drinking Water, Featured, Illinois, Industry, Energy, Economic Development

By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Illinois is in the midst of a public health crisis. Nearly 1.5 million service lines — the pipes that carry drinking water to homes and businesses — contain or are suspected to contain lead, a neurotoxin linked to cognitive, reproductive and cardiovascular problems.

Now, public health and workforce advocates want to turn the state’s long-overdue pipe replacement backlog into a statewide economic engine, creating up to 90,000 jobs over a decade.

A recent report proposes a plan to replace the state’s staggering inventory of toxic lead pipes and create tens of thousands of jobs. To do so, the analysis calls on state and local officials to fast-track pipe replacements for communities that have suffered from the most lead exposure and to use the projects to build a more diverse local workforce. It also urges the Illinois General Assembly to help plug a multibillion-dollar budget gap for lead pipe replacements.

“The longer we put off taking care of our water infrastructure, the more expensive it’s going to get, the more that we’re going to be looking at water rates increasing to deal with that, and the more people are going to be in the position where they’re not going to have access to safe and clean drinking water,” said Justin Williams, a senior manager at the Metropolitan Planning Council, one of the policy think tanks that helped develop the plan. “And that’s not a situation we should be in as a state or region.”

Several other regional and national nonprofits also worked on the analysis, including Current, a water solutions hub; Elevate, an organization working on water and energy affordability issues; and HIRE360, a workforce development group.

Illinois has the most lead pipes in the country. The state estimates it has 667,000 known lead service lines and another 820,000 suspected lines. Chicago alone accounts for nearly 30 percent of those pipes.

Replacing these service lines is expensive. In a 2022 report, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency found that a single service line replacement can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $13,000 across the state. In Chicago, the price tag is even higher: City officials estimated that replacements cost more than $30,000 per line on average.

State officials have estimated that replacing all the known or suspected lead pipes across Illinois could cost between $6 billion and $10 billion. The Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, set aside $15 billion over five years to help states replace lead pipes. Illinois is estimated to receive about $1 billion, but given the state’s unique needs, that number “is probably on the low side,” Williams said.

The report makes the case that state lawmakers must approve dedicated, sustained and predictable funding to close the multibillion-dollar shortfall. Without long-term guarantees, replacements will likely remain inefficient and delayed.

“It’s a bit of a chicken and egg: Unless you know how much money is going to be allocated to this — how many opportunities are coming down the pipe — they’re not going to add additional people to apprenticeship programs,” said Jay Rowell, executive director at HIRE360.

Using workforce projections from the American Water Works Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the report’s authors calculated that already allocated federal funds could generate approximately 2,000 direct jobs and 9,000 indirect jobs. If legislatures closed the multibillion-dollar funding gap, those figures could jump substantially to 35,000 direct jobs and 55,000 indirect jobs — a total of 90,000 jobs over a decade.

“We’re calling attention not only to the problem, but also to some of the opportunities to get more candidates engaged in apprenticeships,” Rowell said. “This is a really big problem that needs very thoughtful, state-led solutions.”

A major pillar of the report is diversifying the building trades. An analysis of Chicago’s workforce found that only 3.8% of registered apprentices are women and just 10% are Black. To bridge this gap, the report advocates for requiring utilities and municipalities to include diversity and equity requirements in project contracts.

The report’s authors argue that Illinois has the rare opportunity to tackle two challenges at once: address its toxic legacy while laying the groundwork for a more inclusive economy. The financial and political hurdles remain high, but advocates say the cost of inaction is higher.

“We are the envy of the world in terms of our access to fresh drinking water,” Williams said. “We need to be really thoughtful stewards of that, and that means investing in that the same way we invest in other infrastructure.”

The post Can replacing Illinois’ toxic lead pipes lead to a workforce boom? appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/30/can-replacing-illinois-toxic-lead-pipes-lead-to-a-workforce-boom/

WBEZ

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By Anna Ironside Postage stamps featuring wildlife are helping to fund conservation and bring awareness to communities about habitat protection throughout the Great Lakes region by centering species like the wood duck (Aix sponsa), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and piping plover (Charadrius melodus).

Original Article

Great Lakes Echo

Great Lakes Echo

https://greatlakesecho.org/2026/03/29/wildlife-stamps-aim-to-improve-conservation-across-the-great-lakes-region/

Anna Ironside

On:
In: Art, Echo
By Anna Ironside Postage stamps featuring wildlife are helping to fund conservation and bring awareness to communities about habitat protection throughout the Great Lakes region by centering species like the wood duck (Aix sponsa), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and piping plover (Charadrius melodus).

Original Article

Great Lakes Echo

Great Lakes Echo

https://greatlakesecho.org/2026/03/29/wildlife-stamps-aim-to-improve-conservation-across-the-great-lakes-region/

Anna Ironside

On:
In: AIS, aquatic invasive species, control, habitat, invasive species, phragmites, purple loosestrife, shoreline, watershed recovery

Shovel Going Into The Ground? Make a Plan Whether starting to remove invasive plants, doing shoreline restoration, or even planting a new garden, it is always best to start with a plan. Make a sketch of the existing landscape including planting beds, permanent plants and structures. A plan helps save you time and money [...]

The post Removing Invasive Species On Your Property? Stay Safe and Plan appeared first on Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.

Original Article

Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance

Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance

https://fwwa.org/2026/03/27/removing-invasive-species-on-your-property-stay-safe-and-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=removing-invasive-species-on-your-property-stay-safe-and-plan

Chris Acy

On:
In: youtube, YouTube Shorts | Great Lakes Now

Some of the most skilled construction jobs in the Great Lakes happen in the water itself. Commercial divers are more than just divers– they’re jacks of all trades, able to do whatever is needed to get the job done.

But before they can get to work, they often need to contend with thick layers of invasive mussels that completely cover the structures they’re working on. One team near Port Huron, MI has developed a method for obliterating the mollusks.

Watch the full video on the Great Lakes Now YouTube channel.

#GreatLakes #Mussels #InvasiveSpecies #Diving #CommercialDiving
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The post How commercial divers obliterate invasive mussels appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Original Article

Great Lakes Now

Great Lakes Now

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/03/27/how-commercial-divers-obliterate-invasive-mussels/

Great Lakes Now

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In: Echo, Wildlife
By Justin Fox Clausen Two insects are under consideration as Michigan's official state insect: the stonefly and, more recently, the Huron River leafhopper. The state is one of two in the country without an official insect.

Original Article

Great Lakes Echo

Great Lakes Echo

https://greatlakesecho.org/2026/03/27/stoneflies-or-leafhoppers-which-could-become-the-official-state-insect/

Capital News Service

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Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan celebrated the bipartisan American Water Stewardship Act after it passed the U.S. House. This allows reauthorization of funds for several regional water quality programs nationwide. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, or GLRI, protects and restores the Great Lakes ecosystem, targeting pollution and invasive species. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Saginaw, Michigan.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-glri-funding

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

After a day and a half of the Soo Locks being open, shipping has come to a standstill. Ice conditions and a lack of heavy U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers are creating delays for American shipping and manufacturing. Some U.S. shipping companies have suffered more than 24-hour delays. Read the full story by WLUC – TV – Negaunee, MI.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-soo-locks-down

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Between the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, 11 ice-breaking ships operate on the Great Lakes. The U.S. supplies nine of them of which 2 are down for repair and will likely be months before they are back on the water. Read the full story by Michigan Public.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-icebreakers-down

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

The “living” sand dune along Lake Michigan has buried beach parking lot and infrastructure within Indiana Dunes National Park. Annually the dune sand moves about five to ten feet toward the water, causing beach erosion. Read the full story by MLive.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-moving-dune

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Shrubbery and young trees crowding the forest floor have choked the red pine stands of Park Point for nearly two centuries. This spring, a prescribed burn on Duluth’s beloved sandbar aims to help red pines regenerate by removing 17 acres of the combustible understory. Read the full story by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-duluth-prescribed-burn

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Over 4 miles out from Cleveland, Ohio, salt mines exist 18,00 feet under Lake Erie. The mines are millions of years old and every day between 11,000-14,000 tons of salt are processed there to be applied to winter roadways. Read the full story by WANE-TV – Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-erie-salt-mine

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

Cruise the Great Lakes officials spent time in Erie, Pennsylvania, to determine if the city can be a port site in the future. Representatives gave a rundown of the economic and tourism impact of the cruises.  Read the full story by the Erie-Times News.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-great-lakes-cruises

Nichole Angell

On:
In: Daily News

In the late 1800s, a Great Lakes ship captain had more to worry about than icy water and temperamental gales. There were pirates on the lakes that had their eyes set on precious cargo like timber, cattle and leather goods. Actor Tom Kastle and director Francisco Torres explain how they bring the centuries-old pirate from the sea to the stage. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Public Radio.

Original Article

Great Lakes Commission

Great Lakes Commission

https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20260327-great-lakes-pirates

Nichole Angell