Lake Superior is one of the fastest-warming lakes in the world. As national parks around the United States try to raise awareness about climate change, those around Lake Superior are taking steps to cut their emissions. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-lake-superior-nationalparks-cuttingfossilfuels
The Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy was awarded a grant totaling over $48,000 to assist coastal communities and Tribes in Michigan’s upper peninsula address coastal hazards. Read the full story by Soo Leader.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-program-communities-promote-resiliency
With the warmer-than-average temperatures and lack of snow this winter, what will that mean for the water levels across the Great Lakes this spring and summer? Scientists say we can expect “larger beaches and shallower water” this year. Read the full story by WWJ – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-abnormalwinter-waterlevels-greatlakes
Oneida, a First Nation south of London, Ontario, says compensation from the federal government in a class action settlement will be a relief for members who haven’t had clean drinking water in years. After a years-long court battle, Ottawa opened the First Nations drinking water settlement process in 2022, offering compensation up to $8 billion to First Nations that have suffered for long periods under drinking water advisories. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-oneida-cleanwater-classaction-lawsuit
The Soo Locks, a gateway on the St. Mary’s River between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes, will open on the evening of March 22, kicking off the 2024 shipping season three days earlier than originally planned. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-lakesuperior-steelindustry-earlystart
A Michigan man saw an advertisement on social media for the Mackinac Bridge Swim. It offered a chance for him to swim the length of the bridge that links Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. To date, it has remained his most memorable swim. Read the full story by The Oakland Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-mightymac-swimming
The Lake Huron Fishing Club celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Port Elgin, Ontario, fish hatchery with an open house where visitors of all ages had the opportunity to tour the hatchery. The hatchery has raised and cared for thousands of trout and salmon fry that volunteers transport to the Saugeen River where they make their way to Lake Huron. Read the full story by the Saugeen Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-lakehuron-fishing-hatchery
There’s a resounding call in Michigan to shut down Line 5 with thousands of individuals organizing rallies, sending postcards, and urging their elected officials to end this threat. Various legal challenges, permit processes, and environmental analyses are currently underway, but President Joe Biden has the ability to protect the Great Lakes by revoking Line 5’s presidential permit. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-biden-line5-greatlakes
Ship captains, cadets and other uniformed personnel from the United States and Canada gathered Sunday at Mariners’ Church in Detroit to receive blessings for themselves, their crews, their families, and their boats. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240311-detroit-blessing-fleet-crew
With parts of the Lake Erie coast eroding at a pace of four metres or more a year — some of the highest rates in the Great Lakes — one group is appealing for federal funding to fight it. Read the full story by the Norfolk and Tillsonburg News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-thegrandcanyon-lakeerie-shoreline-erosion
Scientists are discovering that as we expel traces of pharmaceuticals, they may not be so good for the health of our aquatic wildlife, and perhaps us. A new report by researchers at the University of Montreal evaluates the occurrence and risks of 27 pharmaceuticals and metabolites in the St. Lawrence River watershed. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-pharmaceuticalpollution-st-lawrence-region
Plenty of stories have been told about the mythical, mysterious Bermuda Triangle, but did you know that some claim Lake Michigan has one of its own? It is called the Lake Michigan Triangle. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-lakemichigantriangle-greatlakes
Started in 1976, more than 410,000 Fish Ohio pins have been handed to anglers who submit a catch matching or surpassing established length standards for individual species. Some anglers try to earn at least one every year. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-ohiodnr-anglers-fish-rewards-pins
Congressional lawmakers are coming to Wisconsin later this week to talk about an important resource that keeps the Great Lakes region’s economy afloat: icebreaking. Senator Tammy Baldwin is set to host a hearing with U.S. Coast Guard officials and business leaders to testify on the need to expand icebreaking capacity on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-greatlakes-economy-icebreakers-baldwin
The Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative was launched in 2007 by the Great Lakes Fishery Trust with a goal of letting students explore the Great Lakes’ ecosystems through projects. Last year’s projects included a rain garden and a beach cleanup. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-group-students-greatlakes
A bill that would enable private waterfront development on public lands that were once submerged in Wisconsin’s Great Lakes waters has passed both state houses and now heads to the desk of Governor Tony Evers. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Watch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-greatlakes-waterfrontproperty-development-governor
The long, fast, toothy muskellunge (also known as muskie or musky) is nicknamed the “Fish of 10,000 Casts” due to its notoriously elusive nature. It is the apex predator in all waters where it’s found, known to hide in underwater cover, aggressively ambushing prey. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-wisconsin-statefish-top-food-chain
In Ontario, an icebreaker may be an unlikely sight in the Port of Thunder Bay this year, as ice coverage across the Great Lakes remains low. The lack of ice could mean an extended shipping season. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240226-greatlakes-lowicecoverage
A WWII-era shipwreck known for its captain’s strange behavior on its final day above the waves has been found deep in Lake Superior – about 35 miles off the tip of Michigan’s northernmost Keweenaw Peninsula. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-worldwar2-lakesuperior-shipwreck
Minnesota is seeing a glaring lack of snow and lake ice this winter, and a new report underscores how climate trends are leading to diminished ice seasons on the Great Lakes. Findings issued by the nonprofit Climate Central note that all five lakes have experienced a decades-long decrease in ice cover. Read the full story by Public News Service.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-greatlakes-low-ice
Michigan’s historic S.S. Badger car ferry is taking reservations for the 2024 season Lake Michigan crossings. This year marks the 71st anniversary of the ferry, the last coal-fired passenger steamer in the United States. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-ssbadger-summer-lakemichigan
The Gordie Howe bridge is the first international border crossing to join the Trans Canada Trail. The bridge will connect Windsor’s Great Lakes Waterfront Trail to the Iron Belle Trail and Great Lakes Way in Detroit, Michigan. Trail users will be able to walk or bike overtop of the Detroit River via the multi-use path network. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-transcanadatrail
Officials are still cleaning up, and investigating, a chemical spill into the Bear Creek Drain in Macomb County, Michigan. The chemicals, at present unknown, turned the creek bright blue-green. The drain eventually flows into Lake St. Clair. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-macombcounty-drain-blue
Two harbor projects were among the $10 million in grants awarded through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Harbor Assistance Program. Superior, Wisconsin, will receive $813,800 to stabilize the existing shoreline and remove a failing dock wall on General Mills property located on the St. Louis River, and $3 million to rebuild the dock wall on property owned by Elkhorn Industries. Read the full story by The Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-wisconsin-superior-portfacilities
Four U.S. representatives, including two from Michigan, and the bipartisan Great Lakes Task Force introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Act of 2024 Tuesday in Washington. Right now, the GLRI is set to expire at the end of the 2026 fiscal year, but this legislation would reauthorize it for another five years through FY 2031. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-boost-greatlakes-funding
Unless a protracted cold wave sets in, Lake Superior will likely set a new record this winter for lowest average amount of ice cover, according to data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Read the full story by BayToday.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-lakesuperior-lowicecover
The National Museum of the Great Lakes opened a new micro exhibit that examines the Great Lakes connection to the famed Tuskegee Airmen, an elite group of African American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-museumofgreatlakes-tuskegeeairmen
The oil company Enbridge wants to move its Line 5 oil pipeline from the Straits of Mackinac into a tunnel beneath the lake, and the Michigan Public Service Commission recently signed off on this plan, issuing Enbridge a site permit. That decision could make things worse. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240212-relocate-line5-tunnel
The oldest living Great Lakes piping plover has survived another migration journey, and is alive and well in her preferred winter stomping grounds in Georgia. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-greatlakes-pipingplover
The St. Lawrence Seaway had a busy year during its longest shipping season ever – nearly 38 million tons of cargo transited the binational system in 2023, which was an overall increase of more than 3.4 percent. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-stlawrenceseaway-shippingseason-2023
An engineering company being sued by Flint residents over consultation it provided following the city’s switch to the Flint River for drinking water will settle the case for $25 million — a decision that comes about two weeks before class action litigation was set to go to a second trial. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-veolia-settlement-flintwatercrisis
The Bay of Green Bay could join a network of 30 designated coastal sites that protect and study estuaries. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-bayofgreenbay-protected-researchreserve
Medicinal drugs polluting the St. Lawrence River are threatening aquatic wildlife, according to a new study. Read the full story by Newsweek.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-stlawrenceriver-contaminated-toxicdrugs
The poor ice conditions on Wisconsin waters this winter continue to adversely affect winter fishing opportunities, including the cancellation of ice fishing tournaments. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-icefishing-poorconditions
This week’s windy, warmer winter weather helped to melt the ice cover around the Western Basin of Lake Erie and its Lake Erie Island area. That prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to suspend its rule requiring boaters to seek permission to 72 hours before they launch. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-lakeerie-anglers-ohio-fishingreport
A new report estimates it will cost several billion dollars to remove 12.7 million cubic yards of copper mining waste called stamp sands which are slowly smothering an important fish spawning reef in Lake Superior along the Keweenaw Peninsula coastline. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240202-lakesuperior-miningwaste
Multiple small grants have been awarded to Buffalo, New York, area organizations through the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program. The projects aim to promote sustainable land use, improve water quality and manage natural resources using ecosystem-based approaches. Read the full story by Buffalo Rising.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-transformingwater-localgrants-sustainablefuture
The Superior Watershed Partnership recently received a Great Lakes grant to benefit water quality, coastal habitat and climate adaptation in the city of Marquette, Michigan. The $323,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Sustain Our Great Lakes Program will be used to install green infrastructure that incorporates native plant species to improve stormwater runoff at numerous sites along the ten miles of Lake Superior coastline within the city of Marquette. Read the full story by Radio Results Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-grant-lakesuperior-shoreline-marquette
The Lake Michigan shoreline transformed this week into a whimsical land of ice after a recent winter storm hit the Great Lakes region. Drone footage of both the South Haven and St. Joseph, Michigan, lighthouses covered in ice was captured last week. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-dronevideo-lakemi-lighthouses-ice
The Philip R. Clarke closed out the 2023-2024 shipping season on the St. Marys River, as the last freighter through the Soo Locks at around 9:45 Tuesday morning. Read the full story by Pelham Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-freighter-wrapsupseason
After netting its largest-ever catch of invasive carp in the Mississippi River in November, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is moving ahead with a revised plan to keep the bottom-feeding fish from spreading across the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Read the full story by the Pioneer Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-minnesotadnr-invasivecarpbattle
Farmers in Scott County, Minnesota, will have access to $8 million in grant money from the United States Department of Agriculture to implement conservation practices aimed at improving water quality and soil health, preventing erosion, and creating wildlife habitat. Read the full story by The Quad-City Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-grant-scottcounty-conservationpartnership-ducksunlimited
A deteriorating public access walkway in Muskegon State Park on Lake Michigan in Muskegon, Michigan, has been identified as a federal project through the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-muskegonstatepark-federalfunds-walkway
In Richland Township, Michigan, state and federal environmental regulators are investigating a “significant” oil leak in Saginaw County. Local residents say the oil has been leaking since before the holidays. Read the full story by WJRT-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-epa-egle-oilleak-saginawcounty
On Monday, commissioners of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District accepted a bid from Michels Corporation to build the storage facility that will permanently house polluted sediment from the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-michaelscorp-milwaukee-river
Although sodium chloride is an effective way to melt ice on roads, it can negatively impact wildlife when used in excess. Leftover road salt — or de-icing salt used on sidewalks and driveways — washes into storm drains and ultimately into our waterways. Read the full story by The Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-less-salt-protect-watersheds
In Ohio, the Miller Ferry to Put-in-Bay and Middle Bass Island shared several breathtaking photos of Put-in-Bay that show larger-than-life rock structures. Parts of the bay and shoreline usually hidden beneath Lake Erie were on display thanks to the effects of a seiche and high winds. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-highwinds-exposes-lakeerie-putinbay
Driving through blizzards, gusting winds, super-chilled water — these are the things that warm the heart of a “laker.” For winter surfers on the Great Lakes, bad weather is almost always good. The worse the weather, the better the surfing. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-wintersurgers-michigan-badweather
Last Friday, ship enthusiasts in Northern Michigan were excited to see the Arthur M. Anderson ore carrier motor into Little Traverse Bay to seek protection from the storm. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-famousfreighter-northernmichigan
The Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven will host the next segment of its Working Waterfront Lecture Series, featuring a program about the Mackinac Railway ferries and their role in ice breaking on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Herald-Palladium.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-greatlakes-icebreakers
