This week, state senators adopted a resolution calling for equitable treatment among ports that deal in cargo imported and exported abroad. Titled Senate Resolution 74, the document calls on U.S. Customs and Border Protection to lift restrictions on ports in the state that have been in effect since 2016. Read the full story by The Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210719-ports-shipping
The Great Lakes Islands Alliance, a voluntary, bi-national network of leaders from 15 populated islands in the Great Lakes, now has dedicated staffing with the hire of a project manager Peter Hudson. Read full story by The Sault News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210719-islands
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa hopes to reintroduce elk to northeastern Minnesota by 2025, according to a proposal it submitted last week to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Read the full story by StarTribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-minnesota-elk
For decades a mill in Terrance Bay, Ontario sent polluting effluent containing endocrine disrupting chemicals into the bay, delaying sexual maturity and reducing hormone levels, fat storage, gonad size, and population size of the fish there. Now, in a recent review of cleanup efforts for one of the original Areas of Concern, results have shown improved conditions for white sucker, a native fish. Read the full story by Environmental Health News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-fish
Ten more counties have been added to the H2Ohio farmer incentive program in the new state budget. The H2Ohio program helps farmers reduce their nutrient runoff by installing limiters, plant cover crops during non-growing seasons, and will help purchase new equipment that distributes fertilizer beneath the surface instead of on top. Read the full story by WTOL–TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-ohio-nutrient-pollution
Nineteen wolves were transplanted on Isle Royale’s national park between 2018 and 2019 to bolster its nearly vanished wolf population and counterbalance the island’s swelling numbers of moose, and are now settling in. During the annual survey by Michigan Technological University researchers found evidence of least two litters of wolf cubs. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-wolves-isle-royale
Four piping plover chicks have hatched at Sandy Island Beach State Park in Oswego County, marking the second time this summer that a pair of the rare birds successfully nested on the beach and the first time in about 50 years that two breeding pairs were present on Lake Ontario’s eastern shore. Read full story by Syracuse.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-piping-plover-ontario
Restoration specialists with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are at work to bring back 200 acres of globally rare, forested wetland at the 2.5-mile-long island park in the Detroit River. Read the full story by The Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-restoration-michigan
State biologists and outside experts say wolves are not driving the low deer numbers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Instead, they have reported that weather, habitat availability, hunting and other factors have greater influence over deer population trends. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-wolves-michigan
A doctoral student and aerosol researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has published a study about airborne toxins from algal blooms. The study has evidence to suggest harmful toxins and algae itself are found in the air, indicating that airborne algal toxins may be more of a threat in the Great Lakes than previously thought. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210712-algae-pollution
According to a report about 60% of Great Lake beaches were potentially unsafe on at least one day in 2020, and some locations with 20% or more unsafe beach days. Read the full story by the Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-beaches-ecoli
A reoccurring environmental nightmare in Lake Erie can be fixed, but governments need the will to do it, says a Canadian Great Lakes researcher. Read the full story by Simcoe Reformer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-lake-erie
The state of New York is investing $14 million dollars in shoreline protection upgrades on the Olcott Harbor to rebuild and improve the shoreline structures that suffered heavy damage due to flooding in 2019. Read the full story by WKBW-TV – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-shoreline-ontario
Researchers at Michigan State University are enlisting the public’s help in studying water levels and erosion along the Great Lakes’ shorelines. Read the full story by WJRT-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-public-erosion
NOAA has released a nearly 200-page document for public comment that includes a draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the proposed Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary, which aims to protect and promote shipwrecks and other historically significant assets. Read the full story by Oswego County News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-ontario-marine-sanctuary
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assessment crews will be surveying for sea lamprey and applying lampricides in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula this month. Read the full story by WLUC–TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-lamprey-michigan
A clash between elemental forces — sun, rain, heat and ice — is what is threatening to upend centuries of relative stability along the Great Lakes’ 10,000 miles of shoreline, including the 22 miles that define Chicago’s eastern edge. And the best explanation is climate change. Read full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-climate-change
Scientists first noticed an invasive population of zebra mussels in Michigan’s Gull Lake in the mid-1990s. Afterwards, unexpected harmful algal blooms started appearing. Now, a long-term research project at the lake has shown that the mussels led to an increase in a type of bacteria called Microcystis that produces the algae. Read full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-mussel-algae
Chicago’s indomitable piping plovers, Monty and Rose, have welcomed three chicks with a fourth still possibly on the way. Read the full story by WTTW-TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-piping-plovers
Shoreline cities and towns in the Great Lakes region will be spending heavily in coming years to fix public infrastructure damaged by recent flooding and erosion, with estimated costs approaching $2 billion, officials said Thursday. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210709-flooding
Detroit mayor Mike Duggan is requesting federal assistance to assist the city with heavy damage from severe storms. In the past week, these severe storms hit Metro Detroit leaving home flooded and vehicles stranded on roadways. Read the full story by WDIV – TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-flooding-detroit
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week it will be conducting a full analysis on the potential environmental impacts of Canadian oil company Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 pipeline tunnel before deciding whether to issue permits for its construction. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-line-5
Sometime in the next week, four eggs belonging to piping plovers Nellie and Nish are expected to hatch at Maumee Bay State Park, Ohio. Nellie and Nish are the first pair to be seen nesting on Lake Erie in Ohio since the 1930s. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-piping-plovers-birds
Using stock from the Rainy River on the Minnesota-Ontario border, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources began stocking juvenile lake sturgeon in the Otter Tail River and other Red River tributaries in 1997 in an effort to reintroduce the species to the Red River Basin. Twelve years later, the first reproductively mature female sturgeon was discovered in the Red River Basin in 2019. Read the full story by The Bemidji Pioneer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-sturgeon-fish
National, state, and provincial parks around the Great Lakes are expecting a spike in visitation this summer as the United States and Canada continue to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-parks
The International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board has indicated that unless the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River basin receives “significant” rainfall, it appears that water levels have reached maximum for the season. Lake Ontario’s level is presently at 245.14 feet, more than a foot below its long-term average for this point in the year of 246.29 feet. Read the full story by Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-water-levels
Record-high water levels in Lake Ontario in 2017 and 2019 caused significant flooding and erosion along New York state’s Crescent Beach. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed repairs to a breakwater that was damaged during the high waters, and further efforts to mitigate future impacts from flooding include the development of a barrier bar beach to reduce wave energy that reaches the shoreline. Read the full story by Finger Lake Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-ontario-water-level
PFAS has been detected in the groundwater below the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township, Michigan. Thirteen of the 24 homes on well water north of the airport opted for their water to be tested by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and results for 11 homes showed detectable concentrations of one or more PFAS compounds. Read the full story by The Oakland Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210628-pfas
New York state Health Department released updated guidelines this week increasing the number of fish caught in bodies of water across the state. Entire families can safely eat an increased number of wild fish from Lake Ontario, the Niagara River and most of the St. Lawrence River for the first time in decades after new data showed lower levels of chemicals in various sportfish. Read the full story by Livingston County News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-ontario-fish
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has confirmed the presence of blue-green algae in a water sample collected at Swimming Area of Hazelwood Lake, north of Thunder Bay, ON on June 14. The Ministry is conducting toxin analysis on the water sample. However, it is important to remember that water should be avoided whenever a blue-green algae bloom is present, and for about 2 weeks after it has dissipated, regardless of the toxin analysis results because blue-green algae can turn toxin production on and off in response to environmental conditions. Read the full story by GreatLakesNow.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-algae-ontario
An Ottawa-based renewable energy organization is looking to raise a fresh round of financing in a bid to acquire two new wind turbines along the shore of Lake Huron. The Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative says it’s launching a new offering to raise up to $1.3 million to purchase the two turbines in partnership with an independent power producer that belongs to a “well-established, municipally owned group of energy infrastructure companies.” Read the full story by Ontario Business Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-wind-energy
Federal officials have designated 962 square miles off of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan coastline as a National Marine Sanctuary to protect historic shipwrecks in the area from Kewaunee County south to Ozaukee County. The designation will protect 36 shipwrecks, 21 of which are on the National Register of Historic Places and may include as many as 60 additional shipwrecks. Read the full story by Madison.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-shipwreck-sanctuary
A postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton who studies bird behavior and communication spent two weeks gathering trash along a 7 km stretch of shoreline and found 380 balloons. The plastic balloons found mark some of the biggest milestones in our lives: births, deaths, graduations, homecomings, engagements, and gender reveal parties end up in the Great Lakes by the hundreds of thousands. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-pollution
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has been awarded a $2 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative program grant from the United State Environmental Protection Agency to help administer the H2Ohio initiative across the Maumee River Watershed. The grant project will run through October 2024 to support H2Ohio’s long-term work to improve water quality across the Maumee Watershed. View images by Ohio’s Country Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-ohio-water-quality
Much of the Southwestern United States is currently under severe drought conditions. The knee-jerk solution to the problem is to look toward Great Lakes water. Read the full story by thumbwind.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-drought-great-lakes-water
With the passing of colors and brief remarks from each, command of the Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio Division passed from Maj. Gen. Robert F. “Bob” Whittle Jr. to Col. Kimberly “Kim” A. Peeples in a June 11 change of command ceremony. Read the full story by The Waterways Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-army-corps-great-lakes
Lake Michigan has weathered seasons of smelly and slimy shores in decades past. The 1960s and ’70s were especially dire and demanded human intervention in order for clean water to be restored. Salmon stocking and introduction are credited for assisting in the clean up and slashing the invasive alewife population by 90% of its peak. Read the full story by WOOD – TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-fish
A four-year research project funded by the Canadian government, looking into the impact of microplastics on freshwater ecosystems and on agricultural soils will have important implications for the Great Lakes. It will measure microplastic levels in wastewater from treatment plants draining into Ontario rivers and streams that feed into the Great Lakes. Researchers hope to better understand which treatments are best able to deal with microplastics. Read the full story by GreatLakesNow.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210623-plastic-pollution
The rare piping plovers nesting on Montrose Beach are getting a second chance to become parents this year. “Rose and Monty” lost their eggs just days ago to a skunk that managed to get into their protected area, but they have built another nest and Rose laid a new egg. Read the full story by WLS – TV – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-piping-plover
The state held a public feedback event this past week as New York State works on a study about creating wind energy in the Great Lakes, which is expected to be finished early next year. Read the full story by WIVB – TV – Syracuse, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-wind-energy
Central Michigan University received a $10 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the latest in a series of grants from the EPA with $30 million being awarded to CMU since 2010 in support of coastal wetland monitoring. Read the full story by Epicenter Mt. Pleasant.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-wetlands-epa
The wetlands are a major part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s H2Ohio initiative to improve Lake Erie water quality, but there has been controversy as some doubt it will serve that purpose. Read the full story by WTVG – TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-wetlands-restoration
The Great Lakes News Collaborative noted in February that experts view the state, with its abundant supply of fresh water, as a likely refuge for climate migrants. Though the collaborative found that, in many cases, the coordinated, long-range preparation for climate change has not been done. Read the full story by GreatLakesNow.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-great-lakes-climate-change
The USACE Buffalo District and its contractor Michigan-based Great Lakes Dock & Materials, L.L.C have completed the repair work to the east breakwater in Great Sodus Harbor in Wayne County, NY. Repairs include 525 feet steel sheet pile wall providing protection critical to reduce the rate of erosion. Read the full story by DredgingToday.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-erosion-new-york
During a virtual meeting with people from Niagara and Orleans counties, the New York Department of State explained the Clear Program, and its goal of creating long term measures to protect the shoreline from extreme lake water levels. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-ontario-water-levels
Researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. found that from 1980 to 2017, oxygen levels fell by about five per cent near the surface and 19 per cent in deep waters. Raising concern among scientists about the health of aquatic life. View images by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-climate-change-oxygen
Rebecca Esselman, a 20-year conservation veteran and executive director of the nonprofit Huron River Watershed Council discusses the status of PFAS, per and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals known to be persistent in the environment and Michigan’s recent lack of transparency in alerting citizens about PFAS. Read the full story by GreatLakesNow.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-pfas-pollution
Cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo will still be livable as the climate changes, and have the space to absorb climate migrants. Read the full story by Fast Company.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-climate-change
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is studying whether year-round shipping might someday be possible at the Twin Ports of Duluth/Superior. The study will look at decreasing ice on the Great Lakes due to climate change and the construction of a new lock in the Soo Locks. Read the full story by KBJR TV Channel 6 in Duluth.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210611-shipping
There may come a day on the Illinois River when a fish swims up a chute, slides through a scanner, and, after being recognized as a feared silver carp, is sorted and removed, eventually ending up in a carp burger on your dinner plate. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-carp-invasive
