Some ice has started to form along Lake Erie’s western edge, though federal scientists say these patches represent only the earliest stages of freeze-up, not the onset of lake wide ice. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-ice-lake-erie
Earlier this week, the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network announced an interactive mapping tool to help protect Michigan anglers looking to reel in a meal. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-pfas-action-group-map-eat-safe-fish
The village of Elberta, Michigan, has been awarded a $5.3 million grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the development of a waterfront park. The park project will be on 16 acres of property near the mouth of Betsie Bay, including Lake Michigan shoreline, which will eventually be transferred to the village from the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Read the full story by Benzie County Record Patriot.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-waterfront-park-elberta
John U. Bacon spent nearly four years researching and writing his new book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. The public has caught on to the new release titled The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-john-u-bacon-edmund-fitzgerald-book
Great Lakes shipping to ports like the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor and the Port of Chicago got off to a strong start in the 66th navigation season. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-greatlakes-shipping
If the predictions turn out to be accurate, it will be a second year in row of normal ice cover on the Great Lakes – a reprieve, given that winter is changing the most. The season has shortened by several weeks and is becoming increasingly warmer and wetter. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-winter-ice-cover-impacts-greatlakes
Two municipalities in northeast Wisconsin are getting federal funding to replace lead service lines. More than $159 million has been allocated to 29 municipalities across the state, including Manitowoc and Oshkosh, to ensure Wisconsinites have access to clean, safe drinking water that is free of lead. Read the full story by WTAQ – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-manitowoc-oshkosh-replace-lead-water-lines
Michigan House Republicans have unilaterally blocked about $8.3 million in spending aimed at helping residents of Flint deal with the long-term fallout of the drinking water crisis, as the GOP leader, Speaker Matt Hall, said the emergency in the city is over. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-house-speaker-flint-watercrisis
Research shows that the United States would need to invest nearly $3.4 trillion over the next 20 years to sufficiently fix and update its drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Much of the country’s water infrastructure was built 40 to 50 years ago and is showing its age. Michigan’s is no exception. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-michigan-water-infrastructure-work
The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes began ice-breaking operations in the Great Lakes on Wednesday for the winter shipping season. Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Spar will manage the ice-breaking needs of Western Lake Superior, specifically Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251212-coastguard-ice-breaking-greatlakes
Three U.S. Geological Survey centers in Wisconsin would close under the Trump administration’s plans for changes to the Department of the Interior, ending decades of research on the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and wildlife health. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-research-center-cuts
The future of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s successful sea lamprey control program is unknown amidst funding cuts and signs of the invasive creatures developing pesticide resistance. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-invasive-lamprey-comeback
A meteorologist explains the story behind the formation of Great Lakes, which started a billion years ago and involved mid-continental rift formation and ice age glaciers. Read the full story by WHEC-TV – Rochester, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-great-lakes-formation
An iconic, 150-year-old lighthouse sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan was damaged in the massive Thanksgiving storm system that recently slammed Grand Haven, Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-damaged-lighthouse
The Palisades Nuclear Plant, a facility that sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, was shut down just two years ago due to financial pressures. As a result of a $400 million federal investment, the plant is now poised to become the first U.S. commercial nuclear power reactor ever to be restarted. Read the full story by the Ottawa News Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-nucelar-plant-restart
Wisconsin’s wetland development program is in serious trouble, just as similar programs are in other Great Lakes states. Legislation safeguarding surface waters is eroding and the importance of local, preventive action has never been greater. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-wetland-protection
Michigan’s abundant water has turned into a cash cow for private bottled water companies who are making large profits off publicly owned water, while paying next to nothing for water extraction. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-water-company-profits
To combat the population loss of spectaclecase mussels, which are native to parts of the Great Lakes basin and some tributaries connected to the Great Lakes watershed, researchers with both the Minnesota and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released over 177 mussels into the Chippewa River in Northwest Wisconsin. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251210-mussel-reintroduction
Michigan’s Governor Whitmer and six other governors have signed a petition urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to monitor and collect data on microplastics. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-microplastics-petition
This year’s harmful algae bloom in western Lake Erie was among the mildest in a decade, but the improvement may owe more to favorable weather conditions than fundamental reductions in regional nutrient pollution from agriculture. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-erie-bloom
Last winter, a small buoy off Muskegon, Michigan, broke free from its mooring. Tracking temperature and wave height, it collected data scientists have chased for years: real-time measurements of what happens in the open water far from shore. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-runaway-buoy
Officials from Ogdensburg, New York, are urging federal lawmakers to support a multi-year eradication program targeting invasive water chestnut in the St. Lawrence and Oswegatchie rivers. Read the full story by North Country Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-water-chestnut
Ohio state wildlife officials say thousands of juvenile lake sturgeon were released in four Ohio rivers this year, including the Cuyahoga, as part of an effort to rebuild the endangered species. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-sturgeon-release
The Niagara Falls Storage Site received an additional $3 million from cost-recovery settlements to support ongoing cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater around its radioactive waste containment structure. The current phase of cleanup is expected to finish in April. Read the full story by Niagara-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-niagara-cleanup
The town of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, said it’s abandoning a project to build a stone barrier in Lake Michigan to protect homes from erosion. This comes after a nearly two-year legal battle with the environmental group Save the Dunes. Read the full story by Indiana Public Broadcasting.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-erosion-barrier
The ruins of a 19th-century Lake Michigan pier south of Kewaunee, Wisconsin, have joined the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. The remains of Sandy Bay Pier represent how commercial port complexes grew around rural economies along the lakeshore. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-historic-pier
A North East, Pennsylvania resident created an art piece from litter found along the shores of Lake Erie. The 22-by-37-inch piece, titled “Lake Erie Leftovers,” was made from items like toys, golf balls, and lighters. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-trash-art
An author walked along the coast of Lake Michigan 63 miles from Chicago’s North Side to Indiana Dunes and lived to write a book about it. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251208-lake-walk-book
Nearly $315,000 in federal funding is headed to local groups across the Great Lakes region to step up control of invasive phragmites, an aggressive reed that overwhelms shorelines and wetlands. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-phragmites-funding
The federal government has committed up to $400 million to develop two small nuclear reactors at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, an existing nuclear power plant in southwest Michigan on Lake Michigan. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-mi-nuclear-power
Great Lakes fishery managers are moving a suite of new sea lamprey control tools into broader use after early tests sharply reduced reproduction of the invasive predator in several rivers. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-lamprey-control
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced the completion of an experimental aquatic habitat reclamation project on Brocton Shoal in Lake Erie. The project utilizes high-velocity jetting to restore historical lake trout spawning grounds after being degraded by zebra and quagga mussels. Read the full story by WRFA – Jamestown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-nysdec-habitat-restoration
Ontario conservation authorities are pushing back on the provincial plan that would merge thirty-six conservation authorities to seven. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-ontario-conservation-authorities
The Center for Great Lakes Literacy launched a new, self-paced and online module designed for elementary, middle and high school teachers to learn and teach their students about the science of harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-habs-free-course
Many of Michigan’s most popular fish are getting smaller as inland lakes warm, according to a new University of Michigan study that analyzed more than 75 years of records from nearly 1,500 lakes. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-fish-size
The U.S. National Ice Center released its 2025-2026 seasonal outlook this week, predicting near normal ice conditions across the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-ice-forecast
Fundraising is underway for a $450,000 project to restore the exterior of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse keepers’ dwelling at Ludington State Park. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251205-lighthouse-restoration
Researchers are beginning to see ice form on the Great Lakes. Historically, ice creation begins in earnest in early December and ice remains on the lakes until late May. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-ice-greatlakes-freezing
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) has confirmed that quagga mussels have been found in the north end of Black Bay on Lake Superior, marking the latest appearance of the invasive species on the lake’s north shore. The mussels were first flagged earlier this month through a post on the iNaturalist app. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-quagga-mussels-spreading-lake-superior
The outcome of a municipal court trial in Shorewood, Wisconsin, could become a decisive flashpoint over public access to Lake Michigan’s shoreline. Similar legal battles have been settled in other Great Lakes states, but the topic hasn’t been litigated in Wisconsin. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-public-walk-lake-michigan
The piping plover shorebird is a rare sight in Indiana, but here’s why they wear so many colorful bands. Read the full story by the Indianapolis Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-shorebird-bracelets
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is recommending a 39% reduction in the lake whitefish quota for commercial fishers in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan but no change in Green Bay. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-dnr-whitefish-harvest-lakemichigan
Despite recent news of data center development in Michigan, the development boom is much more dramatic in Illinois and Ohio, two states that account for half of all operational facilities in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-michigan-data-center-greatlakes
An environmental crisis is unfolding in Lake Erie, where plastic pollution has increased dramatically over the past decade despite widespread conservation efforts. The findings are dramatic in Cleveland, Ohio, but more so near the eastern end of Lake Erie, where researchers found up to 700,000 particles per kilometer – up from just 19,000 a decade ago. That’s surface-area plastic and does not account for whatever has sunk to the bottom. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-lake-erie-plastic-crisis
Canadian builder, owner, and pilot of the houseboat, The Neverlanding, wanted to sail her through the Straits of Mackinac, down Lake Michigan to be in Chicago by Christmas. Wintry weather on the Great Lakes gave him second thoughts. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-huron-homemade-houseboat-captain-thumb
Strong winds that prompted an Environment Canada alert this week have laid bare Lake Erie shoreline not often seen, but they also briefly uncovered a rarely seen shipwreck. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-lakesuperior-shipwreck-uncovered
Looking for a holiday gift for a reader who loves the Great Lakes? There are several prospects to consider. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251203-great-lakes-books-holiday-giftlist
While ice does play some role, the results of a new study show the humidity of the air over the lakes has a much more dominant effect on how much water is sucked out of the lakes into the atmosphere. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-lake-evaporation
Under a new rule to protect Wisconsin’s cleanest waterways finalized last week, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is required to conduct a review before regulated entities are allowed to discharge new or increased levels of contaminants into waterbodies classified as “high quality waters.” Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-wisconsin-water-rule
As once-abundant Great Lakes whitefish slide toward population collapse, biologists are trying something that would have sounded far-fetched a decade ago: hauling live fish upriver and simply letting them go. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251201-whitefish-transfer
