As a part of a water trail network called the Great Lakes Way, officials in Michigan and Canada signed a memorandum of understanding last week to connect pedestrian trails on either side of the border of a new bridge over the Detroit River. The bridge is scheduled to open by the end of 2024. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-international-path
Michigan legislators in 2021 approved a five-year, $25 million budget for the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to target farms in five 20,000-acre sub-watersheds in southeast Michigan for intensive analysis of nutrient runoff. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-nutrient-runoff
A resolution for flooding at Sheba’s Island causeway and general improvement and protection are the focus areas for the West Lake Community Association, located East of Toronto along Lake Ontario, to help sustaining a healthy lake and wetlands. Read the full story by County Live.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-community-wetland
Federal officials announced plans this week to list the tricolored bat as endangered, the second U.S. bat species recommended for the designation this year as a fungal disease ravages their populations. The northern long-eared and the tricolored are among a dozen North American bats afflicted by white-nose syndrome, which disrupts their crucial winter hibernation. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-bats
After 25 years of discussions, the Port of Oswego Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to fund and conduct a study to deepen Oswego Harbor in Lake Ontario. Once complete, Seawaymax Class freighters, the largest to travel the Great Lakes, U.S. Navy ships and Great Lakes cruise ships could use the Port of Oswego. Read the full story by Spectrum News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-harbor
It has been more than two years since the collapse of the Sanford and Edenville Dams in mid-Michigan, which drained the lakes the dams once held back. While the lakes have remained dry, the beds of the drained lakes are now teeming with vegetation. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Sanford, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-dams
As Great Lakes cruising picks up, the town of Bayfield, Wisconsin, weighs the pros and cons of more ships and their impact on the town and the environment. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-cruising
The public is invited to tour the sturgeon passage facility at the Menominee Dam in Menominee, Wisconsin, on Sept. 20. Attendees will learn how Lake Michigan’s sturgeon population can now navigate around two hydroelectric dams on the Menominee River to spawn. Read the full story by the EagleHerald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-sturgeon
Nearly a dozen waterspouts have been spotted over Lake Erie and Lake Michigan this past week. Several Northeast Ohio residents witnessed the phenomenon, as at least one waterspout was seen over Lake Erie west of Cleveland. Read the full story by WEWS-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220914-waterspout
The death of an English monarch portends the crowning of another and that means giving King Charles III the gift of a pie filled with Michigan flavor. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-mi-lampreypie-england
Anglers on McKinley Pier in Milwaukee, WI this week were treated to a succession of evenings with the bright orb rising through clear skies over Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-chinooksalmon-lakemichigan
Saturday marked the end of the sailing season for the U.S. Brig Niagara. Forty daysail students participated in a trip around the Bayfront and out to the lake for an educational program. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-usbrig-niagara
A replica of a historic tall ship is sailing down the St. Lawrence River this week, on its way to the Atlantic Ocean and then down the east coast. The square-rigged Nao Trinidad was built in Spain in 2018. Read and listen to the full story by North Country Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-tallship-trinidad
Once upon a time, there was a small town in Ontario that was named the “prettiest” in Canada by none other than Queen Elizabeth II. With clear blue skies, stunning landscapes and multiple beaches, there’s no surprise here that this town has left many, especially royalty, in awe. Read the full story by Curiocity.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-ontario-queenelizabeth
Short of an order to decommission the Line 5 pipeline, an Ojibwe tribe on the south shore of Lake Superior has secured a different legal victory in its federal lawsuit against Canadian pipeline company Enbridge. Read the full story by the Wisconsin Examiner.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-linefive-enbridgelawsuit
Great Lakes shipbuilding and repair giant Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding broke ground on a new 19,000 sq. ft. machine shop at their Sturgeon Bay, WI location today. Inside the future 300-ft. long building, shipbuilders will have access to two overhead cranes capable of lifting 5 and 30 tons. At the other end of the building there will be offices, restrooms, a lunchroom and a tool room. The facility will primarily support Bay’s repair business. Read the full story by Marine Insight.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-shipbuilding-newfacility
COMMENTARY – Erieites might gripe about the harsh winters that we experience but compared to all of the horrible weather affecting much of the nation, we have it pretty good. Read the full story by Erie-Times News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-eriesclimate
On September 18, join Save the Dunes as they celebrate the journey and migration of the Monarch butterfly through our region with music and food at Michigan City’s Brewery Lodge & Supper Club. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Save the Dunes’ work to protect and advocate for the Indiana dunes. Read the full story by WBND-LD-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-monarchs-savethedunes
Rep. Marcus Evans has introduced a bill that lays the groundwork for a proposed wind farm in Lake Michigan, about 10 miles from the shores of the Southeast Side. The bill sets up a fund that would help the state to compete for federal money, including $230 million for port infrastructure projects available from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Read the full story by Archinect News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220912-offshore-windfarm-greatlakes
Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at her residence at Balmoral Castle. She was 96 years old. As many people take a moment to look back on her life and legacy following her passing, it includes a moment in Wisconsin history when the British monarch visited the United States. Read the full story by WGBA-TV – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-queenelizabeth-milwaukee
Michigan has had a record number of piping plover chicks. That means the United States is nearly halfway to its goal of having 150 breeding pairs of piping plover parents. The Great Lakes piping plovers have been endangered since the 1980s when as few as 12 to 17 pairs of the birds had fledglings. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-greatlakes-pipingplovers
In a press release, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) applauded FEMA for its intent to fund the Safeguard Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Act, which is intended to address shoreline erosion and flooding. Read the full story by the Huron Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-fema-stormact
If you’re in Toronto and have noticed a storm drain covered in green paint, there is a unique and environmentally-focused reason for it. Students at the University of Toronto, a collection of them that go by the “U of T Trash Team,” said the green paint means the storm drain is, in fact, an Enviropod “LittaTrap” that collects trash and litter and “diverts it” from draining into Lake Ontario. Read the full story by CityNews.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-torontostormdrains
Mermaid Straw, the Valparaiso-based reusable straw maker, is partnering with Save the Dunes to clean up West Beach at the Indiana Dunes National Park. The business that makes metallic straws to replace single-use plastics coordinates volunteers to pick up litter on the beaches as part of its mission to save the Earth. Read the full story by NWI Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-savethedunes-beachcleanups
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently completed two projects to create new spawning habitat for native fish that are critical for local economies and ecological diversity in Jefferson County. Read the full story by the Central New York Business Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-spawningprojects-ontario
Harmful algal blooms now rank with climate change as a systemic ecological threat and a severe public policy challenge. Collaboration between governments has generated formal state, federal, and bi-national commitments to reduce nutrient discharges, and thorough action plans to achieve them. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-toxicalgaeblooms
After years of limited action, the federal government is moving forward with multiple plans to establish regulations limiting toxic contamination from two PFAS chemicals used for nearly a century to make products resistant to heat, water, grease and stains. Read the full story by the Indiana Environmental Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-indianapfasproblem
Over the next six to eight years, the U.S. Army Corps will outfit an engineered channel in the Brandon Road Lock on the Des Plaines River, just outside Chicago, with a series of high-tech barriers that will prevent invasive carp from travelling upstream to Lake Michigan while still allowing boats to pass through. Read the full story by Cottage Life.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-invasivecarp
Work to lift the submerged James Whalen tugboat from Ontario’s Kaministiquia River is set to begin later this week. The century-old tugboat, which the City of Thunder Bay, ON has owned and kept moored along the river for nearly 30 years, took on water and then sank earlier this year. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220909-jameswhalentugboat
On Thursday evening, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers heard from the public regarding construction on Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 during an online event. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-line-5
A cross-border program keeps sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes at bay. But a two-year disruption was never part of the plan. Now experts predict there will be at least a temporary surge to lamprey populations in the lakes following a dip in control efforts during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the full story by Undark.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-lamprey
The New York state Assembly is putting together a task force to examine economic development and environmental issues unique to the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario watersheds. Read the full story by Spectrum News 1.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-task-force
A class of chemical compounds that are no longer produced in significant quantities nor being used in the manufacture of new products, called polychlorinated naphthalenes, or PCNs, has been found in herring gull eggs in the St. Lawrence River; the probable source of these chemical contaminants is the Detroit River. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-herring-gull
It was a banner year for the Great Lakes piping plover. Audubon Great Lakes reports 150 chicks have survived the fledgling process, the largest number since the bird was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1986. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-plovers
Since their launch August 6th, two uncrewed, drone-operated sailboats are quietly collecting data from Lake Superior to study the accuracy of fish abundancy estimates in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-sail-drones
The Lake Superior buoy operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, located a mere 50 miles offshore from Grand Marais, Minnesota, experienced anomalously cold water temperatures this year: temperatures that haven’t been recorded in decades. Read the full story by WTIP – North Shore, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-lake-temp
As lake sturgeon populations have decreased in Lake Michigan, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources hope to reintroduce and rehabilitate the lake sturgeon population through a streamside rearing program. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-sturgeon
The Environmental Protection Agency will be addressing concerns raised by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe over remediation efforts on New York’s Grasse River after the Tribal Council said the EPA’s chosen remedy to remediate the Grasse River was a “devastating failure.” Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-grasse-river
An Ottawa County, Michigan, electroplating company and two of its top officers have pleaded guilty to violating the federal Clean Water Act by discharging wastewater with excessive amounts of zinc. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220907-clean-water-act
Illinois state Rep. Marcus Evans has introduced a bill that lays the groundwork for a proposed wind farm in Lake Michigan, about 10 miles from the shores of the Southeast Side of Chicago. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-offshore-wind
A federal district judge in Michigan denied a request from members of hunting and fishing advocacy groups to intervene in treaty rights negotiations underway among state, federal, and tribal authorities. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-fishing-rights
Officials at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan are confident the recent change in the Platte River outlet did not happen naturally and are seeking those responsible. Read the full story by the Manistee News Advocate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-platte-river
Dragonflies have gathered in masses in Wisconsin and recent brisk west winds have helped concentrate the migrating dragonflies along Lake Michigan. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-dragonflies
A stand-up paddler from Kalamazoo, Michigan expects to break a Guinness World Record by paddling approximately 100 miles from Ludington to Suttons Bay, Michigan. Read the full story by the Ludington Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-paddling
An incredible waterspout swirling over Lake Huron has been captured on camera. Read the full story by The Mirror.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-water-spouts
Environmental activist group, Environmental Defence, claims that not enough has been done to reduce the impacts on Lake Erie from nutrient runoff. Read the full story by The Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-erie
A barge, belonging to Ashton Marine out of Muskegon, Michigan, ran aground early Wednesday on Lake Erie. It got stuck in the sand, about 10 feet offshore from a beach on the western side of Van Buren Point near Dunkirk, New York. Read the full story by The Post Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-barge
A U.S. National Weather Service Station radar signature of an estimated 500,000-member bank and barn swallow and purple martin “roost ring” (or bird doughnut) over Long Point, Ontario has bird enthusiasts fascinated. Read the full story by The Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-bird-migration
During a web conference hosted by the International Joint Commission on Tuesday, Kyle McCune, alternate U.S. chair for all three regional water regulation boards under IJC jurisdiction, explained why water levels are significantly low. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220902-water-levels
A new vessel has joined the U.S. Flag Fleet and has the distinction of being the first to be built on the Great Lakes since the early 1980’s. The ship was built by the Interlake Steamship Company and designed to carry all types of cargo throughout the Great Lakes freshwater system but officials say the vessel was specifically designed to navigate the tight bends of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. Read the full story by WJW-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220831-greatlakesfreighter
