A pair of Great Lakes Piping Plovers that have captured the hearts of Chicago nature lovers by nesting each year at Montrose Beach have been dealt a setback, as a predator has apparently eaten the birds’ eggs from their nest. Read the full story by WMAQ-TV- Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210604-plovers
Toxins from harmful algal blooms are known to pollute water, but now researchers are looking at how they harm Great Lakes air and the implications for human health. Read the full story by the Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210604-algae-air
Advocates for the Great Lakes see President Biden’s budget and jobs plan as an opportunity to boost funding for restoration projects and outdated water infrastructure in the region. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210604-infrastructure
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
Kohler Co.’s quest to build another major golf course along Lake Michigan in Sheboygan County, WI has hit another legal obstacle. A Sheboygan County judge on Friday dismissed the company’s lawsuit that sought to preserve a Department of Natural Resources permit to fill a wetland, a permit that an administrative law judge later ruled was mistakenly granted. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-wetland-permit
Light fixtures resembling traffic signals with red, yellow and green lights have been installed on the beach’s bathhouse/concession building and at the kite boarding building across from the water filtration plant. In addition, red strobe lights have been installed on the buildings’ roofs and will be used to warn of hazardous conditions. Read the full story by Mlive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-beach-warning
Part of President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2022 Civil Works Budget is funding for the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, a new project that includes the three Great Lakes districts, Buffalo, Chicago and Detroit. The goal is to create a plan identifying vulnerable coastal areas and recommending actions to bolster the coastal resources’ ability to withstand, recover from and adapt to future hydrologic uncertainty with respect to built and natural coastal environments. Recent high-water events across the Great Lakes brought about the study’s need. Read the full story by DredgingToday.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-coastal-resiliency
Researchers hope to inspect the stomachs of as many as 10,000 fish from across Lake Superior in the coming year as a part of the Lake Superior PredatorPrey Project, a region-wide effort that includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario as well as federal and tribal agencies looking at the relationship between predator fish and their prey in the big lake. Read the full story by Brainerd Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-fish-superior
The construction of a huge, new lock at Michigan’s Soo Locks was awarded $480 million in federal funding in President Joe Biden’s 2022 federal budget proposal. While the budget is likely to undergo changes before approval by Congress, Biden’s proposed budget includes a large allocation for the new lock that will cost an estimated $922 million. The proposal includes about $595 million for projects within the Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-soo-locks
Shipwreck enthusiasts like Valerie van Heest, a veteran shipwreck explorer with the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, say the move south is disappointing in many respects because the artifact was previously accessible to the public near Deerlick Creek Park in South Haven, MI. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-shipwreck
Each year, the DNR’s beach program reaches out to citizens, local beach managers and public health departments along Wisconsin’s Great Lakes coasts to determine what changes, if any, are needed to the Wisconsin beach list and program information. The proposed list includes one new beach and changes to two existing beaches. Read the full story by Ashland Daily Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-wisconsin-beaches
The Ohio River Basin has many of the same challenges as the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and many other watersheds that receive considerable amounts of federal money on an annual basis. However, Ohio River Basin never received the sustained annual funding needed to achieve ecological and infrastructure restoration. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-infrastructure-ohio
The 50th anniversary is “a vindication” of the department to the former minister of the environment, who went back and forth between federal and provincial politics in an effort to champion environmental concerns. Read the full story by Canada’s National Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210602-canada-environment
Cleveland Metroparks recently celebrated the completion of $1.6 million in upgrades at Huntington Beach in Bay Village. Read the full story by The Morning Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-beach-upgrades
As the summer months approach, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is issuing its annual recommendation that Michiganders should avoid contact with foam they may see on Michigan lakes, rivers, and streams. Read the full story by WLUC-TV- Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-avoid-foam
The Memorial Day weekend is on the horizon and it just won’t be the same for several Mid-Michigan communities. After a dam failure caused Wixom Lake to drain last year, many businesses are bracing for a summer with less tourism. Read the full story by WJRT-TV- Sanford, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-lakeless
While the water hasn’t warmed to comfortable swimming levels yet, each Great Lake is surprisingly warmer than the long-term average water temperature for this date. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-warm-lakes
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel will apply lampricides to the Pine River (Mackinac and Chippewa counties, Michigan) to kill sea lamprey larvae burrowed in the stream bottom. Read the full story by WLUC-TV- Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-lampricides
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy announced 18 grants totaling $600,000 for projects that will support watershed organizations with conservation and educational efforts. Read the full story by WLUC-TV- Lansing, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-grants
Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute is offering free boat inspections and decontaminations starting on Memorial Day weekend at more than 60 boat launches and road-side locations across the Adirondack region in New York to help the public stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. Read the full story by Upstate New York.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-decontamination
A shipwreck discovered along the shores of Lake Huron in Point Clark, Ontario, a few weeks ago has been identified as pieces of the Homer H. Hine, an 1880s schooner. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-shipwreck
Great Lakes steel production rose by 5,000 tons last week, while U.S. steel mills remained close to 80% capacity utilization. National steel output is up 8.7% so far this year and more than 46% over the same time last year. Read the full story by the Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-steel
When it comes to the plants and animals that you may see on your trip to the beach, most people likely don’t give them much thought. However, some of those plants and animals are invasive in the waters or shores of Lake Michigan, causing environmental or socio-economic harm. Read the full story by WZZM-TV- Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210528-invasive
A chute-like steeppass fish-sorting system is being tested at the Emiquon Preserve on the Illinois River near Lewistown, Illinois as officials work to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes. View images by The Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-asian-carp
The Hessen Cassel Phase 3 project in Fort Wayne, IN features installation of a two-stage ditch, along with a bioswale, and a significant expansion of the Colonial Heritage wetlands that will include a walking trail. Project is being implemented in partnership with the Great Lakes Commission, the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program, the DNR’s Lake and River Enhancement Program, and the City Utilities’ stormwater fund. Read the full story by Fort Wayne’s NBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-restoration-indiana
After a seven-month closure, Brandenburg Park in Chesterfield Township, MI will reopen Memorial Day. The waterfront park has been closed since October for shoreline restoration and other upgrades aimed at improving habitat for wildlife and enriched opportunities to park users. The project was completed in collaboration with several agencies, including the Great Lakes Commission, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read the full story by The Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-restoration-michgan
There should be fewer sewage discharges at Cleveland’s Edgewater Beach this year thanks to recent upgrades to a sewer system originally built in the 1880s. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District announced Wednesday they have completed sewer upgrades they believe will reduce sewer overflows at the beach. Read the full story by WOIO-TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-sewer-upgrade-erie
The harmful algae bloom in western Lake Erie is expected to be smaller than normal this summer, according to early projections released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Data showed the toxic blue-green algae bloom will be about the same size as those in 2016, 2018, and 2020, but much smaller than the blooms of 2017 and 2019. Read the full story by Blackburnnews.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-algae-bloom-erie
As this year’s boating season officially kicks off, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation is reminding water recreationists to do their part in protecting New York’s waters from aquatic invasive species by remembering to clean, drain, and dry watercraft and equipment. Read the full story by Fingerlakes1.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-boating-invasive-species
Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts surveyed residents of the north shore of Lake Superior exploring how communities respond to climate related issues and problems. The study revealed that levels of civic engagement in climate adaptations were generally low. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-climate-change
Promoting “universal access,” the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy has been pursuing a goal to preserve the outdoors for everybody as a part of their Campaign for Generations, a $71.4-million, six-year fund-raising effort that will end on June 30. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210527-trails
University of Toronto researchers released plastic bottles with GPS trackers into the Toronto Harbor with the hope of monitoring the bottles’ travel throughout Lake Ontario. The research will inform the movement of garbage across the lake and improve waste management. Read the full story by Yahoo News Canada.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-plastic-bottles
With summer quickly approaching, popular tourist destinations across the Great Lakes region are fully opening for business and hoping to attract tourists to the many recreational opportunities along the lake shoreline. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-tourists
The cities of Saginaw, Michigan, and Muskegon, Michigan, are resuming water shutoffs for failure to pay water bills. The change comes after a statewide pandemic moratorium expired at the end of March. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-shutoffs
The Michigan Climate and Energy Summit brought out Michigan’s two US Senators to discuss the federal government’s response to climate change, including the impact of President Biden’s stimulus plan on addressing Great Lakes protection and tackling climate impacts of the region’s agriculture and forestry industry. Read the full story by WWUP -TV – Sault St. Marie, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-climate-summit
When Lake Michigan water levels were high in the 1960s, one resident in St. Joseph, Michigan, adopted a unique strategy for creating a breakwall to prevent erosion: piling junk cars on the beach to stabilize the shoreline and prevent bluff erosion. Read the full story by WZZM-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-car-graveyard
Chicago’s 22 beaches along Lake Michigan will re-open to the public for the first time since September 2019. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-chicago-beaches-open
A panel of experts on invasive grass carp convened at this week’s Great Lakes Fishery Commission annual meeting discussed strategies for removing grass carp from the northwest Ohio waterways and installing structural barriers to prevent the further spread of carp. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-grass-carp
The removal of the Pucker Street Dam on the Dowagiac River in Berrien County, Michigan, heralded the return of salmon and steelhead fish to upstream breeding grounds. The dam removal will support the fishery industry by improve fish breeding. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-remove-the-dams
President Biden proposed billions in funding to replace the nation’s lead water pipes. Flint, Michigan, is an example of how to fix the problem and the challenges that could slow progress. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-lead-pipes
Even as water levels drop on Lake Michigan, coastal erosion continues to damage the shoreline and impact infrastructure and buildings along the coast. Read the full story by WXMI-TV—Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210526-water-levels
More fishing trips could cause more damage to native fish populations in the Canadian portion of the Great Lakes than aquatic invasive species, according to a recent study. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-fish-population
On the western edge of Lake Erie is a green, oily sludge that comes out regularly every summer and lasts into the first month of fall. It’s an issue that will require regional collaboration to solve. Read the full story by WJBK – TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-lake-erie
The Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor in Portage, Indiana was one of eight ports in the United States to win a Pacesetter Award for its performance during the 2020 shipping season. Read the full story by The Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-port-award
Environmental advocates are urging Detroit, Michigan’s City Council to take action on an ordinance that aims to safeguard the Detroit River by imposing stricter rules for companies operating along the waterway. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-detroit-river
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin emergency dredging of Lake Michigan’s St. Joseph Harbor early June, expediting the process to restore critical navigation, the agency said in a news release. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-dredging
A century-old shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Michigan is now officially on the Wisconsin Register of Historic Places. Read the full story by WDJT – TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-shipwreck
To help improve water quality and soil health, Canadian federal and provincial governments are providing more than $2.5 million for the Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair watersheds.. Read the full story by Chatham-Kent This Week.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-watershed-funding
The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup (GLPC) has launched a new campaign called “Little Bits, Big Problems” to help tackle the problem of plastics pollution in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by CTV News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-dec-plastic-pollution
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Syracuse-based Great Lakes Research Consortium (GLRC) announced $121,741 in grant awards for five research projects that will help restore and protect the health of New York’s Great Lakes and surrounding communities, including one project led by Clarkson Assistant Biology Professor Andrew David. Read the full story by Finger Lakes 1 News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210525-dec-funding
