The State University of New York and officials at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation were awarded almost $25,000 to use genetics to identify and restore native beach grass along Lake Ontario. Read the full story by the Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-dune-grass
Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color bear the burden of pollution and endure inadequate public services like water and sewer. These are environmental injustices, and President Joe Biden came into office pledging to correct them. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-environmental-justice
Georgian Bay Islands National Park is gearing up for the second active season of a fight against an aggressive reed that has been called the country’s worst invasive plant: Phragmites. Read the full story by the National Parks Traveler.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-invasive-phragmites
The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards continue to cooperate in the mouth of the St. Clair River as it flows into Lake Huron, to both break ice and provide commercial vessel escorts in the shipping canal. Read the full story by the Voice News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-icebreaking
The recent cold snap impacts invasive species in different ways. Read the full story by the WXPR – Wausau, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-invasive-species
An Ontarian argues that the administrative decision of the United States to block the Keystone XL pipeline will have a negative impact on the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Read the full story by the Toronto Sun.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-pipelines
The National Museum of the Great Lakes is celebrating Women’s History Month a week early with a new virtual lecture series called, ‘Ladies of the Light: Michigan Women in the U.S. Lighthouse Service’ that will honor women and their role in the industry. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-lighthouse-lecture
A surfer from New York can be found riding the waves of Lake Ontario, even in the dead of winter. Read the full story by the Rochester City Newspaper.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-ontario-surfer
As Michigan’s ice fishing season comes to an end, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has set ice shanty removal deadlines for the state, beginning with Lake St. Clair this past weekend. Read the full story by WJRT-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210222-ice-fishing
As we approach the end of our cold spell, people won’t have many more chances to hit Lake Erie for some ice fishing. The popular winter hobby has drawn hundreds over the past two weeks. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-ice-fishing-erie
Deep winter snow and prolonged ice cover on Upper Peninsula inland lakes can create conditions that present unique habitat challenges to fish. Staffers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division annually survey lakes in late winter to determine if habitat variables are suitable for survival of fish stocked. Read the full story by the Iron Mountain Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-breathing-ice
Salt-speckled sidewalks, driveways and highways are synonymous with winter in the Great Lakes region. But while road salt is highly effective at deicing surfaces, the safety that salt provides for humans places a heavy burden on freshwater ecosystems. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-road-salt
Wisconsin and the rest of the nation have endured frigid temperatures in recent weeks, but officials with the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore say it won’t be enough for the ice caves to form on Lake Superior this winter. The park announced the ice caves would remain closed for the remainder of the season. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-ice-caves
In a deeply personal project, Detroit photographer and writer Amy Sacka combines black-and-white images, evocative words and family memories to appreciate ice fishing and its hardy enthusiasts. Read the full story by Deadline Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-last-ice
Nestlé Waters North America and its controversial Ice Mountain bottled water operations in Michigan are being sold to a pair of New York private equity firms — and that has water advocates who’ve knocked heads with Nestlé for years, alleging environmental impacts from its water extraction, worried about what comes next. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-nestle
Hundreds of visitors are flocking to the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron near the Straits of Mackinac to view huge piles of thick ice, which is crystal clear and features a deep blue tint. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-blue-ice
In New York, there’s optimism that the north country could dodge a summer of flooding along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. After years of flooding and property damage, the group that controls water levels is voicing optimism for 2021. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-flooding
Arctic air has blanketed the Midwest through most of February; as a result, ice coverage over the Great Lakes has increased rapidly. Read the full story by WFRV-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210219-ice-cover
Eagle Creek Renewable Energy which operates Morrow Dam near Kalamazoo, MI has stated it’s almost ready to dredge a small amount of sediment from the Kalamazoo River. But the company’s overall timetable for cleaning up the silt that poured out of the dam’s reservoir last year has not satisfied state regulators. Read the full story by WMUK – FM – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-michigan-dam-dredge
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy will lower the dam’s Tobacco River spillway Feb. 24 by more than 20 feet, which will drop water levels about 12 feet upstream of the dam by mid-March. The decreased water levels will make ice formations hazardous in those areas as the water recedes, according to a department statement. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-michigan-dam
Construction of the $20 million FishPass project is on hold. FishPass construction was supposed to start in January, however a judge has ruled that there’s enough evidence to argue it might need to go to a public vote. Read to the full story by WWTV – TV – Cadillac, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-fishpass-michigan
Multiple studies dating back to the 1970s have shown that road deicing salt has a negative impact on soil, vegetation, wildlife, surface water, groundwater and human health. In December 2020, Michigan passed Public Act No. 310 which states in part that, “the department must implement a pilot program on the use of agricultural additives to control ice on public roads [and] … review the potential efficacy and environmental impacts of agricultural additives, while maintaining the safety and mobility of the motoring public.” Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-road-salt-alternatives
A New York private equity firm, has purchased the bottled water brand as part of a $4.3 billion acquisition, which includes all of Nestle’s assets in Michigan, including a massive bottling factory in Mecosta County and several high-capacity groundwater extraction wells that have been the focus of intense criticism in recent years. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-michigan-nestle-water
A researcher from the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources has a plan to use Asian carp to address worldwide food insecurity. Read the full story by KPLR – TV – St. Louis, MO.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-invasive-asian-carp
A collection of environmental experts is scheduled to dissect the effects of and plans to address the New Zealand mud snail under Michigan Trout Unlimited’s webinar series which will begin Feb. 24 and include monthly sessions through June. Read the full story by Record-Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-invasive-snails-webinar
The Farmory raises the Green Bay strain of yellow perch in captivity because they need help to thrive as young fish. In the wild Green Bay yellow perch take two years to reach maturity but in these ideal conditions, the Farmory can grow them in a single year. Read the full story by WeAreGreenBay.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-wisconsin-fish-perch
Premier Doug Ford says he can’t get through to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over concerns about an estimated 3,000 Ontario refinery jobs that are at stake because of the state’s decision to close an underwater Enbridge pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac by May. Read and view the full story by Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-line-5-pipeline
The Ontario government is planning to expand the Greenbelt to encompass more urban river valleys and the Paris-Galt Moraine, a rock formation that stretches across the northwestern Greater Toronto Area with what could be the largest addition since it was originally protected in 2005. Read the full story by Canada’s National Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210218-ontario-conservation-greenbelt
The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, considered the entire Great Lakes 42% ice covered Tuesday which is about average. This represents an increase from last year at this time when only 14.2% of the lakes was iced over and is a little shy of 51.5% at this time in 2019. Read the full story by Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/2021021-ice-cover
Across the Upper Midwest, anglers are noticing changes to the fish they catch every year. As climate change warms rivers and lakes in Michigan, cold-water fish such as cisco are disappearing from some lakes. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-cc-fish
A fisheries biologist in Wisconsin accepted at least $20,000 in jars of lake sturgeon caviar in return for supplying to a caviar processor eggs that had been collected under the guise of research, a criminal complaint filed last week said. Lake sturgeon are a threatened species in North America and fishing sturgeon in Wisconsin is strictly regulated. Read the full story by the New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-caviar
Officials in Michigan are requiring an energy company clean-up of sludge and sediment that it released into the Kalamazoo river last year. The sludge was released when the energy company lowered Morrow Lake at the dam in Comstock Township in 2019. Read the full story by WKZO – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-kzoo-river-sludge
Officials in Ohio are pushing for the Ohio General Assembly to approve additional funding for the H2Ohio initiative. If approved, the funding would provide millions of dollars to support statewide water quality improvement programs. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-h2ohio
The Federal Highway Administration recently designated a 70-mile stretch of highway along Lake Superior in Wisconsin as a National Scenic Byway. The designation highlights the archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic qualities offered by the roadway. Read the full story by WDIO-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-byway
Since 2018, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government has used unappealable special orders to allow a host of powerful developers to build in ecologically sensitive areas, bypassing the usual approval process. These ministerial zoning orders have also allowed swaths of farmland and a slice of ecologically sensitive moraine to be opened up for development. Read the full story by Canada’s National Observer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-doug-ford
After several days of high-water levels that have flooded homes in Michigan, St. Clair River water levels are expected to decline as ice jams blocking the flow of water are loosened and strong winds shift direction. Read the full story by The Voice News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-st-clair
In a news release last week, the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board expressed optimism that water levels in Lake Ontario will not cause widespread flooding this year. Read the full story by The Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210217-ontario-risk
As Indiana lawmakers debate dozens of bills addressing environmental matters, tensions are flaring over whether the state should adopt greener initiatives or step back current policy affecting water, energy and other resources. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-indiana-regulations
The Great Lakes- St. Lawrence Seaway will officially open for the 2021 navigation season during the third week of March. Read the full story by WWTI – TV- Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-seaway-opening
Warming rivers due to climate change is one of the factors that is changing the ecology of Michigan’s rivers. Read the full story Michigan Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-climate-change
Though Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed no tax increases in her 2022 budget last week, the budget calls for increases to more than 140 fees for state government services, ranging from getting a traffic crash report from the Michigan State Police to getting a permit to develop areas designated as wetlands. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-michigan-budget
Years into Michigan’s PFAS contamination crisis, the state’s experience with widespread PFAS contamination has made it an early research laboratory into how the chemicals spread through the environment, and what that does to the species that live anywhere near the toxic stew. Read the full story by the Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-pfas
After an unusually mild January, one of Michigan’s wonders was spotted recently on Lake Superior off the north shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-chedoke-creek
Hamilton says it cannot vacuum up the sewage sludge coating the bottom of Chedoke Creek until at least eight months after the deadline in a provincial cleanup order. Now it’s up to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks to decide whether to give the city more time. Read the full story by the Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-chedoke-creek
Olympic speed skater Brian Hansen, an Illinois native, looks forward to the winter season every year knowing that there’s a decent chance that Lake Michigan will freeze over, and he’ll be able to skate along the freshly formed ice. Read the full story by Milwaukee Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-lake-michigan
Three decades after completing a study looking to understand the effects of global warming on living creatures, The University of Michigan is conducting a first-of-its-kind analysis of questions looking at relevance for human migration. Read the full story by the Bridge Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-climate-refuge
Residents of Bright’s Grove, Michigan have been seeing coyotes and their tracks this past week on the ice shelves of Lake Huron, between Mike Weir Park and Waterworks Road. Read the full story by The Sarnia Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-coyotes
The frigid weather of February has frozen more than 80% of Lake Erie, and ice fishing is in full swing. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-ice-fishing
Despite uncertainty about the economy, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year budget proposal hits the accelerator when it comes to his H2Ohio program targeting Lake Erie algae problems and other water quality issues, proposing a combined $68 million funding increase for the program’s third and fourth years. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210216-h2ohio-funding
Regulators of Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River water levels say they are “optimistic” that weather conditions for the remainder of the winter into spring won’t cause a “damaging rise” in Lake Ontario water levels this year. Read the full story by Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210215-flood-risk
