A retired Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry biologist is looking to the provincial government to save the last remaining woodland caribou along Lake Superior’s north shore. Read the full story by Soo Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210125-caribou
The state of Michigan is seeking input from the public on an updated public lands strategy that will affect roughly 4.6 million acres of state-owned forests, parks, trails, game and wildlife areas and other public lands. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210125-public-lands
A shipwreck hunter is in talks with the Racine Heritage Museum to donate artifacts related to shipwrecks in the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, totaling up to a value of over $1.5 million. Read the full story by The Journal Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210125-shipwreck-artifacts
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources policy board has refused legislators’ request to implement a wolf hunt immediately. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210125-wolf-hunt
Great Lakes shipping only declined by 1.7% during the 2020 navigation season, despite the turmoil the coronavirus pandemic unleashed on the global economy. Read the full story by The Northwest Indiana Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210125-great-lakes-shipping
The Great Lakes currently have record low ice coverage. Ice coverage across all the lakes is 3.9%, compared with 11% at the same time last year. Read the full story by CNN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-no-ice
Since 1985, communities across the Great Lake region have come together to clean and restore heavily contaminated sites in 42 Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). The U.S. and Canadian federal government have spent over $22.5 billion to bring back the ecosystems, to reinvigorate habitat and to clean up the sediment so that the fish and wildlife populations can survive. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-aoc
With the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Act of 2021, Great Lakes tribal fisheries were included in the $30 million allotted for tribal fisheries nationwide. Another $15 million was set aside for “non-tribal commercial, aquaculture, processor and charter fishery participants” in Great Lakes states. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-fisheries
Environmentalists would like to see President Biden reinstate stricter policies with a focus on water level regulations that protect the Great Lakes. Activists also hope addressing climate change remains one of President Biden’s top priorities. Read the full story by KQDS–TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-biden-env-policy
With a new administration committed to the environment and climate change, an increase in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and with Chicago’s history of innovation, the city has an opportunity to again be a leader in U.S. infrastructure and water management. Read the full story by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-chicago-water
The Great Lakes face numerous stressors that threaten the Lake Michigan’s ecology, including invasive species, climate change and nutrient pollution. Read the full story by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-stressors
A federal agency has awarded the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center nearly $80,000 to transform the Sandpiper cruise vessel into a floating laboratory to help area teachers provide more hands-on learning experiences along the Maumee River. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-sandpiper
Construction began this week on a project to restore the Boardman River in Traverse City, Michigan. The restoration project includes an innovative “adaptive fish sorting channel” that will allow desirable fish to move up- and downstream while restricting passage of invasive species. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-boardman
Hazardous PFAS chemicals linked to cancer have been found in the Yahara River and all five of surrounding lakes near Madison, Wisconsin. State officials have not warned against eating the fish until they confirm they are contaminated. Read the full story by the Wisconsin State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-aquatic-species
Warm temperatures and low ice coverage on Lake Erie are limiting ice fishing opportunities this year for anglers in Erie, Pennsylvania. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210122-presque-isle
This evening, the Midland-Penetanguishene Field Naturalists in Ontario welcomes guest speaker Kat Lucas, a Toronto Zoo Aqua-Links program assistant, who will deliver a virtual presentation on aquatic species at risk in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Orillia Matters.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-aquatic-species
Great Lakes steel production rose by 20,000 tons last week but remains depressed by nearly 10% with U.S. steel mills only operating at about three-fourths of capacity, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-steel-production
Due to the pandemic, this year’s wolf and moose study at Isle Royale National Park has been scrapped to protect the scientists and support personnel from possible exposure to the virus, Superintendent Denice Swanke said Friday. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-isle-royale
A recently published details the NASA-funded research of the 11 largest freshwater lakes. A combination of satellite observations and field data provided a new understanding of how water fixes carbon in large bodies of water and how climate change influences these interactions. Read the full story by The Science Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-climate-change
The Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CM-CISMA) is hoping to continue research on invasive species in the area, this time focusing on the effects of last May’s flood on invasive species along the Tittabawassee River. Read the full story by the Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-cisma
In passing an omnibus bill which included the Water Resources Development Act, Congress authorized a plan from the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the Chicago River’s South Fork, a 1.25-mile stretch more familiarly known as Bubbly Creek. Read the full story by WTTW-TV-Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-bubbly-creek
To address the issue of harmful algal blooms, Ohio Sea Grant, in conjunction with the University of Toledo, co-manage the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative. These funds are leveraged with NOAA Sea Grant support to study Like Erie stressors. Read the full story by Ohio’s Country Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-erie-research
Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle State Park will receive a total of $3 million for sand replenishment in 2021, according to park operations manager Matt Green. Read the full story by Erie News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-presque-isle
The Black River Area of Concern in Ohio removed another item of concern from its list, according to a news release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Read the full story by The Chronicle Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-black-river
Three weeks into January the percentage of ice coverage on the Great Lakes is historically low with not even 2% of ice coverage on the lakes. Read the full story by WSYR-TV Syracuse, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210121-ice-cover
The Army Corps included $3.8 million for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam gauntlet project in its fiscal year 2021 work plan. The project would reconfigure the Brandon Road lock in Illinois with an electric barrier, bubble barrier, acoustic deterrents and flushing lock, to prevent invasive silver and bighead carp from moving upstream. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-asian-carp-invasive
Plans to restore Lake Michigan’s Waugoshance lighthouse have now been abandoned due to the extensive damage. Read the full story by Harbor Light News,
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-lighthouse-restoration
Does Flint finally have clean water? Almost. Nearly four years after a court order required the replacement of lead pipes in the water system of Flint, Michigan, the work is only just now approaching completion. Read the full story by New York Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-michigan-flint-water-quality
In Ohio, Cuyahoga County’s Lakefront Public Access Plan aims to provide access to Lake Erie and improve transportation along the shoreline while enhancing erosion control and shoreline stability. Read the full story by Spectrum News Ohio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-shoreline-access-ohio
The effort to keep the invasive grass carp from running rampant in Lake Erie has been culminated in “The Lake Erie Grass Carp Response Strategy: 2019–2023,” which outlines Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ strategy for preventing grass carp from expanding beyond western Lake Erie and the Maumee and Sandusky rivers. Read the full story by Port Clinton News Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-grass-carp-invasive
About half a century after local leaders first proposed building a breakwall in Lake Ontario to prevent flooding in New York’s Olcott Harbor, the project finally has reached the brink of state and federal approval, with state agency and Army Corps of Engineers permits remaining. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-new-york-harbor
In Michigan, Lake Superior State University was awarded a grant from the U.S. Forest Service’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to help create green infrastructure through the St. Marys River Green Stormwater Demonstration Project at a former industrial brownfield site later this year. Read the full story by WLUC – TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-green-infrastructure-restoration
After a year of overwhelmed sewer systems, compromised roadways, lost beachfront property, and rampant erosion along the shoreline, Traverse City, Michigan is finally getting some relief: Water levels in the Great Lakes are dropping. Read the full story by The Ticker.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-water-levels-erosion-michigan
As part of the Pike River Restoration Plan completed in 2013, the Petrifying Springs Park section of the Pike River in Wisconsin was identified for rehabilitation. Now with more than 525 tons of sediment and 368 pounds of phosphorous removed, short-term data is showing 55% reduction in phosphorus and 44% reduction in nitrogen. Read the full story by The Journal Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210120-wisconsin-river-restoration
The U.S. Coast Guard says the submerged tugboat near Marquette’s Lower Harbor was removed and successfully salvaged Monday, with no fuel spilled between Friday’s submersion and Monday’s removal. Read the full story by WLUC – TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-ship-tug-recovery
In Traverse City, MI the FishPass project was designed to replace the Union Street Dam and protect native fish, while keeping out any invasive species. The project was put on hold by a judge citing concern over misrepresentations about the project effort. Read the full story by 9&10 News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-fish-michigan
A water reservoir in Scanlon, MN was recently deemed an area of concern as a result of sediment contamination and has been selected for a collaborative environmental cleanup project beginning this fall by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office. Read the full story by Pine Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-pollution-minnesota
Work on the new stretch of Lakewalk in Duluth, MN will be completed this spring, but more construction is planned over the next several years to build a more climate-resilient Lakewalk all along Lake Superior. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-duluth-lakewalk-climate
Protesters set up camp Monday next to the Line 3 replacement pipeline construction project in Cloquet, MN. About two dozen protesters said they hope to slow down the project by trespassing during construction where the line runs through the Fond du Lac Reservation. Read the full story by KBJR – TV – Cloquet, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-minnesota-protests-line-3
Nearly 38 million tons of cargo were shipped last year along the route stretching from the lower St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes, with record shipments of grain offsetting a decline in liquid bulk, dry bulk and iron ore, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. said. View the full story by Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-st-lawrence-shipping-grain
Members of the Kawartha Nishnawbe are holding their ground at Lock 28 in Burleigh Falls, ON, located about 200 km northeast of Toronto. Six days ago they put a halt to repair work at a dam, owned by Parks Canada, because there was no consultation. Read the full story by APTN News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-indigenous-dam-protest-ontario
Wildlife researchers and scientists use aquatic birds as environmental change indicators in freshwater and marine environments. For about 50 years, herring gulls have been used to get a better idea of how the Great Lakes are changing through time, and have found in that time period a decline in volume and density. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-ecological-monitoring-gull
The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority based in Exeter, ON will be joining a group that includes the University of Michigan, the National Atmospheric Oceanic Administration, and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers to study water quality in the lower Great Lakes starting this summer. Read the full story by BlackburnNews.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-sediment-water-quality
Canadian and U.S. officials are at odds over the fate of a pipeline underneath the Great Lakes, exacerbating disagreements over energy policy between the two nations as the Biden administration prepares to take office. Read the full story by The Wall Street Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-line-5-energy
The Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, OH went virtual this year for its Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, putting the spotlight on diversity in the science, engineering, technology and mathematics fields. Read the full story by Spectrum News Ohio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210119-mlk-day-ohio
Environmental challenges in the Great Lakes region pay no mind to international borders, making binational research critical to investigating and tackling those challenges. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210118-binational-research
At a lock and dam site in the suburbs of Chicago, there’s a plan to build a set of traps to keep invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes that would involve a barrier of bubbles, an electric field, underwater speakers, and a price tag of over $800 million dollars. Read the full story by WIAA – Interlochen, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210118-invasive-carp
The Port of Duluth-Superior reported a record-setting year when it comes to wind turbine cargo. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210118-wind-cargo
A new Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative Regional Dredging project has begun at Little Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario to help build resiliency in waterside communities in New York. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Albany, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210118-dredging
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has issued its first fish consumption advisory related to PFAS in Lake Superior fish, recommending people not consume more than one meal of smelt per month. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20210118-limit-smelt
