More than 30 years ago, a group of scientists planted seeds of the rare Pitcher’s thistle in the sandy dunes of the Great Lakes. Three decades later, restored populations are thriving. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250102-dune-plant-restoration
Pink salmon hail from the Pacific Northwest but were stocked in Lake Superior in 1956. By 1979 the species had spread throughout the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250102-pink-salmon
With so much ice and wind in the Great Lakes region, most people would think twice before heading outside for very long. But for others, the conditions are perfect. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250102-ontario-ice
Windy conditions and colder temperatures have created more ice on the St. Lawrence River causing seaway traffic to slow down with up to a half a dozen ships being anchored. Read the full story by the WWNY-TV- Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250102-stlawrence-conditions
Michigan has a mussel expert who wants to save the native filter feeders from being smothered by invasive mussels now in the Great Lakes. The state scientist will discuss during an upcoming free webinar how Michigan can prevent invasive mussels from harming native populations. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20250102-invasive-mussels
Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has released the annual State of the Great Lakes Report. The report covers environmental cleanup, waterfront restoration, invasive species, groundwater management, and wildlife protection. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-sogl-report
In Michigan, the first payments from a more-than $600 million fund to settle Flint water crisis lawsuits have been made. It’s another step in the years-long effort to compensate people who were hurt by elevated lead levels in the city’s water supply. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-flint-claims
Technology from Chicago and around the world promises to clean up water. An effort in Illinois is trying to speed it to market while navigating new federal funding challenges. Read the full story by Inside Climate News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-water-startups
U.S. Representatives recently introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to strengthen the Port Infrastructure Development Program to bring critical investments for port infrastructure and intermodal improvements to ports in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Ripon Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-port-bill
After 25 years, the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, Minnesota, is celebrating a standout season that’s benefited the local economy. The year brought record crowds and nearly $43 million for Duluth and officials say even more tourism-related growth is on the way. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-aquarium-attendance
Winter storms on the Great Lakes have a habit of briefly giving things back — from exposed reefs and forgotten shorelines to shipwrecks that have sat underwater for more than a century. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-shipwrecks-resurface
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) has started building a new tunnel in southwest Detroit. To reduce the risk of flooding, the project will divert excess stormwater from a large sewer line along the Rouge River to a retention and treatment basin nearby. Read the full story by WDET – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-glwa-tunnel
Little Sable Point Lighthouse near Pentwater, Michigan, went dark this fall and remained in shadow for about a month. Thanks to the unexpected help of a neighbor, this Lake Michigan lighthouse is shining bright again. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-michigan-lighthouse
A historic lighthouse on Lake Superior’s north shore was dropped from cruise ship itineraries after Canada suspended an agreement with a charity managing the site. The move relates to a Pays Plat First Nation land claim that includes Battle Island near Rossport, Ontario. Read the full story by SNnewswatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-superior-lighthouse
Some of the best surfing is possible during those icy, windy months before the lakes freeze over. Those willing to face the frost actually help boost beachside communities. Read the full story by Marketplace.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251224-surfonomics
The Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act, introduced by Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted and Michigan Democratic Senator Gary Peters, has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives after Senate approved it last month, sending the bipartisan bill to President Donald Trump for his signature. The program provides dedicated funding to the USGS’s Great Lakes Science Center to conduct research supporting the region’s fishing industry. Read the full story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-fisheries-research-bill
The Onondaga County Water Authority is urging customers in six towns to conserve water after a major break in a large-diameter transmission main that carries Lake Ontario water from a pump station in Clay, New York, to reservoirs. Read the full story by Syracuse.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-ny-water-break
Wisconsin boasts about 400 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. But a dispute in the village of Shorewood is bringing up an age-old question: who has access to that shoreline? Read the full story by WUWM – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-wisconsin-public-access
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Ontario Premier Doug Ford signed a groundbreaking nuclear energy agreement Friday in Buffalo, marking the first advanced nuclear power initiative in New York state in over a generation. Read the full story by WKBW – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-newyork-ontario-nuclear
The Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan has launched the Lake Huron Fund with a $25,000 seed to back projects protecting the lake’s watershed and wildlife across nine counties in Michigan’s northeast region. Read the full story by Cheboygan Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-lake-huron-fund
Buffalo will welcome its first Great Lakes cruise ship on May 27 when a 250-passenger American Cruise Lines ship pulls into the Erie Basin Marina for an eight-hour stopover and will host four Great Lakes ships during the summer of 2026. Read the full story by WBEN – Buffalo, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-buffalo-cruises
Officials are pushing back the anticipated restart date to early 2026 for Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which is located on the Lake Michigan shore in Van Buren County, Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-palisades-delay
A life ring and piece of wood found after the ill-fated SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 were sold at auction on Friday, Dec. 19, for $150,000 — more than seven times the pre-auction estimate. Read the full story by Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251222-fitzgerald-auction
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s attempt to shut down a pipeline segment called Line 5 – which runs beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes – finding that only the federal government can regulate interstate pipeline safety. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-pipeline-shutdown-blocked
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has approved the changeover to Lake Michigan water for the Pekara, Inverrary and Horatio Gardens neighborhoods near Buffalo Grove. The final step in the process, including adjustments and flushing the water system to remove remaining well water, is underway. Read the full story by the Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-lake-michigan-water-project
As Ohio’s data center boom continues, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering a permit to allow new data centers without access to central sewerage systems to dispose of water used to cool servers directly into lakes, rivers and streams. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-data-center-discharge
Advocates, local politicians and a Toronto doctor are raising environmental concerns about the provincial government’s redevelopment of Ontario Place in Toronto, with some warning the plans could involve dumping sewage in Lake Ontario. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-sewage-dumping
Michigan environmental regulators held a hearing Thursday night on a proposed permit to disturb 10 acres of wetlands for a $7 billion Oracle and OpenAI data center in Saline Township. The hearing came hours after the Michigan Public Service Commission approved DTE Energy’s application for quick approval of its power contracts for the 1.4 gigawatt data center, which met with widespread public opposition. Read the full story by Planet Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-data-center-pollution
Environmental groups warn that the PERMIT Act – passed on Dec. 10 in the U.S. House – could significantly alter how the Clean Water Act is implemented. Among the proposed amendments: narrowing which waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-permit-reform
Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said its 2025 walleye trawl survey data found 128 walleye per hectare in Lake Erie’s western basin. This ranks as the sixth largest hatch of 38 years of surveys and is well above the average of 57 fish per hectare. Read the full story by the Star Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-fish-hatch-data-2
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and a Great Lakes freighter recently teamed up for an impressive training day on Lake Michigan. The crew of M/V James R. Barker, a 1,004-foot cargo-hauling freighter, welcomed a helicopter from USCG Air Station Traverse City to execute a precision maneuver to land a rescue swimmer on the ship’s aft cabin. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-freighter-maneuver
The Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, Minnesota, is laying plans to work as a partner in an effort to restore lake sturgeon to the St. Louis River, a waterway that once teemed with the bony behemoths. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251219-aquarium-sturgeon-restoration
The 2025 breeding season for endangered Great Lakes piping plovers marks another milestone in this species’ remarkable comeback. For the fourth consecutive year, this small shorebird – once on the brink of extinction – has set a new population record high: 88 unique pairs nesting across the Great Lakes region this summer. Read the full story by the National Audubon Society.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-greatlakes-pipingplover-population
In a new lawsuit, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa alleges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal environmental laws when it granted a permit to Enbridge for its proposed Line 5 reroute. Canadian energy firm Enbridge secured a federal permit for the $450 million project from the Army Corps in late October. The company said that permit is not yet final. Read the full story by Iron Mountain Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-badriver-tribe-armycorps-overturn-permit-line5
The educational team at Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is bringing back the free film, Sleeping Bear from Below. The underwater documentary by Inspired Planet Productions shows footage from ROV cameras that captured a “tunnel of salmon” among other aquatic life in the Platte River, Good Harbor Reef, and Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-underwater-film-fish-eye-view-sleepingbear
Each of the five Great Lakes saw an overall decrease in 2025 adult sea lampreys captured, but Lake Superior’s overall population remains above the three-year average. Read the full story by CKNX – Wingham, ON.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-sealamprey-control-working-greatlakes
Experts say that conveyance of water in the St. Clair River area continues and is contributing to lower Lake Huron water levels. This will devastate the Georgian Bay wetlands, make navigation hazardous and make it impossible to get to some cottages. It will be an economic and ecological disaster for Georgian Bay and for the entire coastline including local municipalities. Read the full story by the Manitoulin Expositor.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-lakehuron-water-levels-expected-drop
The U.S. Coast Guard is funding a new round of Great Lakes oil spill research that includes validating spill-tracking models in the Straits of Mackinac, a high-risk shipping corridor crossed by the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-coastguard-test-oil-sprill-straits-mackinac
Data from Lake Michigan sport anglers and fisheries biologists showed a decline in chinook weights in 2025, raising concerns that stocking might have to be reduced in coming years. Read the full story by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-chinook-weights-declining-future-stocking
The Great Lakes region, currently struggling with drought, is now threatened by energy-hungry facilities – but some residents are fighting back. Read the full story by The Guardian.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-water-levels-greatlakes-datacenters
Frigid temperatures have returned to the region, and as of Dec. 16, ice is beginning to form on Lake Erie. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that a majority of Lake Erie is ice free. Read the full story by Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-lakeerie-ice-noaa
The Grand Rapids Public Museum and John Ball Zoo have been awarded a grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust to support sonar technology for the detection of adult sturgeon. The goal will be to document adult lake sturgeon as they move upriver to spawn and find non-invasive methods of monitoring these lake sturgeon. Read the full story by WGRD – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251217-johnballzoo-grandrapids-museum-awardedgrant-lakesturgeon
Scientists agree on the source of Great Lakes microplastics pollution: people. What remains far less clear is how microplastics move through the system, where they collect, and why some waters appear far more contaminated than others. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-microplastics
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a series of natural resource and conservation measures this week, including legislation on marine debris and Great Lakes fisheries research. Read the full story by E&E News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-house-bills
In the face of growing interest in Ohio as a data center hub, some people are worried about Ohio’s ability to keep up with the energy needs associated with these projects. A new report argues that an efficient energy permitting process is a key to making sure enough energy is available to continue to have these sorts of centers in the state without subjecting the state to soaring energy costs. Read the full story by Ohio Capital Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-ohio-energy
In Michigan, a new landowner plans to cut off access to the Au Train Dam powerhouse in less than a month, forcing a scramble to shut down a system already in long-term noncompliance. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-mi-hydro-dam
A 144-year-old shipwreck laying more than 100 feet under the bay of Green Bay near Chambers Island is Door County’s most recent addition to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-historic-shipwreck
In Michigan, the Silver Lake Sand Dunes is opening its 450 acres of open sand dune space once again for fat-tire bikers to climb up and glide down to the shoreline starting Monday, Dec. 15. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-dune-biking
A long-planned revival of Elberta, Michigan’s, historic Lake Michigan waterfront is moving into its next phase after the state approved a parkland acquisition grant and the village selected a developer to lead public design work for a mixed-use site. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20251215-elberta-development
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
