Western Lake Erie’s summer 2024 algal bloom appears to remain strong going into October, though it’s unclear for the time being if it’s started to recede as extensive cloud cover has blocked satellite imagery. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-erie-bloom
The number of properties located in flood zones is expected to increase significantly in Greater Montreal, corresponding to 15,508 buildings worth $9.9 billion. The updated flood zones consider the uncertainty linked to climate change, which is expected to increase the frequency of floods in the coming years. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-montreal-flood-risk
Two years ago, scientists discovered dozens of massive sinkholes about 14 miles off the coast of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and about 450 feet below the surface. In August, scientists finally got up-close pictures of the sinkholes. Read the full story by CBS News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-sinkhole-photos
In 2023, Manoomin (wild rice) became Michigan’s official native grain. Found growing in shallow inland lakes and slow-moving streams across the state, the Gun Lake Tribe works every year to plant, harvest, and teach classes about Manoomin in the Kalamazoo River system. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-wild-rice
The Wisconsin DNR got the go ahead from the Natural Resources Board for the next steps in setting new PFAS standards for public drinking water. Read the full story by WXPR – Rhinelander, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-wisconsin-drinkingwater-pfas
Michigan’s fall fishing season for splake — a hybrid cross between lake and brook trout — is approaching. And the state’s environmental officials are asking anglers for help as they track the fish. Read the full story by the Manistee News Advocate.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-michigan-dnr-marked-splakes
The U.S. Department of Energy said on Monday that it had finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to help a company restart the Palisades nuclear plant, which is located on the shore of Lake Michigan in Michigan. Read the full story by The New York Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-michigan-nuclearplant
Michigan State University students along with volunteers recently gathered at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan, to remove plastic pollution from Lake Erie. The plastic collected will be used in a student eco-art workshop. Read the full story by The Monroe News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-lakeerie-msu-pollution-art
In September, the Grand Rapids Public Museum and its partners returned to the Grand River for their annual lake sturgeon survey, looking to see if the waterway can sustain a population, decades after the prehistoric fish nearly went extinct. Read the full story by WXMI-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-lakesturgeon-grandriver
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission announced Friday it will be stocking 116,500 trout in 118 stream sections and lakes from October through mid-December. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-lakes-trout
In Illinois, the Oswego Village Board will consider resolutions authorizing the execution of agreements to formally join the DuPage Water Commission as part of the process to switch Oswego to Lake Michigan water. Read the full story by the Aurora Beacon-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-oswego-lakemichigan-water
The Sea Lamprey Control Program is doing its part to decrease the population of sea lamprey, an invasive species that once jeopardized the Great Lakes fishing economy. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240930-sealamprey-control
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized ballast water standards on Tuesday that would require new vessels in the Great Lakes to install treatment systems to prevent the spread of invasive species, but the standards will not apply to existing ships. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-ballast-water
At the click of a button on his office computer, the Windsor Harbor Master can see any moving vessel on the Detroit River and parts of Lake St. Clair. For the last 12 years, the Windsor Port Authority has been quietly using radar technology to ensure large commercial vessels are aware of smaller fishing boats in the area. Read the full story by the CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-radar-tracking
The Great Lakes Water Authority, which provides drinking water and wastewater services to most of southeast Michigan, is making changes to how it treats drinking water ahead of some new, more stringent rules limiting lead and copper levels in water. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-pipe-corrosion-control
Microplastics pollution has caught the attention of Great Lakes scientists and policymakers. Wayne State University researchers are studying a river for clues. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-river-microplastics
Last month, invasive Quagga mussels were first discovered in Lake Geneva in Walworth County, Wisconsin, threatening the ecological balance of Wisconsin’s inland lakes and motivating new conservation efforts. Read the full story by The Daily Cardinal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-geneva-quaggas
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will install special equipment in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to study the impact of waves on piers and break walls. In October, an Integrated Radar Monitoring System will be installed at Manistique Harbor to collect fall wave data over several months. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-wave-monitoring
Wisconsin maritime historians recently discovered a 130-year-old shipwreck, the John Evenson steam tug, in Lake Michigan near Algoma, Wisconsin. The tug was lost in June 1895 while assisting another ship as it was entering the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-shipwreck-lake-michigan
The mayor of the city of Muskegon, Michigan, assured residents Tuesday night they can “breathe a little sigh of relief” that their drinking water is safe, following high levels of PFAS found in Muskegon Lake earlier this year. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-pfas-muskegon
On Tuesday, community members helped release nearly 1,800 young lake sturgeon into the St. Louis River near Brookston, Minnesota. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa invited the community to help with the stocking event as part of a continuing effort to reestablish the species where it once occurred naturally. Read the full story by the Pine Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-sturgeon-release
A piping plover raised at a captive-rearing facility at the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, Michigan, and released near Chicago has successfully made its way south for the winter, arriving in Wilmington, North Carolina. Read the full story by the Wilmington Star-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240927-plover-migration
A new webcam has been added to a shipwreck museum in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This live video feed boasts views of the Whitefish Point Light Station, sunrises over Lake Superior, freighters, incoming storms, and even the Northern Lights. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-lighthouse-webcam
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a new plan to protect an endangered minnow found along the route of Ontario’s proposed Highway 413. But the federal plan falls short offering new protections for the fish. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-endangered-fish
In September of 1967, anglers poured out onto Lake Michigan in search of a new fish: salmon from the Pacific Ocean. Many people abandoned common sense in their pursuit of the fish, and some lost their lives. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-salmon-fishing
In Wisconsin’s Ashland and Bayfield counties, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be applying lampricides to the Bad River with the goal of killing sea lamprey larvae burrowed in the stream bottom. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-lamprey-treatment
The most ambitious proposal for a marina along the Lake Erie shoreline in Hamburg, New York, includes two marinas on either side of Hoover Beach, creates small islands to protect the shore and moves Route 5 to the west. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-marina-development
A group of Michigan State students created a play with input from experts in conservation and environmental communication. The project is part of a larger trend that blends conservation and the arts to get communities thinking about their natural areas. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-theater-project
Portage Lake Garden Club members and friends cleaned up the beach at Captain John Langland Park in Onekama, Michigan, on Saturday as part of the Alliance for the Great Lake’s Adopt-a-Beach-Day. Read the full story by the Herald Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-trash-removal
High concentrations of toxic PFAS chemicals were found in surface water foam this summer on Muskegon Lake in west Michigan. Although there are known legacy sources of PFAS in the Muskegon Lake watershed, experts say the recent increase in shoreline foaming is new and unexplained. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-pfas-lake-foam
Jackson, Michigan, is among many communities to receive sizable state grants in a push to rehabilitate Michigan’s water infrastructure, officials said. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-water-main-grant
You can fish on the Great Lakes, go boating, swim, and partake in water sports, all the while enjoying the spectacular views they provide. But how deep is each lake? You’d have to dive hundreds of feet below the surface to reach the bottom. Read the full story by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240925-lake-facts
The Canadian federal government announced a “historic” $76 million in new funding for freshwater restoration on the Great Lakes, with investments targeted toward improving water quality and ecosystem health, as well as community-based science projects. Read the full story by the Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-canadian-gov-funding-greatlakes
Volunteer divers are surveying the riverbed near Beauharnois, Quebec, in the Montérégie region, to remove hundreds of tires from the water that have been polluting the aquatic environment for decades. Read the full story by the Montreal Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-stlawrenceriver-divers
The remains of the John Evenson, a wooden steam tug built in Milwaukee lie five miles northeast of Algoma, Wisconsin, 50 feet below Lake Michigan’s surface. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-wisconsin-maritime-tugboat-lakemichigan
Of the 188 aquatic non-native species in the Great Lakes, the species jeopardizing areas of Lake Erie the most is the zebra mussel. Scientists say that they are a great threat to the Great Lakes and their threat should not be minimized due to the loss of the native habitat of the lakes. Read the full story by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-sealamprey-quaggamussels-invasivespecies-lakeerie
Overlook Trail in Manistee County, Michigan, offers views of Lake Michigan from hundreds of feet above the shoreline at the end of a short, accessible trail through the woods. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-lakemichigan-trail
A Great Lakes freighter flying under the Canadian flag destined for Bay City, Michigan, on Saturday, Sept. 21, has a storied – albeit misfortunate – sailing history. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-greatlakesfreighter-baycity
Algal blooms beyond western Lake Erie aren’t particularly new, but they aren’t going away anytime soon, either. There are many lesser-known blooms closer to home for residents of Toledo, Ohio, that are short-lived yet still potentially serious with their own set of health advisories. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-algalblooms-fiftystates
A new virtual book club is starting up with a specific interest in the Great Lakes. Called Great Lakes Great Read, the initiative encourages people to read a children’s and/or an adult book with a connection to the Great Lakes and join the authors for upcoming webinars. Read the full story by CollingwoodToday.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-greatlakes-bookclub-water
Instead of a swimming in the Chicago River, participants in the inaugural “Chicago River Swim” swam in Lake Michigan, raising $150,000 for ALS research and $50,000 to fund water safety lessons for 2,000 children in underserved communities. Read the full story by AP News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-chicagoriverswim-lakemichigan
Scientists from multiple agencies work together each spring and fall to help migrating sturgeon move around the first two of five hydroelectric dams on the Menominee River in Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240923-sturgeon-elevator
In August, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory discovered around 40 large underwater features, most of which are about as long as an Olympic swimming pool. They’re cold, dark, and weirdly circular. Read the full story by WUWM – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-lake-michigan-sinkholes
In the only available wild rice spot on Lake Superior, Natives from different nations gather for the wild rice harvest season. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission brought their expertise for a harvest alongside representatives from the Mashkiiziibii Natural Resource Department. Read the full story by WDIO – TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-wild-rice-harvest
It’s been more than six weeks since the initial sighting of the Lake Erie alligator. There have been no confirmed sightings since. Wildlife experts review challenges the gator could face with the cold months ahead. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-erie-alligator
In addition to serving as picturesque areas for watersports and relaxation, wetlands serve many purposes including flood control and water quality preservation. Today, many different governments, groups, and organizations are working to preserve and restore these crucial ecosystems in Southeast Michigan. Read the full story by Planet Detroit.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-wetland-restoration-detroit
The Alliance for the Great Lakes says there is momentum growing across the country to shift the responsibility of the trash burden of plastic production from consumers to producers, and manufacturers need to be a part of the solution. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-sustainable-manufacturing
Less than 15% of the Great Lakes are mapped at high resolution but Michigan Tech aims to change that to better preserve and protect the lakes into the future. Read the full story by WDIV-TV-Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-lake-mapping
Cyanobacteria blooms are not normal for Lake Superior as the lake is nutrient-poor and the coldest of the Great Lakes, but warming temperatures and increased flooding have overridden its natural barrier against algal blooms. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-algal-bloom-reporting
In a significant stride toward bolstering environmental journalism, Michigan Public is amplifying its coverage of the Great Lakes and drinking water issues, thanks to a generous $200,000 grant. This funding breathes new life into the Great Lakes News Collaborative. Read the full story by Michigan Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240920-great-lakes-news-funding
