The use of rock salt may be critically important when it comes to clearing snow and ice from roads in the winter, but it’s also a growing threat to the environment, including the freshwater fauna of Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-erie-salt
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection awarded Coastal Zone Grants totaling more than $268,000 to five projects in Pennsylvania’s northwest region. The grants go toward projects that protect and restore critical habitat in the Lake Erie Coastal Zone. Read the full story by The Meadville Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-erie-grants
Shelf ice develops every winter along the Lake Michigan shoreline. While it may look photogenic, it is quite dangerous, especially with the recent rise in temperatures. Read the full story by WSBT-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-shelf-ice
Lake Huron water levels were down slightly in December as it continued its seasonal decline. The lake’s December water level was down nearly three inches from November’s level, but a little more than three inches above the December 2022 level. Read the full story by True North Radio Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-huron-levels
Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers is building toward 100% use of fish caught in the Great Lakes, highlighted by a recent “head to tail” Great Lakes fish cooking challenge at Kendall College in Chicago. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-cooking-challenge
On Monday, the Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers organized a head-to-tail cook-off that challenged culinary students at Kendall College in Chicago to use the entire fish in their dishes. The event was the latest effort in a push toward utilizing 100% of the fish caught in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WBBM – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-100-percent-fish
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Fisheries Division will be hiring a full-time malacologist – a biologist who studies mollusks, including mussels and clams – which will kickstart a two-year project to centralize mussel data collected across the state. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-mussel-research
Steel production at mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the south shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, fell by 10,000 tons last week, representing a decrease of 1.5%. Read the full story by The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-steel-production
Lake Erie is behind its typical freezing schedule, which depends on different weather patterns, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials. The recent cold snap has helped Lake Erie freeze at a faster pace, though if temperatures warm, it can thaw just as quickly. Read the full story by WKSU – Kent, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-erie-ice-cover
Large freighters were on the move in Door County, Wisconsin, on Monday morning to find somewhere to go during the winter season. The Winter Fleet will remain in port typically until the Soo Locks on Lake Superior open again for the season; this year, that’s scheduled for April 24. Read the full story by WTAQ – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-freighter-winter
Last Friday, northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana were hit with an extremely localized but intense band of lake-effect snow created by whirlwinds known as mesovortexes. They are formed by convergence, or a gathering of winds near the ground, and are akin to tiny low pressure systems. Read the full story by The Washington Post.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-mesovortex-snow
The city of Buchanan, Michigan, is a new member of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, an international coalition of more than 240 municipal and regional U.S. and Canadian mayors and local officials working to advance the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. Read the full story by WSJM – Benton Harbor, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-lake-protection-coalition
Amidst severe winter conditions last week, a Windsor-based photographer perched at Point Pelee on the northern shore of Lake Erie to photograph ice volcanoes, also known as ice shelves. The stunning formations appear when powerful winds hurl water against the shoreline, where it freezes on impact and builds up an ice shelf layer by layer. Read the full story by The Windsor Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-ice-volcano-photographer
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stocked Michigan waters with six different species totaling more than one million fish and 14.5 tons at 103 locations throughout the state at the end of 2023. That came after the DNR announced it had stocked waters with more than nine million fish as of September 2023. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-fish-stock
After a mild start to winter in Wisconsin, most lakes across the state are now frozen after a week of bitterly cold temperatures. But in the future, Wisconsin’s state climatologist says residents can expect more winters where lakes take this long to freeze — or winters where lakes never freeze. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240124-wisconsin-ice-cover
Multiple small grants have been awarded to Buffalo, New York, area organizations through the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program. The projects aim to promote sustainable land use, improve water quality and manage natural resources using ecosystem-based approaches. Read the full story by Buffalo Rising.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-transformingwater-localgrants-sustainablefuture
The Superior Watershed Partnership recently received a Great Lakes grant to benefit water quality, coastal habitat and climate adaptation in the city of Marquette, Michigan. The $323,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Sustain Our Great Lakes Program will be used to install green infrastructure that incorporates native plant species to improve stormwater runoff at numerous sites along the ten miles of Lake Superior coastline within the city of Marquette. Read the full story by Radio Results Network.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-grant-lakesuperior-shoreline-marquette
The Lake Michigan shoreline transformed this week into a whimsical land of ice after a recent winter storm hit the Great Lakes region. Drone footage of both the South Haven and St. Joseph, Michigan, lighthouses covered in ice was captured last week. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-dronevideo-lakemi-lighthouses-ice
The Philip R. Clarke closed out the 2023-2024 shipping season on the St. Marys River, as the last freighter through the Soo Locks at around 9:45 Tuesday morning. Read the full story by Pelham Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-freighter-wrapsupseason
After netting its largest-ever catch of invasive carp in the Mississippi River in November, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is moving ahead with a revised plan to keep the bottom-feeding fish from spreading across the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Read the full story by the Pioneer Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-minnesotadnr-invasivecarpbattle
Farmers in Scott County, Minnesota, will have access to $8 million in grant money from the United States Department of Agriculture to implement conservation practices aimed at improving water quality and soil health, preventing erosion, and creating wildlife habitat. Read the full story by The Quad-City Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-grant-scottcounty-conservationpartnership-ducksunlimited
A deteriorating public access walkway in Muskegon State Park on Lake Michigan in Muskegon, Michigan, has been identified as a federal project through the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-muskegonstatepark-federalfunds-walkway
In Richland Township, Michigan, state and federal environmental regulators are investigating a “significant” oil leak in Saginaw County. Local residents say the oil has been leaking since before the holidays. Read the full story by WJRT-TV – Flint, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-epa-egle-oilleak-saginawcounty
On Monday, commissioners of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District accepted a bid from Michels Corporation to build the storage facility that will permanently house polluted sediment from the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240122-michaelscorp-milwaukee-river
The Biden administration has set aside $17 billion to improve maritime infrastructure, money that many want to invest into capital improvements at Great Lakes ports. Read the full story by NPR.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-infastructure-funding
Eight ships will spend the off-season in the Duluth-Superior twin Ports, twice as many as last winter, according to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. Read the full story by the Star Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-twin-ports
Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell and Lisa McClain introduced a bipartisan bill today that would authorize $200 million to conduct high-resolution bathymetric mapping of lakebeds of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-lakebed-mapping
Elk Rapids, Michigan, is surrounded by water. To protect their future the city plans to hire a shoreline management coordinator through a new state program known as the MI Healthy Climate Corps. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-climate-crops-program
The 748-foot S.S. Philip R. Clarke entered the Soo Lock facility’s Poe Lock around 9 a.m. on Tuesday to close out the 2023 navigation season. Read the full story my MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-soo-locks
Lake Superior has long been known as the icy lake, but studies have shown that Superior is one of the fastest warming lakes in the world. And it’s not just Superior, the surface temperature and all five of the Great Lakes has increased in the last few decades, having profound impacts across the region. Read the full story by WPBN-TV – Traverse City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-warming-trends
Wisconsin abounds with water resources but in some corners of the state, access to fresh water can be scarce or expensive. Efforts are underway to convert sewage into a safe, drought-resistant source of drinking water. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-wisconsin-water
At the bottom of Lake Huron there’s a ridge that was once served as an ancient caribou hunting site. Computer scientists are using artificial intelligence to predict caribou movement and help find important archaeological sites. Read the full story by Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-ai-caribou
Twenty-one Great Lakes region fishing companies have signed the organization’s 100% Great Lakes Fish Pledge, committing to using all parts of the whitefish, lake trout, yellow perch, and walleye that they catch by 2025. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240119-100-great-lakes-fish
A legal fight about how to dispose of the copious manure generated by Michigan’s largest livestock operations has reached Michigan’s highest court, with potentially far-reaching implications for the state’s ability to limit pollution of all kinds. The case comes as Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Canada struggle to address the agricultural pollution that sullies lakes and rivers across the region and turns Lake Erie bright green with algae every summer. Read the full story by Michigan Public.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-manure-court
The U.S. Coast Guard will need more than $3 billion to maintain its icebreaking capacity in wintry weather along the Great Lakes, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-icebreaking-cost
An interview with the chief operating officer for the Chicago-based non-profit, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, details the Great Lakes region’s efforts to stop the advance of invasive carp via the Brandon Road lock and dam in Joliet, Illinois. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-carp-policy
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, total ice coverage on the Great Lakes is at 4.8%, up from just 0.4% of ice coverage the Great Lakes had on January 2 of this year. Read the full story by WXYZ-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-ice-coverage
Lake Erie rose about 4.5 feet in Buffalo, New York on January 13 when a blizzard that swept across the upper Midwest caused a tidal-like phenomenon called a seiche. The water came from Toledo, Ohio where the lake dropped about 5.5 feet on the western end, resulting in an overall difference of 10.1 feet. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-blizzard-seiche
What initially started off as a little bit of fun during the COVID-19 pandemic turned into two separate world record-breaking, 100-foot underwater photoshoots conducted in Tobermory, Ontario. Read the full story by CKNX – Wingham, ON.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-huron-photoshoot
Spend enough time on a Great Lakes fishing pier or in a bait and tackle store, and you’ll likely hear someone ask if the lakes have flipped. Understanding what it means for the Great Lakes to “flip” is invaluable for anyone interested in finding fish. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-seasonal-flip
Dangerously cold conditions are expected to continue throughout the Chicago area Tuesday, with the wind chill potentially reaching as low as -27 degrees Fahrenheit. But the dangerous temperatures didn’t deter two Chicago men from their habit of jumping into Lake Michigan, one of whom continues a more than 1,200-day jump streak. Read the full story by the Daily Jefferson County Union.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-chicago-plunge
Unseasonably warm weather last month has been a boon to shipping companies. On the other hand, businesses that cater to winter tourism crowds like outdoor skating rinks and ski hills have faced a difficult start. Read the full story by The Globe and Mail.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-winter-economy
A public meeting will be held to discuss renovation plans for Jamie Farr Park Shelter and Penn 7 Park in Toledo, Ohio. The Penn 7 Park had been a dumping point for silt dredged from the Maumee River’s shipping channel for decades, but 59 acres were restored with a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Habitat Restoration Initiative Partnership grant awarded to the Great Lakes Commission and subcontracted to the city of Toledo. Read the full story by The Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240117-farr-park
Photos circulating social media show what appears to be a long-lost structure stuck at the bottom of Lake Erie, revealed when the storm pushed water from the lake’s western basin out east. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-shipwreck
Although sodium chloride is an effective way to melt ice on roads, it can negatively impact wildlife when used in excess. Leftover road salt — or de-icing salt used on sidewalks and driveways — washes into storm drains and ultimately into our waterways. Read the full story by The Holland Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-less-salt-protect-watersheds
In Ohio, the Miller Ferry to Put-in-Bay and Middle Bass Island shared several breathtaking photos of Put-in-Bay that show larger-than-life rock structures. Parts of the bay and shoreline usually hidden beneath Lake Erie were on display thanks to the effects of a seiche and high winds. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-highwinds-exposes-lakeerie-putinbay
Driving through blizzards, gusting winds, super-chilled water — these are the things that warm the heart of a “laker.” For winter surfers on the Great Lakes, bad weather is almost always good. The worse the weather, the better the surfing. Read the full story by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-wintersurgers-michigan-badweather
Last Friday, ship enthusiasts in Northern Michigan were excited to see the Arthur M. Anderson ore carrier motor into Little Traverse Bay to seek protection from the storm. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-famousfreighter-northernmichigan
The Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven will host the next segment of its Working Waterfront Lecture Series, featuring a program about the Mackinac Railway ferries and their role in ice breaking on the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Herald-Palladium.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-greatlakes-icebreakers
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and New York Sea Grant have announced they are partnering to bring eight small time grants to regional waterfront communities along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. Read the full story by the Finger Lakes Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240115-commentary-nyseagrant-greatlakesbasin-smallgrantsprogram
