Water levels in the Great Lakes can vary dramatically, meaning communities building close to shore can face increased flooding and erosion in the wake of climate change. Read the full story Yale Climate Connections.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-lake-levels
The city of Waukesha, Wisconsin is on the verge of delivering Lake Michigan water to residents who have been drinking water from radium-tainted wells for years. In a test of the Great Lakes Compact, the city will have to remain in treatment and conservation compliance. Read the full story by WUWM- Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-waukesha-drinking
A new course at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, is offering students an opportunity to immerse themselves in Lake Ontario, both figuratively as they explore its history and modern conservation issues, and literally with an optional swim in the lake on the first day of class. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-lake-ontario-course
A program to monitor coastal wetlands across the Great Lakes is helping support efforts to clean up one of the most polluted hotspots and an area of concern near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Read the full story by the Wausau Pilot & Review.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-wetland-monitoring
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recently announced that the Western Lake Superior watershed has entered the drought warning response phase in order to protect Lake Superior as the source of the area’s drinking water. Read the full story by Northern News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-duluth-drought
Young sturgeon which had been collected and reared at a facility for months were released during the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Natural Resources Department’s sturgeon release event in Manistee, Michigan. This is part of an effort to help the lake sturgeon stave off extinction. Read the full story by the Huron Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-sturgeon-release
In Pennsylvania’s Thompson’s Bay, along the shoreline of Lake Erie in Presque Isle State Park, a team of researchers has spent four summers surveying invasive mystery snails. Read the full story by WESA- Pittsburgh, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-invasive-snails
A Michigan man had intended to complete his “Silver Sequel” swim across Lake Michigan this summer to mark 25 years since his first swim across the Great Lake, but twice lake conditions were a bit too brutal. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-marathon-swimmer
As the weather cools down, Michigan Department of Natural Resources staff are removing swim buoys, beach warning flags, and other visual markers that denote designated swim beaches at state parks along the Great Lakes, meaning swimming is not recommended there. Read the full story by the Cheboygan Daily Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-swim-designation
Paul Smith’s College announced it has received a $160,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Bay Watershed Education and Training to increase student climate literacy and support place-based solutions to climate and water issues in the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes regions of New York state and its connection to the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Sun Community News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230911-education-grant
Steel production rose by 6,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Read the full story by The Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-steel-production
State officials say recent testing has discovered silver carp eDNA in Michigan’s St. Joseph River. Though it is likely the eDNA found in the sample was transported to the river from an out-of-state boat rather than a live fish, staff will search the area. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-silver-carp
Great Lakes drownings are down from last year. The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project said several factors could be contributing to the drop including the number of people going to the beach with cooler weather to start the season. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-lake-drownings-down
For a century Joliet, Illinois and its Will County neighbors mined their sandstone aquifer but now the water is running out. A group of six communities will soon receive Lake Michigan water from Chicago via pipeline. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-chicago-pipeline
Water levels on the Great Lakes rose sharply earlier this year due to a very wet spring, but they have remained unusually steady over the summer on Lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron due to dry conditions. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-lake-levels
The third and final stage of the Randle Reef remediation project has started and is expected to finish by 2025. The $150-million project is cleaning up of the once-most contaminated site on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-hamilton-harbour
Lake Erie anglers who rely on charter guides for fishing will soon have a richer experience out on the water thanks to a new certification program from the Ohio Division of Wildlife and Ohio Sea Grant. The program, Erie PrOH, ensures fishing guides and crew members have detailed knowledge of fishery topics and can act as responsible stewards of the lake. Read the full story by The Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-erie-proh
Shipwreck hunters have discovered the intact remains of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in 1881 and is so well-preserved it still contains the crew’s possessions in its final resting spot miles from Wisconsin’s coastline. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-schooner
State agencies in Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa now are cleaning up the St. Louis River’s legacy contamination, restoring habitats for wild rice and recreation, and bringing back fish populations like lake sturgeon. Read the full story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-sturgeon
The state of Michigan is offering free water quality tests to private well owners. About a million households rely on private wells in the state for drinking water. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230908-free-testing-for-wells
After years of seeking approval, Waukesha, Wisconsin is finally set to start pulling millions of gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan to replace its polluted water supply. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-milwaukee-water-lakemichigan-pumping
A southwestern Ontario mayor says the provincial and federal governments need to follow in the footsteps of the United States and initiate a coastal resilience study along the thousands of kilometers of Great Lakes shoreline in Canada. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-ontariomayor-callsforaction-coastalresilience-canada
Invasive species often spread by hitching a ride on anglers, especially anglers who don’t clean their gear after fishing. Though this is widely known, research suggests many anglers still don’t clean, even though it protects the very thing they’re after – fish. So, can anything be done to change their minds? Read and listen to the full story by Points North Podcast – Interlochen Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-dirtylaundry-invasivespecies-limitations
A program to monitor coastal wetlands across the Great Lakes is helping support efforts to clean up the Lower Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-greatlakesmonitoringprogram
University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences has raised two-thirds of its fundraising goal to build a cutting-edge research vessel designed for the Great Lakes. Read and the full story by WTMJ-TV – Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-school-freshwater-sciences-raisingfunds-researchvessel
Some of the most cited “climate havens” are older cities in the Great Lakes region, upper Midwest and Northeast. Yet each will likely have to contend with some of the greatest temperature increases in the country in the coming years. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-us-climatehaven-heat-greatlakesregion
Michigan’s Invasive Species Grant Program is seeking proposals for this year’s funding cycle, with $3.6 million available for projects that could help mitigate intrusive species. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-mi-invasivespecies-proposals
A rule requiring greater outflow of Lake Ontario through the Moses-Saunders Dam to lower water levels will not be enforced, the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board has announced. Read the full story by the Niagara Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-board-lowerlakeontario-waterlevels
Ford House has chosen a company to help plan a $7 million project to restore the Ford Cove Lake St. Clair shoreline to its original native state. The area includes a mile of shoreline along Lake St. Clair plus more than 17 acres of marsh, nearshore habitat and forested wetlands. Read the full story by the Macomb Daily.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230906-fordcove-project-lakestclair
In response to industrial-sized agricultural operations polluting waterways, Minnesota’s White Earth Nation is implementing a series of mandatory and enforceable pollution prevention and water conservation measures that challenge the voluntary practices that states and the federal government have embraced for the last half century. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-wild-rice-protection
A rise in the number of blue-green algae blooms in popular lakes close to Thunder Bay, Ontario may be a symptom of climate change, the region’s public-health agency suggests. Blue-green algae, which appears on the water’s surface, can be toxic and harmful to humans and animals if ingested. Read the full story by The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-algae-impacts
This month, two studies on plastic waste in the Great Lakes were published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. In both studies, the authors advised that it would be helpful if a bi-national agency would give some direction; they formally petitioned policy makers to include microplastics as a chemical to be regulated. Read the full story by Bridge Michigan.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-plastic-studies
In Clay, New York, Micron Technology says it may use up to 48 million gallons per day by the time its upcoming project is built. Two experts, one on the utility side and one on the environmental side, recently discussed what 48 million gallons coming out of Lake Ontario would look like, and if it’s safe for the health of the lake and surrounding area. Read the full story by Spectrum News Syracuse.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-water-withdrawal-impacts
The Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers (GSGP) contracted with Anna Tanski to serve as the organization’s inaugural tourism director to coordinate two GSGP regional marketing initiatives: Cruise the Great Lakes and Great Lakes USA. Tanski brings more than 32 years of experience in tourism and hospitality management. Read the full story by Seatrade Cruise News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-tourism-director
In Saginaw, Michigan, the Saginaw Children’s Zoo partnered with the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort to help incubate, rear, and release plover chicks across the Great Lakes Bay region. Piping Plovers are tiny birds that live on the coast of the Great Lakes and have been an endangered species since 1986. Read the full story by WNEM-TV – Bay City, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-plover-recovery
A new access point east of the city at Silver Harbour Conservation Area on Lake Superior saves divers a long swim, and having to scramble over rocks with their gear in order to reach a spot where half a dozen small, intentionally-submerged boats can be viewed. Read the full story by the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-diving-access
Another season of the Lake Huron Coastal Centre’s Coastal Conservation Youth Corps has wrapped up its activities along the shoreline from coastal clean-ups to monitoring water quality and shoreline conditions. Read the full story by CKNX News Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-conservation-youth-program
Central New York’s Water Authority has opened a new exhibit about the treatment and transmission of water at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) in downtown Syracuse. The Ontario Clean Water Agency educational exhibit, called How Your Water Works, will be on display through November 26 and features a water pipe display, historical timeline, and an interactive water table for children to enjoy. Read the full story by WSTM-TV – Syracuse, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-water-treatment-exhibit
Milwaukee-based multimedia production studio FuzzPop Workshop is presenting “Deep Lake Future,” an immersive and otherworldly art experience to showcase how invasive species have expanded beyond the Great Lakes into all facets of our lives. Read the full story by Milwaukee Record.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230901-invasive-species-exhibit
Ontario First Nation chiefs are demanding Doug Ford’s government return land to the protected Greenbelt that the province removed for development. Read the full story by The Canadian Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-tribal-land
A donation from a developer to Fort Erie, Ontario, has seen a 22-acre parcel of land, that includes beach-front, added to the town’s inventory. Read the full story by Insauga News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-lake-front
The Member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth was in Norfolk County, Ontario to check on federally funded efforts to strengthen biodiversity in the Long Point Walsingham Forest Priority Place and contribute to Ottawa’s goal of conserving 30 per cent of Canada’s land and waterways by 2030. Read the full story by The Stratford Beacon Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-long-point
Approximately 360 square miles of Lake Erie were covered by a harmful algal bloom Tuesday, according to an update bulletin from the National Centers for Coastal Science and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read the full story by WTOL -TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-algal-bloom
A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is using drones to study erosion along Lake Michigan. Listen to the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-drone
This month, Alpena, Alpena Township, and Alpena County, Michigan, all passed a resolution to take the Lake Huron Forever Pledge to advance water quality protection and healthy, sustainable communities on both sides of the lake. Read the full story by The Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-lake-huron
Steel production plunged by 24,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week, 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/20230830-steel
A group of mothers in Newmarket, Ontario, is planning a march to urge the provincial government to take greater climate action and preserve local waterways. Read the full story by Newmarket Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230830-climate-march
If approved, the Lake Erie Quadrangle Sanctuary would cover roughly 740 square miles and most of Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie waters. A sanctuary would likely mean a visitors center and designation would help preserve the hundreds of Great Lakes shipwrecks in the area. Read the full story by WESA – Pittsburgh, PA.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230828-marine-sanctuary
Wisconsin’s lakes, including two Great Lakes, face many aquatic invasive species which can pose a threat to the state’s ecosystems, economy, and recreation. This list contains eight invasive fish, plants, and other aquatic species experts say to watch out for. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230828-invasive-species
The Great Lakes region stands to grow both economically and in population as weather patterns could project a migration to the Midwest and its less explosive climate. Read the full story by the Sandusky Register.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230828-natural-disasters
