The amount of ice on the Great Lakes has been steadily and significantly decreasing over the past five decades. Those who have built their lives around the ice are now hanging in the balance. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240131-ice-culture
United States Army Corps of Engineers researchers looked across 24 sites and over 20 years of data to determine the frequency of certain scale seiches. Research on seiche is important because it helps residents and agencies to prepare for strong surge, which can create flash flooding-like hazards. Read the full story by WTVG-TV – Toledo, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-seiche-research
A project that encompasses Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin is getting a $15 million National Science Foundation regional innovation engine award for a project to develop smart water recovery systems that will save water and make Great Lakes manufacturing more sustainable. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-sustainable-manufacturing
Massena, New York’s tourism director says millions of dollars have flowed into towns and villages along the St. Lawrence River due to the success of bass fishing tournaments. State officials indicated that the tournaments have generated $140 million of revenue for communities along the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by North Country Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-fishing-revenue
Under the recent period of colder air advecting from the North Pole, shorelines along every Great Lake experienced notable ice accumulation, though ice cover remains historically low. A number of reasons exist for the shortage of sea ice this year within the lakes, most notably the mild temperatures brought on by a strong and persistent El Niño pattern. Read the full story by WBND-TV – South Bend, IN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-ice-conditions
Residents in Lakeshore, Ontario, have experienced increased flooding as warmer temperatures caused ice jams on Puce River and runoff from rain caused water levels to rise. The regional Conservation Authority noted that drains across the county are observed to be slow draining and are nearly or entirely full. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-ice-jams
The Narwhal’s Ontario bureau became the fifth member of the Great Lakes News Collaborative, a group of news outlets working together to enhance coverage of the Great Lakes basin. Funded by the Michigan-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the collaborative was established in 2020 and has collectively already achieved a 47-percent increase in the number of Great Lakes and water-related stories published by the outlets. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-news-collaborative
More than 100 environmentalists turned up for Save the River’s 35th annual Winter Environmental Conference in Clayton, New York to discuss topics like contaminants, slaughterhouses, and eels. Read the full story by WWNY-TV – Carthage, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-environmental-conference
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and University of Wisconsin-Extension are asking anglers to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers while fishing this winter. Aquatic invasive species such as curly-leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil remain hardy under the ice in the winter, giving them an advantage over native aquatic plants. Read the full story by the Lake Geneva Regional News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-invasive-species-prevention
This year’s Lake Superior Ice Festival in Superior, Wisconsin, had more ice than snow, though with temperatures right around freezing, it was cold enough to keep the ice sculptures from melting. Although most activities were landlocked this year, select portions of the ice were open for fishing and even skating. Read the full story by KBJR-TV – Superior, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-ice-festival
Fifth graders at Lake Superior Elementary School in Superior, Wisconsin, picked up trash at Billings Park this fall for a coastal cleanup. The students tested the water quality of Lake Superior, learning that Lake Superior is a healthy lake. Read the full story by Superior Telegram.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240129-coastal-cleanup
To prevent invasive carp from spilling out of Illinois’ waterways and into Lake Michigan and beyond, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to build a $1.416 billion high-tech suite of barricades to deter the fish from moving upstream. Read the full story by WBEZ – Chicago, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-carp-barricade
The U.S. Department of Defense plans to install two more groundwater treatment systems at a former Michigan military base to control contamination from PFAS and to prevent spread to nearby waterways. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-michigan-pfas
Of 20 people stranded on an ice floe in Lake Erie near Catawba Island, Ohio, nine were rescued by the Coast Guard, four were rescued by the local fire department, and seven were able to “self-rescue” by their own airboat. Read the full story by The National Desk.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-erie-ice
In a visit to Superior, Wisconsin, President Joe Biden proclaimed the country to be in an “infrastructure decade,” touting renewals of roadways, water pipes and more thanks to a massive financing plan approved during his presidency. Biden highlighted a new $1 billion infusion toward replacement of the John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge, a key but crumbling corridor connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-biden-wisconsin
A team of researchers is studying how well water treatment plants are removing microplastics from Lake Erie water, especially smaller nanoplastics, and whether certain treatment configurations work better than others. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240126-erie-microplastics
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
