The Shedd Aquarium, in partnership with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Purdue University, has been tracking fish movements to understand how fish use large urban rivers. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-chicago-river-fish
In an innovative project propelled by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, water nonprofit Freshwater is teaming up with several land trusts on a regional approach to improving water quality around the Great Lakes. A primary goal is to restore select croplands to perennial vegetation, which reduces runoff and erosion while trapping carbon in the soil. Read the full story by Midland Daily News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-water-quality-partnership
Lake Michigan’s surface temperature has been above average nearly every day this year so far. As heat trapping-greenhouse gasses continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, the Great Lakes region is projected to grow warmer and wetter in the years and decades to come. Read the full story by Michigan Advance.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20241002-lake-temps
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
By Nina Elkadi, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
The aquifer from which Joliet, Illinois, sources its drinking water is likely going to run too dry to support the city by 2030—a problem more and more communities are facing as the climate changes and groundwater declines.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/10/joliet-illinois-lake-michigan-drinking-water/
By Donté Smith Capital News Service Michigan’s oil industry may not be front and center, but it remains active with over 9,300 wells across the state. The U.S. Energy Information Administration ranks Michigan 18th in the nation in crude oil production. In June 2024, Michigan wells produced 211,000 barrels of crude oil — around 8.8 […]
The post Michigan pushes to plug orphan oil wells first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2024/10/01/michigan-pushes-to-plug-orphan-oil-wells/
One of the many fish that we caught in the Peshtigo River. Image credit: Gabrielle Gonzales
By Gabrielle Gonzales, Freshwater Collaborative summer research student
This summer, 35 undergraduate students from across the country conducted research with Freshwater@UW, the University of Wisconsin’s cross-site, cross-discipline research opportunities program. Freshwater@UW is supported by the Freshwater Collaborative, Wisconsin Sea Grant, Water@UW–Madison, the Water Resources Institute and the University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School. In the final weeks of the program, students reflected on what they learned. Here’s Gabby Gonzales, an undergraduate junior with an environment major from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who worked with Titus Seilheimer with Wisconsin Sea Grant.
I spent my summer in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I’m originally from Ludington, Michigan, which is the home of the car ferry that travels to Manitowoc throughout the summers; the sentimentality of being directly across Lake Michigan from my hometown was the cherry on top of this wonderful research experience.
My mentor, Titus Seilheimer, is a fisheries specialist. Knowing that I don’t want to work directly in academia once I enter my career, it was very useful to get a glimpse of all the realms of research I could get into without having to be a professor. I’m thankful to Titus for granting me the opportunity to gain all kinds of experiences and skills and have fun while doing it.
The mouth of Forget Me Not Creek in Two Rivers where we gathered measurements to calculate discharge, which is the volume of water flowing through the creek per second. Image credit: Gabrielle Gonzales
My activities ranged widely from assisting with an educational event for children at a public library, helping the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources with an electrofishing survey and wading through various creeks. In terms of research and science, I gained and refined many skills by working on a few different projects. Our team did pre-restoration habitat assessments in two creeks in Port Washington and Two Rivers, which both flow into Lake Michigan. We made observations about habitat types and water quality, which is important information for understanding the status of the creek and the suitability of the habitat for fish. This can then be used to make restoration plans that will help make improvements and ensure healthy fish populations.
We also assisted with wild rice monitoring throughout various locations surrounding Green Bay. Wild rice is important ecologically and culturally but has become increasingly threatened, which has warranted seeding and restoration efforts within the last few years. In addition to assessing attributes like rice density and water clarity, we were also interested in seeing how the presence and quality of wild rice populations corresponds with fish communities. My favorite part of the work this summer was learning the process of net fishing to observe fish species diversity in different coastal wetlands of Green Bay. This project in particular allowed me to explore my interests in community ecology and gain hands-on field skills that are bound to be useful in my future career.
Entering my senior year at the University of Michigan, my experience this summer allowed me to engage in self-discovery and better understand what next steps could be once I graduate next spring. The wide range of environmental science jobs can be overwhelming, but I’ve been able to get a firsthand look at the exciting choices that await. Being able to travel across northeastern Wisconsin and meet so many amazing scientists was a transformative experience that not only awarded me with applicable skills but also showed me that my opportunities are endless.
The post Summer studies in Manitowoc open endless opportunities first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/summer-studies-in-manitowoc-open-endless-opportunities/
Waves of Change is an online interview series highlighting the diverse faces and perspectives shaping the environmental justice movement throughout the Great Lakes region.
This month, we spoke with Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, or JTNI, a grassroots environmental justice organization representing the northwest region of Indiana — one of the most industrialized zip codes in the country.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/waves-of-change-meet-just-transition-northwest-indiana-executive-director-ashley-williams/
Editor: In the public interest and in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance in informing the local communities is appreciated.
Midcontinent Region
https://www.usgs.gov/news/state-news-release/media-alert-low-level-airplane-flights-image-geology-over-parts-missouri?utm_source=comms&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news
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
In case you missed it, here are highlights from each of the Upper Midwest Water Science Center's social media channels from June 1 through September 30, 2024. Follow us on social media to see more, linked below!
Upper Midwest Water Science Center
Upper Midwest Water Science Center
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/upper-midwest-water-science-center/news/upper-midwest-water-science-center-summer-2024?utm_source=comms&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news
How fish adapt to life in large urban rivers, like the Chicago River, is one of the questions Dr. Austin Happel is trying to answer at the Shedd Aquarium.
“Knowing where different fish species are hanging out, we can look around that area and kind of understand what that habitat looks like and what it’s providing for them,” Happel said.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/how-do-fish-survive-in-large-urban-waterways-like-the-chicago-river/
Original Story: WI DNR
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds migratory bird hunters that they are essential partners in preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species in hunting areas and Wisconsin’s waterways. The steps hunters take before leaving a boat launch or access point are vital for protecting hunting habitat.
Invasives can hide in some of the most unsuspected places. Mud on your anchor can hide seeds, eggs or the larvae of tiny species, such as spiny water fleas. Water that collects in boats and decoys can carry diseases, and insects, snails and seeds can also collect under the vests of a hunting dog. Consider giving your dog a rinse with a jug of clean water or scrubbing them off with a brush while they go for a quick swim to prevent invasive species from hitching a ride to the next hunting spot.
Of particular concern to hunters is the Faucet snail. These snails carry parasites that can kill ducks if they eat them. Learn more about how hunters can help prevent the spread of invasive species and minimize these risks on the DNR’s Invasive Species Prevention webpage or by visiting the “Hunter Resources” tab on the Waterfowl Hunting webpage.
Members of Wisconsin’s Aquatic Invasive Species Partnership may be available in your area to provide presentations and other outreach for hunt clubs and other organizations. They and your Regional DNR Aquatic Invasive Species Biologist can answer specific questions about any aquatic invasive species where you plan to hunt.
Find your county Aquatic Invasive Species contact on the DNR’s website. Many of these folks will visit boat launches during the hunting season to provide on-the-spot education, boat towels and boot brushes. 
Just a few minutes of preventative action can protect our hunting tradition for generations to come. Before launching into and leaving a water body, hunters should:
For more information about aquatic invasive species, including where they are prohibited and restricted in Wisconsin, visit the DNR’s Invasive Species webpage.
Photo Credit: Chris Acy, Wisconsin DNR
Questions? Comments? Contact Chris Acy, the AIS Coordinator covering Brown, Outagamie, Fond du Lac, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties at (920) 460-3674 or chris@fwwa.org!
Follow the Fox Wolf Watershed Alliance on our Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance Facebook page or @fox_wolf_watershed_alliance on Instagram! You can also sign-up for email updates at fwwa.org.
The Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization that identifies and advocates effective policies and actions that protect, restore, and sustain water resources in the Fox-Wolf River Basin.
Reporting invasive species is a first step in containing their spread. Maintaining and restoring our waters and landscapes can reduce the impacts even when we don’t have other management options to an invasive species.
The post Waterfowl Hunters: What You Need to Know about Invasive Species appeared first on Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance.
Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance
https://fwwa.org/2024/09/28/waterfowl-hunters-what-you-need-to-know-about-invasive-species/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=waterfowl-hunters-what-you-need-to-know-about-invasive-species
In a few months, many products with “forever chemicals” will be officially banned in Minnesota. Known as Amara’s Law, starting January 1, 2025 resident’s won’t be able to sell or distribute products with intentionally added PFAS from cookware, cosmetics, dental floss, juvenile products, menstruation products, textile furnishing, ski wax, upholstered furniture, cleaning products, or carpets and rugs — accirding to Vice Magazine.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/pfas-roundup-minnesota-pfas-regulation-said-to-be-the-strictest/
By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WBEZ
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/chicagos-beach-season-is-over-or-is-it-lake-michigan-temps-are-breaking-records/
“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, she lives in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her nonfiction books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and the children’s story “A Family Tree” in 2024.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/nibi-chronicles-the-gift-of-manoomin/
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
By Daniel Wanschura
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
Kathleen Knight was doing some research in a forest in Ohio.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/09/points-north-the-last-to-leave/
Fish scales from a fathead minnow under a light microscope. Image credit: Serena George, University of Wisconsin-Madison
For the past 14 years, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has conducted a Cool Science Image Contest. This year, one of the winners is Serena George, a graduate student in veterinary medicine and molecular and environmental toxicology who works with Wisconsin Sea Grant Emerging Contaminants Scientist Gavin Dehnert to study how herbicides impact fish health.
George’s image, taken on a light microscope, shows sheets of cells migrating away from the edge of four fathead minnow scales. In a dish in the lab, the cells slough off and move away as they would across the wound of a live fish. By doping the dish with different chemicals, researchers can study the way environmental contaminants affect wound-healing in the wild.
Other images in the contest span a wide range of perception — from molecules interacting in the membranes of individual cells to the stretchy insides of a delicious cheese puff to a sky full of colors made by the strongest solar storm in decades.
The winning entries showcase the research, innovation, scholarship and curiosity of the UW–Madison community through traditional fine art techniques used to study the physics of interacting liquids, the surprising and beautiful results of chemical and geological processes, and new ways to manipulate and reveal biological processes.
The images go on display next week in an exhibit at the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Mandelbaum and Albert Family Vision Gallery on the ninth floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, 1111 Highland Ave. The exhibit, which runs through the end of 2024, opens with a reception — open to the public — at the gallery on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The post Cool science image winner! first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/cool-science-image-winner/
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/september-2024-regional-climate-impacts-and-outlooks
