A federal appeals court has declined to disturb an Indiana Supreme Court ruling, later codified into Indiana law, which declared that Lake Michigan’s shoreline is — and always has been — owned by the state for the public’s use. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-indiana-shoreline
A federal appeals court has declined to disturb an Indiana Supreme Court ruling, later codified into Indiana law, which declared that Lake Michigan’s shoreline is — and always has been — owned by the state for the public’s use. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-coal
Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio is working to preserve its Lake Erie shoreline and the village is finishing the first phase of its erosion protection project at the Township Park. Read the full story by WEWS – TV – Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-erosion
Reducing levels of the nutrient phosphorus to control harmful algal blooms in places like Lake Erie is actually advantageous to toxic cyanobacteria strains, which can lead to an increase in toxins in the water, according to a new modeling study. Read and hear the full story by Phys.org.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-phosphorus
While forests are known to enhance the water quality of nearby watersheds, oftentimes people don’t recognize forests’ role in providing clean drinking water, according to a new study from Michigan State University. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-forests
Birders, biologists, conservationists and those who happened to be swept up in the tale of two little birds gathered this week at Montrose Beach in Chicago, Illinois to mark the end of one story — while another was just beginning. Read the full story by The Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220527-monty-rose
Based on an independent project by the Great Lakes News Collaborative to better understand the real cost of water, this lesson will explore the costs associated with providing drinking water to communities in the Great Lakes and across the U.S. Students will learn how water infrastructure systems naturally age and need to be maintained, upgraded, fixed, or replaced, and how that life cycle of the infrastructure affects water quality and cost to communities who depend on fresh, clean water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/episode-2205-drinking-water-lesson-plan/
What the Spirit Lake Great Lakes Legacy Act cleanup site looked in the winter of 2021-22. Image credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
On Feb. 9, River Talks featured Mark Loomis, project manager for the Legacy Act Project at Spirit Lake on the St. Louis River in Duluth. Loomis presented an update, providing images and information on the remediation project’s status.
The Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) is a voluntary program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Steel. Contractors from both organizations work to reduce the effects of contaminated sediments in Great Lakes Areas of Concern. These contaminants are large contributors to environmental degradation in the Great Lakes.
How does this work? Loomis shed some light on the process in the Spirit Lake project area. First comes removal. Mechanical excavation or hydraulic dredging removes the unwanted material, and then residual covers are placed over the sites. “That material is put into two on-site disposal facilities. Each of those facilities has a different method,” said Loomis, “Another mechanism that we’re using for remediation is called capping.” Capping is the act of placing protective layers of sand and carbon to stop contaminants from rising up through the water.
Other mechanisms include Enhanced Monitored Natural Recovery, which helps to speed up recovery, Monitored Natural Recovery, which simply observes recovery, and finally, habitat restoration. With this process, the integrity of Spirit Lake improves and habitat space for aquatic species increases.
Hydraulic dredging is a large focus of the Spirit Lake Project. “Hydraulic dredging in its simplest form is a cutter head that spins and eats up the sediment. It gets sucked through a series of pipes and pumps and is brought to a Geotube bag-field,” said Loomis. Dredging activities are currently taking place in the Wire Mill Delta. After the dredging is completed, the next step is to place a residual cover. “The residual cover water treatment plant takes clean material that is on the land, and we pump it through pipes in slurry. It’s then broadcast out to the spreader treatment plant.”
Despite working in his field for over a decade, Loomis still thought that seeing Geotubes get filled was “neat.” The pipe from the dredges goes through a series of treatment plants that prepare the contents for the Geotubes. These Geotubes run across the entirety of the upland confined disposal facility. Sediment remains inside of the Geotubes while the water runs out back into the lake.
With more and more Geotubes filling up and dewatering, the project staff plan to layer more on top. When the field is complete, it should stand about four Geotubes high.
The Legacy Act also focuses on upland habitat restoration. Loomis highlighted a specific upstream portion of land near Spirit Lake where native plants were planted last year. “We were in a constant mental and physical battle with geese and deer who saw this as a delicious buffet,” Loomis said. Despite the feud with wildlife, Loomis reported that the process is going well.
Loomis gives a more comprehensive list of past progress to date during his presentation, which is available online. To watch a video of this presentation, visit the Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve’s YouTube site.
For more information on the series, visit the River Talks page: go.wisc.edu/4uz720.
The post An update on the Spirit Lake Great Lakes Legacy Act Project with Mark Loomis first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/an-update-on-the-spirit-lake-great-lakes-legacy-act-project-with-mark-loomis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-update-on-the-spirit-lake-great-lakes-legacy-act-project-with-mark-loomis
Federal officials early this year detected highly contagious influenza in wild birds in over 30 U.S. states, the biggest avian flu outbreak since 2015.
The post The bird flu: Clean your birdfeeder right now first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/05/27/the-bird-flu-clean-your-birdfeeder-right-now/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/pfas-news-roundup-new-york-clothes-ohio-lawsuit-wisconsin-standards/
As Sea Grant celebrates its 50th year, it’s catching up with former employees to capture memories and add to the year of commemoration.
Gene Clark knew from a young age that he would work as a chemist in a lab. He loved chemistry class, experiments and even failed experiments. He said, “I just loved testing things out. When they didn’t work, why didn’t they work?”
Then he attended a high school career talk discouraging pure chemistry in favor of chemical engineering. The speaker focused more on the downsides of chemistry than the positive aspects of chemical engineering, leaving Clark disheartened and confused — and questioning his career choice.
Gene Clark at an event in 2019. Photo: Bonnie Willison
Fortunately, his advisor was able to explain how a chemical engineering degree uses science-based processes and test results to solve real-world problems, and requires plenty of those chemistry classes Clark enjoyed. He realized, “No one had ever told me about what a career in the engineering field was or could do.”
Newly informed and encouraged, Clark decided to pursue chemical engineering. The result was a 35-year-long award-winning career that contributed to solving many engineering issues, benefitting diverse groups such as homeowners, kayakers, the Great Lakes shipping industry and marina operators. For some career highlights, see “A Career Solving Wicked, Sticky and Humongous Coastal Engineering Problems.”
Learning the trade
Clark began at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s chemical engineering program and stayed for two and a half years. In his junior year, he discovered a love for the oceans and scuba diving on a vacation with a fellow mechanical engineer. A Wisconsin native, Clark had never been diving before, and the experience left him awestruck.
Shortly after his return, Clark was studying in a student lounge and noticed a poster on the wall promoting ocean engineering at Texas A & M. He kept thinking about it, and after his next study session, took the poster with him.
Despite being only vaguely familiar with Texas A & M, Clark transferred. He said, “I assumed it was in Texas, I knew they had a good football team, and I hoped it was near the Gulf of Mexico—two out of three wasn’t bad.” The course of study was similar to a civil engineering program but was a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering — particularly engineering principles related to oil rig structures — but he especially enjoyed a class about beaches. He was having fun and landing on the dean’s list, so upon graduation, he decided to continue with a master’s degree at the University of Florida.
He enjoyed the same level of academic success and fun at that program. “I made sure I stretched an 18-month master’s degree into a two-year master’s degree, so I could go scuba diving and go on the beaches.
During that time, Clark also made a valuable connection with a group from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Vicksburg, Mississippi, who were taking classes for one semester. He was offered a job there upon graduation and stayed for three years. By then, he had a young family and wanted to move back to Wisconsin. The only catch: He didn’t have any job leads in the state, or even any ideas about where to start.
“I didn’t know who was doing coastal engineering in the Great Lakes. I had no clue,” he said.
Gene Clark found working in the Great Lakes region rewarding. Here he is posing with water safety equipment. Photo: Marie Zhuikov
Clark made a visit to the coastal engineering professor at UW-Madison’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He was impressed with Clark’s experience and degrees and offered him a year’s worth of funding on one of his current projects. (The project was funded by Sea Grant, but Clark wouldn’t realize that until later.) From there, he earned a second master’s degree and was offered a job at Warzyn Engineering. Warzyn transferred him to Minnesota to a division that did more dam work and less coastal work, so Clark went back to the job search. He landed a position as the Minnesota state lakeshore engineer located in Duluth, Minnesota, and stayed for 10 years.
He said, “That’s where I really learned my education and outreach because I was getting grants from the coastal program or the Great Lakes Commission to do demonstration projects on Lake Superior or work with individual property owners, but yet still working with a state agency.”
Working with Wisconsin Sea Grant
After 10 years in Minnesota, Clark was settled and enjoying his work. He was always skilled in working with teams and had formed close relationships with many colleagues, including Phil Keillor, who was the coastal engineer for Wisconsin Sea Grant. One day, he received a call from Keillor announcing that he was retiring and suggesting that Clark might want to apply for the position. Clark wasn’t sure he wanted to leave Minnesota to take Keillor’s position in Madison, but in a happy coincidence, another Sea Grant specialist announced his retirement at the same time. When Harvey Hoven retired from his position as the coastal business specialist in Superior, Wisconsin, Clark had the ability to take the new position without moving.
He said, “It just fell in my lap. …and it was the best move I ever made.”
Clark went on to spend 15 years as Sea Grant’s coastal engineering specialist. It was an ideal position for someone who loves both science and working with people.
He said, “The way that Wisconsin Sea Grant is set up and operates is just so ideal for providing information and assistance to communities and property owners and other states’ programs. We could deliver a product that was honest, it was non-biased and it was science-based information.”
Whether he was working with partners from the UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering Department to develop a system to protect kayakers from unexpected high waves, harbor operators to identify causes and solutions for freshwater steel corrosion, port authorities to find beneficial uses for dredged sediment or homeowners facing eroding shorelines, Clark always enjoyed collaborating with others.
Interacting, hands-on, with stakeholders in the field, Gene Clark inspected a coastal area following a 2011 flood. Photo: Marie Zhuikov
“And it didn’t take long, whenever I would meet with people or groups of people, for them to realize I’m not selling a product, I’m trying to help them. And I point out pros and cons, and then let them make the difference,” he said.
“It was all fulfilling. It wasn’t work. It was a blessing to be part of that,” he said.
Clark retired in 2019.
The future
The Covid pandemic limited Clark’s ability to meet with people, but he has been able to continue his work on two programs. One is based on a small grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review two drafts of their National Shoreline Management Study, providing technical and practical report support. The second is a small grant from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, providing technical assistance to the rehab project team. With partners at Sea Grant, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Clark has been working to improve beach quality on degraded beaches without disturbing natural coastal processes. The team started with the Kenosha Dunes and continued with other degraded beaches in southeast Wisconsin.
This project illustrates what Clark calls “a couple of very positive paradigm shifts,” which are the movement toward nature-based shoreline designs and the beneficial use of dredged material. When he started his career, shoreline protection consisted primarily of concrete, large rocks and sheetpile – now nearly all projects are focused on greener, more natural designs that provide habitat and allow for natural coastal processes. Reusing clean dredged material has also become more and more accepted, saving landfill space and providing valuable fill material.
Clark also serves as a technical advisor to Wisconsin Sea Grant’s current coastal engineer, Adam Bechle, who has been hard at work continuing all of the projects Clark started, plus beginning his own. Clark said, “I can’t think of a better person to have in this position than Adam. He has the perfect mix of an excellent coastal engineering education and the ability to convey information to all levels of audiences. Wisconsin Sea Grant’s future is bright with respect to coastal engineering.”
The post Hard work, joy and more than a bit of luck add up to an accomplished coastal engineering career first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/hard-work-joy-and-more-than-a-bit-of-luck-add-up-to-an-accomplished-coastal-engineering-career/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hard-work-joy-and-more-than-a-bit-of-luck-add-up-to-an-accomplished-coastal-engineering-career
After a big announcement in January celebrating $479 million directed to fully fund the construction of a new lock, the Army Corps of Engineers has had to walk it back, according to a report by The Detroit News.
The billion-dollar project, authorized by Congress at $922 million in 2018, is now estimated to be “somewhere between two times and three times” the cost, Sen.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/soo-locks-project-no-longer-fully-funded/
While growing up in California, Erica Gies became aware of the state’s water scarcity, which she told Great Lakes Now has led to a “low-key obsession about water for just about everyone in the state.”
California’s droughts have been a regular occurrence that put a spotlight on the importance of water for Gies, fostering a writing career on the topic that has spanned 15 years.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/water-always-wins-book/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1263F5465B5C.SpecialWeatherStatement.1263F546F350WI.GRBSPSGRB.54e5ef070b45e49081402cfe9ce09122
While forests are known to enhance the water quality of nearby watersheds, oftentimes people don’t recognize forests' role in providing clean drinking water, according to a new study from Michigan State University. The research was conducted at three watersheds in Michigan: the heavily urbanized Detroit River Watershed, the less populated and heavily forested Au Sable River Watershed and the more populated agricultural, forested and urban Lower Grand River Watershed.
The post Study finds need for public to see connection between forests and clean drinking water first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/05/26/study-finds-need-for-public-to-see-connection-between-forests-and-clean-drinking-water/
The SS Meteor (taken in 2012). Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant
A momentous event happened last week in Superior, Wisconsin. After 10 years of working in Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Lake Superior Field Office next to the SS Meteor – the last remaining whaleback ship in the world – I finally took a tour of it.
I’d written about the ship before in a story about maritime history geocaching – the ship is one of the stops in a Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded outreach project designed to highlight the history of the state’s shipping industry. And, I’d walked around the outside of it plenty on my daily roams around Barker’s Island, but I’d never been inside before. A tour was one thing I mentally wrote down on my Barker’s Island Bucket List. I meant to get around to it, but never did.
Tour participants walk on top of the ship among the vents. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant
The free visit was arranged by my office partners, the National Lake Superior Estuarine Research Reserve, to train volunteers who work at their interpretive center during the summer. They had room, so invited their officemates (like me), along.
We met inside the ship in the gift shop for a short orientation, then went back outside and up a ramp where we were able to wander among the tall vents that brought air into the ship while keeping sea spray out. Along the way, our tour guide explained that the ship was built locally by Captain Alexander McDougall. Whalebacks were a new innovation in ship design back in the late 1800s, known for their cigar-shaped steel hulls that rode low in the water when loaded with cargo. Waves just washed over them, and the water was easily shed, unlike with typical ships. The Meteor carried a variety of cargoes over the years, including iron ore, grain, gravel, cars and oil.
After climbing a stairway, we went inside, taking a peek into the pilot house and then descending a short stairway to the living quarters. The officers’ quarters were closer to the bow of the ship, while the lowly seamen slept near the rear of the ship, above the noisy engine. The captain had his own spacious office and private bathroom.
The pilothouse. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant
The kitchen and dining rooms were on the deck below the bedrooms. The crew and officers had separate dining rooms. Timeliness of dining must have been an issue, since there were signs in both rooms proclaiming strict serving hours. Another historic placard described steps to take in event of an atomic bomb attack.
Below the dining deck were the engine room and storage areas. The ship’s last load must have been oil, since the smell of petroleum was strong as we walked through, and we could see pools of oil seeping up from sand used to cover it.
The Meteor was built in 1896 and ended her shipping career in 1969 when she ran aground on a shoal off Marquette, Michigan. Because of severe damage to the hull, the shipping company chose not to repair her. Recognizing the ship’s historic importance, the Meteor was purchased, repaired, and began use as a museum ship in 1971.
Our tour ended with a stroll through historical displays that provided more information about McDougall and the ship. The excursion was better than I’d imagined, sitting so close to the attraction for all these years.
If you’re ever in Superior, consider taking a tour of this fascinating piece of maritime history.
Now all that’s left for me to do on my Barker’s Island Bucket List is to take advantage of the mini golf course that’s between my office and the ship!
The SS Meteor and Mini Golf Course on Barker’s Island in Superior. Image credit: Marie Zhuikov, Wisconsin Sea Grant
Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/a-long-awaited-tour-of-the-ss-meteor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-long-awaited-tour-of-the-ss-meteor
Despite the unpredictability of the global market, officials expect the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes to see stable growth during the 2022 shipping season, just like it did during a global pandemic. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-shipping-stable
A press conference was held on Tuesday to celebrate the completion of the restoration of the Muskegon Lake area of concern at Heritage Landing in Muskegon, Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-muskegon-lake
An environmental group calculated how much Toledo, Ohio residents and others pay for drinking water because of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, and the costs quickly add up. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-drinking-water-cost
Six years after a panel of experts concluded that the state’s public works were in “a state of disrepair,” the quality of Michigan’s water infrastructure and the consequences of failure are no longer being ignored. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-water
Last month’s first full month of seasonal shipping totals in the Twin Ports in western Lake Superior dipped considerably compared to the same month a season ago. Industry leaders blamed a difficult ice-out in March and April and used dip to advocate for another U.S. icebreaker. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-shipping-ice
The tugboat named “Lake Superior” that partially sunk in the Duluth Harbor, Minnesota back in March is now floating once again. Read the full story by KQDS-TV – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-tugboat
More than a century after they arrived, invasive sea lampreys still threaten the Great Lakes’ $7 billion fishing economy. Read the full story by Vox.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-sea-lamprey
Oceanographers from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration have released their first algal bloom forecast for Lake Erie for the upcoming season and predict a smaller bloom compared to previous years. Read the full story by WCPO-TV – Cincinnati, OH.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-algal-bloom-season
New research on water levels projects an unprecedented drop of water levels on Lakes Michigan-Huron and Georgian Bay to 1.1 meters below the record low by 2030. By 2040, levels may rise to 0.3 meters higher than the 1986 record high. Read the full story by The Manitoulin Expositor.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-lake-level
With toxic algae blooms becoming more prevalent in Lake Erie in recent summers, protecting the irreplaceable resource that Lake Erie represents, will prove to be our legacy for generations to follow suit. Read the full story by the Columbus Dispatch.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220525-algal-bloom
In the Marcell Experimental Forest in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, there are no trails for hiking, grounds for camping nor lakes for boating. Instead, there are temperature-manipulating chambers and field laboratories. Marcell was chosen to study because of its peatlands, a unique landscape that occupies just 3% of the earth’s surface, yet stores 30% of soil carbon.
The post From sinks to sources: peatland carbon is poised to be part of the climate crisis first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/05/25/from-sinks-to-sources-peatland-carbon-is-poised-to-be-part-of-the-climate-crisis/
Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Invasive Mussel Collaborative (IMC) today announced the release of a coordination tool to help protect the Great Lakes basin from the impacts of invasive mussels. The new “Dreissena Project Coordination Mapper” allows researchers and managers to share their work and collaborate with others for the advancement and protection of waterways from invasive mussels in the Great Lakes and beyond. The mapper features 120 past and current projects from across North America and new project information is being accepted on an ongoing basis.
“Since first appearing in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, invasive zebra and quagga mussels have caused significant ecological and economic damage across the basin,” said Todd L. Ambs, chair of the Great Lakes Commission, which leads the IMC with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. “This new tool will help equip jurisdictions to better respond to current invasions and prevent them in the future by allowing researchers to identify potential collaborators who are using similar or complementary approaches.”
A frequently updated project database is helpful to capture the current state of science for dynamic areas of research such as dreissenid mussel control. The mapper will improve coordination of invasive mussel research and control by facilitating sharing projects during the early stages, opening up the opportunity to develop new collaborations without having to wait until results are published.
The IMC was established to provide a framework for communication and coordination between a broad membership base of states, provinces, tribal and other entities to determine management objectives for invasive mussels and identify and guide research needed to achieve those objectives. The Dreissena Project Coordination Mapper was debuted by research scientists out of USGS and NOAA which led tool development at a symposium on invasive species collaboratives at the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting on May 20.
The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Todd L. Ambs, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (retired), is a binational government agency established in 1955 to protect the Great Lakes and the economies and ecosystems they support. Its membership includes leaders from the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes basin. The GLC recommends policies and practices to balance the use, development, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes and brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. Learn more at www.glc.org.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/news/imc-researchtool
Invasive zebra and quagga mussels are firmly established in the Great Lakes, and efforts to control them have proved mostly fruitless. But environmental managers still want to know where they are, how many there are and what they are up to, so they can predict how the ecosystem will be affected and protect vital infrastructure.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/ai-technology-invaders-great-lakes/
NCEI News Feed
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/humans-ncei-monica-youngman
Researchers found that increasing temperatures from climate change may slightly increase milk production, despite the heat stress on cows. The loss of milk production through heat stress is offset by the increase in feed production.
The post Climate change increases milk production first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/05/24/climate-change-increases-milk-production/
Spring has sprung in Wisconsin, bringing with it warmer days, longer evenings and the return of farmer’s markets. Our state’s plentiful markets offer not only a chance to buy local goodies—from colorful produce to cheeses, meat, honey and more—but also a way to get acquainted with the hard-working people who produce our food.
Farmers’ markets may also spur us to think about other food-related goals we might have, such as eating more healthfully or supporting local and regional economies.
Three online resources can help you embrace similar food goals when serving fish. Through these websites you can find fish caught by commercial fishers on the Great Lakes and fish raised sustainably by farmers in our region.
Here’s a quick roundup of the three:
Sharon Moen showed off her grilling skills during a live webinar hosted by Ohio Sea Grant in summer 2021. Moen prepared fish kabobs using Wisconsin fish.
You could call EatWisconsinFish.org the “OG” of fish-finding resources in the Great Lakes region. An initiative of Wisconsin Sea Grant, the project has been around for years, but new life was breathed into it with the 2020 hire of Outreach Specialist Sharon Moen.
Last summer, the site’s map got a makeover thanks to intern Hunter Goldman, an Ashland College student. The interactive map shows places in Wisconsin where food fish are grown, harvested, processed and more.
This summer, a new intern, Emma Kraco, will assist Moen. Kraco, a recent graduate of UW-Milwaukee, will help Moen improve the map and share the stories of food-fish producers in Wisconsin.
Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder: In fall 2021, Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder joined the mix. While it drew inspiration from Eat Wisconsin Fish, its geographic range is broader, as are the intended purposes of the fish.
Attendees can learn more about Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder at a May 26 webinar.
While Eat Wisconsin Fish focuses on fish for your dinner plate, Great Lakes Fish Finder includes species for pond stocking, bait and ornamental purposes. And as it name suggests, its geographic swath covers all of the Great Lakes states.
Take a tour of Fresh Fish Finder through a webinar at 11:30 a.m. (central) on Thursday, May 26. Called “Finding Fish for Food or Fun: Exploring the Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder,” the event is hosted by the Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative and will spotlight several regional producers, including Wisconsin’s Red Cliff Fish Co., run by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Bayfield, along Lake Superior. Register for the event here.
Eat Midwest Fish: This site’s map pinpoints farms raising food fish and shellfish in the Upper Midwest. It launched in early 2021 as a joint effort of the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network and other partners, including the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center. Like Eat Wisconsin Fish, the site includes tasty recipe ideas, such as bluegill chowder and oven-fried perch.
With these resources at your fingertips, it’s never been easier to find local fish (unless, perhaps, you catch your own—also a fine choice). Bon appetit!
The post Embrace local eating this season: Three resources for finding Wisconsin and Great Lakes fish first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/embrace-local-eating-this-season-three-resources-for-finding-wisconsin-and-great-lakes-fish/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=embrace-local-eating-this-season-three-resources-for-finding-wisconsin-and-great-lakes-fish
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/mapping-the-great-lakes-power-up/
By J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue
This story is part of “Water’s True Cost,” a series by the Great Lakes News Collaborative focused on the rising cost of water in Michigan and the various causes leading to the state of water systems today. Find the rest of the stories in the series here.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/waters-true-cost/
The City of Manitowoc, WI is again reminding residents it is unlawful to place grass clippings in city streets and alleys. When mowing your lawn, the city asks that you direct the blower away from the street and clean up any grass clippings that make it there. Grass blown into the street can easily enter the storm sewer, which ends up in rivers and lakes. Read the full story by the Herald Times Reporter.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-manitowoc-wi-grassclippings
The weather is getting warmer, attracting Chicagoans to the water. While people enjoy the lakefront, there is a darker side to the summer as it’s the highest water rescue season in Chicago. Read the full story by the DePaulia.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-increase-waterrescues-chicago
Ashtabula County’s neighbor to the north – Lake Erie – is expected to offer a good fishing experience in 2022, experts say. Read the full story by the Star Beacon.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-lakeerie-walleyecapital
The summer months are just around the corner and with all the runoff water from this recent rain, there’s a potential threat to those considering a swim in Lake Superior. Read the full story by CBS 3 – Duluth, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-bluegreenalgae-threat-duluth
Details on how to finance the Village of Minooka’s $20 million stake in the Grand Prairie Water Commission that would bring Lake Michigan water to town were reviewed by trustees at a committee of the whole workshop held last week. Read the full story by WSPY – Plano, IL.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-minooka-lakemiwater
Fishing seasons for muskellunge begin on June 1 in inland waters and June 15 in Great Lakes waters (Lake Erie, upper Niagara River, lower Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River), according to state Department of Environmental Conservation officials. Read the full story by the Lockport Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-muskiefishing
That blissful beach getaway you’ve been yearning for is much closer than you realize. Historically a busy trading post, Southampton, just a three-hour drive northwest from Toronto, features a sandy beach along Lake Huron, a community full of beautiful homes, more good food than you’ll have time to enjoy and an award-winning craft beer. Read the full story by the Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-lakehuron-southhampton
While the city has found no evidence of rogue sewage spills, an overwhelmed sewer system in the lower city that combines storm water and sewage in the same pipes has overflowed 44 times this year. Read the full story by the Hamilton Spectator.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-smellyalgae-hamilitonwestharbour
Corälee Allaert, a 22-year-old University of Guelph student, has decided to tackle a big challenge to make something positive in her life. She will be swimming across two of the Great Lakes to commemorate the youth who have lost their lives to suicide. Read the full story by Guelph Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-swimming-greatlakes
EDITORIAL – The rise in fuel prices has prompted renewed interest in expanding container shipping at America’s Great Lakes ports, like Duluth and Cleveland. There is potential for Port of Duluth to develop containerized dry bulk agricultural exports to Europe, where growing numbers of customers are willing to take delivery of containers of agricultural produce. Read the full story by The Maritime Executive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220523-greatlakes-containershipping
Ohioans across the state are struggling to afford their water and sewer bills. A first-of-its-kind case study finds that water bills are pushed even higher for communities that pull their drinking water from Lake Erie due to harmful algal blooms caused by upstream agricultural pollution. And the costs are not insignificant. An analysis by the Alliance for the Great Lakes found that a family of five in Toledo is paying roughly an additional $100/year in their water bill because of this pollution problem. The case study illuminates the fact that downstream water users are paying a real cost for managing a pollution problem they did not create, compounding water affordability issues faced by many Ohioans.
Each summer, western Lake Erie experiences massive algal blooms which can produce harmful toxins that threaten drinking water supplies. These blooms are fueled by excess nutrients flowing off upstream agricultural lands into the lake.
The harmful algal blooms (HABs) in western Lake Erie can produce harmful cyanotoxins, a common one being microcystin. These toxins are a serious threat to human and animal health. Microcystin is a potent liver toxin and a possible human carcinogen. Cyanotoxins can also kill livestock and pets that drink affected waters.
Almost eight years ago, toxins from an algal bloom got into the drinking water systems of Toledo, Ohio. On August 2nd, 2014, more than half a million Toledo-area residents were ordered not to drink or even touch their water. The order lasted for nearly three days. A few weeks later, residents of Pelee Island, Ontario faced a similar crisis lasting nearly two weeks.
To ensure drinking water safety, drinking water facilities that draw water from Lake Erie have put into place additional monitoring and treatment, which can cost millions of dollars. This is a very real financial burden for drinking water facilities, which gets passed on to ratepayers.
These additional costs – which are critical to ensure safe drinking water – add up. The Alliance’s analysis found the additional annual average per-capita cost for HAB-related monitoring and treatment for Ohio residents who get their drinking water from Lake Erie is $10.48. For Toledo-area residents, the additional cost jumps to $18.76 per year, which translates to almost $100 extra per year on a water bill for a family of five. The case study is based on data from a 2020 survey administered by the Ohio Department of Drinking and Groundwater.
Downstream ratepayers, many of whom are already struggling to pay their water bills, should not have to shoulder the financial burden of addressing this pollution problem. And the longer this pollution problem continues, the costs will only increase as the water quality in western Lake Erie continues to degrade.
The case study identified three lessons learned from the analysis. They are:
The post New Study: Downstream Water Users Bear Financial Burden of Upstream Pollution appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2022/05/new-study-downstream-water-users-bear-financial-burden-of-upstream-pollution/
“Glenn’s Island” in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh was formed of sludge illegally discharged from the nearby Aspinwall Drinking Water Plant. And some plant employees nicknamed it for retired supervisor Glenn Lijewski, who is awaiting sentencing for conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act.
The post Alleghany River polluter cops plea in sludge ‘island’ case first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/05/23/alleghany-river-polluter-cops-plea-in-sludge-island-case/
By Matthew Brown and Matthew Daly, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest forests against climate change, wildfires and other problems devastating vast woodlands is raising a simple yet vexing question: When does a forest grow old?
Millions of acres are potentially on the line — federal land that could eventually get new protections or remain open to logging as the administration decides which trees to count under Biden’s order covering “old growth” and “mature” forests.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/ap-biden-forest-plan-dispute/
The Great Lakes have been receding from record high water levels over the past few years. The amount of water that has left the Great Lakes is staggering. Each Great Lake peaked in a different year, and each of the Great Lakes’ water levels have fallen from there. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220520-lakemichigan-lakehuron-waterloss
Fishing reports from charter captains and walleye tournament anglers have spotlighted the outstanding early-season walleye fishing in the deeper waters of the Central Basin of Lake Erie. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220520-lakeerie-walleyefishing
The round goby, a prolific and destructive invasive fish, has spread from the Great Lakes all the way to the Hudson River. New York’s canal operators are trying to keep it from invading Lake Champlain too. Read the full story by The River.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20220520-roundgoby-hudsonriver
