A researcher at Southern Illinois University Carbondale studying invasive grass carp has published their findings about a tiny bone in the ear of the grass carp that is exposing an important clue to controlling their numbers in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by The Southern.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201208-grass-carp
Flathead catfish, gizzard shad, alewife and white perch are among the fish species that have shown up in a variety of our state’s waters, ones where they had not previously been. When they become established in waters where they did not previously exist it’s often at the expense of other species. Read the full story by Indiana Gazette.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201208-indiana-invasive-species
Canadian Energy company Enbridge’s request for a permit to build a tunnel surrounding Line 5 oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, was met with lots of scrutiny and criticism in an online public hearing as environmental groups argue it could have potentially detrimental effects on coastal wetlands. Read the full story by WJRT-TV-Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201208-line-5-enbridge
The City of Marquette has been awarded a grant from the Native American Heritage Fund for a project that will promote Native history in the area. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Marquette, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201208-native-history-grant-trail
Ann Arbor, MI – The Invasive Mussel Collaborative (IMC) announced a remarkable decrease in quagga mussel density in the weeks following experimental treatments at a test site in Lake Michigan near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The IMC’s work to reduce the invasive species also led to a significant reduction in nuisance Cladophora algae at the site.
Using a molluscicide consisting of dead cells from Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteria on a reef within Good Harbor Bay, project partners saw a 95% reduction in mussel density in the weeks following application. The project tested the application to an area important for fish spawning and identified changes in the underwater habitat. Lake Michigan is heavily infested with quagga mussels, which are fueling the growth of nuisance algae in the lake. They also serve as a food source for invasive round goby, which has displaced some native fish species and plays a role in avian botulism outbreaks.
The IMC also announced the release of a video highlighting its work at Good Harbor Bay. In the months ahead, the IMC will monitor the long-term effects of the project and work to identify future priorities and opportunities to conduct similar work.
“The presence of zebra and quagga mussels has significantly impacted Good Harbor Bay and the entire Great Lakes basin,” said Dave Clapp of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “This project and related efforts show us that targeted mussel removal has the potential to help us restore these important coastal reefs.”
“The IMC is encouraged by the outcomes of this experimental project and sees an opportunity to conduct related studies in other locations around the Great Lakes,” said Erika Jensen, Interim Executive Director for the Great Lakes Commission, which provides coordination and neutral backbone support for the collaborative. “The IMC is proud to support work to develop and test effective control methods, and we look forward to the results of this project informing future efforts.”
The project leveraged ongoing work by the National Park Service, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a team of citizen divers to manually remove quagga mussels and study impacts to nuisance algae, local fish, the underwater community and toxin-producing microbes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
“We’re concerned with understanding the cascading consequences of invasive mussels on these coastal ecosystems and food webs,” said Julie Christian, Head Biologist with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. “The National Park Service is pleased to support nearshore monitoring and research efforts at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.”
“Good Harbor Bay serves as a natural laboratory to monitor ongoing changes in the Lake Michigan ecosystem and test hypotheses about reef and native species restoration,” said Brenda Lafrancois, National Park Service Aquatic Ecologist for Department of Interior Regions 3, 4 and 5.
Harvey Bootsma, a lead researcher with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who conducted monitoring for the project and is studying the reef ecosystem, added, “Ongoing research in Good Harbor Bay over the last 15 years is teaching us a great deal about the complexities of a Lake Michigan ecosystem that is significantly impacted by non-native species. The information gathered from this work improves our understanding and efforts to manage and restore Great Lakes resources.”
“This project and other innovative approaches to invasive species control would not have been possible without funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has significantly accelerated efforts to protect the Great Lakes,” said Scott Morlock, USGS Regional Director. “USGS is pleased to be a founding member of the IMC and work with our federal, state and local partners on this project and future work to protect our water resources.”
The IMC was established in 2015 to share information, identify regional research and management priorities and advance scientifically sound technologies for invasive mussel control. Founding members include the Great Lakes Commission, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The IMC is funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative through an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey. Learn more about the IMC and its work online.
The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Sharon M. Jackson, Deputy General Counsel for Governor Eric J. Holcomb of Indiana, is an interstate compact agency established under the Great Lakes Basin Compact of 1955. The Commission is authorized by state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin and its residents. The Commission consists of governors’ appointees, state legislators, industry and nonprofit leaders and agency officials from eight states and two provinces. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission office is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more at www.glc.org.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/news/ghr-120820
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Building an oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes would risk environmental devastation, opponents said Monday, while supporters argued that rejecting the plan would further damage a Michigan economy already reeling from the coronavirus.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-federal-officials-hear-arguments-enbridge-pipeline-tunnel/
Dec. 8, 2020
By Jennifer A. Smith
While it’s not news to avid anglers, many Wisconsinites may be unaware that the Badger State has over 13,000 miles of coldwater streams that support many world-class fisheries for brook trout and brown trout.
Coldwater streams are flowing waters with maximum summer temperatures under 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Trout living in these streams not only play an important role in ecosystems, but also represent significant economic value to the state. For example, according to research done by retired University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Professor Donna Anderson, trout fishing in Wisconsin’s Driftless region had an economic impact of $1.6 billion in 2015.
But these brook and brown trout face challenges. Two leading ones are climate change (and the resulting shifts in precipitation patterns and flood frequency) and high-capacity wells in the state, as those wells draw groundwater that might otherwise replenish streams.
Here to better understand these challenges—and ultimately help natural resource managers make decisions related to trout populations—is Bryan Maitland, a new Wisconsin Water Science-Policy Fellow whose position is jointly supported by the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute (WRI) and the Bureau of Fisheries Management at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Maitland, who recently completed his doctorate in ecology at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, began his fellowship Sept. 1. He also holds a master’s degree in conservation biology from the University of Alberta in Canada. The fellowship is a one-year commitment with a possibility for a second year.
During this time, he’ll focus on building computer models that illuminate how long-term changes in hydrology across the state are affecting trout populations. “The flip side of this,” he said, “is the conservation and management side, translating it into some type of decision support tool that decision-makers can use to inform policy in the state.”
As Maitland elaborated, climate change has brought shifting precipitation patterns that have altered Wisconsin’s hydrology. Increased precipitation–and particularly the frequency of intense precipitation events–has triggered floods in rivers and streams statewide. Depending on their timing and severity, these floods can threaten the emergence of trout fry or the survival of juvenile trout.
For example, a big winter flood can “scour out these little trout eggs that are growing under the stream in the substrate” that time of year, said Maitland. As a result, that year class of fish could be wiped out since eggs will not hatch in the spring. “That age-zero year class is really important for long-term trout population dynamics, because if you don’t have a good age-zero cohort, you can have very depressed populations in the stream for multiple years after that,” he noted.
At the same time, some high-capacity wells have the potential to deplete groundwater levels, thereby reducing input into nearby streams.
“The reason we have 13,000 miles of streams is because we have really good groundwater here in Wisconsin and good input into streams, which helps keep these streams colder in the summer and a little warmer in winter,” said Maitland, creating a favorable environment for brook and brown trout.
Maitland’s modeling work will pull together these two large-scale factors, and their interplay, to see how trout populations have been influenced over the past 26 years. Fish data collected from 1994 to 2020 are being used to inform the computer models to investigate how stream flow, precipitation and water temperature drive trout population numbers. Looking to the future, Maitland and collaborators will examine how increases or decreases in stream flow are likely to affect trout populations, with an eye to guiding a management framework for things like high-capacity well permits.
While economic considerations like the value of Wisconsin’s recreational trout fishery are outside the scope of his work, this effort could set the stage for other researchers to pursue this topic.
Maitland is an angler himself, which explains part of the appeal of this topic for him. Yet another draw is the chance to work with an array of other fellows and with permanent staff at the Wisconsin DNR. His collaborators at the DNR include former WRI fellow Alex Latzka, now a fisheries systems biologist there, and Lori Tate, section chief at the Fisheries Management Bureau and a member of Wisconsin Sea Grant’s Advisory Board. His efforts will intersect with that of other current fellows like Carolyn Voter and Dana Lapides.
“I think science and policy are team sports,” said Maitland. “To join such a big group of researchers and managers working on these big-picture issues in Wisconsin is very exciting.”
The post WRI Fellow looks at what’s ahead for brook and brown trout amid Wisconsin’s changing hydrology first appeared on WRI.
News Release – WRI
https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/wri-fellow-looks-at-whats-ahead-for-brook-and-brown-trout/
The Great Lakes Conservation Coalition is criticizing the U.S. EPA’s ballast water rule proposal which would exempt cargo ships that only travel in the Great Lakes from having to treat their ballast water to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-epa-proposal
Applications to Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy for shoreline protection permits tripled this year compared to 2019. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-lakefront-protections
The mayor of Waukegan, Illinois, is chairing the recently formed Mayors Water Equity Commission of the binational Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, exploring ways to make fresh water more accessible and less costly. Read the full story by The Lake County News-Sun.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-waukegan-water-quality
Lake Superior water levels continued to drop in November, but more slowly than usual, as the big lake continues with higher-than-normal water levels. Read the full story by the Duluth News Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-superior-water-level
A new 214-acre “quiet” recreation area on Lake Michigan and featuring a large inland lake near Muskegon, Michigan, could be open to the public next year. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-muskegon-park
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, a water safety nonprofit, is rolling out an online learning program to give water safety presentations to schools throughout the Great Lakes region. Read the full story by the Northwest Indiana TImes.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-water-safety
A project supported by the Stratford Perth Community Foundation in Ontario is helping landowners in the region shore up their properties to provide environmental benefits, add bank stability, and improve the quality of water that ultimately ends up in Lake Huron. Read the full story by The Beacon Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-restoration-project
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation has now been joined by more partners in an effort to stop the Town of South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, from cutting back the dunes at Sauble Beach on Lake Huron and installing a concrete-block retaining wall. Read the full story by The Owen Sound Sun Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-sauble-beach
A Minnesota regulatory panel on Friday denied a request from two tribes to prevent Enbridge Energy from moving forward with its contentious Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement, which broke ground this week after receiving its final state permit. Read the full story by the Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-line-3
The government of Ontario estimates that “hundreds of thousands” of the province’s lakes, islands, beaches, bays and other geographic features still don’t have an official name, and anyone can make a name submission to the Ontario Geographic Names Board. Read the full story by CBC.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201207-ontario-lakes
LASALLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A fire Friday destroyed an enormous building loaded with hundreds of boats stored for the winter in southeastern Michigan, sending smoke for miles along Lake Erie.
Neighbors and boat owners rushed to get as close as possible to Toledo Beach Marina. Aerial video showed clouds of black smoke and a building overwhelmed by flames.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-hundreds-boats-likely-destroyed-michigan-marina-fire/
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota regulatory panel on Friday denied a request from two tribes to prevent Enbridge Energy from moving forward with its contentious Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement, which broke ground this week after receiving its final state permit.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-minnesota-regulators-deny-request-to-delay-line-3-pipeline/
By Eric Freedman Looking for a holiday gift with the spirit of the Great Lakes region? If so, here are books (in alphabetical order by title) that Great Lakes Echo has written about this year, including interviews with their authors. Eating with the Seasons, Great Lakes Region by Dereck Nicholas This cookbook combines recipes, language […]
The post Great Gifts for Great Lakes enthusiasts first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2020/12/07/great-gifts/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
Just 150 miles from Lake Michigan, utility planners are worried about finding enough water to supply a growing Indianapolis because of climate change.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/drinking-water-climate-change-lead-first-nations-waukesha-pipeline/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
For over two decades, when you drove by the former McLouth Steel Plant in Trenton, you could not help but slow down and stare.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/new-vision-waterfront-former-mclouth-steel-site-trenton/
Michigan’s outdoor recreation is expected to get a boost of nearly $37.8 million in 2021, and Muskegon County is the biggest winner of funds with a single grant for $5 million. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-michigan-recreation-grant
The Lower Menominee River remediation project, located in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula, has been officially delisted as an Area of Concern under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. However, there is work still to be done. Read the full story by WLUC-TV – Negaunee, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-michigan-river-remediation
St. Clair County, Michigan, has secured funding to acquire a 10-acre parcel along the North Channel of the St. Clair River with help from Six Rivers Land Conservancy. Read the full story by The Voice.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-michigan-land-conservation
The Harvest Spirit is anchored in Canadian waters after having run aground in the Detroit River near Grosse Ile, Michigan, on Dec. 3. Up to 18 vessels had anchored and were awaiting passage during the incident. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-freighter-shipping
A crustacean is invading the Great Lakes and eating plankton, leaving small fish nothing to feed on. Native to the Baltic Sea region in Russia, the water flea reached Lake Ontario in the early 1980s, and Lake Superior by 1987. Read the full story by The Science Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-invasive-species-water-flea
Enbridge Energy has all the permits it needs to start construction on a controversial new crude oil pipeline in Minnesota, more than five years after the Canadian company first asked state regulators to approve the Line 3 project, but hurdles still remain. View the full story by MinnPost.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-enbridge-line-3
The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation to require the updating of Great Lakes environmental maps for use in response to an oil spill. The maps, which are maintained by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, summarize resources near the lakeshore like shellfish beds, marshes, tidal flats, public beaches, parks and endangered and threatened species that would be at risk in oil spill. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-erie-threat-priorities
Environmental groups created a document that prioritizes the major threats to the Lake Erie watershed and includes recommendations on how to preserve water quality. The collaborative document was created to help guide government officials on the protection of Lake Erie, Presque Isle Bay, and their tributaries. Read the full story by Erie News Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-erie-threat-priorities
Republican lawmakers have advanced legislation that would reestablish the state of Michigan’s authority to manage development along the Great Lakes coastline as part of a bill that aims to simplify erosion protection permitting for homeowners at the beach. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201204-coastline-erosion
Dec. 3, 2020
By Jennifer A. Smith
For Dana Lapides, the road to a postdoctoral fellowship has wended through organic farms on two continents. Lapides began her post as a Water Resources Science-Policy Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute (WRI) in early November.
She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California in May, focusing on surface water hydrology. Yet Lapides’ original intent in heading to the Berkeley campus was to study atmospheric science. After beginning her studies, however, she realized that field was not the right fit for her. She knew something else would suit her better as she sought to take her undergraduate background in math in a more applied direction.
While in California, she began volunteering on a campus-owned community farm, and that led to two summers on a farm in Portugal, where a farmer with a computer science background sparked Lapides’ interest in rainwater harvesting.
“He was really thoughtful about how he did everything,” said Lapides of Guy Miklos, owner of the farm Quinta do Barbeito. This introduction to rainwater harvesting drew Lapides to hydrology and sustainable water management. At last, she’d found her professional calling.
For her WRI fellowship, Lapides’ main charge, as she summarized it, “is to help develop a decision support tool for the screening of applications for high-capacity wells in Wisconsin. I’m thinking a lot about how to conservatively estimate how much stream depletion will be caused by a well, so that we can separate out applications into those that are definitely not going to impact stream ecology, and those that may negatively impact stream ecology and require site-specific review.”
Her work will intersect with another postdoctoral fellow, Bryan Maitland, whose holds a joint appointment between WRI and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Management Program. “I expect to be working a lot with Bryan on identifying ecological thresholds,” Lapides said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lapides is working remotely from Canada, but she hopes to move to Wisconsin at a later date. Wisconsin’s status as a water-rich state was part of what drew her to the WRI fellowship, she noted.
Lapides hails from Pennsylvania and did her bachelor’s degree there before heading to California for graduate school. “Because I didn’t have a water resources background until my Ph.D., my understanding of hydrology and hydrological systems is mainly shaped by California. Going into my postdoc, I was interested in learning about a different region with really different hydrology—a more water-rich system—to broaden my understanding. Wisconsin, in particular, is a very wet state and has more groundwater interacting with surface water, and that was another component I’m interested in investigating more.”
Lapides expects to spend two years in the fellowship program. As for long-term goals, she’s mulling options between government agency work and academia. For now, she said, “I’m excited to have my work be directly applicable and important to management decisions.”
Lapides may be reached at danalapides@berkeley.edu.
The post New Water Resources Fellow finds her path to hydrology through organic farms first appeared on WRI.
News Release – WRI
https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/new-wri-fellow-finds-path/
The report is an independent review of the Canadian and U.S. governments’ progress to restore and maintain the Great Lakes under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ijc-2020-triennial-assessment-of-progress-report-on-great-lakes-water-quality/
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is extending its review of the Line 5 tunnel until January 2021 to allow for more time to process public comments, technical information and recommendations from the State Historic Preservation Office. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-line5-tunnel
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s action to revoke Enbridge’s Line 5 easement is an overdue and necessary step towards protecting the Great Lakes and ensuring Anishinaabe communities will have the ability to fish, work and recreate on the Straits of Mackinaw for generations to come. Read the full story by the Lansing State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-anishinaabe-line5
Enbridge Energy began construction on its Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement in Minnesota on Tuesday, a day after state regulators approved the final permit for the $2.6 billion project amid legal challenges from local activist and Indigenous groups. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-line3
The recent “State of the Strait” report described how environmental clean-up efforts have improved the Detroit River and western Lake Erie, but warned that the waters are “at a defining moment” as algal blooms continue to plague the waters. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-state-of-strait
A freighter ran aground early Wednesday in the lower Detroit River near Grosse Ile causing a vessel attempting to avoid it to hit bottom and a logjam for other ships rushing to move cargo ahead of the close of the shipping season. Read the full story by The Detroit News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-ship-aground
Shipwreck hunter Ross Richardson located another shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Michigan near Pyramid Point at the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Northern Michigan. The Jarvis Lord sunk 135 years ago while carrying iron ore from St. Ignace to Chicago. Read the full story by WWUP-TV – 9&10 News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-jarvis-lord
With more students – and grown-ups – doing their work remotely these days, some of Ludington, Michigan’s, favorite tourist spots have pulled together a large lineup of remote learning and entertainment options. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-ludington
By acting to shutdown Line 5 across the Mackinaw Straits, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel are effectively protecting the “public trust” in Michigan’s waters and natural resource. Read the full story by the Lansing State Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-line5-commentary-2
The International Joint Commission announced that the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River board will be reformed, reducing the number of members to six – three from Canada and three from the United States. The reformed group will seek input from a more-inclusive advisory body. Read the full story by the Toronto Star.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-ijc-restructure
The St. Lawrence Eastern Lake Ontario Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (SLELO PRISM) is offering an online presentation about invasive species that threaten local areas, and ways for residents to help protect lands and waters against these species. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201203-is-webinar
The November River Talk featured Dustin Haines, research coordinator for the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve. His Zoom talk held in cooperation with Café Scientifique Twin Ports, was titled, ““Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Clash of Wetlands With Lake Levels, Invasives and Humans.”
Dustin Haines
Haines described research conducted on a special site on the St. Louis River Estuary. This sentinel site on the Pokegama River, which flows into the estuary, serves as a long-term location to help researchers understand the impacts of water level fluctuations on coastal communities. “It is a sentinel of present, past and future change,” Haines said. Vegetation, weather and water quality data are collected on these sites on the Reserve and in other estuarine research reserves across the country.
From historical aerial images and Lake Superior water level data from 1938 to 2018, Reserve researchers found that, “When water levels are low, we have high amounts of emergent vegetation. And when the water level goes up, those emergent plant communities decline . . . It’s fairly clear that these emergent plant communities are correlated with these changing water levels. Biologists who study wetlands already know this, but it’s interesting to see it in this much-longer-term data set,” Haines said. Emergent plants are those with roots in the water and their tips out of the water. They form wetlands, which provide vital wildlife habitat and are a hallmark of a healthy estuary.
Then Haines turned to more recent data. During 2014-2017 and in 2020, Haines and other Reserve researchers established plots to record the types of plants found in them (emergent, submerged and floating). They also recorded water depths at the plots.
“We saw some interesting shifts in the emergent and submergent plant communities, which seem to be tied to rising water levels,” Haines said. The sites with high water depths had few emergent plants. Despite that, Haines said the submerged plant communities are doing well in those areas.
What does that mean for the health of the overall plant community in terms of diversity? The communities are changed by water level changes, but the number of species is fairly stable. The types of them just change.
“The number of species is not changing with respect to long-term changes in depth,” Haines said. “That indicates that while these communities are changing with emergent/submergent plant types, the species diversity is not drastically reduced.”
Invasive plants can outcompete native plants and can harm wetland health. Nonnative cattails and purple loosestrife are the most common alien plants found at the sentinel site. Haines did not find a correlation between the cover of invasive plants and the native plant cover on the site. “But it’s still something to pay attention to,” Haines said. “Cattails can really take over an area. They grow in monoculture, largely to the exclusion of native plants. That can be a problem.”
“This huge loss of wetland habitat from 200 years ago to now from human activities, indicates we do really need to focus on restoration efforts in the estuary to regain these neat habitats that we’ve lost over time. There’s a lot being done now, but we need to do more. Additionally, water levels are driving the system. Whatever’s happening to Lake Superior is happening to the estuary. That changes quickly, but the plant response is really quick to change, too. Restoration efforts need to take these dynamics into account,” Haines said.
If people would like to help efforts of the Reserve in the estuary, they can get involved in the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve. There are sometimes opportunities to participate in field work with the researchers.
A video of Haines’s talk is available on YouTube here. The next River Talk will be held in January (we skip December due to the holidays). Coastal wetlands will be the topic on January 13.
The post River Talk explores wetland clashes on the St. Louis River Estuary first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Blog – Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/river-talk-explores-wetland-clashes-on-the-st-louis-river-estuary/
By Walker Orenstein, MinnPost, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Enbridge Energy has all the permits it needs to start construction on a controversial new crude oil pipeline in Minnesota, more than five years after the Canadian company first asked state regulators to approve the Line 3 project.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/enbridge-line-3-project-minnesota-construction-protests/
Four months after it was cut free of its old water-logged foundation and lifted away to wait out its new perch, Fishtown’s oldest shanty was recently settled back into place along the Leland River in northwest Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201202-fishtown-shanty
In Wisconsin, construction has started on the two pipelines that will carry Lake Michigan drinking water from Milwaukee to Waukesha and treated wastewater back towards the lake. It’s expected to take almost three years to finish the diversion project aimed at providing Waukesha with a reliable source of clean water. Read the full story by WUWM- Milwaukee, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201202-water-pipeline
President-elect Joe Biden should focus on threats to the Great Lakes. One way to support is a robust endorsement of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that includes dramatically increased funding for the project. Read the full story by The Capital Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201202-biden-glri
The owner of a barge that sank and spilled oil into Grand Traverse Bay this week told the U.S. Coast Guard that a salvage effort to refloat the vessel is planned as soon as the weather allows. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201202-oil-spill
The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists heard from a senior research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, whose presentation focused on the changing face of the Great Lakes with specific focus on Lake Ontario. Read the full story by Prince Edward County Live.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20201202-ontario-changing
