A permit to build a new section of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac was granted last month, but several organizations argue it violates the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and that alternative options were not adequately considered. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240110-line5-appeal
Five threats to the Great Lakes watch out for in 2024 include exotic species, plastic pollution, the Line 5 pipeline project, Canadian nuclear waste, and vanishing ice. Read the full story by Buffalo Rising.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240110-great-lakes-threats
Ohio will soon embark on removing the Gorge Dam to create a free-flowing and healthier ecosystem in the Cuyahoga River, but first, a $100 million collaboratively funded clean-up of 875,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment must occur. Ohio’s collaborative funding approach could be a model for cleaning up contaminated sediments in Michigan’s Detroit and Rouge rivers. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240110-sediment-cleanup
Grant funding will be used to educate and empower waterfront residents to reduce stormwater pollution and erosion along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Read the full story by WWTI-TV – Watertown, NY.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240110-stormwater-education-grant
The calendar has flipped to 2024. Our staff members are already tackling new projects. Before they move too deeply into the new year, however, some staff members took a moment to retain the glow of their favorite 2023 project. Elizabeth White, senior editor, shared her thoughts.
My favorite project of the past year is the “2024-26 Directory of Projects and People.” I think it’s an underappreciated little publication—so routine that we take it for granted. Where else can you find everything you need to know about the Wisconsin Sea Grant Program in one neat little package? It’s got complete project lists, including outreach, education and research, and it contains all of the contact information you could need. Even though it’s really just a directory of information, it reveals the incredible breadth of the work we’re doing with a diverse array of projects and partners. It’s satisfying to see it all in one place.
While our assistant director for communications, Moira Harrington, does the majority of the work by gathering the information and Designer Sarah Congdon tackles the entire design aspect, my contribution to the project is taking the technical abstracts submitted by the researchers and distilling them into 150-word summaries that are understandable for our general audience. It’s a surprisingly enjoyable (yet challenging!) exercise in clearly describing what we are doing in as few words as possible, and it always makes me feel so proud of what we’re doing.
It’s not ready for publication yet, but I expect it will be available in spring. In the meantime, page through the 2022-24 edition.
The post Our project directory: an underappreciated resource first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/our-project-directory-an-underappreciated-resource/
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/user-perceptions-drought-indices-north-american-climates
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Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
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This lesson will explore the phenomenon of stonefly larvae as an indicator species for water quality in the Great Lakes and some of the citizen science efforts being done to utilize stoneflies to learn about the ecosystems in the Great Lakes. Students will create an infographic about an indicator species, learn about the history of canaries in coal mines, and model ecosystem health using an ecosystem model with indicator species.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/episode-2312-stonefly-science-lesson-plan/
By Izzy Ross, Interlochen Public Radio
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with IPR and Grist, a nonprofit independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
A Great Lakes water law and policy center in Traverse City is appealing a state permit for the Line 5 tunnel project.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/traverse-city-based-policy-center-appeals-michigans-line-5-permit/
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NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202312
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The founder of a company that uses drones to recover deer carcasses that hunters cannot find says that Michigan’s prohibition of the practice violates his First Amendment rights.
The suit questions one of the core principles of hunting and fishing in the United States, some experts say.
The post Lawsuit could complicate drone laws for Michigan hunters and anglers. first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2024/01/09/lawsuit-could-complicate-drone-laws-for-michigan-hunters-and-anglers/
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Ohio will soon embark on removing the Gorge Dam on the Cuyahoga River, but first must clean up 875,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment at a cost of more than $100 million. The result will be a free-flowing river, a healthier ecosystem, improved habitats for fish and wildlife, and expanded public access for fishing and whitewater rapids for kayaking.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/great-lakes-moment-ohio-provides-example-for-funding-detroit-and-rouge-rivers-sediment-cleanup/
By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
This article was republished here with permission from Wisconsin Public Radio.
Wisconsin’s only state endangered mammal is notoriously difficult to spot, which isn’t surprising since the American marten is very rare.
The small number that exist in the state make their home in a few areas of northern Wisconsin, including the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/for-the-first-time-in-a-century-martens-have-been-spotted-on-lake-superiors-madeline-island/
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This year, the Great Lakes are under the influence of a strong El Niño, bringing a short-term warming trend to the region. But scientists say evidence of long-term climate change can also be seen in the region’s ice formation trends. Read the full story by USA Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-low-ice
A bill that would realize the Great Lakes’ first offshore wind farm in Chicago is under consideration in the Illinois state senate but there are many unknowns, and the project is likely several years out from construction. Read the full story by The Daily Herald.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-chicago-wind
In Michigan, the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority is providing funding to a nonprofit to help designate a 92-mile stretch of the Grand River as a state recreational water trail stretching from the headwaters to its mouth in Lake Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-grand-river
Blue-green algae blooms paint Lake Erie’s waters bright green for hundreds of square miles every summer. Some scientists think they may be home to the next pharmaceutical drug. Read the full story by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-algae-pharma
December 2023 was Milwaukee’s warmest December on record according to a state climatologist. The unseasonably warm weather and lack of snow and lake ice have had a wide range of effects on the state. Read the full story by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-wisconsin-warmth
The most comprehensive study ever undertaken of marsh birds’ abundance around Great Lakes coastlines shows many of the bird species thriving over the past decade-plus, likely because of recent high water levels. Read the full story by The Detroit Free Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-coastal-birds
The National Park Service may restrict beach areas previously open to the public if piping plovers nest in new habitat area created by an excavation project at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-plover-restrictions
Great Lakes iron ore pellet shipping jumped sharply in 2023 compared to 2022. Shipments on the Great Lakes hit 51.1 million net tons for the year. Read the full story by the Mesabi Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-ore-shipments
A Chicago psychotherapist and clinical social worker have organized ‘Climate Cafés’: gatherings for those struggling with the emotional burdens of climate change. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-climate-cafes
Disposal of a wind turbine once its 20-30 years of service ends usually results in incineration or life in a landfill. One Ohio company is repurposing blades into functional pieces of art, including benches, tables, and planters. Read the full story by Cleveland Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240108-turbine-art
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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/2024/01/warmer-winters-mean-less-ice-on-lake-michigan-hurting-lake-trout-and-whitefish/
The calendar has flipped to 2024. Our staff members are already tackling new projects. Before they move too deeply into the new year, however, some staff members took a moment to retain the glow of their favorite 2023 project. Tim Campbell, aquatic invasive species outreach specialist, shared his thoughts.
My favorite project of 2023 is connected to my favorite project from 2021! I’m still enjoying the work I’m doing on language used for invasive species communication. I’m not sure I would’ve thought that in 2016 when University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Bret Shaw and I produced our spiny waterflea education video, that this is where I’d be with this work, but here we are.
What started as a very targeted and theoretically informed video led us to more detailed research on how themed messages impact invasive species communications, which then progressed to coordinated action on the results of our research and other related work.
Tim Campbell. Image credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant
This year, thanks to Sea Grant leadership, the Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species (GLP) developed a position statement on inclusive communication and naming conventions. The statement encourages GLP members to be mindful of messages and consider the unintended impacts of place-based invasive species names. Alternatively, names could describe characteristics or behaviors that help members of the public identify these species.
The position statement has already led to the change of one national awareness campaign that had used militaristic language. The campaign has been forwarded to the national Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force for consideration as a template for other organizations.
Sea Grant’s work has also resulted in the National Sea Grant Office funding Michigan Sea Grant to host a meeting on inclusive language and naming conventions as part of National Invasive Species Awareness Week. The meeting will be held Feb. 27 and 28 in Washington, D.C., https://naisma.org/event/nisaw-webinar-the-invasive-species-language-workshop/2024-02-27/. A virtual half day of presentations will be followed by a full-day workshop where attendees will draft guidelines and research priorities for inclusive communication and naming conventions.
Seeing people from all aspects of invasive species management coalesce around this issue and recognize the need for us to change is rewarding. Scientists and natural resource managers often believe that the language and points they make are neutral; that they’re just the facts. However, even when communicating facts, we all use value-laden language or language that may be received differently than intend.
By embracing this inclusive language and naming conventions, we can all be more intentional with the language we use so that we reduce unintended consequences of our communication products and we can build more support for aquatic invasive species management efforts.
The post Communicating about aquatic invasive species first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.
Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/communicating-about-aquatic-invasive-species/
NCEI News Feed
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/participating-2024-esip-january-meeting
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A 20th company recently signed a pledge to use 100% of commercially caught Great Lakes fish. This pledge details how a fish can be turned into products, increasing profits and eliminating waste. Read the full story by the Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240105-fish-pledge
An exhibit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, transports visitors to a surreal underwater future with interactive sculptural elements and hidden passageways where invasive species have overrun the Great Lakes ecosystem. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240105-immersive-exhibit
A phenomenon called pancake ice was caught on video in Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior by a lakeshore homeowner. This is an indication that the Great Lakes will, hopefully, freeze soon. Read the full story by WJBK-TV – Detroit, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240105-pancake-ice
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is planning a webinar series on invasive species and what Michiganders can do to help protect their environment. Read the full story by WSJM-FM – Benton Harbor, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20240105-invasive-species-webinars
