In Montreal, an invasive grass, common reed, is slowly taking over Îles-de-Boucherville provincial park but researchers are now using drones and artificial intelligence to map the plant’s relentless spread. Read and view the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-phrag
Great Lakes vessel traffic through the Soo Locks was down this season by 15-20% compared to the 25-year average. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-shipping-season
Fincantieri Marine Group announced Wednesday it has reached an agreement to design and build a 288-foot, Jones Act-compliant service operation vessel (SOV), a purpose-built vessel used to transport technicians to service offshore U.S. wind turbines. FBS will build the vessel at its shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for delivery in 2026. Read the full story by gCaptain.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-ships
Great Lakes preservationists received a significant boost in December with the bipartisan passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). The Act provides significant resources for protecting the Great Lakes, including funding for preventing the infiltration of invasive carp. Read the full story by The North Shore Weekend.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-carp
Erie, Pennsylvania City Council recently passed an ordinance creating an Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). The EAC will build capacity and support community outreach efforts at a time when Erie’s environmental ambitions continue to grow. Read the full story by Go Erie.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230120-erie-pa
There were no controls over what was being dumped into the river. It was a free for all.
The post Toxic hotspot builds nontoxic community engagement first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2023/01/20/toxic-hotspot-builds-nontoxic-community-engagement/
Climate change is already affecting the Great Lakes. One group is urging the Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces to coordinate their efforts to make the Great Lakes basin more resilient to those changes.
Climate change contributed to the rapid rise in Great Lakes water levels a few years ago.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/group-great-lakes-basin-effects-climate-change/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126631113164.SpecialWeatherStatement.126631119500WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
Note to Editors: In the public interest and in accordance with FAA regulations, the USGS is announcing this low-level airborne project. Your assistance informing the local communities is appreciated.
Region 3: Great Lakes
http://www.usgs.gov/news/state-news-release/media-alert-low-flying-helicopter-will-survey-illinois-river-basin-geologic?utm_source=comms&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI12663110D7F0.SpecialWeatherStatement.126631111FD0WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI12663110B4C8.WinterStormWarning.1266311146E0WI.GRBWSWGRB.0ef0fa1746e4afc44a920a413efb2a37
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI12663110945C.SpecialWeatherStatement.12663110DD68WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
The grassquit is a small bird that lives in grassy and weedy subtropical and tropical areas.
The post Feds mum about yellow-faced grassquit trafficker first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2023/01/19/feds-mum-about-yellow-faced-grassquit-trafficker/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1266310FED90.WinterStormWarning.1266311146E0WI.GRBWSWGRB.0ef0fa1746e4afc44a920a413efb2a37
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1266310EE710.WinterStormWarning.1266311146E0WI.GRBWSWGRB.0ef0fa1746e4afc44a920a413efb2a37
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1266310EC384.SpecialWeatherStatement.1266310F4B10WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI1266310269CC.SpecialWeatherStatement.1266310EBA88WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
Flexsteel Industries has agreed to settle a toxic pollution lawsuit by paying $9.8 million to clean up its former furniture manufacturing site in Elkhart, Indiana. The agreement finalized in December resolves a suit against Flexsteel Industries for groundwater contamination. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-elkhart
A new study found that consuming freshwater fish harvested from urban areas 12 times per year could more than triple the level of PFOS — one of the most well-known and researched PFAS compounds — in residents of the U.S. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-forevers
A Midwest environmental law group is launching a new initiative this year to work with utilities, municipalities, and conservation groups to study the potential reuse of Michigan coal plants as public parkland as well as renewable energy production. The project is examining the reuse of at least four coal plants along each of the Great Lakes that Michigan touches. Read the full story by MiBiz.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-parklands
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has determined this isn’t the right time to put wind turbines in Lake Erie or Lake Ontario. The agency concluded the turbines would cost more than other renewable energy options, and wouldn’t offer a feasible contribution to state climate goals. Read the full story by The Buffalo News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-eriewind
The federal government and the municipality of Central Elgin that includes the Lake Erie beach town of Port Stanley, Ontario, are funding the work jointly to manage the impact of storm surges and protect people and property. Read the full story by the West Elgin Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-portstanley
Shifting sandbars along the Leelanau County coast have uncovered a piece of wreckage which a northern Michigan diver believes is the remains of a schooner that sank in the treacherous Manitou Passage 150 years ago. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-fragment
January has been much warmer than usual, allowing very little ice on the Great Lakes to form yet this winter season. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-lowice
The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team has confirmed elevated levels of the “forever chemicals” have been found in South Haven. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230118-southhaven
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126631024000.WinterStormWarning.1266311146E0WI.GRBWSWGRB.0ef0fa1746e4afc44a920a413efb2a37
Note: This blog is part of a periodic series of updates from Don Jodrey, the Alliance’s Director of Federal Government Relations, with his view on Great Lakes policy from Washington, DC.
Over the past two years of the 117th Congress, advocates around the Great Lakes region spoke out about the critical importance of the lakes and the need for Congress to take action to protect them. The last Congress heard you and acted on bipartisan legislation, allocating a historic $1 billion investment in Great Lakes restoration, funding efforts to stop invasive carp from reaching the lakes, providing critical new funding to fix our failing water infrastructure to protect our health and environment, and more.
Now that the new 118th Congress is convened, we will start the advocacy cycle again, educating new and returning members of Congress about the critical importance of the Great Lakes. The landscape in Washington, DC changed with the 2022 midterm election, as Republicans won the majority in the House of Representatives, and a period of divided government will be the norm for at least the next two years. However, we know that support for water issues, particularly fixing our failing water infrastructure, spans both political parties. We’ll be encouraging members of Congress and the administration to reach across the aisle to protect the Great Lakes.
Key champions of the Great Lakes retired from Congress at the end of last term, including former Ohio Senator Bob Portman, but other new members were elected, and they will have their opportunity to legislate. Overall, there are 25 new Members of Congress from Great Lakes states, including two new United States Senators, and 9 of these members have districts located directly in the Great Lakes basin.
After just two weeks, early signals from the House of Representatives indicate there are likely to be major policy disagreements between the House and Senate over the debit ceiling, government funding, and a host of other issues. These disagreements may consume significant amounts of time and energy or possibly even lead to undesirable outcomes such as a government shutdown.
Notwithstanding this dynamic, the Alliance for the Great Lakes remains nonpartisan and will urge Congress to maintain its focus on its primary responsibilities. For us that means passing laws and providing funding for programs that benefit the Great Lakes and its people, such as funding to repair and maintain water infrastructure, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and numerous other programs that benefit the health of our citizens and our natural resources.
Next week, we’ll be unveiling our 2023 Federal Policy Priorities. We’ll detail the specific next steps this new Congress must take to protect the Great Lakes and ensure everyone around the region has access to safe, affordable water. And, once again, we’ll be looking to you to help make sure Congress hears from voters around the Great Lakes. Your voice matters.
We were proud to work on all of these programs during this past year and thank all of our supporters for lending your strong voices to this effort.
The post The New Congress and the Great Lakes appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
News - Alliance for the Great Lakes
https://greatlakes.org/2023/01/the-new-congress-and-the-great-lakes/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/01/michigan-winters-are-super-cloudy-and-getting-worse-heres-how-to-deal/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126631019614.WinterStormWatch.1266311DCA00WI.GRBWSWGRB.84669f45fa3f71a79a3710c19166da80
The contamination has affected the drinking water quality for local residents using wells
The post EPA wins settlement in Elkhart, Indiana, pollution suit first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2023/01/18/epa-wins-settlement-in-elkhart-indiana-pollution-suit/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI12663100AAEC.WinterStormWatch.1266311DCA00WI.GRBWSWGRB.e033b16adb0ba31156e7686a23816b49
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126630FFBFC4.WinterStormWatch.1266311DCA00WI.GRBWSWGRB.e033b16adb0ba31156e7686a23816b49
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126630F2FEEC.WinterStormWatch.1266311DCA00WI.GRBWSWGRB.e033b16adb0ba31156e7686a23816b49
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/2023/01/pfas-news-roundup-requirements-2023-protect-consumers-forever-chemicals/
The Water We Swim In is a multi-episode podcast series created and hosted by Bonnie Willison, Sea Grant’s digital storyteller, along with student Hali Jama. The series recently won two awards in the inaugural national Signal Awards competition.
In the diversity, equity and inclusion category, the series won both a bronze award and the listener’s choice award.
“We had some really impressive competitors in the Signal Awards, and I’m honored to have even been a nominee. Also, it was great to see the support from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Sea Grant communities in the listener’s choice voting competition,” Willison said.
The podcast explores water equity in the Great Lakes region. Topics explored have been inequities in water infrastructure and racism that have resulted in, for example, the ongoing potable water crisis in Jackson, Miss.; the intersection of Indigenous sovereignty, water quality and wild rice restoration on Wisconsin’s largest inland lake; and access to water recreation by people with disabilities.
The title of the podcast was sparked by a comment from one of the guests, Co-Executive Director Brenda Coley of Milwaukee Commons, who, when taking about the legacy of segregation in swimming pools and swimming lessons said, “Racism is the water we swim in…sometimes we don’t understand how pervasive it really is.”
This is the first year of the Signal Awards, which attracted more than 1,700 entries. Entries were hosted by figures such as Trevor Noah and Jon Stewart and produced by organizations such as Bloomberg Media, AMC and Apple. Nearly 15,000 people voted for listeners choice awards.
The post Water equity podcast wins two national awards first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/water-equity-podcast-wins-two-national-awards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=water-equity-podcast-wins-two-national-awards
This research follows the evolution of intra-class relations between the Black elite, middle, and working classes within Detroit society from the Reconstruction period to 1936. By analyzing transformations of power and the inherited morals which accompanied these transfers, this essay will demonstrate how class relations within the African American community created distinctions within a designated urban space. This essay argues that Detroit's prominent Paradise Valley grew out of the Black Bottom community, which inextricably links the two separate entities into one. Ultimately, this research refutes historiographical debates which attempt to concretely bind these communities. Moreover, by blending academic debate to the voices of those who inhabited this community, this research also encapsulates the intersectionality of social memory and marries what and how we remember to urban spaces, race, and intra-class relations within Detroit in the early twentieth century.
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/6
Throughout the mid to late nineteenth century, Henry Bibb and Mary Ann Shadd were known to be highly accomplished and recognized abolitionists. Both Shadd and Bibb worked in the Detroit-Windsor region and resided in Windsor-Essex for a number of years. As a part of their efforts, Shadd and Bibb were editors of their own newspapers targeted towards educating fugitive slaves, Bibb’s being The Voice of the Fugitive and Shadd’s being The Provincial Freeman. The abolitionists often worked together but also had a fair share of differences. There has been research that discusses the works of Shadd and Bibb, and the differences they demonstrated through their efforts, but little attention is paid to how these differences are influenced by intersectionality and their own upbringings. This essay will use the individual lives and identities of Shadd and Bibb to observe the varying opinions and views as expressed in their newspapers. These conclusions will help determine how their identities influenced who may have been supportive of their views.
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/5
This paper discusses perceptions of the Batak of North Sumatra popular among nineteenth-century European audiences and their continuity in the tourism industry and tourist descriptions. In particular, tourist dynamics in the Batak region of Lake Toba are contextualised and interpreted by identifying how local culture has reacted to tourist demand and tourist depictions of the locals and their culture. The paper undertakes a historiographical survey of nineteenth-century European writings that ascribe a “violent,” “primitive,” and “cannibalistic” character to the Batak to illustrate prevailing perceptions of the time. These findings are interpreted through a conceptual analysis that integrates Foucauldian discourse theory, Orientalism, Stuart Hall’s “the West and the Rest,” hegemony as well as some elements of Marxist-Leninist material history. This analysis of modern tourism dynamics in Lake Toba is thus argued to illustrate how colonial perceptions and power relations have maintained currency through tourism.
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/4
Suicide amongst slaves in antebellum America occurred frequently enough that systems of control were put in place by slave owners to limit their occurrence. Meanwhile, abolitionists used instances of slave suicide to evoke sympathy and advance their cause. This article explores how and why conceptualizations of white and black suicide differed. In doing so, it argues that contemporary discourse about slave suicide was intentionally used to shape racist perceptions as a means of maintaining control over slaves and the institution of slavery alike.
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/3
For centuries, the United States (U.S.) has euphemised their imperial endeavours across North America as they have continued to rely on ‘providence’ to justify American expansionism and colonialism. This connection between an ordained destiny and imperialism is observed within the realm of Hawaii with Bostonian missionaries. Sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), Bostonian evangelists embarked the ship Thaddeus, entering Hawaii in 1819 with the intent to civilize what they perceived as an uncivilized nation. Notably, concepts of ‘civil’ and ‘uncivilized’ are culturally determined and are intricately tied to America’s belief in their own exceptionalism. At large, this paper is examining the way American identity and thinking(s) about their own exceptionalism manifested on the ground via imperial pursuits in Honolulu, Hawaii. While the connection between ‘providence’ and American imperialism is not new, this paper will focus on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of American expansionism, the latter question being answered through an analysis of Christian belief structures that have generated America’s belief in their own superiority. This research strives to expose primarily that America is not innocent in their colonial efforts. While Bostonian moral reformists in Hawaii claimed that their mission was anti-imperial, actions on the ground in part of the missionaries proved otherwise and, as this paper will show, an informal empire gradually figured itself as a formal empire by way of direct colonial control. The ‘how’ of American imperialism in Hawaii will be examined through a Marxist approach. As Karl Marx essentially critiques the hypocritical nature of schooling, this paper argues that education and religion hindered the potential of Indigenous pupils and were therefore used as tools to create a self-sustaining lower class for the exploitation of capital.
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/2
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/gljuh/vol8/iss1/1
By Anastasia Pirrami The nonprofit group Perch America has been stocking thousands of walleye into Wolf Lake for 24 of the last 25 years, creating a rich fishery for the small community of Hammond, Indiana. Anglers concerned about commercial fisheries over harvesting fish in the southern part of Lake Michigan, including Wolf Lake, formed the […]
The post Indiana group stocks walleye for 24 years first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2023/01/17/indiana-group-stocks-walleye-for-24-years/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126630F17914.SpecialWeatherStatement.126630F1FF10WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126630F0EF94.SpecialWeatherStatement.126630F189E0WI.GRBSPSGRB.f4de8f98f175609e27461b721fccf57a
Climate change is already affecting the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Commission is urging the Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces through an “Action Plan for a Resilient Great Lakes Basin” to coordinate their efforts to make the Great Lakes basin more resilient to those changes. Read the full story by Michigan Radio.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-climate
Both Michigan and the wider Great Lakes and St. Lawrence binational region could become a world leader in the high-quality, voluntary carbon offset market to the possible tune of $783 billion in revenues by 2050, according to new research from the University of Michigan. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-carbon-offsets
The Great Lakes region is in the early stages of knitting together economic development, transportation, and environmental improvement programs in a way that could leverage more federal investment and foster networking between academic and private-industry researchers under the proposed Great Lakes Authority. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-great-lakes-authority
A newly formed coalition called Great Lakes Clean Hydrogen in the Toledo area has been chosen to proceed in a national competition to become one of the Biden Administration and U.S. Department of Energy’s first “Hydrogen Hubs.” Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-hydrogen
A coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous quarry opponents on Lake Huron is trying to stop a quarry that could harm endangered Blanding’s turtles. It’s one example of a wider provincial dispute over aggregate extraction in Ontario. Read the full story by The Narwhal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-turtle-quarry
City of Hamilton, ON officials have announced that roughly 59 million litres of sewage had flowed from 11 Hamilton homes near Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue straight into Lake Ontario since 1996. A separate 337-million-litre sewage spill was discovered in late November. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20230116-wastewater
