For the first time, a genome sequence has been developed for an unfamiliar species of harmful algae that’s been blooming in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-algae
Invasive European water chestnut was first spotted in the Welland River in Ontario in 2020. Staff from the Invasive Species Centre worked this summer to eradicate the invasive plant from the river but warn that the fight isn’t over yet. Read the full story by the Welland Tribune.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-invasive-plant
After detection approximately two decades ago, an area of contaminated groundwater in Sturgis Township, Michigan, continues to improve. Three wells in 2021 and four wells in 2022 were replaced, changing out from deep wells to shallow units. Read the full story by the Sturgis Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-pollution
At roughly 60,000 acres, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness is Michigan’s largest state park. It sits on the Lake Superior shoreline and was ranked the “most beautiful” state park in the United States according to a recent study by Travel Lens. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-porkies
In the age of COVID-19, birdwatching has taken off in Northeast Ohio, drawing new, young bird enthusiasts to the hobby. And it doesn’t slow down during winter, when the snowy owl arrives on Lake Erie. Read the full story by Cleveland Magazine.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-snowy-owl
In Alpena, Michigan, special microbial mat systems in Lake Huron sinkholes are helping scientists search for extraterrestrial life. Read the full story by Great Lakes Echo.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-sinkholes
Lake-effect snow typically happens in the late fall and early winter when the lakes are ice-free and the water is still relatively warm. Read the full story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-lake-effect-snow
There’s no plaque that indicates who crafted the wooden model of the U.S. Brig Niagara on display at the Erie County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. An Erie resident hopes to get recognition for her grandfather who made the model in the 1930s. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221130-model-ship
By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments on an attempt by environmental groups to cancel a key permit for a long-stalled copper-nickel mine.
Opponents of PolyMet Mining Corp.′s project say state regulators should have included “end-of-pipe” limits on discharges of mercury, sulfates and other pollutants in the water quality permit.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/ap-mine-opponents-minnesota-supreme-court-void-permit/
Universities across the globe are monitoring wastewater on their campuses for viruses like COVID-19. It is a practice that has raised some medical privacy concerns, although researchers say there is no way to link the detection of the virus in wastewater with an individual who is sick.
The post Don’t hide your poo — and here’s why first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/11/30/dont-hide-your-poo-and-heres-why/
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/2022/11/michigans-outdoor-recreation-boom-business-boom/
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/2022/11/why-line-5-likely-remain-open-despite-democratic-control-lansing/
Special microbial mat systems in Alpena, Michigan, are helping scientists search for extraterrestrial life. They could also lead to advances in other scientific fields, such as evolutionary biology and medicine.
The post Exploring Lake Huron sinkholes may help find life on other planets first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/11/29/exploring-lake-huron-sinkholes-may-help-find-life-on-other-planets/
The Superior Watershed Partnership announced it has used funding awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program to host coastal cleanups, beach hikes, and diving events this past summer for the city of Marquette, Michigan plus the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Bay Mills Indian Community. Read the full story by the Mining Journal.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-marine-debris
The Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum in Rogers City, Michigan organizes annual bell-ringing ceremonies to recognize sailors past and honoring those who still serve. Read the full story by the Alpena News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-bell-ringing
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded nearly $1.5 million in federal funding to projects focused on combatting harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by the Fulton County Expositor.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-erie-funding
A brand-new degree program is coming to Northwestern Michigan College next fall. The program, an associate of applied science in water quality environmental technology, will focus on training a workforce supporting the direct monitoring and cleanup of waters within the Great Lakes watershed. Read the full story by The Ticker.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-nmc
Ontario’s minister of the environment said Hamilton, Ontario must audit its entire sewage infrastructure and create a remediation plan after the city revealed it discovered sewage has been leaking into Hamilton Harbour, which is part of Lake Ontario, for the past 26 years. Read the full story by CBC News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-hamilton-harbour
The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw motored down Lake Michigan this past weekend to Chicago, where its load of more than 1,200 Christmas trees will be used to recreate the holiday spirit of Michigan’s ill-fated Christmas Tree Ship, which sank in late November 1912. Read the full story by MLive.com.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-christmas-ship
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/2022/11/mapping-the-great-lakes-pumpkin-production/
While a lot of attention is paid to the amount of plastic pollution in the oceans, the Lake Huron Centre is planning a multi-program campaign to address plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. Read the full story by CKNX – Wingham, ON.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-lake-huron-centre
The Traverse City, Michigan-based Conservation Resource Alliance plans to rebrand Black Friday as Green Friday to kick off its participation in the new Forest to Mi Faucet program. The primary focus is to make a link between forest cover and clean drinking water. Read the full story by the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-green-friday
The state of Ohio must develop a mandatory cap on algae-fueling nutrient pollution entering Lake Erie under the terms of a proposed court settlement. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-pollution-diet
The Canton, New York village board of trustees is considering a resolution to recognize the rights of the Grasse River in upstate New York. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221128-river-rights
Wisconsin Sea Grant’s videographer Bonnie Willison recently received two awards for her video production skills through a regional competition coordinated by an organization called Madison Media Professionals.
The group presents WAVE Awards, which honor excellence in the video production industry as well as in web, audio, video and graphic design. The 2022 competition received over 80 entries, including materials created for national entities like Toppers Pizza, Kohler, PBS Kids and American Family Insurance.
The Wisconsin Sea Grant video Nano- and Microplastics in the Great Lakes was awarded a WAVE merit award in the animation category. Willison created the scientific animations featured in the video by combining photography and motion graphics.
The second winning video is Clean, Drain and Dry Your Boat This Summer. It picked up a merit award in the branding and corporate image category. “We shot this video to raise awareness of invasive species in the Great Lakes,” Willison said. “It was great to partner with local professionals who helped direct, shoot and provide voiceover for this piece”
Viewers can subscribe to the Wisconsin Sea Grant YouTube channel to stay up to date with new videos about the program’s research, outreach and education.
The post Willison’s strong video production skills snag two awards first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant
https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/willisons-strong-video-production-skills-snag-two-awards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=willisons-strong-video-production-skills-snag-two-awards
For the first time, a genome sequence has been developed for an unfamiliar species of harmful algae that’s been blooming in the Great Lakes.
The post Researchers in Minnesota acquire first genome for doli algal bloom first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/11/28/researchers-in-minnesota-acquire-first-genome-for-doli-algal-bloom/
Keep up with energy-related developments in the Great Lakes area with Great Lakes Now’s biweekly headline roundup.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois
The town of Zion, Illinois, went into an economic spiral after the sudden closure of a nuclear power plant 25 years ago.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/energy-news-roundup-nuclear-communities-sidelined-mid-michigan-wind-energy/
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126418EBC72C.SpecialWeatherStatement.126418EC0EA8WI.GRBSPSGRB.b019d08ff997493937887efcb893c041
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126418EB5198.SpecialWeatherStatement.126418EC02F0WI.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=WI126418EA647C.SpecialWeatherStatement.126418EB2A24WI.GRBSPSGRB.c3da79325a2463a7a02d5f2192f4955c
Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Brown (WIC009) Wisconsin Issued by the National Weather Service
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=WI126418DD86BC.SpecialWeatherStatement.126418EA7C50WI.GRBSPSGRB.3b77a733acfe35fc01f412b80021d336
In Lake Erie’s western basin, toxic algal blooms lasted into November for the first time in the past 20 years of data gathering. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are analyzing the impacts of weather conditions and the species of algae on the bloom’s extended stay. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-algae-conditions
In a major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday ordered the Gen. James Gavin Power Plant in Cheshire, Ohio, to stop dumping dangerous coal ash into unlined storage ponds and speed cleanup of the site. This marks the first time the EPA has formally denied a utility’s request to continue disposing toxic coal ash after a deadline to stop such disposal has passed. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-coal-ash-order
In Lisbon, New York, the Eel Protection Study, a five-month study that investigates the use of light to guide adult American eel through hydroelectric power stations, aims to guide, collect, and transport the eel during its migration from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. Read the full story by Seaway News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-eel-protection
Angelica Vazquez-Ortega, a Bowling Green State University geochemist, obtained more than $1 million in grants to study the effects of using dredged lake sediment from Lake Erie as a farm soil amendment to mitigate nutrient overflow into the lake. Read the full story by The Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-sediment-fertilizer
A new report led by St. Paul, Minnesota-based Freshwater Society reveals how groundwater is governed and serves as a reference for water policy and resource professionals to build future policy work. The authors conclude that the current structures, cobbled together over decades in response to different kinds of stressors and crises, does not adequately provide for a sustainable and equitable groundwater management for the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Read the full story by The Waynedale News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-groundwater-governance
The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort, a watchdog group, has tracked a particular bird that has foregone its migration to Michigan to forage in Florida over the past several breeding seasons. Even though this bird has apparently taken herself out of the nesting business, 150 piping plover chicks were fledged in the wild at dozens of nesting sites along the Great Lakes shoreline – a huge step in the numbers game for this small bird. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-piping-plover-migration
On November 26, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw will travel from Cheboygan, Michigan, to Chicago with its annual shipment of 1,200 Christmas trees to deliver holiday cheer to families in need. This is the 23rd year of carrying on the tradition of the schooner Rouse Simmons, which sank in Lake Michigan in 1912 with a cargo full of Christmas trees. Read the full story by WWMT-TV – Kalamazoo, MI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-christmas-ship
COMMENTARY: In the St. Clair River, northern madtoms are one of the species that helps researchers gauge the overall health of the river and its inhabitants as they eat some of the tiniest organisms in the system, which are also some of the most sensitive and vulnerable to pollutants. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221123-catfish-indicator
In the course of 11 days, a device dating back to 234 B.C. successfully transported 704 fish across the Cheboygan Dam in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula with no injuries observed.
The post Device from 234 B.C. lifts fish over barriers while blocking invaders, study finds first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/11/23/device-from-234-b-c-lifts-fish-over-barriers-while-blocking-invaders-study-finds/
While virtual reality grows in the entertainment world, a team of Cornell researchers is using it to prepare farmworkers for hard work. Cornell hopes to collaborate with farms to create a variety of virtual reality spaces for people to visit and learn how to farm. The idea is to document and record the various practices used on a successful farm.
The post Cornell researchers farm pixels first appeared on Great Lakes Echo.Great Lakes Echo
http://greatlakesecho.org/2022/11/22/cornell-researchers-farm-pixels/
The National Museum of the Great Lakes recently added the bell of the passenger steamer G.P. Griffith to its shipwreck artifacts collection. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-shipwreck
Lake Superior is notorious for deadly November storms. Perhaps the worst was the Mataafa Storm of 1905, when 36 lives were lost, and 29 vessels were damaged or destroyed. Read the full story by The Sun Times News.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-lake-storm
There are two basic reasons why Lower Michigan will probably never record six feet of snow in one lake-effect snow event. Read the full story by MLive.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-buffalo
The discovery of evidence in a Lake Michigan shipwreck comes on the 175th anniversary of its sinking. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum recently confirmed the steamer Phoenix was found off the coast of Sheboygan. Read the full story by WLUK – Green Bay, WI.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-superior-beach
The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa recently acquired a parcel of beachfront property along Lake Superior outside Grand Marais, Minnesota. Read the full story by WTIP –Grand Marais, MN.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-superior-beach
The Great Lakes Climate Corps hiked 320 km of Michigan coastline, picking up debris, including trash left by increasing the number of nature tourists in the Upper Peninsula. Read the full story by Soo Today.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-superior-cleanup
A Bowling Green State University geochemist is exploring a promising way to close the loop and mitigate nutrient overflow into Lake Erie using material from the lake as a farm soil amendment. Read the full story by the Toledo Blade.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-lake-erie
A storm packing snow, strong winds and cold temperatures swept through West Michigan this week, and it left behind a visually compelling scene at Lake Michigan beaches. Sand formations, also known as “sand hoodoos,” popped up along the beach at Grand Haven State Park. Read the full story by the Muskegon Chronicle.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-sand-formations
A dangerous lake-effect snowstorm paralyzed parts of western and northern New York on Friday, with more than 3 feet of snow already on the ground in some places by early afternoon. The storm was blamed for the deaths of two people stricken while clearing snow. Read the full story by The Associated Press.
Great Lakes Commission
https://www.glc.org/dailynews/20221121-new-york-snow
