Author: Lucknow Sentinel

The Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System (GLANSIS) team characterized the impacts of the top 10 Great Lakes aquatic invasive species. Based on the analysis, 78 of the 188 species listed in the database were scored as invasive. Of these 78 species, 32 species had moderate impacts and 36 species had high impacts. The remaining 10 species had exceptionally strong impacts in multiple categories. 

Which invasive species have the most significant negative impacts in the Great Lakes? Based on GLANSIS impact scores, they include: zebra mussels, quagga mussels, alewife, sea lamprey, Japanese stiltgrass, grass carp, water chestnut, phragmites, round goby, and white perch. 

These species come from different continents and from different pathways of introduction (such as through ballast water, shipping channels, or the aquarium trade). Their most common shared impacts are threats to and competition with native species, altering predator/prey dynamics, and costly damage to human recreation and enjoyment of natural areas, along with harming economic activities. These rankings can serve as a reference point for researchers, educators and science communicators throughout the Great Lakes region. Read the paper here.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded  $255,973 in funding for three projects that will engage Indigenous youth in meaningful place-based watershed educational experiences through the Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program. This initiative is supported by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative under Focus Area 5: Foundation for Future Restoration Actions.

Funded projects:

• Michigan Technological University, partnering with Keweenaw Bay Indian Community: Increased Water Literacy & Stewardship with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community: Water is Life
• Seneca Nation of Indians: Seneca Nation B-WET project
• Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, partnering with Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians: Nimiigwechwendam Nibiish (I am thankful for water): Caring for our local watersheds

NOAA B-WET is an environmental education program that promotes place-based experiential learning for K-12 students and related professional development for teachers. B-WET fosters the growth of new, innovative programs and encourages capacity-building and environmental education partnerships. The primary delivery of B-WET is through competitive grants that promote Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs). The MWEE is a learner-centered framework that focuses on investigations into local environmental issues and leads to informed stewardship action.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) is making strides to enhance biodiversity, wildlife habitat and improve water quality at Woodlawn Beach State Park through a grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). OPRHP completed a project in 2023 focused on the expansion and enhancement of coastal wetland habitat along Lake Erie that is intended to benefit wildlife and improve water quality by increasing water circulation between the wetland and Blasdell Creek. The project involved expanding an existing wetland, installing a culvert [a structure which allows water to pass under a road or another barrier] to connect the wetland and adjacent Blasdell Creek, removing and controlling invasive species, and planting native wetland vegetation.

The area of Woodlawn Beach State Park is heavily urbanized and water quality in the park is often poor, particularly from elevated bacteria levels. With the project complete, water in Blasdell Creek will now flow through the expanded 4-acre oxbow-shaped wetland. The final elevations and contours in the wetland were designed to support native wetland plants and to allow physical and biological processes to remove pollutants from the water before re-entering to Blasdell Creek and into Lake Erie. The expanded wetland habitat, invasive species control, and extensive planting of native trees, shrubs and aquatic plants will also benefit wildlife such as birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.

Coastal wetlands are valuable resources to protect and restore due to the ecosystem services they provide. Some of which include providing habitat for critical species, protection against floods, water purification, and recreational opportunities which all occur at Woodlawn Beach State Park. The coastal wetland in the park will be positively impacted from this project by improving water quality in the park and the Lake Erie shoreline, increasing, and improving wildlife habitat, and conserving biodiversity such as the rare Wafer Ash tree that occurs in the park and prefers wetland habitats. This project will also benefit the many visitors to the park that come to walk, swim, birdwatch and enjoy a natural area on the shores of Lake Erie. 

The USDA Forest Service is requesting applications for the Fiscal Year 2024 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)  Grant Program. This program supports reforestation, ecosystem restoration and forest health improvement in the Great Lakes Basin through an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

We are announcing and awarding funding through two grant opportunities: 

(1) Cooperative Weed Management Areas (CWMA) Request for Applications funds partnership work to address invasive plant species that pose significant ecological threats in the Great Lakes Basin.

(2) The Forest Restoration (FR) Request for Applications funds projects that

1. Mitigate Forest Insect and Disease Impacts through targeted reforestation and forest protection, 
2. Reduce Runoff from Degraded Sites through Green Infrastructure that includes trees, or
3. Restore and Connect Coastal and Riparian Forest Habitats.

We anticipate that up to $1 million in new funds will be available for the CWMA grant, and $5.2 million for the FR grant.

Application Details

Eligible applicants can apply by 6 p.m. Eastern, September 18, 2024 on Grants.gov by searching opportunity number USDA-FS-GLRI-CWMA24 (for CWMA) or USDA-FS-GLRI-FR24 (for Forest Restoration).

Applicants can be state agencies, sovereign Tribal Nations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and local governments that work within the Great Lakes Basin of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

Cooperative Weed Management Area (CWMA) funding requests must be submitted through a CWMA or similar organized partnership that manages invasive plants across jurisdictional and land ownership boundaries within a defined area. 

We encourage all applicants to work with their State forestry agency to determine how their project fits into the goals and objectives of the State Forest Action Plan.

Additional notes:

• Applications must be prepared and submitted through Grants.gov by 6 p.m. Eastern on September 18, 2024. 
• A webinar for prospective applicants was offered for each opportunity.  Recorded webinars will be posted on the Eastern Region  grants webpage. 

If you have questions contact GLRI grants contact Erin Barton (erin.barton@usda.gov); (612) 476-5849 for more information.

Thanks to support from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through the Lake Erie Green Infrastructure Project, the City of Dunkirk, NY was recognized by the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative as one of two cities to win the Wege Small Cities Sustainability Best Practices Award. The Wege Award highlights small cities, with populations of under 100,000 and with limited resources, who demonstrate leadership in tackling water quality issues while ensuring economic vitality and social equity. This award specifically recognizes meaningful projects that balance economic, social, and environmental aspects of protecting water quality that could be used as a best practice inspiration for other cities. In addition to being recognized as a winner of the Wege Award, the City of Dunkirk received a $3,750 award.

In 2022, the City of Dunkirk partnered with the Lake Erie Watershed Protection Alliance (LEWPA) and Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) on the Lake Erie Green Infrastructure Project.   Dunkirk’s project focuses on stormwater runoff from Hyde Creek onto the Wright Park Beaches and a stormwater outfall onto Main Street Beach. The Wright Park part of the project offers an opportunity to restore a wetland ecosystem adjacent to the open water of Lake Erie at Wright Park and address the flooding concerns at Wright Park Boulevard, while providing benefits to the bathing beaches of Wright Park. The Main Street Beach part of the project will re-route stormwater into an engineered wetland in an area of the Dunkirk Harbor where invasive knotweed and phragmites will be eradicated from the site and the new engineered wetland will be planted with native species.

The Wright Park and Main Street beaches are important amenities within the City of Dunkirk. The green infrastructure practices for this project were developed and designed with City of Dunkirk input to ensure that the look of the green infrastructure practices will be aesthetically pleasing once constructed.

The project applies green infrastructure practices to a combined 235-acre area and will help slow the flow of over 46,000,000 gallons of untreated stormwater runoff annually, which will reduce sediment and pollutant input into the Great Lakes system and reduce algal blooms in nearshore areas, as well as improve the habitat for fish, wildlife, and pollinators.