Great Lakes Now

Swing state voters along the Great Lakes love cleaner water and beaches − and candidates from both parties have long fished for support there | Great Lakes Now

8 min read

Swing state voters along the Great Lakes love cleaner water and beaches − and candidates from both parties have long fished for support there

By Mike Shriberg, University of Michigan

 is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

If history holds true to form, I expect the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to begin touting their support for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as Election Day approaches.

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Great Lakes Now

Ohio Department of Agriculture is working to stop the spread of the spotted lanternfly | Great Lakes Now

4 min read

Ohio Department of Agriculture is working to stop the spread of the spotted lanternfly

A dozen Ohio counties are currently under a quarantine for transporting plant material as the state works to get a handle on its growing spotted lanternfly problem.

The invasive spotted lanternfly is being spread primarily by hitchhiking. The quarantine aims to stop by putting in place requirements for businesses that ship goods across county lines, Ohio Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Health Chief Dan Kenny said.

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Great Lakes Now Michigan

Great Lakes Moment: Mink thriving along the Detroit River | Great Lakes Now

7 min read

Great Lakes Moment: Mink thriving along the Detroit River

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 PBS.

From a distance, I caught a glimpse of a relatively small elongated furry animal moving along the shoreline of the Detroit River.

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Great Lakes Now

Midwest States Struggle to Fund Dam Safety Projects, Even as Federal Aid Hits Historic Highs | Great Lakes Now

9 min read

Midwest States Struggle to Fund Dam Safety Projects, Even as Federal Aid Hits Historic Highs

By Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

MINNEAPOLIS—A record amount of federal aid will soon flow to states to help fix, replace or demolish their aging dams, many of which are under increasing pressure as climate change fuels more frequent and severe extreme weather events.

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Great Lakes Now

Energy News Roundup: Kwik Trip goes electric as federal funds flow in | Great Lakes Now

3 min read

Energy News Roundup: Kwik Trip goes electric as federal funds flow in

Midwestern convenience store giant Kwik Trip is breaking into the charging business. The chain, known for its gas and grocery offerings, will install electric vehicle chargers at “a strategic number of its stores” through its new Kwik Charge program. The announcement comes a few months after Kwik Trip received about $23 million in federal funds aimed at establishing a statewide EV charging network in Wisconsin.

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Climate change Great Lakes Now Lake Michigan

Joliet, Illinois, Plans to Source Its Future Drinking Water From Lake Michigan. Will Other Cities Follow? | Great Lakes Now

7 min read

Joliet, Illinois, Plans to Source Its Future Drinking Water From Lake Michigan. Will Other Cities Follow?

By Nina Elkadi, Inside Climate News

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

The aquifer from which Joliet, Illinois, sources its drinking water is likely going to run too dry to support the city by 2030—a problem more and more communities are facing as the climate changes and groundwater declines.

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Great Lakes Now

How do fish survive in large urban waterways, like the Chicago River? | Great Lakes Now

5 min read

How do fish survive in large urban waterways, like the Chicago River?

How fish adapt to life in large urban rivers, like the Chicago River, is one of the questions Dr. Austin Happel is trying to answer at the Shedd Aquarium.

“Knowing where different fish species are hanging out, we can look around that area and kind of understand what that habitat looks like and what it’s providing for them,” Happel said.

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Climate change Great Lakes Now Lake Michigan

Chicago’s beach season is over … or is it? Lake Michigan temps are breaking records. | Great Lakes Now

5 min read

Chicago’s beach season is over … or is it? Lake Michigan temps are breaking records.

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.

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Nibi Chronicles: The Gift of Manoomin | Great Lakes Now

10 min read

Nibi Chronicles: The Gift of Manoomin

“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, she lives in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her nonfiction books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and the children’s story “A Family Tree” in 2024.

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Great Lakes Now

Groundwater: Who’s in charge? | Great Lakes Now

6 min read

Groundwater: Who’s in charge?

In the early 2000s a movement to address the plight of the heavily polluted and long neglected Great Lakes started to gain traction.

The goal was to bring the gravitas of the federal government to the issue and in 2004 President George W. Bush signed an executive order declaring the lakes a “national treasure.” An interagency task force was established to bring together the disparate efforts of various federal programs who had been working independently on Great Lakes issues.

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