Great Lakes Now Michigan

Can environmental law move beyond bedrock 1970’s legislation, while adapting to current and future challenges?

9 min read

Can environmental law move beyond bedrock 1970’s legislation, while adapting to current and future challenges?

A 2022 report titled Promises Half Kept at the Half Century Mark, by the Environmental Integrity Project, released on the Clean Water Act’s 50th anniversary said the law is “falling short of its original goals.”

Michigan, for example, has the 4th largest number of impaired lakes, reservoirs and streams assessed for water contact recreation in the U.S.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now Michigan

What a Trump vs. Harris presidency might mean for the Great Lakes | Great Lakes Now

9 min read

What a Trump vs. Harris presidency might mean for the Great Lakes

The 2024 presidential election campaign is in the homestretch and results in the Great Lakes states of Michigan and Wisconsin could determine the winner. Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump covet the electors in both states and polling indicates they could go either way.

Great Lakes Now selected three key topics — Great Lakes restoration, Line 5 and groundwater — and asked veteran policy experts Rob Sisson and Lana Pollack for their views on how a Harris or Trump presidency may deal with them.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

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.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now

After 10 million pieces of beach trash, Chicago advocates push for sustainable packaging | Great Lakes Now

6 min read

After 10 million pieces of beach trash, Chicago advocates push for sustainable packaging

Plastic is the dominant source of beach trash in the Great Lakes region.

That’s the finding by the Chicago-based non-profit Alliance for the Great Lakes in a recently released report that analyzed beach litter picked up by its volunteers over the past 20 years.

“Twenty years of data collected by volunteers shows that 86% of the trash was either fully or partially made from plastic,” the Alliance said in a press release.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now Michigan

Storied Two Hearted River gets 21st century update in new book | Great Lakes Now

6 min read

Storied Two Hearted River gets 21st century update in new book

For Traverse City’s Bob Otwell, part of Michigan’s allure is its abundance of special places, and primary among them is the Upper Peninsula’s “wild and isolated” Two Hearted River watershed.

That’s where Otwell and family have had a cabin called “Boggy’s Camp” for over 30 years.

In a newly released book, The Real Two Hearted: Life, Love, and Lore Along Michigan’s Most Iconic River, Otwell chronicles his decades of paddling, hiking and mountain-biking along the Two Hearted and meshes those activities with raising a family along the way.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.

Great Lakes Now Michigan

Storied Two Hearted River gets 21st century update in new book | Great Lakes Now

6 min read

Storied Two Hearted River gets 21st century update in new book

For Traverse City’s Bob Otwell, part of Michigan’s allure is its abundance of special places, and primary among them is the Upper Peninsula’s “wild and isolated” Two Hearted River watershed.

That’s where Otwell and family have had a cabin called “Boggy’s Camp” for over 30 years.

In a newly released book, The Real Two Hearted: Life, Love, and Lore Along Michigan’s Most Iconic River, Otwell chronicles his decades of paddling, hiking and mountain-biking along the Two Hearted and meshes those activities with raising a family along the way.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.