News

NOAA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative StoryMap highlights a decade of NOAA and partners’ work in the Great Lakes to improve fish passage, clean up contaminated debris, restore coastal wetlands, and remove invasive species. Take a virtual tour of some of the major restoration projects from across the region, from the Buffalo River in New York to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A new paper demonstrates how measurements of deep chlorophyll maxima in the Great Lakes can be used to anticipate how ongoing trophic state changes may affect Great Lakes food webs.

The Great Lakes Commission has announced funding to reduce runoff of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants into the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking applications to monitor ecological conditions in the coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes. Approximately $10 million of GLRI funding will be made available to one applicant to implement the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program for five years. The deadline for applications is Oct. 26, 2020.

The GLRI has funded projects to promote recovery of the federally endangered Great Lakes Piping plover. In July 2020, four chicks that were reared in captivity by the Detroit Zoological Society were released at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

U.S. EPA is seeking applications under a GLRI grant program focused on monitoring contaminants in Great Lakes fish. Approximately $6 million is available through the Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program to fund one project over five years. The deadline for applications is Sept. 21, 2020.
 

On July 20, 2020, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler visited northwest Ohio where he announced more than $12 million in grants and projects that will benefit Great Lakes cleanup efforts in the Toledo area.

On July 21, 2020, U.S. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler concluded a visit to northeast Ohio where he announced awardees for the GLRI Trash Free Waters grants. He also announced a $1 million GRLI grant to the City of Akron for the Gorge Dam removal project and toured sites in the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Kurt Thiede visited Traverse City, where he announced $12.1 million in GLRI grants for projects to restore and manage Great Lakes fish species and protect the health of Michigan watersheds.

U.S. EPA has awarded a GLRI grant of $4,222,090 to the Alliance of Rouge Communities to implement restoration projects at five parks in the Rouge River watershed in Wayne County, Michigan. The Rouge River has been identified as an Area of Concern (AOC), one of 27 remaining US areas in the Great Lakes basin identified as experiencing severe environmental degradation.