News

U.S. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has announced membership of the Great Lakes Advisory Board, an EPA federal advisory committee. Administrator Wheeler re-established the GLAB in December 2018 to provide advice and recommendations on matters related to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada have released the 2019 State of the Great Lakes Highlights report, which provides an overview of the status and trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Overall, Great Lakes water quality is assessed as “fair and unchanging.”

USDA Forest Service announces funding of over $880 thousand for Great Lakes Cooperative Weed Management Area grants. Funding supports control of harmful invasive plants in the region.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a GLRI grant of $1,834,555 to the Alliance of Rouge Communities for habitat restoration projects at Colonial Park and Venoy Dorsey Park along the Lower Rouge River in Wayne County, Mich. The Rouge River has been identified as an Area of Concern, one of 43 areas experiencing severe environmental degradation identified by the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes basin.

The Michigan Department of Energy, Great Lakes, and the Environment will construct and monitor contaminated sediment capping and habitat restoration test plots to determine the potential to improve the density and diversity of the Torch Lake benthic community and address two Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) in the Torch Lake Area of Concern: restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption and degradation of benthos.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have completed placement of over 87,000 cubic yards of dredged sand in the St. Louis River Area of Concern. This project created 14 acres of nesting and foraging habitat for the endangered Piping Plover.

A story map by Trout Unlimited visualizes the progress that has been made in completing road stream crossing replacements. These replacements benefit aquatic organisms by providing better habitat passages in areas of the Bigelow Creek watershed where roads and habitat intersect.

Minnesota and Wisconsin natural resource departments begin Interstate Island Avian Habitat Restoration Project in the St. Louis River Area of Concern. The project will restore Common Tern habitat and advance delisting of the Area of Concern.

A new article in the newsletter La Voz describes how the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) uses GLRI funding to restore the Great Lakes.

U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office requests applications for the Great Lakes Sediment Surveillance Program by June 27, 2020.