News

In June, State, federal, and tribal agencies sampled fish from Buffalo River and Cattaraugus Creek. This collaboration will allow the agencies to determine how effective prior sediment remediation and habitat restoration efforts were at improving biological conditions in the Buffalo River Area of Concern.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced that, for the first time in over 50 years, a spawning female lake sturgeon has been collected in the lower Genesee River, a section of the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern. This discovery signifies a tremendous environmental achievement and is a testament to the success of ongoing restoration efforts in the AOC.

EPA provided $840,000 of GLRI funding for habitat restoration work on Interstate Island in the Duluth-Superior harbor to enhance the island’s nesting area for the common tern. The tern population had fallen due to high water levels and flooding and an increase in the number of ring-billed gulls, a natural predator of terns.

NOAA has announced $876,477 in funding for 11 projects under the Great Lakes B-WET program. The projects support environmental education programs in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awards $1.6 million contract to begin construction of a fish passage demonstration project along the Niagara River. The project is expected to improve passage for emerald shiner, a critical prey fish of the Niagara River and Lake Erie food web.

A survey of Lake Michigan’s bottom-dwelling organisms, including invasive Quagga mussels and native Diporeia amphipods, begins July 12. Comparing survey results with results from previous surveys will help scientists understand large-scale ecosystem changes in the lake.

NOAA Fisheries is recommending nearly $17.5 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding to continue three partnerships that will implement projects to restore habitat and improve resilience in degraded Great Lakes Ecosystems.

The City of Toledo has announced the installation of the first of seven trash capture devices funded by EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The devices will prevent 2,500 tons of trash from entering Lake Erie annually.

GLRI funding is supporting the recovery of the endangered piping plovers. Nellie and Nish, a piping plover pair, have mated and nested at Maumee Bay State Park, in the Maumee Area of Concern in Toledo, Ohio.

The Lake Michigan Coastal Resilience Initiative, a partnership effort led by NOAA and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, will help shoreline communities develop innovative, nature-based solutions to address coastal erosion.