GLIN

About 40 people testified last week at a public hearing on a potential offshore wind farm in Lake Erie. The majority of attendees spoke favorably about the project to the Ohio Power Siting Board, but opponents expressed concerns about transparency and the short-term nature of created jobs. Read the full story by Great Lakes Today. View the full article

The history of the retired U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw — which now houses the Icebreaker Mackinaw Museum — will be showcased during a “Meet the Mackinaw” event this weekend in Mackinaw City. Read the full story by the Petoskey News-Review. View the full article

How big a threat is Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac to the Great Lakes? That’s the question that a documentary from Detroit Public Television attempted to answer. Read and listen to the full story by WMUK – Kalmazoo, MI. View the full article

For nearly half a century, Rolf Peterson has spent each summer coordinating a crew of volunteers in the search for moose remains on remote Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. The remains tell a story about the decline of the island’s wolf population, and that story is about to change with the planned re-introduction of wolves. Read the full story by Science Line. View the full article

The Great Lakes have been showing a trend of higher-than-average water levels for several years, and experts say it would take a fairly drastic change in weather patterns for that to change any time in the next 12 months. Read the full story by the Petoskey News Review. View the full article

After a recent tragedy on Lake Erie, the U.S. Coast Guard staff and Presque Isle State Park marina boaters spoke about the importance of wearing life jackets, even in mild weather. Read the story by Erie News Now. View the full article

Algae can foul drinking water and even be poisonous to pets and livestock, but it’s also essential to life, Indiana University researcher Sarah Powers said last week in a presentation to the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group. Read the full story by the Northwest Indiana Times. View the full article

Doctors recommended that a Winnipeg man give up sailing after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Seven years later, he is departing on the first leg of a voyage across the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the debilitating disease. Read the full story by Sault Online. View the full article

A regulatory panel on Thursday put off a decision, potentially for months, regarding Gov. John Kasich’s request to designate some 40 percent of Ohio’s share of Lake Erie’s western basin as “distressed.” Read the full story by the Toledo Blade. View the full article

Experts from across Canada and volunteers will swarm the park this weekend in hopes of finding a new species – maybe even one that’s never been found before in Canada. Read the full story by the Windsor Star. View the full article

It takes a village to keep the Grand Traverse Bay clean. Well, 44 townships, 11 municipalities and 4 counties, to be exact. The Grand Traverse Watershed Center went on a three-stop tour of shoreline towns to find out people’s biggest environmental concerns. Read and view the full story by 9 & 10 News. View the full article

A West Michigan man and his friend are getting ready to travel 80 miles across Lake Michigan on stand-up paddle boards, all in the name of protecting the Great Lakes. Read the full story by WOOD-TV – Grand Rapids, MI. View the full article

Even in the digital age, physical goods are needed each day to keep the economy humming along – and in that respect, the Great Lakes-St.Lawrence region will remain a vital and important trade corridor for both countries for a long time. Read the full story by Business Insider. View the full article

While natural factors have been the main drivers of rising levels, greater releases from Lake Superior have contributed to the swell in the lower lakes. Read the full story by the Chicago Tribune. View the full article

Costs related to such a spill would add up to nearly $1.9 billion, according to the analysis by Michigan Technological Great Lakes Research Center and 41 experts. Read the full story by The Detroit News. View the full article

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill on July 19 that’ll provide full funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for 2019. Read the full story by WLNS-TV – Lansing, MI. View the full article

The agency recently held one of six informal GLRI public engagement sessions it’s conducting this summer around the Great Lakes region. Read and listen to the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio. View the full article

Staff Directory | Samantha is a program specialist for the GLC’s Coastal Conservation and Habitat Restoration program. Her role is to coordinate the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework (PAMF), a program held under the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative. Samantha works with land managers across the Great Lakes Basin to facilitate effective and efficient Phragmites management. Prior to joining the Commission’s staff, Samantha attended Michigan State University where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s in fisheries and wildlife. Contact Samantha at [email protected]. Return to the Staff Directory main page Contact For questions or media inquiries, please contact Beth Wanamaker, [email protected]. Recent GLC News Great Lakes Commission releases ErieStat to support Lake Erie phosphorus reduction efforts The Advisor e-newsletter: May 2018 Great Lakes Commission applauds inclusion of Great Lakes provisions in water infrastructure legislation NOAA, Great Lakes Commission habitat restoration efforts showcased in new video at 2018 AOC Conference Upcoming GLC Events 2018 Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting October 2 - October 3 View GLC Calendar > View the full article

The Ohio Power Siting Board has given the preliminary go-ahead to six wind turbines planned for Lake Erie, about eight miles northwest of Cleveland. The project would be the first freshwater wind farm on the Great Lakes and the first in the nation. Read the full story by Great Lakes Now. View the full article

New test results show water in a significant amount of the most at-risk homes in Flint is well below the federal action level for lead. Read the full story by WTVB-TV – Flint, MI. View the full article

As the well water supply for Oswego, Illinois gets increasingly smaller, village officials are considering the feasibility of using Lake Michigan as their water source. Read the full story by Kendall County Now. View the full article

On the eve of an important decision about the health of Lake Erie, farmers and lawmakers at the Ohio statehouse are asking the governor to rescind an executive order he signed just last week to implement tougher regulations on farm runoff. Read the full story by WCMH-TV – Columbus, OH. View the full article

One swimmer already has completed the 24-mile swim from Long Point, Ontario, to North East, Pennsylvania this month. Erie, Pennsylvania native Rob Cooney takes his turn Thursday with the goal of breaking the record of 11 hours, 15 minutes and 40 seconds. Read the full story by the Erie Times-News. View the full article

A federal judge’s ruling in 2016 halted wildlife management agencies from their practice of killing limited numbers of double-crested cormorants to control their populations. That ruling — and the lack of progress on solutions since — has cormorant populations rising again, leading to concerns that that the voracious birds will harm local fisheries as they did in the early 2000s. Read the full story by the Detroit Free Press. View the full article

Surfrider Chicago put their lawsuit on hold after U.S. Steel agreed to work out a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve problems at its plant in Portage, Indiana. The consent decree proposes that U.S. Steel pay a $600,000 civil penalty for damage to the environment, a penalty that Surfrider says is “unjustifiably low.” Read the full story by the Chicago Reader. View the full article