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The author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes shares some recommendations for how we can help nature heal itself in a new interview. Read the full story by PBS. View the full article

The author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes shares some recommendations for how we can help nature heal itself in a new interview. Read the full story by PBS. View the full article

The Enbridge Line 5 oil and gas pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac, Michigan, which was damaged earlier this month, continues to operate but the maximum pressure at which liquids are pumped through the pipeline has been decreased. Read the full story by MLive. View the full article

After a series of reports indicating that efforts to reduce the nutrient runoff that feeds cyanobacteria have done little, if anything, to reduce harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, the Ohio EPA plans to lobby for a bill that includes a two-pronged nutrient management approach to the Ohio General Assembly. Read the full story by The Columbus Dispatch. View the full article

The U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection Agencies recently approved the removal of two impairments from a list of 10 factors that earned the Cuyahoga a designation on a roster of the 43 most-polluted waterways, and so the non-profit Cuyahoga River Area of Concern will be hosting a community event to celebrate the changes. Read the full story by The Plain Dealer. View the full article

Several hundred people attended a meeting on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, or PFAS, pollution in the groundwater in southern Montcalm County, Michigan, where testing found PFAS at levels well above the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water health advisory level. Read the full story by MLive. View the full article

Recent research now shows the Great Lakes also contain microplastic pollution, with the highest concentrations in heavily urbanized areas, like Toronto and Detroit. Read the full story by The Conversation. View the full article

Upstate New York residents and businesses near Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River are hoping to avoid another year of high water levels that resulted in extensive damage around the north country and the state. Read the full story by the Watertown Daily Times. View the full article

University of Minnesota Duluth instructor Andrea Sharp, who has been taking her students on research vessel Blue Heron excursions since 2002, said she finds that the information gets locked into the students’ brains more on the boat than if they were learning it in a classroom. Read and view the full story by the Duluth News Tribune. View the full article

Minnesota has roughly 13 million surface acres of water, but only a limited number of professionals are able to identify aquatic invasive species. Trained volunteers through the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center and the University of Minnesota Extension serve to educate the public, help motivate people to stop or slow the spread of invasive species, and provide early detection reports of invasive species. Read the full story by the Grand Forks Herald. View the full article

A series of explosions and intense fire erupted at the Husky Energy oil refinery in Superior, Wisconsin last week. As the scene in Superior returns to normal, there remains the issue of lingering after-effects to both humans and the environment. Read and listen to the full story by WTIP – Grand Marais, MN. View the full article

Staff Directory | Darren Nichols is the executive director of the Great Lakes Commission and is inspired daily by its mission to ensure a healthy environment, strong economy and quality of life for current and future generations. Prior to joining the GLC he served as executive director of the Columbia River Gorge Commission, associate director of the Ruckelshaus Center for collaborative public policy, and a statewide manager for Oregon’s land use planning program. Darren joined the commission in 2018, continuing his passion to help people and communities work together to solve problems and capture opportunities. He brings experience in regional planning, resource conservation, collaborative facilitation, economic and community development and construction contracting. Darren has worked extensively with local, state, federal and tribal governments as they wrestle with natural resource and economic development issues. Nichols holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from Willamette University, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University, and a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark. Darren also serves as Executive Fellow with the Center for Governance and Public Policy at Willamette University’s Atkinson School of Management, and as adjunct faculty at Portland State University’s School of Urban Studies and Planning. Darren and his wife Mona are proud to raise three energetic boys in and around the Great Lakes basin. Contact Darren 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 launches online portal for maritime jobs on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River MDEQ awards grants to 11 local governments to host river cleanups We’ve moved – please note our new address! The Advisor e-newsletter: March 2018 Upcoming GLC Events Great Lakes Dredging Team Annual Meeting May 22 - May 23 2018 Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting October 2 - October 3 View GLC Calendar > View the full article

One Canada’s largest infill projects on a brownfield site is underway in the Port Credit area of Mississauga, Ontario. The project marks a new chapter in the history of the site which originally began as a brick factory in the late 1800s. The site will eventually be transformed into Port Credit West Village with residential/commercial space and a 4.8 acres park along the Lake Ontario waterfront. Read the full story by the Daily Commercial News. View the full article

As part of a 10-year plan to bring back Lake Huron’s once-abundant cisco — also called lake herring — and restore another slice of the lake’s native fishery, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Jordan River National Fish Hatchery began rearing ciscoes from 1.4 million eggs brought into the hatchery last November, with plans to deliver the first batch of 750,000 fish to outer Saginaw Bay this fall. Read the full story by the Gaylord Herald Times. View the full article

Research from Utah State University is providing new insight into the flow of carbon dioxide between Lake Superior and the atmosphere. Scientists have discovered that the lake shifts from absorbing and storing carbon dioxide to releasing it into the atmosphere. Read the full story by earth.com. View the full article

An explosion that rocked an oil refinery in Superior, WI on Thursday morning injured at least 11 people and sent a day-long plume of heavy smoke drifting across the northwestern part of the state. Thursday night, the U.S. Coast Guard created a safety zone in the Duluth-Superior port in response to the refinery fire. Read the full story by Mlive. View the full article

On April 16th, the Lake Bluff Illinois Park District Board of Commissioners approved a proposal by Chicago-based AECOM to perform a preliminary coastal engineering study for the rapidly disappearing Sunrise Beach, and develop options to protect it. Read the full story by the Daily North Shore. View the full article

The nonprofit Friends of Grant Park will receive this year’s Noel J. Cutright Award which recognizes excellence in bird conservation. The award will be presented by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology in recognition of the group’s efforts to protect and improve migratory bird habitat at the Lake Michigan shoreline park. Read the full story by Urban Milwaukee. View the full article

The Lake Express ferry, a four-engine vessel that shuttles passengers, cars, bicycles and pets between Milwaukee, WI and Muskegon, MI, departed Friday morning on its first official voyage of the 2018 season. Read the full story by WISN-TV – Milwaukee, WI. View the full article

A new report from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says that despite billions spent in the Lake Erie watershed to improve water quality, there has been no clear trend of reducing phosphorus levels in the state’s watersheds. Read the full story by Michigan Radio. View the full article

As part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative award, researchers from the University of Toledo recently held a town hall meeting to educate the public on how to prevent invasive species from being introduced into the Great Lakes, with a focus on the bait industry. Read the full story by WTOL-TV – Toledo, OH. View the full article

When the freighter S.S. Daniel J. Morrell sank to the bottom of Lake Huron in November 1966, it preceded by nine years the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Despite it not achieving the same kind of infamy as the Fitzgerald, the story of the Morrell is still extraordinary. Read the full story by Mlive. View the full article

The use of GoPro cameras during benthic sampling by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory started in 2015 and provides imagery of how densely covered with quagga mussels the bottom of Lake Michigan has become. Read and view the full story by the Great Lakes Echo. View the full article

News Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) recently launched a one-stop online portal for information about maritime careers on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. The website, which provides information on types of maritime careers, employers, training and certifications, is also now accepting postings for available jobs. Employers interested in posting a maritime job on the career portal can click here. “In our longstanding role of advocating for the regional water-based economy, the Great Lakes Commission is proud to present this new maritime jobs website,” said Steve Fisher, executive director of the American Great Lakes Ports Association and GLC commissioner from Indiana. “Ports and shippers support real jobs and economic development across the Great Lakes region, and this website will allow them to more efficiently attract talent. With growing demand for jobs both aboard ships and on shore, and a projected shortage in qualified personnel, the maritime industry offers attractive career opportunities in the Great Lakes and beyond.” “We’re strategically focusing our efforts on finding, developing and training a team of professionals for a growing workforce to successfully accomplish current and future contracts,” said Joe Starck, President, The Great Lakes Towing Company. “This starts with hiring world-class talent and the Great Lakes Maritime Careers website would be another great way to find qualified candidates.” A comprehensive online careers website for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River maritime industry was called for as a tool to better connect industry with prospective applicants in the 2016 Strategy for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Maritime Transportation System, developed by the Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers. The strategy recommends actions to maintain and expand the maritime transportation system. As part of its work to support commercial navigation in the Great Lakes region, the GLC developed the online portal with input from regional stakeholders. The maritime industry on the Great Lakes moves 200 million tons of freight each year, generates 227,000 jobs and $34 billion (USD) in business revenue, and supports industries such as manufacturing, steel production, agriculture and power generation. ← Previous news release The Great Lakes Commission, led by chairman John Linc Stine, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, is an interstate compact agency established under state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists of governors’ appointees, state legislators, and agency officials from its eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more at www.glc.org. Contact For questions or media inquiries, please contact Beth Wanamaker, [email protected]. Recent GLC News Great Lakes Commission launches online portal for maritime jobs on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River MDEQ awards grants to 11 local governments to host river cleanups We’ve moved – please note our new address! The Advisor e-newsletter: March 2018 Upcoming GLC Events Great Lakes Dredging Team Annual Meeting May 22 - May 23 2018 Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting October 2 - October 3 View GLC Calendar > View the full article

News Lansing, Mich. – The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and Great Lakes Commission today announced the availability of more than $21,000 in grants to support local efforts to clean up rivers, streams and creeks across the state. Michigan’s Volunteer River, Stream, and Creek Cleanup Program provides grants to local units of government to clean and improve Michigan waterways. Local governments often partner with nonprofit organizations or other volunteer groups for the cleanups, which include removal of trash and other debris from streams and stream banks. Removal of natural materials like fallen trees, branches and rocks is not allowed to ensure the continued health of the waterway. The groups selected to receive funding in 2018 include: Huron River Watershed Council, “Huron River Coordinated Cleanups” – $4,350 Missaukee Conservation District, “Muskegon River Cleanup” – $2,862 St. Joseph County Conservation District, “River Country Cleanup” – $2,797.50 Grand Traverse Conservation District, “14th Annual Boardman River Clean Sweep 2018” – $2,200 Shiawassee County Health Department, “23rd Annual Shiawassee River Cleanup” – $1,900 Allegan Conservation District, “Gun River Cleanup Event” – $1,840 Benzie Conservation District, “Betsie River and Platte River Clean Sweeps” – $1,126 Kalkaska Conservation District, “Annual Cleanup on the Manistee River” – $1,077.50 Village of Estral Beach, “Swan Creek Cleanup” – $1,039 City of Monroe, “2018 River Raisin Cleanup” – $1,025 Antrim Conservation District, “Jordan River Cleanup” – $975 The cleanup grant program began in 1998 and is funded by the sale of the state’s water quality protection license plates. Grants are administered by the Great Lakes Commission, under contract with the MDEQ. These grants help foster local stewardship and a sense of community while protecting Michigan’s waters. For more information, visit http://www.glc.org/work/VRSCCP ← Previous news release The Great Lakes Commission, led by chairman John Linc Stine, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, is an interstate compact agency established under state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists of governors’ appointees, state legislators, and agency officials from its eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more at www.glc.org. Contact For questions or media inquiries, please contact Beth Wanamaker, [email protected]. Recent GLC News MDEQ awards grants to 11 local governments to host river cleanups We’ve moved – please note our new address! The Advisor e-newsletter: March 2018 Great Lakes Commission names Darren Nichols new executive director Upcoming GLC Events Great Lakes Dredging Team Annual Meeting May 22 - May 23 2018 Great Lakes Commission Annual Meeting October 2 - October 3 View GLC Calendar > View the full article