Chippewa County is one of many Great Lakes communities looking to clean up public waters by identifying and treating problem storm drains.

Geographic popularity contests have been kind to the Lake Michigan shoreline this summer: The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore has been named a top 10 urban escape by National Geographic.
The distinction comes on the heels of another sandy hotspot, the Sleeping Bear Dunes in northwestern Michigan, named by Good Morning America as the most beautiful place in the country.
The Indiana Dunes Lakeshore was lauded as an escape from nearby Gary, Ind., and Chicago because of its 15 miles of lakeshore, biodiversity, and dunes that offer panoramic views of the lake.  The …

Warning: Do not read if you’re a young girl who recently received a response to your message in a bottle.
A recent feel good story in The Times Record in Maine reports that a 6-year-old girl and her father sent a message in a plastic bottle down the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, two years ago.  The girl, Libbi Wallace, recently received a response letter, post-marked from Cleveland, from an anonymous kayaker who paddled upon the bottle.  The responder – who signed the letter only as “Surprised in Cleveland” – said …

Some Great Lakes lawmakers want to eliminate the tax provision giving a tax break on boats classified as second home. But opponents worry that it will hurt the boating industry more than yacht owners.

A nonpoisonous Lake Erie water snake is no longer listed as a federally endangered species.
The snake’s numbers plunged as more people settled Lake Erie’s western islands, according to the Toledo Blade.
Populations rebounded after federal and state agencies protected inland and shoreline hibernation and breeding grounds.
Earning federal protection in 1999, the water snake is the 23rd species to be delisted, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The fight for clean air in industrial cities has been taken to vehicle exhaust and billowing factories. Now it’s gone to the dogs. Or, more accurately, to their poop.

New methods of detecting contamination in waterways are more accurate and faster, allowing officials to warn public beachgoers on the same day of testing.

The University of Toledo reports twice as much potentially deadly microcystis – the most prevalent form of toxic algae – in western Lake Erie as there was this time last year.

It sounds like a child’s dream and a parent’s nightmare: a trip to a zoo where you can bring home one of the cuddly reptiles.
That’s the plan for the Great Lakes Zoological Society’s World of Discovery Conservation and Rescue Center set to open in September in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The center will have exhibits, education programs for kids and a store for all of your reptile husbandry needs.
It’s not alone in giving exotic species a home in the Great Lakes region.  The Wilds in southeastern Ohio has been a 10,000-acre sanctuary …