Photo Fridays have been hijacked by the leafers!  During the fall, we’ll be posting reader submitted pictures of brilliant autumn colors throughout the Great Lakes region.

The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes (University of Michigan Press, 2011) chronicles author Jerry Dennis’s thoughts while retreating to various remote lake homes in the dead of northern Michigan winter.

In this three-part video series, scientists at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., explore the implications of climate change and other human activities for Lake Superior and the African great lakes.

In this three-part video series, scientists at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., explore the implications of climate change and other human activities for Lake Superior and the African great lakes.

Now that we’ve let you in on the big invasive worm secret, we’re letting you know how to help.
Great Lakes Worm Watch is hosting the fourth annual Big Worming Week, which started Sunday and will run through Oct. 2nd.
Things started in the Hartley Nature Center where the Worm Watch team taught the public how to sample plots and collect valuable data on worms.
The team offers workshops all year to prepare folks to help out during Big Worming Week.  While they encourage and will accept samples year-round, Big Worming Week minimizes the …

It’s on the move.
A cougar was caught by a trail camera on Sept. 26 in Houghton County, Mich., and a cougar was spotted by another trail camera in Ontonogan County earlier this month. These sightings, according to Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Adam Bump, are almost certainly of the same cat.
If it is the same cougar that walked past those cameras, then that cat has covered some distance, at least 50 miles from one county to the other.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is still tracking down …

Zebra mussels clog pipes, take over boat hoists and slice the feet of unsuspecting Great Lakes swimmers. The invasive pests are typically managed with chlorine, but that could soon be a thing of the past.
A study of potassium chloride and polyDADMAC (or, if you’re feeling adventurous, polydiallyldimethylammonium) found they are far more deadly to mussels when used together rather than separately.
Essentially, the two toxins are greater than the sum of their parts, and when they’re used together fewer chemicals are needed to manage mussels.
Two other mussel-killing weapons are Biobullets …

In this three-part video series, scientists at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., explore the implications of climate change and other human activities for Lake Superior and the African great lakes.

Just in time for the big fall hunting seasons in the Great Lakes region, a recent survey shows a high level of public support for our bright orange and camouflage-clad friends.
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed nationwide said they approved of the activity and 93 percent said that target shooting is acceptable.  The study was financed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade association.
The high level of public approval has been consistent over the past two decades, according to the organization. But the survey went a step further than previous …

Invasive species don’t have to be exotic, obscure or large to wreak havoc on the Great Lakes region.

Just look to the hardwood forests ravaged by non-native earthworms. Yes, earthworms.