Water
Photo Friday: Satellite image of New York’s Finger Lakes
|
New York’s Finger Lakes, as seen in true-color by a NASA satellite.
Echo
Radar, algorithm analyze Great Lakes ice for boats, fisheries, forecasters
|
Think all ice is the same?
That’s not the case on the Great Lakes.
And now scientists have found out how to detect the differences.
With math.
Great Lakes Commission launches restoration database
|
You can now track progress on restoring the Great Lakes at a new database provided by the Great Lakes Commission. It focuses on conservation plans implemented by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative over the past three years, and includes several projects in each of the eight Great Lakes states. The initiative, which is managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, has received more than $220 million since 2010 for wildlife restoration. It has led to hundreds of different environmental endeavors ranging from turtle protection research in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to a dam removal in eastern New York. The database contains fact sheets on all work from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Echo
Plan for turbines on Great Lakes modified to measure offshore wind energy potential
|
By Nick Mordowanec
Nov. 29, 2009
A university intends to measure Lake Michigan’s potential for offshore wind power with a $1.4 million federal grant. The original plan by Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., was to place wind turbines in the Great Lakes. But that’s changed. “We are not putting wind turbines out there,” said Arn Boezaart, interim director of the university’s Alternative and Renewable Energy Center.
Echo
Drought causes water level drops in Minnesota and Wisconsin lakes
|
By Rachael Gleason
Nov. 25, 2009
Dry weather has caused water levels to drop in some inland lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some lakes have dropped more than five feet in east central Minnesota due to a two-year dry spell, said Sandy Fecht, a hydrologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Certain bodies of water have dried up completely. “By the time I got there in Spring 2009, there were smaller wetlands that were completely dried,” Fecht said.
Wildlife
Great Lakes fish in the balance; biologists have little control
|
By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 4, 2009
Editors note: This is the final story in a three-part series about the challenges of managing non-native fish in the Great Lakes. Managing invasive alewives in the Great Lakes is like walking a tightrope. Too many stymie native lake trout reproduction. Too few cripple the profitable salmon fishery.