Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/rivers/page/2/)
Mr. Great Lakes (Jeff Kart) reports from Bay City, Michigan’s Delta College Q-90.1 FM. This week, Kart discusses International Dark Sky Week and a dam removal project. Text at Mr. Great Lakes
After over 200 years of damage, local, state, federal and non-governmental organizations are all joining forces to restore the St. Louis River Estuary.
New research indicates that road salt applied on icy roads and that runs into rivers remains toxic not just in winter, but throughout two-thirds of the year.
Freshwater snorkeling is opening a window on Tennessee’s river biodiversity.
Could a similar effort in the Great Lakes region build a consitutency for conserving aquatic species here?
There is a plan to restore to better health Detroit’s Rouge River. It will take money and cooperation to get the job done. But some of that work is already underway.
In Cuyahoga Falls, two dams on the Cuyahoga River are coming down at no cost to the city. State officials say that will improve water quality and habitat for aquatic species, while city officials look forward to new opportunities for white-water kayaking and riverside development.
This map shows U.S. rivers scaled to the amount of water they carry. It’s a useful way of looking at things, but incomplete. Without Canadian data, the Great Lakes system is underrepresented.
Its size and age make the endangered lake sturgeon a fascinating species for most people. But for many Native Americans, the fish is also sacred. And it’s survival of greed, oil spills and habitat destruction signals that the sturgeon remains vigilant in protecting the environment.
The heavy flooding that struck Michigan this month is evident in these photos from NASA’s Earth Observatory. The photos, taken from NASA’s Terra satellite, show the Saginaw River on the east side of the state and the Grand River as it flows west from the center of the state toward Lake Michigan on April 5 and April 21. A comparison of the photos shows a much-widened Grand River and major flooding conditions on the Saginaw River near the city of Saginaw, according to the NASA report. The National Weather Service continues to place Saginaw under a flood warning, stating that the river is not expected to fall below flood levels until May 1. The photos combine infrared and visual light imagery to increase the contrast between the water and land, highlighting the expansion of the rivers, according to NASA.
Dam removal in the Great Lakes region exposes nutrient-rich bottomlands.
That creates prime real estate for invasive plants.
Restoration solutions include poisoning the invaders with pesticides and spreading native plant seeds to revegetate the bottomlands.