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Severe drought in Minnesota and Upper Peninsula

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Even a region known for its water can get a little parched, as shown by the U.S. Drought Monitor late last month. Droughts in the Midwest are far less significant than those in the South, which looks like a swollen, red bee sting in this graphic from the U.S. Drought Monitor. But parts of Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula clearly show areas of severe drought. The National Drought Mitigation Center classifies a severe drought as one that might result in crop or pasture losses, water shortages and imposed water restrictions. Drought in these areas of Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula don’t appear to be improving, according to the Seasonal Drought Outlook for the rest of the year.

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Cougar makes its way through Michigan

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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.

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A toxic mussel management cocktail

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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 and Zequanox.

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Avian Botulism puzzles Great Lakes scientists

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It’s a horror story: fish and birds wash up dead on the beach, invaders change the environment, poison lurks in the sand.

But it’s no story. It’s avian botulism, a toxin that has shown up on Great Lakes shorelines repeatedly over the past 13 years.

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Monitoring Lake Michigan’s wind resources with laser technology

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If a rooster perched atop a weathervane is your idea of wind technology, you’ve got some catching up to do. Laser wind sensing is the latest technology in the push to assess Lake Michigan’s wind resources. It will be used for the first time on a floating platform later this month when the Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Assessment Project launches the AXYS WindSentinel buoy. The buoy will gauge the lake’s potential for wind farming while tracking its physical, biological and environmental conditions. Because it’s so mobile, the WindSentinel buoy will provide information faster and cheaper than a traditional meteorological tower, according to Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center.

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great lakes shirts

Great Lakes, great garb

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Wearing catchy t-shirts is one way to show off your school or favorite indie band, but have you thought about giving your regional lakescape some love? Great Lakes Proud and Great Lakes Shirts can help. Both companies are selling products with an outline of the Great Lakes, emphasizing pride for the whole region instead of an individual state like many other companies do. There are no logos, no advertisements, no political boundaries. Just water.

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Another weapon to fight invasive mussels

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Another piece of artillery is available to fight invasive mussels. In the arsenal with Biobullets is a biopesticide created by Marrone Bio Innovations Inc.called Zequanox. The biopesticide has just gotten approval for testing at the Davis Dam in Nevada on the Colorado River where quagga mussels are getting in the way of providing electricity. Zequanox is made of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. Marrone researchers found it to be more than 90 percent lethal to adult mussels and 100 percent lethal to mussel larvae. And it doesn’t kill other organisms like water fleas, freshwater shrimp or brown trout.

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Online database documents beach health

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This year, Adopt-a-Beach will reach beyond the shore and into the web with a new online system that tracks litter and overall health of beaches. The system, monitored by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, allows volunteers to enter data on litter, beach conditions, water quality and recreation use for Great Lakes beaches. Data is collected during Adopt-a-Beach cleanup events, one of which is taking place on Saturday in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The information is stored in a searchable database, allowing you to find and download the information from past cleanups. Only information from 2011 cleanups is available on the system, but the Alliance is working on adding earlier information.

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BioBullets shooting a hole through zebra mussel invasion

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A dense carpet of zebra mussels covering rocks, boats and pretty much everything else has become normal in the Great Lakes. The mussels seem like they won’t take no for an answer, but now they might have to. BioBullets, a product invented by two University of Cambridge professors, is undergoing testing in London, England for its ability to kill zebra mussels without harming humans or other creatures. The “bullets” are tiny pellets made of salt-based toxins covered with fat, and kill any zebra mussels that ingest them. David Aldridge, one of the product’s inventors and co-founders of BioBullets Ltd., insists that the bullets are an effective, environmentally-friendly way of battling mussels that clog pipes and limit the amount of water that can be pumped in or out of lakes.