Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/beach/page/3/)
It was first found in the St Lawrence Seaway and then Lake Erie. Now it has been identified on Lake St. Clair. The species forms thick mats and can cause skin, oral and gastrointestinal problems.
Michigan lakefront property owners who want to weed their Great Lakes beaches with mechanical devices may soon have one less hurdle to jump.
Environmental experts are urging property owners to get rid of lakefront lawns and stone breakwalls in favor of a new approach to landscaping.
Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. “Dr. Beach,” this year will begin compiling a list of the top 10 Great Lakes beaches. Letterman has rated national beaches since 1991, but this is the first year that our freshwater beaches will be in the spotlight. Beach managers and representatives nominated roughly 30 beaches. Miami-based Leatherman used the Internet to research the beaches. The rating system is down to a science — Leatherman has 50 criteria to determine the best beaches.
Shoreline property owners in Ontario have privileges right down to the lakes.
Whether you can walk along a Great Lakes beach depends – sometimes to be legal you have to get your feet wet.
(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – One of the largest federal “stimulus” grants for the Muskegon area is being targeted at its greatest asset – the waterfront.
Design and engineering is well under way and construction could begin by the end of the year on a $10 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant to restore the shoreline habitat along the southern Muskegon Lake shoreline. “With the $10 million, we will see an investment in Muskegon County’s strongest economic development asset … the lake,” said Sandeep Dey, executive director of the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission. “This project is progressing much faster than we had anticipated.” More
(MI) Kalamazoo Gazette – Helen Taylor couldn’t have said it any better. Taylor, The Nature Conservancy’s state director, described the recent agreement to acquire 171 acres of dunes at Saugatuck as “a huge step forward in the marathon effort to protect this property in perpetuity for the people of Michigan.”
The area includes the south portion of the McClendon property (formerly the Denison property) adjacent to Saugatuck’s Oval Beach City Park. Announcement of the deal was made by the city of Saugatuck, the Land Conservancy of West Michigan and The Nature Conservancy. More
(MI) The Bay City Times – State and local officials involved with the Saginaw Bay Coastal Initiative are looking at the Truxor, an amphibious vehicle, to clear muck that gathers at the shoreline and remains suspended in the water at the public beach in Bangor Township. Charlie Bauer, with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Bureau, gave a presentation on the Truxor at a meeting this morning at the state park Visitor Center. More
(IN) The News Dispatch – For years researchers looked at the water of Lake Michigan to find the source of high bacteria readings, but one source of outbreaks of E. coli may be in the beach sand. Bacteria counts tend to be much higher after storms send waves splashing ashore, with water returning to the lake through the sand. If the sand is aerated and allowed to dry in the hot sun, the bacteria die or diminish. The Michigan City Parks Department is testing that theory with a new method of beach grooming that puts little furrows into the sand instead of leveling it. That method of beach sand grooming in Racine, Wis., resulted in a 96 percent decline in the number of beach advisories for bacteria.
(IN) The News Dispatch – How can we reduce the amount of E. coli bacteria along the beach in Washington Park? That’s a question we asked Dr. Julie Kinzelman, research scientist and laboratory director for the city of Racine, Wis. While snowflakes were flying during a winter storm in February, Kinzelman came to Michigan City to share her expertise with several different local groups desiring to reduce the levels of E. coli in our local beaches. More