Echo

Interactive lake monitoring tool to be updated

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Data on rain, snowfall, ice cover and evaporation will soon be incorporated into a new online tool that shows Great Lakes water level fluctuations over the past 150 years. The Great Lakes Water Level Dashboard plots data on a graph that represents water levels of a lake the user designates. Users can even designate all of the Great Lakes at once to see their progression as a whole. But enhancements expected in as soon as a month will show rain, snowfall, evaporation and ice cover, said Anne Clites, a scientist on the project at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. The tool was released in June to help researchers and answer the public’s questions about lake levels, she said.

Echo

Gas company scraps drilling plans near Au Sable River

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A nine-year battle over natural gas drilling near a state-designated wilderness along Michigan’s Au Sable River recently ended when Savoy Energy withdrew its permit request. In a Sept. 6 letter to the federal Bureau of Land Management, the Traverse City, Mich.-based oil and gas exploration company declared it was no longer interested in drilling near a section of the river famed for trout fishing and old growth forest. The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable had sued to halt the proposal. “I was pretty happy to hear the news,” said Marvin Roberson, the Sierra Club’s forest policy specialist.

Echo

Echo commentator provides perspective on pace of Great Lakes solutions

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Popular Echo commentator Gary Wilson recently took on some video work during Great Lakes Week in Cleveland. That was a meeting of several Great Lakes organizations including the International Joint Commission. In this clip Gary discusses the frustration some organizations expressed in an Echo story and elsewhere over the pace of addressing Great Lakes environmental problems.

The clip provided by Detroit Public Television also includes Gary raising that issue at a town hall featuring members of the International Joing Commssion and other top environmental officials. Also providing perspective is Patrick Doran, the Nature Conservancy’s director of science for Michigan and the Great Lakes. //

Echo

Enjoy a Great Lakes horror movie marathon

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It’s enough Asian carp footage to host a movie marathon. Recently released high-definition and streaming videos of the invasive species are available for download at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Watch massive schools of silver carp flying toward video cameras or a barge moving past the electric invasive species barrier in Romeoville, Ill. They are just two of the multiple choices interested viewers can choose. With a run time of about 30 seconds, the Asian carp videos are sorted into four sections:

The fish in captivity
Barriers preventing the fish from entry into the Great Lakes
 Chicago waterways the fish could sneak through
Asian carp in the wild

It’s the first time such extensive filming of Asian carp has been made available, says the Ohio Outdoor News in a recent story about the footage.