“To help combat the invasive, eel-like fish, Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation on Thursday for the state to spend up to $564,500 in the next two fiscal years on lamprey control efforts on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.The controls include chemical treatments and barriers that block the movement of swimming lamprey, which according to the Wisconsin DNR ‘have no jaws, no true teeth, no paired fins and a skeleton made of cartilage, not true bone.’The state funds are expected to be matched with federal dollars for control efforts that are taking place across the Great Lakes basin.In Lake Michigan, 126 of 511 tributaries have historic records of sea lamprey production. Of those 83 tributaries have been treated with chemicals, according to the Fish and Wildlife Commission. A major focus of treatment took place on the Oconto River in northeastern Wisconsin, where about 60 miles of the river were treated.”
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In the news: Wisconsin governor signs lamprey control measure
December 18th, 2013 by Irene MilesRestoration: It’s not just for the birds
December 17th, 2013 by Irene Miles“After nearly three decades of being a black eye of the community, we are thrilled that the Sheboygan River and harbor is being restored to reduce health risks to people, fish, and wildlife, and will greatly enhance opportunities for economic development,” said Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrator at a 2012 press event celebrating the project.
Perhaps the biggest boost so far has been to recreation. Dredging the equivalent of 15,000 dump trucks of contaminated sediment left boaters and anglers with a deeper river that is easier to access and navigate. With the contamination gone, the community has also started to see the Sheboygan River as a safe place to spend an afternoon. Just a few months after the project ended, residents reported seeing more and bigger boats navigating in and out of the river’s harbor, and they expect to see even more fishing and boating in the coming years.
“Anytime you have a healthy river going through a community, you have a better quality of life,” said one resident to IISG’s Caitie McCoy and Emily Anderson as part of a series of interviews about how community perceptions of the river had changed.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLlanYlpqXU/UqswqfebOwI/AAAAAAAACeA/Uh7gHT4qRck/s320/Taylor+Drive+wetland+restoration.jpg)
Efforts to clean up and revitalize the Sheboygan River are part of the Great Lakes Legacy Act, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and Superfund.
*Middle photo: Courtesy of the City of Sheboygan
*Bottom Photo: Courtesy of Wisconsin DNR
Knauss Fellows head to D.C. to find and begin their new positions
December 13th, 2013 by Irene MilesI selected a position at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences. Part of my responsibilities will be to facilitate peer review and award decisions for proposals submitted to the Ocean Section, including the Coastal Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (Coastal SEES) program. I am really excited to be exposed to cutting-edge research and to see the grant review process first hand. I think that reading and participating in the review of the Coastal SEES proposals will be particularly enlightening due to their interdisciplinary nature.
In the news: Test results show another aquatic invader’s presence in southern Lake Michigan
December 5th, 2013 by Irene Miles“The Nature Conservancy said a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Central Michigan University and its own organization found evidence of DNA of Eurasian ruffe in Calumet Harbor, south of Chicago.Two positive samples from the harbor were collected on July 8. The harbor is at the mouth of the Chicago-area waterway system. Environmental DNA is a surveillance tool that can be used to monitor the genetic presence of aquatic species.The waterway system is part of an engineered canal that provides an artificial link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River basin and has been infiltrated with invasive Asian carp from the Mississippi for years.That same system has the potential to introduce Eurasian ruffe in the Mississippi, according to the Nature Conservancy. The group said the genetic findings underscore the need for a permanent barrier to block species from moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi systems.”
In the news: A private island that truly is for the birds
December 3rd, 2013 by Irene MilesNon-profit organization The Nature Conservancy recently acquired a small island in Lake Michigan that is used by migrating birds as a stopping point on their journey.
“St. Martin Island is part of a chain that runs between Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula and Michigan’s Garden Peninsula…
The Luber family sold it to the nonprofit conservancy for $1.5 million dollars. The Nature Conservancy says the price was well below market value.
Eventually the island will be included in the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Dave Ewert is a senior scientist with the Nature Conservancy in Michigan. He says the chain of islands is really important for migrating land birds in the spring and fall.
‘If they’re caught out away from mainland then they’re going to look for islands to come down, land, feed, rest, seek refuge from predators. So these islands really are a godsend to these migratory birds,’ Ewert said.
He says more than 100 species have been documented in the chain of islands. St. Martin is one of the larger islands at more than 1,200 acres. The U.S. Coast Guard has a light tower on the island.”
New invasives from New Zealand found in Wisconsin
December 2nd, 2013 by Irene MilesThe invasive snail first moved into the Great Lakes decades ago and took up residency in Lake Michigan about 5 years ago. Inland lakes and rivers in the Midwest, though, had remained snail-free. That is until last month, when the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported finding the snails in Black Earth Creek, about 25 miles north of the Illinois state line.
To learn more about what you can do to help prevent the spread of the New Zealand mud snail and other invasive species, visit www.TransportZero.org.
*Photo courtesy of Mohammed El Damir, Pest Management, Bugwood.org
IISG in the news: Injurious species list results in a ban on invasive plants
November 20th, 2013 by Irene Miles“Plant species were chosen based on the results of a risk assessment tool developed in Indiana by the Aquatic Plant Working Group. The tool evaluates species based on factors like ability to thrive in the Great Lakes and difficulty to control. At the request of Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant organized and facilitated the group, which included representatives from the aquatic plant industry, aquarium and water garden hobbyists, state agencies, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Their efforts led to a rule approved last year that bans the sale of 28 invasive aquatic plants in Indiana.‘It is important to have consistent regulations across the Great Lakes Basin. We want our policies to be consistent with our neighbors since invasive species don’t respect political boundaries,’ said Kevin Irons, aquaculture and aquatic nuisance species program manager for Illinois DNR. ‘Prevention is the first and cheapest way to protect Illinois from aquatic invasive plants, and risk assessment tools like the one built in Indiana allow us to identify and control high risk species without unduly regulating the industry.'”
Great Lakes education conference features several sessions, including IISG education team
November 15th, 2013 by Irene MilesThe 3rd Annual Great Lakes Place-based Education Conference, November 7-9 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, brought together over 200 teachers, community representatives, non-profit organization educators, and more. The conference gives teachers an opportunity to incorporate the latest place-based research and education concepts about the Great Lakes into their lessons, encouraging student stewardship, continuing science education, and community development.
Representatives of the CGLL program from seven Great Lakes Sea Grant programs were on hand to talk with attendees about the wide array of resources available, many specifically tailored to the environmental needs and issues of their region. Classroom resources were also available, including Fresh and Salt and Greatest of the Great Lakes curricula, as well as the Dose of Reality newspaper activity guide that covers the disposal of unwanted medicines and personal care products.
In the news: Biologists take samples in Sturgeon Bay searching for Asian carp evidence
November 14th, 2013 by Irene Miles“Under mostly sunny skies and temperatures hovering near 30 degrees, a three-man crew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the DNR motored across the bay in a flat-bottomed boat looking for promising sites to sample.A scientist at the University of Notre Dame pioneered the technique of using DNA to search for populations of Asian carp. But the first step is far from rocket science:One member of the crew stretched in a nearly prone position over the side of the boat and dipped a 2-liter plastic bottle into the 40-degree water. The driver read out GPS coordinates, the water temperature and the depth. The third man from the crew scribbled down the information.The samples are processed in Green Bay and then packed with dry ice and sent to a Fish and Wildlife Service laboratory in La Crosse, where the DNA sequencing is done and water is matched with known DNA specimens of the two carp species. The samples will be queued up with hundreds of other potential carp samples from Illinois and elsewhere.”
Recent News
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- You can take steps to reduce your exposure to PFAS contaminants
- IISG summer initiatives include interns, water safety, and aquatic invasive species
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