The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking some innovative, and perhaps unusual, steps to keep Asian carp (the silver and bighead carp in particular) from infesting the Great Lakes. In the next several years several layers of protection will be used to thwart the arrival of the carp by way of the Chicago-area rivers
During the 20th century, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became a hub of human activity and commerce. Toxic chemicals, discarded animal hides, meatpacking offal and other waste were dumped into the connected Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers with abandon, not to mention municipal sewage. Now a coalition of government entities and advocates is launching an ambitious project to
Decades ago several bird species in the Great Lakes—including the iconic bald eagle—faced an uncertain future because toxic chemicals were threatening their populations. While several bans and policies have offered some protection, the same chemicals threatening these birds 60 years ago continue to accumulate in their bodies—and new chemical threats are adding to their toxic
As algal blooms flourish on the edges of the Great Lakes, lake management bodies look to cut down the flow of nutrients into the water that feeds the algae. But, as a recent report by the International Joint Commission explains, not all parts of the lakes suffer from too many nutrients — in fact, the
In August of 2018 starry stonewort, an aquatic invasive species was found in a lagoon of Geneva Lake and within a year it was found in Geneva Lake. Initially it was hoped that the isolated population in the lagoon could be eradicated by dredging before it got into the lake, but the attempts failed and