A shelter-in-place order for more than 50,000 people covering a 3-mile radius included neighborhoods along the Lake Erie shoreline and stretched just across the state line into Michigan.
Michigan Environment Watch
Michigan Environment Watch examines how public policy, industry, and other factors interact with the state’s trove of natural resources.
Great Lakes News Collaborative
Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, The Narwhal and Michigan Public work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. You can find all of the collaborative’s stories here.
Shockwave
The Great Lakes region is in the midst of a seismic energy shakeup, from skyrocketing data center demand and a nuclear energy boom, to expanding renewables and electrification. In 2026, the Great Lakes News Collaborative will explore how shifting supply and demand affect the region and its waters. Read the series here.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
High-voltage power lines planned across Michigan. Many landowners unhappy
Landowners in the path of the power lines worry about declining property values and electromagnetic fields, but backers of the projects say tens of millions of customers will benefit from more reliable power.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan species at risk after Trump rolls back protections, advocates say
Michigan’s only venomous snake and the Great Lakes piping plover are among the species advocates worry about following the administration’s reinterpretation of two words in the landmark legislation.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Great Lakes ice cover is shrinking fast. A century of data reveals why
The amount of ice on the Great Lakes has declined rapidly over the past four decades, but a warming climate might not be the only explanation for freezing fluctuations during the last century.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Township vote paves way for Michigan’s second hyperscale data center
The Van Buren Township Planning Commission approved a site plan for Google’s proposed facility near the Detroit airport — the last major permitting hurdle to the 1-gigawatt facility’s construction.
Posted inBusiness Watch, Michigan Environment Watch
Fact check: What’s true and what’s not in Michigan’s data center debate
From noise pollution to job creation, experts weigh in on the biggest claims about the infrastructure that powers AI.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Year after reintroduction, no grayling seen in Michigan wild. Hope remains
Biologists with northern Michigan tribes said they expect to see better results as they continue to collect data over the next several years.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Food scrap collectors in Michigan, across US, want your coffee grounds, eggshells
Composting reduces food waste that goes into landfills and creates healthy soil for gardeners and urban farmers. But it’s not easy for everyone to have their own compost bin or get to a drop-off location.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Long-awaited dam safety reforms move closer to law after Michigan Senate vote
Thursday’s vote is a watershed moment in the years-long effort to strengthen Michigan’s dam safety standards, which are among the nation’s weakest.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Near Sleeping Bear Dunes, residents battle beavers — and feds — over floods
Residents around an Up North lake deal with routine flooding and say flat-tailed rodents downstream are to blame.
