Red flag alerts and other safety measures aren’t enough to keep people out of the water, state officials say, so they want to amp up the rules. They’re looking at drowning totals and the danger to rescuers, and say ticketing violators may help.
Great Lakes
Posted inQuality of Life
Shoreline erosion worries Michigan. Pictured Rocks cliff fall reminds why.
Video taken by a boater caught a dramatic glimpse of 200 feet of cliff dropping into the water at an iconic natural area. While it raises questions about the state’s battered shoreline, ‘erosion is always happening,’ a park official said.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Can Michigan become a climate haven? Duluth is already planning.
The Minnesota city on Lake Superior is earning a reputation as a future destination for climate migrants. Experts say the entire Great Lakes region is primed for an influx, prompting questions on how to prepare for coming change.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Offshore wind could provide double the electricity Michiganders used in 2019
Michigan’s more than 3,000 miles of coast could provide double the electricity residents used from all sources in 2019, according to a recent report.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan’s climate-ready future: wetland parks, less cement, roomy shores
What does Michigan’s future look like if we adequately prepare the state’s water resources for climate change? Goodbye to septics and shore-hugging homes. Hello to more diversified crops on Michigan farms.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion: Water management is crucial to protecting Michigan’s environment
How we develop land in Michigan now will have a huge impact on flooding in the future.
Posted inThe Center for Michigan
Watch Bridge Book Club talk on ‘The Death and Life of the Great Lakes’
On Wednesday, journalist and author Dan Egan joined Bridge Michigan for a discussion of his award-winning book. Watch the recording here.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Water wars: Should Michigan worry about water diverted from Great Lakes?
Only a few small communities in the Great Lakes Basin have sought water diversions. But with climate change, some fear that increasingly parched swaths of the U.S. will seek access to the fresh water that surrounds us.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Scientists find more complexity in microplastics polluting the Great Lakes
New research suggests that microplastics act like a chemical sponge, soaking up contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. Those chemicals, in turn, appear to be causing deformities in larval fish.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Judge: Traverse City needs voter approval for FishPass river project
A judge ruled Thursday that the $19.3 million project, which would allow scientists to test technology that allows some fish to pass through a dam on the Boardman River while others are kept out, can’t proceed without voters’ consent.