National parklands at Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes are overrun by traffic, hikers, trash and failing septic systems. Record crowds outpace stagnant federal funding, leaving park rangers feeling helpless.
Desperate to save homes from encroaching waves, shoreline property owners are hardening shorelines on the Great Lakes at a feverish pace. Experts fear these barriers will do harm in the long term.
Record-breaking Great Lakes water levels already wreak havoc on Michigan’s coastline. Now, they’re creating a new problem: How to maintain social distance at beaches reduced to a sliver of sand?
Polling by The Center for Michigan of more than 3,100 residents shows broad support for increased regulations to protect waterways and heightened anxieties about their safety.
Flint was a wake-up call about access to clean water. Since that crisis, numerous new threats have emerged to Michigan’s waterways, from PFAS to corporate extractions.
Michigan’s tepid winter is stressing ski hills, snowmobile clubs, sporting good stores and restaurants alike. Get used to it. This could be the new normal with climate change, experts say.
State regulators have changed daily catch limits for Michigan’s state fish four times since 2017 as they try to balance conservation concerns against the frustration of many Upper Peninsula anglers.
What goes up must come down, and balloon debris is killing wildlife, says Lara O'Brien. She launched a survey in June that’s already found more than 1,000 pieces of balloons along Michigan’s Great Lakes — as far away as Isle Royale.
As water quality fears rise, many Michigan farmers are doing their part to stem the flow of algae-producing nutrients, widespread measures that Ohio can only dream of.
Ballast water regulations have limited the introduction of new species in the Great Lakes, but new research shows they may be spread by domestic freighters. The shipping industry claims new rules would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
A consent decree that carves out fishing rights in the Great Lakes for five Michigan tribes is set to expire next August and negotiations have yet to start with the state. The outcome could shape fisheries for decades.
A new University of Michigan study found that voracious bighead carp could survive in wider areas of Lake Michigan than previously thought. The findings loudened calls for Congress to approve a $778 million barrier to prevent the invasive fish from jeopardizing the Great Lakes’ $7 billion commercial fishery.
Joining fellow Democratic governors in Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Michigan’s governor urges presidential hopefuls to protect the Great Lakes by backing proposals that would improve water quality and thwart invasive species.
Sportfishing is booming in Michigan, while fewer than two dozen commercial businesses tie their livelihoods to the Great Lakes. The industry has a rich heritage, but some say it’s time to ‘pull the plug on the horse and carriage industry.’