Lake Michigan | Susan J. Demas
While many are using the new year as a motivator to set new goals and commit to positive change, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has shared resolutions of its own, laying out plans for protecting the Great Lakes in 2025 and onward in its annual state of the Great Lakes Report.
The report, released in late December, takes stock of 2024 victories for protecting the Great Lakes against threats like invasive carp while laying out additional plans for preservation, restoration and remediation, including efforts to address plastic pollution, decarbonize ports and taking the steps toward removing mine waste from shorelines in Lake Superior.
This year will also mark 40 years since the creation of the Office of Great Lakes’ by Democratic Gov. James Blanchard, with the report counting down key efforts across the past four decades to preserve the Great Lakes. Among the most recent is the state’s partnership with Illinois and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to advance the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project, targeting a critical pinch point to keep invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes and establishing a breeding population.
The report also spotlights the establishment of the Great Lakes Compact — a deal between the Great Lakes States and Canadian provinces to prevent the diversion of Great Lakes water, which was signed into law in 2008 — as alongside Michigan’s role as the second state with an approved aquatic invasive species state management plan and its efforts to address legacy contamination as well as emerging contaminants like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as other major accomplishments.
According to the report, the Office of the Great Lakes will be placing an increased focus on groundwater moving forward, pointing toward an ongoing Michigan State University Study, a new groundwater section within EGLE and progress toward a Groundwater Data Management System as efforts that will improve how decisions are made around Michigan’s underground aquifers, calling them the “sixth Great Lake.”
The office will also allocate $2 million for research and recommendations on how to address plastic pollution and microplastics in the Great Lakes in 2025. It will also support policy planning, development and stewardship efforts through the Great Lakes Protection Fund, including continued work on the Michigan maritime strategy, which looks to reduce carbon emissions in commercial shipping, ferries and recreational boating and address historical environmental harm.
Updates on efforts in the Great Lakes
Alongside updates from the Office of the Great Lakes, EGLE coordinators also summarized projects and environmental protection efforts in each of the Great Lakes bordering Michigan.
For Lake Superior, researchers gathered to review field work and set priorities for project planning in 2025 and field sampling in 2026, focusing on areas like algal blooms, rising temperatures, vulnerable species and habitats and groundwater mapping.
According to the report, members of the Buffalo Reef Task Force established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are planning to remove millions of tons of mining waste — called stamp sands — from miles of Lake Superior shoreline in the Keweenaw Peninsula as well as vital spawning ground for whitefish and lake trout.
The state has continued design work for a proposed jetty into the lake and a disposal site for the dredged stamp sands. The task force will investigate funding opportunities to complete the project once cost estimates come in.
For Lake Michigan, researchers met to prep projects for 2025, focusing on concerns like how big environmental changes prevent small, young fish from reaching older, larger life stages; trends in emerging chemical contaminants like PFAS; the amount of dissolved salts in the lake; the impact of wintertime processes like ice cover on nearshore habitats and the transport of sediment; and how the lake takes in materials from tributaries.
DarkSky International, a nonprofit organization looking to reduce the impacts of manmade light, also certified Beaver Island — Lake Michigan’s largest island — as the state’s first dark sky sanctuary, one of 20 in the world. The community on the island and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will now work to create and implement programming including stargazing events and education on outdoor lighting.
For Lake Huron, researchers shared their findings on various stressors impacting the lake, with plans to build on these newfound understandings of the lake’s conditions and gaps in their knowledge through additional research in 2027.
For Lake Erie, as well as Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, members of the Lake Erie partnership planned monitoring topics for their 2024 field sampling year with topics ranging from phosphorus in sediments and cyanobacteria, PFAS dynamics in the food web and a lakewide assessment of invasive quagga mussels.
While questions remained on how algae can influence reservoirs of E. coli, a bacteria which can cause severe foodborne illness and close beaches, EGLE, alongside the DNR and the St. Clair, Macomb, and Monroe county health departments received funding for enhanced monitoring at nine beaches along the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, and Lake Erie, for the 2024 beach season.
The study is expected to improve the understanding of algal blooms — a common issue for Lake Erie — and bacterial pollution in order to keep Michiganders safe while enjoying Great Lakes beaches.
The report also featured an update from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development alongside the University of Michigan Water Center on efforts to combat harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, as these blooms can pollute drinking water, poison pets, negatively impact human health, and harm fish and other aquatic plants.
As part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the U.S. and Canada, federal, state and Canadian provincial jurisdictions are required to develop domestic action plans to reduce phosphorus and nutrient pollution into Lake Erie, as excess nutrients can lead to an overgrowth of algae.
Michigan’s plan aims to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the lake 40% by 2025 when compared to levels from 2008.
The team of state leaders charged with overseeing the plan has also partnered with University of Michigan (U-M) Water Center and the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation to form the Western Lake Erie Basin Community Advisory Group representing a wide range of local government, business, environmental and agricultural stakeholders.
These groups have pledged to continue working together to raise awareness about projects and programs to improve the condition of Lake Erie.
Restoration, rehabilitation and stewardship
In addition to the monitoring efforts along the Detroit River, the report also highlights continued community and state efforts to address pollution in the body, noting how Detroit’s industrial history has left behind a legacy of contamination.
Alongside cleanup efforts in Detroit, the report details efforts to restore Ox Creek in the Benton Harbor area, which has lost 72% of its existing wetlands and faces concerns with pollution and neglect. According to the report, a habitat restoration plan for the creek is nearly complete, seeking to improve habitat resilience, improve and manage water quality, create economic development opportunities and places for recreation alongside building community stewardship and putting an end to illegal dumping and littering.
Additional projects to manage stormwater, flooding and water quality are also underway.
Another effort is seeking to bring arctic grayling back to Michigan streams after habitat destruction, overfishing and the introduction of brown trout led to the loss of the species in 1936. While there have been multiple previous attempts to reintroduce the fish to Michigan streams, they were unsuccessful.
The report also notes the importance of arctic grayling to northern Michigan’s Native American tribes, with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and other Tribal Nations working to restore the fish to Michigan streams as part of the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative, which is made up of nearly 50 member organizations. The Little River Band has begun investigating streams in the Manistee River watershed where arctic grayling could be introduced.
While the fish have been stocked at three Michigan lakes, they have yet to be introduced to streams in the state. The initiative’s next step will be prioritizing streams where the fertilized eggs can be stocked. Partners are conducting fish community and habitat surveys, whose results could see select streams stocked with arctic grayling eggs this year.
Biologists from the Bay Mills Indian Community, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the DNR and The Nature Conservancy are also looking to reestablish lake whitefish spawning runs in Michigan rivers, with whitefish generating the greatest income for Great Lakes commercial fisheries.
Partners have conducted Fall surveys in Lake Michigan and northern Lake Huron tributary rivers since 2018 to identify remaining river populations of lake whitefish and find habitats where they could be reintroduced. Eggs have been introduced into select tributaries since 2022 to study if these sites are feasible for reintroduction and to monitor how the young fish fare.
Alongside updates on environmental protection efforts, pollution cleanups, and plans to reintroduce species to the state’s waterways, the report also provides additional information about the Michigan Maritime Strategy, wetland conservation and restoration efforts, and funding to support stormwater infrastructure and septic system upgrades.
The full report is available on EGLE’s website through the Office of Great Lakes.
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