Great Lakes Region

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
Ruddiman Creek Remediation Project awarded a “Success Story”

• The clean up of Ruddiman Creek began as a grassroots effort in Muskegon, Michigan many years ago.
• This project, which resulted in the removal of nearly 90,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, was awarded as a 2006 "Success Story" at the State of the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conference.
• IL-IN Sea Grant works closely with communities as they go through the remediation process. 
• The Ruddiman Creek Great Lakes Legacy Act Sediment Remediation Project combined the resources of the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality-Water Bureau, which teamed with the City of Muskegon, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and several other partners, who all share in this award.

Michigan Sea Grant
Shoreline project in River Rouge good for fish, fowl and man

• With help from the EPA, Sea Grant and other partners, Detroit Edison Energy (DTE) has become involved with a number of “green” projects in Southeast Michigan along the Detroit River.  
• The River Rouge project involves naturalizing approximately 200 feet of shoreline along the Detroit River at the River Rouge Power Plant.
• Naturalizing is the process of removing large pieces of concrete rip-rap along the shoreline and reshaping/re-vegetating the shoreline to the natural setting before industry lined the waterfront.
• Partners include: EPA, Michigan Sea Grant, Wildlife Habitat Council, Detroit International Wildlife Refuge, Friends of the Detroit River, Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, City of River Rouge.

Minnesota Sea Grant
Mall of America uses Habitattitude™ theme in commercial displays

• Habitattitude is a national public education campaign for aquarists and water gardeners.
• Launched in fall 2004, the campaign was created by a government-industry-academia coalition of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network, led by Minnesota Sea Grant.  
• The Habitattitude logo and “don't release” message appear on products and publications across the country.
• President Bush’s response to the Ocean Commission Report identified Habitattitude as a model partnership between industry, government and academia.
• Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America is redesigning displays to include the Habitattitude message.
• The campaign’s Web site, www.habitattitude.net, provides resources to campaign partners and consumers.

New York Sea Grant
Sea Grant brings scientists together to focus on ecosystem based management approaches

• The New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Act became state law in 2006 and has spawned activities aimed at shifting the paradigm of resource management from a single species to an integrated ecosystem focus.
• In response to a request from the Division of Coastal Resources of the NYS Department of State, New York Sea Grant agreed to help the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council by developing a research agenda to advance ecosystem-based management.
• New York Sea Grant is looking for a broad representation of scientists to contribute to this shift in resource management paradigms that promises to influence the state’s resource management decisions.
• To this end, Sea Grant sponsored two workshops in November to consider demonstration projects in two watersheds. The researchers were asked to identify priority research that will contribute to developing and/or improving ecosystem-based management of the local sites.

Ohio Sea Grant
Sea Grant researcher featured on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs

• Kristin Stanford, a resident researcher at Ohio State's Stone Lab on Lake Erie's Gibraltar Island, studies the endangered Lake Erie water snake.  Stanford catches, weighs, and induces the snakes to vomit, then records their diet.
• Stanford was featured in the season premiere of the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs.
• The snakes are a federally threatened species found only on the Lake Erie islands.  Stanford's goal is to see the snakes removed from the endangered species list.
• “Filming Dirty Jobs was fun," according to the researcher.  Stanford hopes it shows prospective Stone Lab students how interesting summer research can be.
• The lab attracts students each summer from all over the country to work on supervised, independent research projects.

Pennsylvania Sea Grant
Sea Grant Receives Clean Water Grants Excellence Award for educating boaters about invasive species

• Pennsylvania Sea Grant, a grantee of the Boat.US Foundation’s Clean Water Grants was awarded a Clean Water Grants Excellence Award.
• Their original grant of $3,880 for educating boaters about invasive species was used to create signs on how to identify invasive species and prevent their spread from one waterway to another.
• The Excellence Award provides an additional $500 to continue these efforts.

Lake Champlain (VT) Sea Grant
Sea Grant designs new science module based on watershed education for Burlington public schools

• Burlington, the largest urban area in Vermont, has no water quality or watershed education programs in its public schools.
• At the same time, all surface waters in Burlington (and in most of surrounding Chittenden County) are impaired by bacteria associated with storm water or runoff.
• Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Watershed Alliance are in the second year of an EPA-supported Urban Watershed Education project at Edmunds Middle School.
• Sea Grant developed and tested a module-based urban watershed and water quality education program for 7-8th grade science curriculum that includes classroom activities.

Wisconsin Sea Grant
Sea Grant develops rapid test to identify sources of fecal pollution on Milwaukee beaches

• Beach closings in the Great Lakes region have attracted the attention of public health officials, regulatory agencies, water resource managers and state legislators.
• Monitoring under the federal BEACH Act, beach managers were challenged to understand the sources of pollution that resulted in positive test results for E.coli.
• Wisconsin Sea Grant funded a University of Wisconsin researcher who developed a rapid test to identify the sources of fecal pollution on Wisconsin beaches.
• The quantitative results of the research indicated the sources:  storm water runoff, poor water circulation, and sewage contamination during combined sewer overflows.
• As a result of this research, the City of Milwaukee fast-tracked plans to upgrade its municipal sanitary system.