Great Lakes Daily News

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper has announced a $1.6 million grant program through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to support environmental restoration projects in Western New York communities. The Western New York Great Lakes Restoration Grant Program will award funding ranging from $25,000 to $500,000 to community projects addressing invasive species, habitat restoration or nonpoint source water pollution. Read the full story by the Clarence Bee.

To prepare for the opening of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the St. Lawrence Seaway Sunday morning, the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Martha L. Black arrived in Montreal to transit the distance of the Seaway and to create a path where needed. Read the full story by NNY360.

President Donald Trump said he’s working to save the Great Lakes from invasive carp, but the announcement comes as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has paused funding for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project that aims to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The pause is part of a broader administrative review despite Congress already appropriating $274 million for the $1.15 billion project. Read the full story by Wisconsin Public Radio.

This week, growers across the Lake Erie grape belt were abruptly informed in a letter that one of their processors, “Refresco,” will no longer buy their grapes effective immediately. According to a representative on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau board of directors, the agreement termination impacts 126 growers in Pennsylvania and New York, with 2,600 acres of grapes having nowhere to ship; in 2025, that had an economic impact of about $5 million. Read the full story by WJET-TV – Erie, PA.

Crews began scaffolding around the iconic Split Rock Lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior, part of a three-month restoration project to repair damaged bricks and mortar and prevent future damage. Read the full story by Minnesota Public Radio.

The Wisconsin Historical Society announced March 11 that the wreck of the 144-foot-long, three-masted schooner F.J. King, which sank in 1886, is now listed on the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places. The shipwreck is historically significant because the remains are a very intact example of a shipping vessel unique to the Great Lakes and should continue to provide maritime archaeological information. Read the full story by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

A new bill has been introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate to increase the penalties for anglers who intentionally foul hook or snag a fish in the Commonwealth. The legislation would allow the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission to increase penalties for certain violations, such as snagging, without impacting other regulatory provisions. Read the full story by Erie Times-News.

The U.S. Coast Guard is set to reopen multiple regulated waterways in the northern Great Lakes, starting on Thursday, March 19. According to a Coast Guard announcement, the waterways include the Pipe Island Passage, West Neebish Channel and the waters between St. Ignace, Michigan, and Mackinac Island. Read the full story by The Sault Ste. Marie Evening News.

In Ohio, the city of Avon Lake’s Planning Commission will consider a proposal to rezone the land where the now-demolished Avon Lake Power Plant stood along the edge of Lake Erie from industrial to special commerce accompanied by a lakefront mixed-use overlay district. Read the full story by The Chronicle-Telegram.

According to a research scientist at the Large Lakes Observatory on Lake Superior, because lake ice cover is impacted so heavily by weather, and Minnesota’s winter weather has become more variable, so too, has the “ice out” date each year for many lakes across the state. In addition to the ecological impact of ice out variability, the increasingly unpredictable season shift impacts human communities and industry. Read the full story by WTIP – Grand Marais, MN.