Great Lakes Calendar

The Great Lakes Calendar features events from around the region that may be of interest to Great Lakes stakeholders, with a focus on professional conferences and events relevant to research, science, policy, and education. If you have an event you would like to publicize, please submit it below!

Working Together for Healthy Lakes: 2018 Joint Conference

Grand Rapids, MI

This year, the Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps) will be meeting jointly with the Michigan Inland Lakes Partnership to host the 2018 Michigan Inland Lakes Convention. The Convention will take place October 4-5, with an opening reception on the evening of October 3rd, at the Crowne Plaza Grand Rapids – Airport.

State of Lake Superior Conference

Houghton, MI

IAGLR and Michigan Technological University are pleased to announce that the 2018 State of Lake Superior (SOLS) Conference will be held October 9-12 in Houghton, Mich. Hosted on the beautiful MTU campus, SOLS will be a multi-day conference and include invited sessions and abstracts, plenary sessions, field trips, and associated meetings.

Fall Colors and Sunset Hike

Onekama, MI

Experience two beautiful nature preserves in one evening in Onekama, Michigan! Enjoy a guided hike through the forest at our Portage Point Woods Preserve. Then move next door to one of our oldest nature preserves, Lucia K. Tower Preserve at Portage Point Dunes, to see a stunning dune blowout rising 200 feet above Lake Michigan for a sunset you won’t forget. Free and family friendly.

Great Lakes Observing System Annual Meeting

Detroit, MI

The Great Lakes Observing System is a network of data providers and consumers. Every year the data sharing community gathers to celebrate successes, share best practices, and to catch up on each other's work.

Great Lakes Beach Association and Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium Joint Conference

Independence, Ohio

You are invited to the 2018 Great Lakes Beach Association and Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium Joint Conference on October 24-25, 2018, at the DoubleTree Hilton in Independence (near Cleveland), Ohio. This joint conference will draw more than 200 resource managers, scientists, coastal planners, local officials, government agencies, students, and interest groups from around the Great Lakes. We expect up to 16 sessions showcasing a variety of Great Lakes beach protection and water safety issues. There will be keynote addresses, plenary sessions, field trips, evening networking, and poster receptions.

2018 Binational Lake St. Clair Conference

Harrison Township, MI

Registration is now open for the 2018 Binational Lake St. Clair Conference, which will take place at MacRay Harbor on Lake St. Clair, Michigan. The conference will highlight environmental management efforts in the "Heart of the Great Lakes," the Lake St. Clair watershed shared by the U.S. and Canada. This year's conference will focus on building partnerships to advance the social, environmental and economic health of Lake St. Clair.

Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Information Session

Chicago, IL

EPA’s WIFIA program invites you to join us in Chicago to learn more about our low-cost, long-term loans for water infrastructure projects. The information session will provide prospective borrowers with a greater understanding of the WIFIA program requirements and pave the way for successful applications to the program.

NOAA Listening Session on the Department of Commerce’s 2018-2022 Strategic Plan

Madison, WI

NOAA is conducting a series of Listening Sessions across the United States to receive public input regarding the implementation of the Department of Commerce's 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. One of the goals in the Strategic Plan is to Strengthen U.S. Economic and National Security by Reducing Extreme Weather Impacts. NOAA has a critical role in implementing this goal through the implementation of the Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 which includes advancing science and technology innovation, improving weather research to operations, developing a community-based weather model, and advancing seasonal to subseasonal weather forecasts.

Meetings of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body and Compact Council

Chicago, IL

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body (Regional Body) will meet on Thursday, December 6, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. CST at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Additionally, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Council (Compact Council) will meet on Thursday, December 6, 2018, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting will begin immediately following the adjournment of the Regional Body meeting. Both meetings will be open to the public and will include an opportunity for public comments.

Monitoring and Detecting Hydrilla: Three Case Studies in New York and New Jersey

Webinar

Please join us for the next webinar in the Great Lakes Hydrilla Collaborative’s technical webinar series on December 11, 2018 from 2:00-3:00PM EST. Chris Doyle, Director of Biology with Solitude Lake Management, will discuss the general approach to hydrilla monitoring, and will then provide details on the specific approaches developed for three distinct sites: the Hudson River and New Croton Reservoir in New York, and the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey.

Webinar: Understanding the Nation’s Water Resource Challenges

Webinar

Tune in to January’s edition of The Current and hear from Ken Bradbury, Wisconsin State Geologist and Director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, as he discusses the newly released National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report on future water resource priorities.

Introduction to Lakes Online

Online

Introduction to Lakes is a six-week online course designed for anyone interested in learning about inland lakes. From the comfort of home or office, participants have 24/7 access to six online units complete with closed captioned video lectures, interactive activities, additional resources, discussion forums, quizzes and live chat sessions with classmates and Michigan State University Extension experts. Registration is open until January 8, 2019.

29th Annual No-Spills Conference

Traverse City, MI

The No-Spills Conference is a premier environmental and emergency response event focused on preventing hazardous material spills into the Great Lakes and its tributaries. The conference encourages and facilitates interaction between agencies, industry professionals, subject matter experts and the public. Conference presentations foster communication, promote the analysis of environmental issues, and offer solutions for prevention and of mitigation of hazardous material spills.

Communicating About Water

Webinar

As professionals engaged in water-related extension, research and conservation, we all talk about water. So – what works and why? Tune in to this month’s edition of The Current as we hear from a range of speakers as they discuss their research on how we relate to water, how we value water, and how different agricultural audiences perceive water-related conservation activities and the implications these findings have for the way we communicate about this precious resource.

24th Annual Wetland Science Conference

Middleton, WI

The annual Wetland Science Conference is a program of Wisconsin Wetlands Association. The two-day conference includes a keynote address, organized symposia, topical oral sessions, a poster session, working groups, a banquet, […]

Financing Climate Resilient Water Infrastructure: Webinar

Webinar

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative and the Mayors Innovation Project are hosting a webinar on Tuesday Feb. 21 at 11AM CST (noon EST) to provide an overview of financing needs and existing/emerging options for water and stormwater infrastructure for municipalities.

Great Lakes Integrated Water Asset Management Webinar 1: What is Integrated Water Asset Management?

Webinar

The Great Lakes Commission is hosting a webinar series on Integrated Water Asset Management (IWAM) that will explore the opportunities and barriers to catalyzing asset management practices across the Great Lakes region. The kick-off webinar of the IWAM series will discuss the basic questions of what should be considered a water infrastructure “asset” and what it means to effectively manage them. Each webinar includes presentations from water infrastructure and asset management practitioners and opportunities for attendees to participate in discussions on asset management into the region.

The Great Lakes: Managing for Action

East Lansing, MI

he Great Lakes: Managing for Action conference will address some major benefits that the Great Lakes provide as well as challenges they face. Topics include Agricultural Best Management Practices in the Lake Erie basin, Economic impacts of Great Lakes restoration, Control mechanisms for Asian carp, Wild rice and its significance, and Virtual trails and birding in the Great Lakes basin. Dr. Howard Tanner, who was instrumental in bringing Salmon into the Great Lakes, will give a presentation on how this project came about, and will be signing his new book on this subject.