Creating a 2015 ecological snapshot of Lake Michigan

Mark Breederland, Michigan State University Extension, Michigan Sea Grant -

Presentations from State of Lake Michigan conference offer insights.

As noted in a previous article, the 9th Biennial State of Lake Michigan Conference was held Oct. 28-30, 2015, in Traverse City, Mich. The conference drew more than 400 resource managers, scientists, elected officials, planners, students, and interested citizens from around Lake Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes basin. Led and coordinated by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of the Great Lakes, a wealth of knowledge and information was shared at this event.

Presentations which were given are now available at the conference website. There is a wealth of up-to-date scientific research contained in the many presentations. Session titles include Lake Michigan governance and management; current issues in Lake Michigan fish and fisheries; restoring the health of the Green Bay ecosystem under a changing climate; important species and habitats; Lake Michigan islands; coastal resiliency; coastal planning and sustainable development; and watershed impacts/management techniques on Lake Michigan among others.

MSU Extension and Michigan Sea Grant were represented as I chaired a session of the Coastal Planning and Sustainable Development track. Don Carpenter, Professor of Civil Engineering at Lawrence Technological University, spoke on the Michigan Sea Grant research funded Integrated Assessment on Sustainable Small Harbors.

Interested in our National Parks on Lake Michigan? The U.S. National Park Service’s Brenda Moraska Lafrancois presented on A Decade of Nearshore Ecosystem Change:  Observations from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. 

You will find updates on many topics and contact information for the authors.  Please take time to review the vast array of information available, particularly if you didn’t get a chance to attend in person.

Thanks again to the great team at Michigan’s Office of the Great Lakes for initiating, coordinating and capturing this information leading us to be better stewards of Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes in 2015.

Michigan Sea Grant helps to foster economic growth and protect Michigan’s coastal, Great Lakes resources through education, research and outreach. A collaborative effort of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, Michigan Sea Grant is part of the NOAA-National Sea Grant network of 33 university-based programs.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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