Restoring wetlands in northwest Indiana helps reverse loss of vulnerable marsh birds, supports clean water and engages the community in the area’s beautification.

Analysis of fish from Lake Michigan for toxic PFOS will aid in more accurate fish consumption advisories, protecting human health.

The St. Louis River is known as an “Area of Concern” (AOC)–one the most environmentally degraded areas in the Great Lakes region. Cleanup is estimated to be completed by 2030 as a result of a funding influx from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. To learn more about the importance of St. Louis River AOC cleanup work in his area of the river—Munger Landing—we spoke to Mike Casey, a local advocate.

The Great Lakes region has 43 Areas of Concern (AOCs). Each AOC has a group of community members who provide their expertise to discussions of cleanup and their time to related volunteer activities. To learn more about this important form of public engagement, we spoke to activist and organizer with Sierra Club Michigan, Erma Leaphart.

The majority of Wisconsin’s lead poisoning cases are from Milwaukee’s north and south sides, where the local populations are predominantly Black and Brown. From this crisis, Milwaukee has also become home to a grassroots collective working to get the lead out of the city: The Coalition on Lead Emergency (COLE).

The Door-Kewaunee Watershed Demonstration Farm Network is supporting sustainable methods of farming to reduce runoff pollution into Lake Michigan and Green Bay, improve groundwater and surface water quality, and model those practices for other local farms.

After years of clean-up efforts, the Ashtabula River in Ohio is no longer considered one of the “most environmentally degraded” areas in the Great Lakes Region thanks, in part, to Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding.

The Rouge Education Project trains a new generation of conservationists while monitoring river health.