Tuesday, May 13th, 2025

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Tuesday, May 13th, 2025

Breaking News for

Sportsmen Since 1968

Todd Richmond

Push to map Great Lakes bottom moves with legislation

Two congressional representatives from Michigan – Republican Lisa McClain and Democrat Debbie Dingell – have re-introduced the Great Lakes Mapping Act.
The legislation would, according to an earlier introduction, allocate $200 million to map the Great Lakes bottoms by 2030. The bill would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct high-resolution mapping of the Great Lakes “to further understand the underwater environment of the Great Lakes’ lakebed,” per a Great Lakes Observing System release.

Push to map Great Lakes bottom moves with legislation Read More »

Effort to block invasive carp into Lake Michigan gets blocked by politics

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has delayed a $1.2 billion project meant to keep invasive carp from reaching Lake Michigan by at least several months, saying he’s worried President Trump might not cover the federal government’s share of the costs and that it would leave his state on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Illinois, Michigan, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been planning since 2020 to install a gantlet of technologies in the Des Plaines River near Joliet to deter carp from entering Lake Michigan.

Effort to block invasive carp into Lake Michigan gets blocked by politics Read More »

Monarch butterfly to be listed as threatened species

U.S. wildlife officials announced a decision on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies after years of warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive climate change.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to add the butterfly to the threatened species list by the end of next year following an extensive public comment period.

Monarch butterfly to be listed as threatened species Read More »

Court rules that Wisconsin Republicans improperly blocked conservation work

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee can’t legally block conservation projects initiated by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, the state Supreme Court ruled on July 5.
The decision marks a victory for Evers, whose relationship with Republican lawmakers has deteriorated since he took office in 2019.

Court rules that Wisconsin Republicans improperly blocked conservation work Read More »

USFWS says lake sturgeon not endangered, allowing state management to continue

Lake sturgeon don’t need Endangered Species Act protections, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, saying that stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they had vanished.
The decision ends the Arizona-based Center of Biological Diversity’s petition filed in May 2018 asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list lake sturgeon as endangered or threatened. Such listings would make harvesting the fish illegal, but without them, popular sturgeon-harvest seasons in states such as Wisconsin and Michigan can continue.

USFWS says lake sturgeon not endangered, allowing state management to continue Read More »

Groups file lawsuit to halt power line across Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge

A coalition of groups filed a last-minute federal lawsuit seeking to stop plans to build the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line across a Mississippi River wildlife refuge.
American Transmission Company, ITC Midwest, and Dairyland Power Cooperative, Inc., want to build a 102-mile, 345-kilovolt line linking Iowa’s Dubuque County and Wisconsin’s Dane County. The cost is expected to top half a billion dollars. The utilities say the line would improve electrical reliability across the region.

Groups file lawsuit to halt power line across Mississippi River Wildlife Refuge Read More »

Fewer fish, more algae? Researchers look at potential impacts of lack of Great Lakes ice cover

Michigan Tech University biologists have been observing a remote Lake Superior island’s fragile wolf population every winter since 1958, but they had to cut this season’s planned seven-week survey short after just two weeks.
The ski plane they study the wolves from uses the frozen lake as a landing strip because there’s nowhere to touch down on the island. But this weirdly warm winter left the Great Lakes nearly devoid of ice. Now, scientists are scrambling to understand how iceless winters could affect the world’s largest freshwater system.

Fewer fish, more algae? Researchers look at potential impacts of lack of Great Lakes ice cover Read More »

Warm weather forces park officials to suspend Isle Royale wolf count for first time in decades

A stretch of unusually warm weather has forced federal officials to suspend researchers’ annual wolf-moose count in Isle Royale National Park for the first time in more than six decades.
Isle Royale is a 134,000-acre (54,200-hectare) island situated in far western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Canada. The park is a wildlife biologist’s dream — it offers a rare opportunity to observe wolves and moose acting naturally without human influence.

Warm weather forces park officials to suspend Isle Royale wolf count for first time in decades Read More »

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