Elevated levels of mercury in Minnesota’s fish populations have led to fish consumption advisories. The contamination comes as a result of the environmental mismanagement of local mining operations, which are a significant source of mercury contamination statewide.

For the first time in over a century, lake sturgeon have returned to Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Earlier this spring, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources identified a three-year-old male lake sturgeon traveling through the Mequon-Thiensville Fishway, the farthest north a lake sturgeon has been spotted since these prehistoric fish disappeared from the Milwaukee River in the late 1800s.

By cleaning up their most degraded areas, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Buffalo have created thriving lakeshore business districts, helped people reconnect with nature, and laid the groundwork for population growth into the future. Learn more about how they’re contributing to the Great Lakes region’s “blue economy.”

For communities across Wisconsin, access to safe, clean, affordable drinking water is a persistent concern. Lead service lines, aging water infrastructure, and harmful contaminates like nitrates are among the many factors that necessitate extensive—and expensive—repairs to drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems throughout the state. Two federal-state partnerships—the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) are integral to provide financial support for these necessary updates.

In a lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), in Rochester, New York, dozens of plastic bins of cigarette butts, food wrappers, bottle caps, one-shot liquor bottles, and other trash are stacked neatly on shelves, waiting to be sorted and categorized. This debris décor comes from litter-catching mesh devices called LittaTraps™, which have been installed in storm drains across Rochester to intercept garbage otherwise destined for Lake Ontario.

In groundwater sources across Wisconsin, an invisible pollutant is degrading aquatic ecosystems, threatening human health, and costing local communities millions of dollars. This chemical, known as nitrate, is the most widespread groundwater contaminant in Wisconsin, and it can cause serious problems. According to a new report, nitrate pollution has climbed steadily since 2013, affecting both municipal drinking water systems and private wells.

Federal funding cuts have led to the termination of an AmeriCorps program in Ohio, halting six years of environmental restoration work with Tinker’s Creek Watershed Partners. The program’s wide-ranging work involved removing invasive species, expanding green infrastructure, monitoring water quality, increasing environmental resilience, educating the public, restoring habitats, maintaining trails, planting trees, managing greenhouses, and much more.

At Cornwall Preserve, a 77-acre nature preserve in Williamson, New York, recent environmental restoration projects and visitor experience improvements have illustrated the powerful relationship between conservation and community.