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.

A buoy network managed by the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) across the Great Lakes collects information on wave height, approximate wind speed and direction, and water temperature. Once collected, this data not only allows for safe tourism, recreation, and shipping but also warns researchers about impacts to water quality, including toxic algal blooms that pose serious health threats to humans, pets, and wildlife. However, despite the health, safety, and environmental benefits these buoys provide, $1.6 billion in budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration could bring funding for GLOS to a halt.

In a new report, titled Safe for Swimming?, researchers found that 71% of Great Lakes beaches tested positive for fecal indicator bacteria like E. coli and Enterococcus at least one day last year. The report, published in July, was produced by Environment America Research and Policy Center, the 501(c)(3) research arm of Environment America.

A once-manicured golf course in Geauga County, Ohio, has transformed into a thriving public park where visitors can stroll past native trees and shrubs, cold-water streams, revitalized wetlands, and quality habitat for wildlife. This blend of recreation and habitat is thanks to a series of restoration projects prioritizing natural spaces over putting greens and has breathed new life into the 180-acre park.

At Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, a dune habitat restoration project will welcome native plants, shorebirds, and other wildlife to Pennsylvania’s only “seashore.”

In the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project is creating a corridor of edible wild plants to serve as a nutritious new food source for local humans and wildlife.

Learn more about the conservation practices of Schoepp Farms LLC, a third-generation family farm in Wisconsin.

After nearly 40 years, the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern—a 35-square-mile portion of Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York—has shed its status as one of the most environmentally degraded places in the Great Lakes region. Learn more about this achievement happened in this success story.