As the Indiana Dunes area transitions from National Lakeshore to National Park, more visitors are enjoying its beaches and trails. Environmental threats may be increasing too.
Algae is so important to our region, but when algae grows extremely fast it's called a bloom. Most of the time they are harmless, but sometimes they can make the water undrinkable, and when thirty-five million people get their drinking water from the Great Lakes Region, that's a problem.
A bald eagle was spotted acting unusual. It turns out that it had severe lead poisoning. Lead poisoning for eagles seems to be more of a consequence of coexisting with humans. Rather than getting shot or consuming the lead directly, the eagles get the lead poisoning from eating fish that have swallowed lead fishing tackle or deer and other game shot with lead bullets.
Did you know that over 10,000 tons of plastics enters the Great Lakes every year? Researchers in New York have been looking into plastics pollution in the Great Lakes as they try to grasp the scope and look for possible solutions.
