Lake Erie

Note: Updated on Dec. 6, based on lake surface temperatures in November, which significantly lowered predictions for the ice cover. --

Over the past two winters, the Great Lakes have had a below-average ice cover. And that’s expected to continue this year.  

It may be hard to imagine a composer being inspired by public hearings and court cases. But Lake Erie and its problems take center stage in a new oratorio from Cleveland composer Margaret Brouwer.

The 2017 algae bloom is over in western Lake Erie.  And while it didn’t directly threaten drinking water, its bright green hue prompted national attention and hurt Lake Erie’s tourism business. 

The Maumee River runs more than 100 miles before emptying into Lake Erie in Ohio. And it carries a lot of the farm runoff that triggers algae blooms.  But a new book explains that there’s more to the river.

Ryan Schnurr spent a week walking and canoeing the length of the river last summer.

He has turned that experience into a book called In the Watershed.  It’s part memoir and part lesson on the Maumee’s place in history.

There’s some bad news in the Great Lakes and it’s all about the sea lamprey, an eel-like creature that literally sucks the life out of fish. They do a lot of damage and now they’re on the rise in some lakes.

That trend has stumped scientists.