ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Anna Lynn Heine has thought about dropping out of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg more times than she cares to admit.

A beach cleanup, a parade and a celebration in Central Park took place in Grand Haven on Saturday, in honor of Earth Day.

A beach cleanup, a parade and a celebration in Central Park took place in Grand Haven on Saturday, in honor of Earth Day.

A group of wild elephants sift through garbage looking for food at a landfill in Sri Lanka. It's a dangerous undertaking — around 20 elephants have died from consuming plastic trash from the landfill in the Ampara district over the last eight years.

A “Park Cleanup Blitz” will be held in Grand Haven on Saturday to honor Earth Day.

As Grand Haven has long been and continues to be a destination for vacationers – especially the beach in the summer – pollution is a consistent problem.

Surveys on Michigan's lakes and streams are underway in parts of the state, all part of the state's annual effort to collect data to best manage fishery resources.

Michigan agency: Bird flu found in backyard flock

DETROIT — PFAS pollutants ride rivers across the Midwest and Canada to get to the Great Lakes. But not in the way a pair of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers studying the forever chemicals expected, and that could impact how environmental officials regulate the chemicals.

After a century of use for saw milling, 60 years as a municipal dump site and 70 years as a coal-fired power plant, the city of Grand Haven is making a push to renew Harbor Island and restore it to productive use.

As ice coverage across the Great Lakes falls from winter highs with spring and summer warming ahead, Lake Michigan is likely to end up with a just-below-average season.

PORT SHELDON TWP. — An administrative law judge has raised questions about Consumers Energy’s plan to shut down the entirety of the J.H. Campbell power plant in 2025.

CHICAGO — A group of scientists walked out on to frozen Lake Michigan to do something they’ve done time and again throughout the Great Lakes: collect water.

ROBINSON TWP. — The ice jam that has caused minor flooding along the Grand River has moved farther downriver, lessening the threat of more severe flooding in the area.

CHICAGO — Ice coverage may be nearing its peak throughout the Great Lakes in a season that has trended closer to average than originally forecast, as Lake Michigan’s water levels are expected to continue their decline well below the string of monthly record highs reached a few years ago.

An ice jam in the Grand River is causing flooding along stretches of the river in Robinson Township.

George Bullerjahn hefted a chunk of ice off Lake Erie's surface to expose a patch of ochre water.

Funding totaling $1 billion for the federal Great Lakes restoration program from the bipartisan infrastructure bill will speed the cleanup of nine damaged areas in Michigan to completion by 2030, officials said.

The unusually warm December 2021 could help bring down Lake Michigan’s above-average water levels.

Since the turn of the century, West Michigan has been a part of a restoration of the fastest animal on the planet.

Water levels in the Great Lakes are projected to be higher at the start of 2022’s boating season than their averages last year, according to the latest six-month forecast by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Growing up in Waukegan, Eduardo Flores didn’t think much about the presence of inhalers on his playground.

Governors of states surrounded by the Great Lakes wrote congressional leaders Dec. 10 seeking full funding of a facility designed to keep an invasive fish species out of Lake Michigan.

GRAND HAVEN TWP. — As the United Nations' climate summit in Glasgow struck a deal last weekend to spare the world from the most dire effects of global warming, Grand Haven’s largest employer says it is already ahead of the curve with its environmental initiatives.

APOSTLE ISLANDS NATIONAL LAKESHORE, Wis. — The kayakers stood for a moment on the beach, marveling at the clear sweep of blue.

Invasive species, development and climate change have contributed to a “significant” decline in marsh bird populations throughout the Grand River corridor, according to a recent study.

Ottawa County has launched a Food Compost Pilot Program at two of its Environmental Sustainability Centers.

THREE RIVERS, Calif. — Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.

Eradication may be impossible, but small-scale removal efforts could be the answer.

DETROIT — Even with a return to wetter conditions in late June and July, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials expect Great Lakes water levels to remain below the record high levels experienced in 2019 and 2020.

Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the PFAS Action Act on Wednesday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. Advocates say the bill would put the onus on the federal government to clean up chemical contaminations across the country.

TRAVERSE CITY — Shoreline cities and towns in the Great Lakes region will be spending heavily in coming years to fix public infrastructure damaged by recent flooding and erosion, with estimated costs approaching $2 billion, officials said Thursday.

Due to Michigan’s sultry, hot weather, the Ottawa County health department is concerned about the surge of ticks as we approach the middle of summer.

Ottawa County is experiencing a gypsy moth outbreak, due in part to the lack of rainfall this spring.

Consumers Energy on Wednesday announced a sweeping proposal to stop using coal as a fuel source for electricity by 2025 – 15 years faster than what is currently planned.