A state program designed to protect the Lake Michigan shoreline is adding a new category this year aimed at helping Chicago-area communities preserve their beaches.

Essex Region Conservation Authority says permits for shoreline maintenance are up about 30 per cent

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t decide until next year whether to consider arguments from residents of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Indiana hometown of Long Beach over ownership of the Lake Michigan community’s shoreline. The case could have a ripple effect for public and private property rights across the Great Lakes states.

LORAIN, Ohio – The environmental recovery of the Black River and the Port of Lorain has received another shot of funds to help bankroll a new restoration project. The Black River reuse project comes after $35 million has already been spent on environmental projects in the region.

With warmer temperatures and increased rainfall due to climate change, there will likely be more “prolonged occurrences of low-oxygen ‘dead zones’” and “harmful, lengthy, and dense algae growth in the Great Lakes,” according to a federal report on climate change.

HIXTON, Wis. - If you find yourself eating locally grown, organic lettuce this winter and wonder how that’s possible, it’s probably because of a Wisconsin-based aquaponics firm. On a Native Restoration Sanctuary in the Coulee Region, about 60-miles from the Minnesota border, the company Superior Fresh has built a recirculated aquaculture facility and hydroponic greenhouse.

CHICAGO — On a bleak and biting December morning, a team of state-contracted commercial fishermen at Starved Rock Marina slipped into their waders, salted down their johnboats to protect against ice and launched onto the Illinois River.

TAWAS CITY – The Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program will focus efforts on areas of eastern Michigan along Lake Huron, according Commissioner Donald Jay O’Farrell.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is inviting the public to help shape future management at Warren Dunes State Park in Berrien County. The DNR will host an open house 5-7 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Lake Township Hall, 3220 Shawnee Road, Bridgman, to gather input on the park’s draft phase 2 general management plan.

A century's worth of bad environmental practices by local industries is slated for dredging out of the "Old Channel" around Zug Island, in a more than $50-million federal project to improve long-standing pollution problems on the Rouge River.

Most of the beach at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk has been lost to erosion. In the background is a circular observation deck that collapsed in January. The $16 million park opened in 2009.