Using Water Trails to Combat Aquatic Invasive Species
Michigan’s lakes and rivers are once again bustling with paddlers. Kayaks, canoes, and stand-up paddleboards continue to be popular ways for residents and visitors to traverse the state’s many waterways in search of tranquility or adventure. With the assistance of LIAA and partners all across the state, Michigan Sea Grant is enlisting those paddlers in a fight to protect the waters they love through the newly-created MI Paddle Stewards program.
Through a series of training workshops, paddlers will become allies in the fight against aquatic invasive species. They’ll learn how to detect and report any invasive species they spot while paddling a water trail. They will also learn how to clean their crafts to avoid giving invaders a free ride. These new ecosystem ambassadors will be encouraged to pass their knowledge to other paddlers. Because of this program, at least 300 extra sets of trained eyes and ears will be out there searching for new invaders, aiding in the state's ability for early detection and rapid response.
Want to participate? Check out the MI Paddle Stewards Workshop Schedule for 2019.
Village of Grand Beach Calls for Help
Recently, the Village of Grand Beach in Southwest Michigan called LIAA with an interesting conundrum: Their webmaster was injured and could no longer make changes to their website. Since their website was still updated by manually editing HTML files, LIAA's technology staff stepped in and made updates while the Village decided their next steps. We are happy to offer advice or help, whatever your technology needs are.
Traverse Area Community Media to Broadcast Cherry Festival Parades LIVE
Once again, LIAA's Traverse Area Community Media will present live video from all three 2019 National Cherry Festival parades on CommunityTV Channel 189, Facebook and YouTube. The team has developed a new technical solution that allows us to stream video to multiple destinations with low bandwidth needs and fewer wires around the broadcast area. This brings these famous local events to a larger audience, while keeping those at the event safer. Watch the:
- Heritage Parade on Tuesday, July 2 at 7pm
- Junior Royale Parade on Thursday, July 4 at 6:30pm
- Cherry Royale Parade on Saturday, July 6 at 11:15am
Watch for rebroadcasts on CommunityTV Channel 189 after the Festival!
LIAA Trains for Coastal Resilience
On Thursday, June 27, 2019, LIAA staff teamed up with the Michigan Association of Planning to host a training session on best practices for coastal resilience. LIAA presented alongside Great Lakes coast experts from the University of Michigan, Michigan Technological University and the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). The session was primarily attended by planning consultants and municipal planners. The team gave an in-depth review of the trends occurring recently as well as over time on the Great Lakes coasts to provide a scope to the problems many coastal communities are facing today. This was followed by a presentation on the legal challenges local governments experience when it comes to planning for and implementing policies for improved coastal resilience. The day concluded with round-table scenario planning discussions to give attending planning professionals the opportunity to share ideas and learn from others in the field.