Great Lakes Research and Education Center

04/21/2026

DO YOU WANT TO BIOBLITZ?

Join the fun with our friends at Sea Grant and provide data that helps Great Lakes National Parks!

STARTING 🌎 EARTH DAY!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1394170572753384&set=a.228050612698725&type=3

The four-week Great Lakes BioBlitz starts tomorrow! Organized by the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL), this event gets you outdoors to find and record the wild, living things you see: https://buff.ly/6iy5oY1

Lots of ways to participate:
- Take an afternoon to explore and document some wildlife in your area
- Pick a location to return to weekly
- Set a goal to find something new every day
- Follow the weekly challenges
- Choose your own BioBlitz adventure

04/20/2026

HAPPENING NOW AROUND THE BASIN:

it looks like spring has sprung for the Piping Plover!

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Great Lakes piping plovers are officially back on the beaches of Sleeping Bear Dunes, and honestly… the drama may already be unfolding.

These tiny beach dwellers may be adorable, endangered, and fiercely protected; but one thing they are not is committed to lifelong love. That’s right: plovers don’t mate for life, and every spring the shoreline turns into a full-on bird version of Love Island.

Will last year’s couples reunite? Will someone ditch their old mate for a fresh start on a new stretch of sand? Will a surprise new arrival turn up and cause a love triangle by the dune grass?

If you’re new to the plover fan club, each bird gets a short “nickname” based on the colored bands on their ankles.

Some former pairs are already reunited and looking solid:
• GOO and BbL (Bubble)
• OGY and LVY
• YOV and bbO (Baby‑O)
• YbB and GVb

But down in Platte Bay, things are a bit more… interesting.

bNG (Bing), who was with PRL (Pearl) last year, appears to be paired up with bVV this season. And bVR (Beaver), formerly with YOYO, seems to be spending time with a young female, ORX, who hasn’t received her adult ID yet.

The dunes are buzzing, feathers may be ruffled, and we’ll be tuning in all spring.

And while all this plover drama unfolds, here’s where you come in: these tiny birds nest right on the open sand, making them especially vulnerable. If you’re visiting the beaches, please keep dogs on a leash and off closed sections of shoreline entirely.
Even the friendliest pup can accidentally scare a nesting plover off its eggs.

Give these small but mighty birds the space they need for a successful season… drama and all.
https://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/pets.htm

NPS Photo/Mary Lundeburg

03/19/2026

Are you ready for an adventure? Please register to join our educational adventure

📣 Calling All Teachers & Homeschool Groups!

Your class can join the Great Lakes Odyssey: a FREE virtual adventure exploring how scientists and park rangers research, protect, and preserve the national parks of the Great Lakes!

Led by Expeditions In Education and the National Park Service Great Lakes Research and Education Center, students will explore real environmental challenges from invasive species to shifting dunes and watershed science.

🖥️ Register for one or all livestream sessions here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfGLuIetamTNrR0XPrOOeQXDKJvqi0C2D4rduSyJq2ZR-ZTwA/viewform

• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: March 24, 1–2 PM EST

• Indiana Dunes National Park: March 27, 1–2 PM EST

• Cuyahoga Valley National Park: March 31, 1–2 PM EST

📚 Educators can also access lesson plans, maps, journals, and activities so students can investigate real park science and design solutions like scientists and engineers. Learn more here:https://www.expeditionsineducation.org/greatlakesodyssey.html

Made possible by a grant from the National Park Foundation to Save the Dunes.

02/24/2026

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN GREAT LAKES PARKS?

Park staff and partners work diligently behind the scenes to manage and steward National Parks of the Great Lakes. The National Park Service’s Great Lakes Inventory & Monitoring Network (GLKN) conducts long-term monitoring of critical natural resources in nine parks in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The network newsletter, The Current, is published in the spring and fall of each year to share photos, stories, field schedules, and a round-up of field season summaries for each of GLKN’s monitoring programs.

Read the Fall 2025/Winter 2026 issue of The Current online or download the PDF at the GLKN website by visiting https://www.nps.gov/im/glkn/the-current-newsletter.htm

• Get updates on the field season and long-term monitoring of amphibians, landbirds, vegetation, contaminants, water quality, and weather and climate.
• Learn about park-specific projects and collaborations like the Girls Fishing Clinic, the discovery of a mystery boat anchor, and progress on native mussel surveys.
• Get connected to 2025 Reports & Publications on park-related research.

Image: NPS photo of Divers from the Great Lakes Network, St. Croix Riverway, and Mississippi National River conduct a dry suit cross-training exercise for cold water environments.

01/21/2026

THE SCIENCE OF STEWARDSHIP

In December 2025, researches from the Water Cycle and Tree Ring Group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign visited the Mount Baldy dune at Indiana Dunes National Park. The team is collecting tree cores to better understand how the wood structure in trees responds to the stress as the trees are progressively buried by the moving dune.

Mount Baldy is an iconic dune in the Indiana Dunes National Park. The site is experiencing ongoing erosion at the Lake Michigan shoreline, so sand blows up and over the dune, causing the dune to migrate inland, burying anything in its path including black oak forest, parking lots, and even existing buildings.

When trees are buried by sand, they experience stress from the changes in moisture around the buried tree. Previous studies have reported that sand burial can impact both tree ring width and wood anatomy The researchers are collecting tree cores along a transect that captures various states of stress, ranging from oak trees that have been buried for decades, to ones that have been buried for less than a decade. Laboratory based dendrochronological techniques will be used to identify and characterize the imprints of sand burial on wood structure. They will compare the data to signatures from trees that are not yet buried at the site.

Because sand movement at Mount Baldy started in the early 1800’s and has been ongoing to today, it is the perfect site for this study as researchers can use historical aerial photographs and LIDAR imagery (light imagery distance and ranging) to pinpoint which year certain trees were buried. The team will also investigate if stable isotope measurements (18O and 13C) in the wood can help quantify the changes in moisture availability around a buried tree.
The information and methods that the team develops from this one pilot site could eventually be expanded to the entire Great Lakes to examine a range of tree responses to environmental changes.

Visit the Great Lakes Research and Education Center website to learn more about our work to facilitate and promote research learning in Great Lakes National Parks.

09/19/2025

Photo Challenge:

The final generation of monarchs have started their fall migration along the shorelines of the Great Lakes. Please post your monarch photos and your location so we can celebrate the 2025 migration . . .
You can post your monarch sightings and track their migration using the interactive map from Journey North. Safe travels!

09/08/2025

CAREER OPPORTUNITY - Scientists in Parks

Are you passionate about science in the Great Lakes? Consider applying for an AmeriCorp position as a Natural Resource Management Assistant and help advance the work of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Please see details and location in the full position description.

POSITION DETAILS Position Title: Natural Resource Management Assistant - AmeriCorps Conservation Legacy Program: Stewards Individual Placements Site Location: Midwest Region Office, Mississippi National River and Recreation Areas, Saint Paul, Minnesota Can this position be fully remote: No - Must b

08/01/2025

NEW EDUCATIONAL STORYTELLING RESOURCE:

In Saving Our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin’s Ancient Fish, author Rebecca Hogue Wojahn tells the remarkable story of lake sturgeon in Wisconsin, the conservation efforts to save the species, and what is being done to keep the population healthy and thriving today.

Geared for readers ages eleven and up, Saving Our Sturgeon explores the natural history of the lake sturgeon and the factors that threatened its survival, from overharvesting to the building of dams that prevented sturgeon from reaching spawning areas. The book also explains how government agencies, conservationists, Native nations, and citizen groups worked together to save the sturgeon population in Wisconsin

07/06/2025

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06/07/2025

The Great Lakes Fire Management Program serves multiple parks and is an essential part of natural and cultural resource protection. You could be part of the NPS team.

Our wildland fire staff is hiring for a full time, year-round GW-7 Assistant Engine Captain.
The full announcement is here: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/838350100
More information on the NPS Great Lakes Fire Management Program can be found here: https://go.nps.gov/GreatLakesFire

04/19/2025

It's National Park Week! April 19-27

This year's theme is the National Park Playlist! Follow along with the daily music themes and challenges at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/national-park-week.htm

Five Easy Ways to Celebrate:

+ Follow the fun on social media using . Join conversations with our parks and programs and share your own posts about your love of parks to inspire others.

+ Find a Great Lakes national park and come visit! Entrance fees to national parks are waived on April 19, 2025, to kick off the celebration.

+ Kids, grab your family and friends to come out for National Junior Ranger Day! You can also earn your official Junior Ranger badge any time at most parks throughout the week.

+ Look around your community to learn how National Park Service programs and partners are involved in your community to celebrate the Great Lakes.

+ Get involved as a volunteer! Many parks are also celebrating National Volunteer Week. Or on your own find some activity to celebrate and protect the Great Lakes!

Love national parks? There's a holiday for that! Join us for National Park Week happening April 19 to April 27 to celebrate everything "parks." There are more than 400 national parks of different shapes, sizes, and kinds to experience. Also discover what the National Park Service does to preserve na...

04/18/2025

Volunteering - you get more than you give, and everyone gets what they need🌱 Happy Volunteer Month


Image: A distinguished gentleman volunteer assists a young girl to prepare plants for a volunteer day