Burke Center in the News

Two students take a selfie with a nice scenic view behind them.

Bushwhacking for Science

It was day two in Isle Royale National Park, and the GPS wouldn’t cooperate, leaving us disoriented in the wilderness. Just keep truckin’ quickly became our motto as we tripped over logs and got whipped by twigs, hoping the coordinates in the GPS brought us back to the Greenstone Ridge Trail after our visit to…

Lake Mead at a historically-low water level. The color of the rock at its shores shows where the water level used to be.

Burke Center Announces Release of “Purified: How Recycled Sewage Is Transforming Our Water” by Peter Annin

The Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation is thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Peter Annin’s highly-anticipated book, Purified: How Recycled Sewage is Transforming Our Water. Available in stores and online on November 9, this groundbreaking work sheds light on the pressing issue of water scarcity and unveils the potential of…

Burke Center Associate Director—Great Lakes Matt Hudson at the Phase 2 North Fish Creek Restoration site.

Burke Center Receives $500,000 to Continue North Fish Creek Sediment Reduction Project

Northland College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation has been awarded $500,000 of new funding to support the third phase of its Sediment Reduction Project on North Fish Creek—the largest source of sediment flowing into Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay. A grant of nearly $300,000 was recently awarded from the Great Lakes Commission’s Great Lakes…

Burke Center researchers launch a buoy in Lake Namekagon to collect data on lake health

Burke Center Launches Buoys in Lake Namekagon to Fill Knowledge Gap

The Lake Namekagon system in northwestern Wisconsin is set to receive long-term, real-time data thanks to a new monitoring project by the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation. The initiative will support scientific research, and real-time data will also be available to the public. Research buoys equipped with high-tech sensors have been…

Plastic bottle floating in water.

Burke Center Hosts “Perils of Plastic” Talk

In honor of World Water Day, and in service to its goal of improving water literacy, the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation hosted a lecture by leading researcher Dr. Sherri Mason. The study of plastic pollution started in the world’s oceans—most famously focused on what has been called the ‘Great Pacific…

Aversion to Diversion

A year after “Aversion to Diversion” White Paper, Bayfield County Maps Artesian Wells

Paper addressed unique groundwater resources in a far-northern-Wisconsin county.

In September 2021, the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation convened a Water Summit titled “Aversion to Diversion: Groundwater, Bottled Water, and the Great Lakes Compact.” Following the summit, the Center released a white paper that put the hydrogeology of the region’s artesian resources into a statewide context while making several specific…

Burke Center Associate Director—Inland Lakes Peter Levi steers a boat through a pristine, wilderness lake

Burke Center Welcomes Dr. Peter Levi as Associate Director

Levi to Lead Inland Lakes Research

The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation is pleased to welcome Peter Levi, PhD, as its new associate director of inland lakes. Levi was an associate professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and brings nearly twenty years of research and teaching experience to the Burke Center. He started working remotely in March,…

Artesian

Burke Center Report Proposes Steps to Protect Artesian Wells

A new report is recommending ways to protect an artesian aquifer in Bayfield County following a controversial proposal to bottle and sell water from an artesian well in a Lake Superior watershed that’s now being fought in court. Residents and tourists have long been drawn to the region’s artesian wells because they don’t require pumping.…

Sarah Johnson faculty Stockton

Sarah Johnson Pursues Plants on the Edge and Beyond

Burke Center Recognizes Key Collaborations

Dr. Sarah Johnson stood in Spur Lake with waders on, her hand searching below the surface as part of an effort to revive wild rice. She pulled up what looked like a long white monster the size of her arm. “It’s only a water lily rhizome,” she said, reassuring the shocked faces in front of…

Northland College Professor Alissa Hulstrand conducts genetic testing.

Hulstrand Collects Clues Through DNA Testing

Burke Center Research

On a sunny, summer Monday afternoon, Dr. Alissa Hulstrand, assistant professor of biology and affiliated faculty of the Burke Center, ate lunch at Maslowski Beach while keeping her eyes on the seagulls nearby. She was waiting for one of them to defecate so she could swoop in for the poop. One did but she realized…