News

Great Lakes

Wis. Lets Village Go to Town on Great Lakes Water

Peter Annin uncovered documents about the expanded Pleasant Prairie diversion in reporting for second edition of The Great Lakes Water Wars.

By Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune
September 19, 2018

Governors from all eight Great Lakes states had to sign off before Waukesha, Wis., could siphon water out of Lake Michigan. When Foxconn Technology Group wanted to dip a straw into the lake for its new electronics factory west of Racine, the Taiwan-based company had to undergo a rigorous legal review and lay out its…

Great Lakes

Wisconsin Approved Massive Water Diversion for Pleasant Prairie Without Public Notification

Details highlighted in Peter Annin's updated book, The Great Lakes Water Wars

By Lee Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
September 19, 2018

Wisconsin officials in 2010 quietly approved a massive new allotment of water from Lake Michigan to fast-growing Pleasant Prairie in Kenosha County without extensive public reviews required in other Great Lakes water diversions in recent years. The action in the final year of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration, gave the bustling community on the Illinois border the…

Northland College student works on the high tunnel

Sierra Names Northland A “Cool School”

For Sustainability Initiatives

September 7, 2018

Located at the tip of Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior, Northland College is literally one of the coolest schools in the nation. Register now to visit us at the Milwaukee College Fair. Now Sierra magazine, a publication of the Sierra Club, has named the College in a list of “cool schools,” for its…

Crane beak

Saving Cranes

Senior Mary Sellars Interns at the International Crane Foundation

August 29, 2018

Northland College senior Mary Sellars interned at the International Crane Foundation (ICF) this past summer and is currently applying to veterinary schools as she finishes her biology degree. As part of her internship, she assisted with everything from general husbandry for all fifteen species of cranes, to beak trims, Whooping Crane chick check-ups, medical procedures with…

Group on the bluff

WPR: Northern Wisconsin Project Seeks To ‘Slow The Flow’ Of Stormwater

Local, State, Federal Partners Aim To Reduce Flood Peaks, Erosion In Northern Wisconsin

By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio
August 29, 2018

Northern Wisconsin has dealt with three floods in the last six years that caused millions of dollars in damage resulting in federal disaster declarations. The region is seeing more frequent, intense rainfalls. For the last several years, local, state and federal partners have been trying to find ways to slow the flow of stormwater running…

A view from Grand Island

Ensia: Can the Great Lakes Continue to Fend Off An Increasingly Thirsty World

A 2008 interstate compact prevents distant dry places from siphoning off Great Lakes water. But will the agreement hold up in the face of growing demand?

By Ron Seely
August 29, 2018

August 16, 2018 — On the rocky beach at Little Girls Point County Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the heavy wash of Lake Superior seeking the shore rolls stones the size of softballs back and forth in the surf. The power and immensity of the lake seems immutable. If there is anything in nature that…

Peter Annin, Great Lakes Water Wars, Lake Superior

Island Press to Release The Great Lakes Water Wars Second Edition

Book Tour Scheduled

August 16, 2018

Island Press will release the second edition of Peter Annin’s The Great Lakes Water Wars later this fall. The Great Lakes Water Wars, originally released in 2006, is considered the definitive work on the Great Lakes water diversion controversy. In this new and expanded edition of the book, Annin explores the Foxconn and Waukesha controversies…

Northland College Bee Friendly Campus

Northland College Becomes First Wisconsin Bee Campus


Working to Promote Native Bees and Pollinators

August 16, 2018

Northland College has become the first educational institution in Wisconsin to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators. “Northland College has a strong environmental ethic and mission that we’re advancing and honing every day,” said Food Systems Manager…

Northland College President Marvin Suomi

Northland College’s New President Has Come Home

Northwoods Native Marvin Suomi Brings Business Background to Academia

By Sara Chase, Ashland Daily Press
August 15, 2018

After having lived and worked across the country and the world —and even having been knighted in Finland—Northland College’s new President Marvin Suomi has made his way back home to the Northwoods. “I grew up about fifty, sixty miles from here. I was born and raised in a little town called Wakefield, Michigan, and I…

Four Northland College students sit in a boat with survey equipment

The Life Aquatic of the Penokee Hills

Students Survey Fish Populations

By Aidan Reilly, Burke Center Research Technician of Communications and Policy
July 25, 2018

Northland College senior Megan Mader inches a jon boat into the vegetation near shore at Galilee Lake, a shallow, 212-acre lake with a handful of cabins dotting the shoreline. Mader is conducting research on fish communities to learn more about the lakes of the Penokee Hills, located an hour southeast of Ashland. A research associate…