Burke Center in the News

Tennessee Swearingen installs erosion control matting at the Phase 3 North Fish Creek project (September 2024)

$300,000 in Grants Boost Fish Creek Sediment Reduction Project

Northland College’s Burke Center Nears Key Restoration Milestones

By Tess Moore ’15
January 24, 2025

The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College has announced a significant milestone in its efforts to protect the North Fish Creek watershed. With an additional $300,000 in funding secured from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the center’s ambitious sediment reduction project moves closer to achieving its long-term goals. The new…

Burke Team at Turtle-Flambeau

Burke Center Leads Fight Against Invasive Plant on Turtle-Flambeau Flowage

By Tess Moore ’15
January 17, 2025

Northland College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation is playing a critical role in preserving the ecological health of the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage in Mercer, Wisconsin. This beloved waterway, spanning 12,942 acres of water and surrounded by 37,000 acres of state-owned land, is cherished for its breathtaking beauty, remote campsites, and abundant recreational opportunities. However,…

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

Northland College Real-time Lake Namekagon Buoy Website Goes Live

May 15, 2024

Real-time data from the Lake Namekagon chain of lakes went live this week with the launch of a new Northland College website. The website, hosted by the College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, gathers information hourly, such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll a, and broadcasts the data online. “We are listening to…

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

Bushwhacking for Science

By Kristin Vensland ’24
November 28, 2023

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

November 7, 2023

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

October 5, 2023

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

July 13, 2023

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

April 8, 2023

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.

November 15, 2022

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

June 1, 2022

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,…

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