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Burke Center in the News
Northland College Real-time Lake Namekagon Buoy Website Goes Live
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…
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…
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 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 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…
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…
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 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,…
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 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…