President Obama’s effort to jumpstart long-overdue cleanup projects could be in trouble. Insiders wonder if the new Congress will set the budgetary needle closer to zero. But it will take more than money for the lakes to reach their potential.

Time Magazine just released a list of the world’s most influential individuals of 2010.

They include pioneers, pop stars and politicians.

Is the Great Lakes region adequately represented? Who did Time miss?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sunday released its final version of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. The plan spells out the agency’s goals and benchmarks for fixing up the world’s largest freshwater system through 2014.
The document updates a draft of the plan that was released in December and was open to public comment until Jan. 8. The EPA pulled the old version from its Web site, but since I had a copy sitting on my hard drive, I though I’d take a look at what’s changed.
The final …

(WI) Sheboygan Press - The Great Lakes got a huge shot in the arm last week when President Obama signed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - A Great Lakes restoration plan hatched by President Barack Obama in the heat of last year’s campaign has been embraced as a prescription to heal centuries of pollution and mismanagement.

(MI) The Detroit News – The Senate easily passed legislation tonight containing $400 million for Great Lakes restoration by deterring invasive species, cleaning up highly polluted sites and expanding wetlands.

(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Environmentalists’ long-held dream of restoring the Great Lakes may be on the verge of being realized.

Editors note: This story is part of an occasional series of Echo reports on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 20, 2009
Preventing shipborne organisms from damaging the Great Lakes ecosystem is one target of the Obama Administration’s $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Ships carry ballast water to make them more stable as their cargo is offloaded. When they take on more cargo, they flush the ballast back into the lake or ocean.  That water can carry from foreign ports plants and animals that compete with native …

Vote.

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 14, 2009
Great Lakes officials are anxious for the Obama Administration to appoint the region’s top Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
“The appointment is always important, but for (the Great Lakes states), right now it’s absolutely critical,” said Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes region. “For the first time in history, we could get millions and millions of dollars from Congress, and the administrator is important to making sure the money is spent well.”
The Chicago-based Region 5 administrator is responsible for the …