1st District Upper Peninsula Legislative News (07-16-21) NOAA and Great Lakes Officials

The Great Lakes is an important asset and we must protect and improve it where we can. You can read below about how NOAA and municipal officials are working on understanding..."coastal erosion and habitat impacts with nature-based strategies that will safeguard coastal assets, boost local economies, and encourage resilient planning in the face of a changing climate."

Its important for us to protect the Great Lakes as a long-term resource while also ensuring we aren't just taking without returning. The Industrial Age, mixed with a prior culture of conquering the wilderness, and high demand for raw materials to feed that age, led to taking away wealth from our natural resources (i.e. rapid pollution and non-natural cities). The Digital Age and its ability to monitor large scale activity and more efficient use of solar (and other alternative energies) will provide with the power of science will likely provide 1. ways of putting wealth back in through sustainable practices and 2. creating stronger protections against environmental collapse (terraforming naturally to return wildlife and likely thinking about how that applies to seeding/farming other promising planets. Its all science fiction for the moment but the basic technologies and understandings are already in existence.). Maybe in my lifetime. 🤷

I took the following directly from the Bergman Brief which is an general news email from the Congressman's office. You can subscribe as well if you want to keep up with district news. There is a also a twitter address here. https://twitter.com/RepJackBergman We should keep up with the district news no matter what our political persuasions. The more we interrelate and listen to each other, the more we can bridge gaps for the betterment of the country.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative and NOAA will announce a new Lake Michigan Coastal Resilience Initiative

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative will announce a new Lake Michigan Coastal Resilience initiative. The goal of the initiative is to bring nature-based solutions to cities being impacted by coastal storms, fluctuating lake levels, erosion, and climate change. The partnership will provide an ideal opportunity for Lake Michigan municipalities to develop innovative nature-based strategies and share lessons learned for strengthening coastal resilience and protecting community resources in shoreline areas. 

This initiative represents the first formalized partnership between NOAA and Great Lakes municipal officials to directly address coastal erosion and habitat impacts with nature-based strategies that will safeguard coastal assets, boost local economies, and encourage resilient planning in the face of a changing climate. Municipal officials will be organized by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents more than 135 mayors from cities along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

Through the initiative, NOAA will provide a series of trainings and workshops to help municipalities increase capacity, design restoration projects, and fortify coastal habitat using nature-based infrastructure to improve coastal resilience and advance the goals outlined in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan 3, as well as the Executive Order (E.O.) 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis At Home and Abroad to combat the climate crisis and conserve our lands, waters, and biodiversity.

The Lake Michigan Coastal Resilience Initiative is being supported by $500K in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding to NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management.

Additional information is available at https://coast.noaa.gov/regions/greatlakes/glri/

National Science Foundation (NSF) awards Michigan Technological University with $258,537 Grant

This project, entitled "Mechanistic Studies of Water Disinfectants on Iron Interfaces," is under the direction of Kathryn Perrine. The award starts Sep. 01, 2021.

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service Office in Seoul, South Korea Works with Beard’s Brewery of Petoskey

The effort to promote the MI-01 Brewery’s craft beer at a promotion event realized projected sales of over $20,000 as the result of its participation:

FAS/Seoul, in a partnership with the U.S.-based Brewers Association (BA), organized a 'Great American Craft Beer Showcase' at the Korea International Beer Expo 2021, May 17-19.  A total of 33 U.S. craft breweries, including Beards Brewery, participated in the activity.  Nine of the breweries had no Korean importer partners and looked for new export opportunities in the activity.  With brewery representatives unable to travel to the program due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, FAS/Seoul represented them at the show instead and succeeded in finding Korean importers for five U.S. breweries.

In total, the beer showcase is expected to result in $200,000 in potential sales over the next 12 months. For Beards, it is projected they could potentially make over $20,000 in new sales during that time period as a result of the promotion.