Isle Royale National Park is in an isolated stretch of Lake Superior, reachable via a multi-hour ferry ride or seaplane from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Minnesota. The journey to get here keeps many travelers away.
The town declared a state of emergency Tuesday at 2:00 p.m., citing an increasing level of water on its Gull River which flows directly through the town and more rainy, warmer weather forecasted for the next five to ten days.
"Tucked in south central Wisconsin, just 3.5 hours north of Chicago and 1.5 hours from Milwaukee, Green Lake has earned the nickname of the 'Hamptons of the Midwest.' Families have been summering there since the 1800s, when the shoreline was dotted with a handful of rustic resorts."
"You don't wind up here by accident; you come here for a reason, and that reason is typically the abundant outdoor adventures and natural resources we have," Nathan Miller, the former executive director of the Copper Harbor Trails Club, told Travel + Leisure.
The winter we had this year, it was colder than last year, so the snow held more water. That water ends up in our waterways. Mississauga is home to many bodies of water, including rivers, lakes, stormwater ponds and Lake Ontario, which increases flooding especially this time of year.
The government said the plans would increase the number of England's official bathing sites to 464. An official bathing spot on the Thames in London would mark a "vast transformation" in water quality in the river which was declared biologically dead in the 1950s due to pollution, officials said. Water minister Emma Hardy said rivers and beaches were "at the heart of so many communities, where people come together, families make memories and swimmers of all ages feel the benefits of being outdoors safely".
Located squarely in the U.S. Midwest, it may be obvious that Duluth, Minnesota, doesn't have mountains, but what it does have is quality trails easily accessible from a larger urban area. Located on the far southwestern tip of Lake Superior and on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, what Duluth lacks in alpine terrain, it more than makes up for with accessibility, character, and community.
Ontario will consolidate its 36 conservation authorities into nine across the province. Environment Minister Todd McCarthy says there will be no job losses as a result. He says the province listened to feedback after several town halls and 14,000 comments on its plan, which initially proposed having seven conservation authorities.
In late January, Toronto was hit with what many experts said was the heaviest single day of snowfall in the city's history. In some spots, nearly 23in fell, driven in part by a collision of weather systems. The city had already removed 264,000 tonnes of snow from 1,100 km (680 miles) of roads, sidewalks and bike lanes by mid-February.
Detroit is perhaps best known for its legacy as the U.S.'s premier car manufacturing hub. The first auto companies set up shop in Detroit around the turn of the 20th century, and by 1917, the city's plants produced over one million cars per year. Beyond manufacturing, though, Motor City significantly impacted American pop culture.
Lake Superior was named the cleanest in the country thanks to its oxygen rich, clear water and low mineral content, according to a study by Fishbox, a fishing forecast platform. Lake Superior, which flows into Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, is also renowned for its fishing: ice fishing in the winter and summer catches that include bass, salmon, trout, and walleye.
Shouldered by sandstone cliffs, these caves in Bayfield, Wisconsin, form when water-and, notably, waves-that would normally flow through the sandstone freezes instead, birthing icicles, columns, and curtains. During the winter of 2015, the caves attracted just shy of 40,000 tourists within a nine-day period, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Set dramatically on the westernmost tip of Lake Superior, Minnesota's northern hub tells stories of grit and grandeur. Over the years, the city has transformed from a rough-and-tumble logging and mining outpost into a destination for both outdoor enthusiasts and culture seekers, completing one of America's great urban renewal stories.
Western water law is based on the prior appropriation doctrine, which gives the first entity to make "beneficial use" of water the right to keep on using that amount, even if that means that upstream "junior" users' spigots will get shut off. By the early 1900s, a rapidly growing California was enthusiastically diverting the Colorado River, with huge irrigation districts gobbling up the senior water rights.
The Okefenokee Swamp is not only one of America's most important ecosystems, but also the largest blackwater swamp in North America. Its vast stretches are home to several endangered species, like the indigo snake and the wood stork.
Developers seeking to build dams, mines, data centers or pipelines must navigate a permitting process to do so. One requirement in the process is obtaining certification from a tribe or state confirming that the project meets federal water quality standards. Currently, tribes and states conduct holistic reviews of projects, known as " activity as a whole ", evaluating all potential impacts on water quality, including spill risks, threats to cultural resources, and impacts on wildlife. This approach was established under the Biden administration in 2023.
Wildlife populations are in decline. Recreation sites are crowded and often underfunded. Wildfires are larger, more destructive and harder to control. Climate change is reshaping natural systems, from ocean fisheries to mountain snowpacks, faster than institutions can respond. At the same time, communities are being asked to host new energy projects, transmission lines and mineral development - often without clear processes, adequate resources or trust that decisions are being made in the public interest.
The question of how to protect fish and the ecological health of rivers that feed California's largest estuary is generating heated debate in a series of hearings in Sacramento, as state officials try to gain support for a plan that has been years in the making. "I am passionate that this is the pathway to recover fish," said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. "This is the paradigm we need: collaborative, adaptive management versus conflict and litigation."
One veteran biologist said it was the most positive freshwater conservation story he had seen anywhere in the world in 20 years. It is really fantastic news. It is one of the first times that we can say that government measures have not just worked, but have really improved things, said Sebastien Brosse, of the University of Toulouse in France.
