Recreation

Injury suspends Minnesota kayaker’s trip around the Great Lakes

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By Jeff Gillies, gilliesj@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
May 29, 2009

Bryan Hansel, who began an attempt in early May to paddle a kayak around all five Great Lakes, has suspended his trip to deal with tendon problems in his forearms. He made the announcement on his Web site, Around the Great Lakes. In the meantime, those still hungry for Great Lakes circumnavigations can fill up on Loreen Niewenhuis’s walk around Lake Michigan and Hannah Williams and Matt Abbotts’ kayak trip around Lake Superior.

Echo

Low energy bill inspires prison system to ‘go green’

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By Joe Vaillancourt
Capital News Service

LANSING – The Michigan Department of Corrections energy bill was low. Surprisingly low. “They wanted to send someone over to check our meter,” said Department of Corrections Director Patricia Caruso. “Our bill was three or four thousand dollars less for than it had been, and as it turned out, it was accurate.”

The Department of Corrections has “gone green”– taking many steps to use cleaner, more efficient energy and reduce waste, officials said. “We made a priority of doing just the small things like turning off the lights and shutting down computers in the office building,” Caruso said.

Echo

Pipeline for Genesee County appears to have little initial opposition

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(MI) The Flint Journal – The much-touted water pipeline from Genesee County to Lake Huron finally seems to be on its way, and there doesn’t appear to be environmental issues stopping it from being built.

Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman with the Michigan Environmental Council, said the pipeline “should be allowed.” “I can’t imagine a municipal water supply would have an adverse impact on a water resource as big as (Lake Huron),” McDiarmid said. Genesee County currently gets its water from Lake Huron via the Detroit water authority, so there would be zero or minimal difference in the amount of water drawn from the lake. More

Echo

Public meeting about Great Lakes levels

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(ON) SooToday.com – The International Upper Great Lakes Study (IUGLS) has announced that, using web-conferencing technology, seven public meetings will be held on June 9 and 11 in communities around the Great Lakes Basin to solicit comments and answer questions on the draft report Impacts on Upper Great Lakes Water Levels: St. Clair River.For the past two years, more than 100 Canadian and U.S. scientists and engineers have worked together to address important questions, posed by the International Joint Commission, regarding the St. Clair River system that connects Lake Michigan-Huron to Lake Erie. More

Echo

Mercury found in local fish

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(ON) The Sarnia Observer – Toxic chemicals are putting some species of fish at risk in the St. Clair River, a wildlife ecologist says. Kim Wells of Environ International Corp. delivered that message Wednesday to the annual general meeting of the SarniaLambton Environmental Association. Wells was involved in a recent study designed to determine the impact mercury and octachlorostyrene are having on fish, mammals and birds along an 8.3-kilometre stretch of the Canadian side of the international waterway.

Echo

Mich. group targets invasive garlic mustard

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(MI) The Detroit News – Hockey fans may be focused on the Stanley Cup, but thousands of Michigan residents are vying for a more obscure prize: the Garlic Mustard Cluster Cup. Across the Great Lakes State, folks with an eye toward keeping garlic mustard — an invasive plant — out of backyards, forests and woodlands are pulling thousands of pounds of the herb from the ground one handful at a time. The Garlic Mustard Challenge, issued this spring to seven local conservation communities by the nonprofit Stewardship Network of Ann Arbor, has so far netted 45,406 pounds of the pesky little flower. More

Wildlife

Another invasive species enters Great Lakes

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(ON) The Standard – Bloody-red shrimp, first discovered in the Great Lakes in 2006 and multiplying rapidly, could pose ecological and economic risks to Lake Ontario. Like zebra mussels, the notorious molluscs that wreaked havoc on municipal water supplies and hydroelectric companies upon their arrival, the shrimp are native to eastern Europe and were likely brought over in the ballast water tanks of ships. More

Echo

West Michigan students showcase environmental work

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(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – About 60 middle and high school students from Mona Shores, Oakridge, North Muskegon, Whitehall, Montague, Fruitport, Newaygo and Grant gathered Thursday at Muskegon Community College to explain their yearlong projects. They included restoring streambanks, reviving schoolyard habitats, removing invasive species and rearing salmon. The Great Lakes Fishery Trust facilitated the projects through a $200,000 grant in 2008 that established the initiative in Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana and northern Ottawa counties. More

Echo

Michigan counties receive money for inland beach monitoring

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(MI) Bay City Times – Fourteen agencies have been awarded more than $187,000 in state Water Quality Monitoring grants to assist with inland beach water quality monitoring for the 2009 and 2010 swimming seasons. The recipients include: The Central Michigan District Health Department, which received $22,424 to monitor 20 local beaches and three state park beaches in Arenac, Clare, Gladwin, Isabella, Osceola and Roscommon counties; and the District Health Department No. 2, which received $24,697 to monitor 10 local beaches, two state park beaches and one Department of Natural Resources access site in Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw and Oscoda counties. More

Nearshore

Beach bacteria: Sand may be major source

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(IN) The News Dispatch – For years researchers looked at the water of Lake Michigan to find the source of high bacteria readings, but one source of outbreaks of E. coli may be in the beach sand. Bacteria counts tend to be much higher after storms send waves splashing ashore, with water returning to the lake through the sand. If the sand is aerated and allowed to dry in the hot sun, the bacteria die or diminish. The Michigan City Parks Department is testing that theory with a new method of beach grooming that puts little furrows into the sand instead of leveling it. That method of beach sand grooming in Racine, Wis., resulted in a 96 percent decline in the number of beach advisories for bacteria.