It was the beauty and symbolism of these birds that made it so disturbing to see them washed up, dead, on Great Lakes beaches.

(MI) Detroit Free Press – The state Department of Natural Resources last week reminded northern Michigan residents that yearling bear cubs are on the loose — and that means extra precautions.

(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – The Pike Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest – a popular hiking and camping destination just 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee – would be expanded nearly fivefold in the future to protect the headwaters of the Ashippun River and possibly provide hunting opportunities, under a draft master plan for the unit.

(NY) New York Times – Most of the world’s important commercial fish species have been declining for years.

By Andrew McGlashen
The Daily Climate
In the glacier-carved hillsides of northwest Michigan where half of America’s tart cherries grow, climate change is already in full bloom.
The state is two degrees warmer on average than it was 30 years ago, and it’s generally wetter, said Michigan State University geographer Jeffrey Andresen, the state climatologist. There’s less ice on the Great Lakes, allowing for more evaporation and more lake-effect snow in cherry country. Farther north, Lake Superior has warmed five degrees since 1979.
More importantly for growers, cherry blossoms now appear …

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 18, 2009
There may be hope for fishery managers still reeling years after a dangerous virus appeared in the Great Lakes.
The month-long wait for a viral hemorrhagic septicemia test has hobbled hatcheries that must test fish before introducing them to the region’s lakes and streams. Genetics researchers at the Lake Erie Research Center at the University of Toledo are working on a test that will speed up that diagnosis to a matter of hours.
The research, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is one of …

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 17, 2009
Although a new federal report says global warming is already causing harm, many Americans believe it is tomorrow’s problem – that it won’t hurt people for another 10 years.
And those surveyed in five Great Lakes states are less worried than the national average, according to a recent study by the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.
The study found six levels of concern about warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels for energy and …

(WI) The Capital Times – Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga.

By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 16, 2009
Minnesota native and nationally renowned polar explorer Will Steger has watched ice melt practically under his feet in the coldest regions of the world.
“About 15 years ago, scientists predicted that changes in global warming would first be seen in polar regions,” Steger said recently. “So unfortunately, most of the changes people have not seen yet.”
But Steger, who has traversed both Antarctica and the Arctic, and has spent more than 40 years leading and participating in polar expeditions, says that he has seen the …

(MI) Detroit Free Press – A proposed magnetic railway along I-96 to Lansing and Ann Arbor would be faster and safer for passengers than a high-speed rail that uses existing tracks, a legislative tatask force was told Monday.