Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/2009/06/page/3/)
It was the beauty and symbolism of these birds that made it so disturbing to see them washed up, dead, on Great Lakes beaches. In November 2007, I went looking for birds I did not want to see. Dead loons were washing up on the eastern shores of Lake Ontario. More
(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. This is the time of year mother bears leave their cubs in preparation for the breeding season. The young bears are attracted to food sources in yards. More
(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. The developing plan also recommends construction of a ramp for launching boats with motors – the first access for motorboats on the property since it opened as a state park in 1971, said Therese Gripentrog, a landscape architect with the state Department of Natural Resources in Milwaukee. The park was designated as a unit of the state forest in 1997. More
(NY) New York Times – Most of the world’s important commercial fish species have been declining for years. Nearly one-fourth are unable, essentially, to reproduce. The biggest cause of the deterioration in ocean health – bigger than climate change or pollution – is overfishing. American fisheries are in better shape than most but not by much. More
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 seven to ten days earlier than they did three decades ago, leaving them susceptible to potentially devastating spring frosts.
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 several projects around the Great Lakes studying a virus that has cost the region tens of millions of dollars in staff time, lost hatchery capacity and research. The tourism and ecosystem impacts are as yet unknown, Marc Gaden, communications director for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, wrote in an e-mail. About $1.2 million from various sources has been spent on projects that seek to better understand the virus and develop diagnostic tests, said Gary Whelan, the fish production manager for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division
The virus was first detected in the Great Lakes in 2005 and 2006 after it killed large numbers of fresh water drum, muskellunge, round gobies and yellow perch.
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 transportation. These “six Americas” were defined as alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful and dismissive. “Basically, we believe you can find the six groups in any community – just different proportions,” Anthony Leiserowitz, study co-author and a research scientist at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies wrote in an e-mail.
(WI) The Capital Times – Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga. Research done by a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate showed the quagga mussel to have become the dominant of the two species in the calm waters of the Great Lakes while the zebra mussel covers the bottoms of faster-moving waters in rivers and streams, UW-Madison announced in a news release. The reason? Grip. More
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 changes first-hand. Along with five other explorers, he crossed more than 3,700 miles of Antarctica in 1989 and 1990. Temperatures were at average 80 degrees below zero, and the team spent six months at an altitude above 7,000 feet.
(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. In fact, the federal government should focus more on building a technologically advanced high-speed passenger rail system along interstate highways, rather than upgrading tracks owned and used by freight rail companies, said Steve Purchase, a spokesman for H Inc., a Lansing urban development firm that is not affiliated with the proposed project. More