By Jeff Gillies
jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 17, 2009
The Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay both field noxious summer algae blooms fueled by dirt and nutrients from farm fields. The six northeastern states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay have a patchwork plan to curb it.
It doesn’t work and never will, says a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit lobbyist and research group.
The report claims runoff prevention programs fail because they’re voluntary — farmers that don’t want to participate don’t have to.
Similar criticism might also be relevant for …

By Rachael Gleason
rachaelkaygleason@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 16, 2009
Quick! Where can you find a video of a snake eating a round goby?
A new tech tool lab announced Tuesday can help Great Lakes information consumers and providers find that and much more. Fast.
GLIN Labs also features a text alert system for sending information to a user’s cell phone, help creating digital maps showing Great Lakes features and a way to search multiple video and other platforms all at once.

By Sarah Coefield
coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 15, 2009
A run on guns and ammo in the wake of President Barack Obama’s election last year may be a boon to Great Lakes wildlife.
A federal tax on the manufacture and import of firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows is distributed to states for wildlife conservation and hunter education programs.
And those tax collections are climbing fast.
Background checks for gun purchases hit record levels in November and corresponded with significant gun and ammunition sales. Gun enthusiasts say they’re stocking up because they fear interference in gun rights …

(MI) Detroit Free Press – Car sharing lets drivers save cash while helping the environment. 

(ON) The Gov Monitor – Canadian Coast Guard’s newest science research vessel CCGS Kelso will be based at the Canadian Centre of Inland Waters, where it will support researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada gathering information about the biological, chemical and physical properties of Canada’s Great Lakes.

(MI) The Muskegon Chronicle – West Michigan residents should get behind a Saugatuck Township lawmaker’s effort to save Michigan’s wetlands protection program, which will end on Oct. 1.

(MI) Bay City Times – A study by Michigan Technological University researchers aims to figure out how to best manage phosphorus inputs to Saginaw Bay.

(DC) NOAA – A physical oceanographer who worked with satellites to generate climate, weather, and water products for operational and research use, will be the director of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich. Marie Colton, Ph.D., who has been acting director since January, takes the permanent position on October 11.

(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Environmentalists’ long-held dream of restoring the Great Lakes may be on the verge of being realized.

(MI) Flint Journal – The Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission has not yet determined whether a managed archery hunt will be used to control the wild deer population causing habitat damage at For-Mar Nature Preserve and Arboretum in Burton.