Perhaps direct confrontation is the best way to repel an invasion.
“He’s doing his part to control the invasion of Asian Carp at Leelanau State Park,” writes casglass on the Echo carp bomb flickr group.
Want in on the carp bomb photoshop fun? Learn how to create your own.

Many state natural resources departments in the Great Lakes region produce interactive maps to illustrate wildlife areas.

Some are designed for hunters; others just show where common fish and animals are located.

Washington Post columnist David Broder made an odd confession recently:
“If you want to be a stickler for journalistic ethics, I shouldn’t even be writing about the Great Lakes, because I have a huge bias — especially when it comes to Lake Michigan.”
Broder recalled youthful summer visits to a cabin on Lake Michigan and explained that for the past 50 years he has enjoyed another cabin on the lake’s Beaver Island.
“Like everyone who comes under its spell, I love Lake Michigan,” he wrote.
Broder felt a need to reveal that background before …

A bipartisan group of Great Lakes congressmen introduced legislation Thursday to provide $650 million annually for the next five years for programs to restore the Great lakes. The more than $3 billion in federal money would fund programs to clean up toxic pollution, control invasive species and restore habitat.

A decade ago, development was proposed for the Detroit River’s Humbug Marsh. Citizens pressured government for protection. And recently the site received international recognition.

Think we need to stop the Asian carp to preserve the beauty of the Great Lakes for future generations? Flickr member gbensinger indicates that the future generations aren’t scared.

I’m pretty sure that fat slug up there is a common carp, which already sneaked into the lakes. But who’s to say that they won’t adapt to the arrival of their Asian kin by bulking up to hideous proportions?
Probably scientists! But don’t let them ruin your fun. Instead, learn how to make and submit your own carp bomb.

Contaminated sites in the Great Lakes are all over the news this week.  And it’s a grab bag of good news/bad news.
According to the Detroit News, there are more than 4,000 contaminated orphan sites in Michigan and hardly any money left to clean them up.  (Orphan sites are abandoned by industry and left to the tender mercies of state coffers.)
And then the newswires started buzzing with reports that the EPA has added 10 sites to its Superfund list.  Nearly half of those sites are in Great Lakes states.
Next came the …

Chickens are free to roam the student organic farm at Michigan State University.

Unlike confined chickens, free-range chickens interact with with plants and other creatures for the good of the farm system.

See video.

Some Great Lakes biologists speculate that the Asian carp might not thrive in some of the lakes because zebra mussels and other invasive species have already trashed the lakes’ lower food web. Maybe there aren’t enough of the microscopic plants and animals the carp need to keep them happy.
But as Flickr member outside perspectives reminds us, they’ll adapt. And this time, their prey is bipedal.

Ready the pressurized air canisters! And ready your photo editing software and Flickr accounts!

National climate change legislation that creates a market for carbon appears dead in the water. The Washington Post reports Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham plan to introduce legislation next month that would focus carbon controls on specific economic sectors, rather than on all businesses.
Any climate legislations would be a tough sell in this economic (and political) climate. But could the bipartisan group attract enough votes to override a Republican filibuster in the Senate? That remains to be seen.
A spokesman for Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar told the Post …