Echo
Bill would exempt Detroit from Right to Farm Act, allow stricter regulation of urban agriculture
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Legislators from Detroit and Greenville have teamed up in an effort to ease restrictions on Detroit under the state farming laws.
Echo
PODCAST: MSU environmental journalism summit addresses problems
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Michigan State University recently celebrated 100 years of journalism education. Part of the celebration included an environmental journalism summit. It addressed the question of supporting quality environmental reporting.
Final two lake invaders battle it out in the SmackDown! championship
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By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason
The time is finally here to determine which invasive species you think is the worst for the Great Lakes. Will it be the water-filtering quagga mussel? Or the vampire-like sea lamprey? You know the drill. Fight and debate for your pick below.
NOAA forecasts wild waves on the Great Lakes after storm
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The storm that dropped barometric pressure in Minnesota to the lowest recorded point in state history and ruined countless umbrellas across Chicago is still whipping up waves in the Great Lakes. Check out this animation from the NOAA Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System for a look at how intense those waves will be over the next five days. Waves more than 20 feet high could roll through northern Lake Superior Wednesday evening.
Echo
CDC: Adults not eating fruits and veggies
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Eating fruits and vegetables prevents heart disease and obesity. But that may not be enough to prompt Americans to eat them. In 2009, only a third of adults ate two servings of fruit a day, according to a recent report. Only 26 percent of adults ate vegetables three or more times a day.
Echo
VIDEO: Hypoxia in Great Lakes, elsewhere to worsen with climate change
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Areas of low oxygen are 30 times more prevalent in the nation’s waterways now than they were in 1960, according to a recent federal report.
And climate change means they’ll continue to worsen.
The quagga mussel advances to the SmackDown! finals
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By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason
The quagga mussel and Eurasian watermilfoil proved to be worthy opponents in last week’s semi-finals tussle. At first, it seemed like the two water-cloggers were playing nice. But one of the lake invaders prevailed in the end. Was it the thick and slimy Eurasian Invasion? Or the highly adaptable and shielded Quagmeister?
The sea lamprey moves on to the Great Lakes SmackDown! finals
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By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason
The sea lamprey and the alewife both fought successful battles and made it to the Great Lakes SmackDown! semi-finals last week. And it’s time to reveal whether the eel-like fish, which sucks the life out of its victims, or the alewife, a 6-inch silver fish that eats things like young fish, will prevail. And the winner is…
THE GREEN LAMP-REY! Thirty-five percent of those who filled out brackets guessed that the lamprey would dominate in Round 2.
Glorified paperweights: Will Great Lakes cities follow Seattle’s lead and opt-out of phone books?
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Last April, Echo investigated the amount of waste created by phone books — paper directories that are often used as bookends rather than their intended use. The city of Seattle, Wash. became the first U.S. city earlier this month to implement an opt-out program for these hefty paper weights. Publishers will also be required to pay the recycling bill. The Yellow Pages Association also created a website for people to search for opt-out options.
Echo
Great Lakes tributary dredged; Climate change to spur more?
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Quebec took the drastic measure to deal with the lowest water ever recorded in a river that supplies 440,000 Montreal suburbanites. The low flows strain sewage treatment. How will other Great Lakes communities react to projected low water?