Legislators from Detroit and Greenville have teamed up in an effort to ease restrictions on Detroit under the state farming laws.

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.

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.
Fighter Profiles:

Quagga “THE QUAGMEISTER” Mussel
Legal name: Dreissena rostriformis bugensis
Home Turf: Ukraine, Ponto-Caspian Sea.
U.S. Fighting Debut: September 1989 near Port Colborne, Lake Erie.
Agent: Ballast water
Preferred fighting arena: All five Great Lakes.

Weight/Size class: Reaching sizes up to 4 cm …

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.

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.

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.

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 winner is…

THE QUAGMEISTER
The mussel had overwhelming crowd support. Ninety percent of readers who voted in the lake fight poll put their money on the Quagmeister.
A third of those who filled out brackets guessed …

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. Eighteen percent said the alewife was in it to win it, …

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.
I decided to end the paper assault and did so successfully with one company. But when I got to …

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?