Which invasive species is the most ecologically destructive to the Great Lakes? That’s what the “Great Lakes Smack Down!” will find out.

We chose eight of the Great Lakes’ most formidable invasive species and we’ll pit them against each other in “lake fights” over the next few weeks.

Canadian federal environment officials are explicitly covered by an entry in Echo’s reporters’ guide:  “We like Canadians. But good heavens they have an incredible government bureaucracy. You need a Canadian government source? Get hustling early in the reporting.”
That’s why I was unsurprised to read criticism of Environment Canada’s lack of transparency in the Sept. 25 Montreal Gazette. Canadian journalist Glen Blouin enumerates the increasing frustration he and his colleagues experience with the federal agency charged with environmental protection.
We feel their pain on this side of the border.
At Great Lakes Echo …

Whether consumers should be allowed to purchase unpasteurized milk has been a hot topic in Michigan for years.

Detroit native Mark McInnis is giving away seeds to help introduce his new film on the explosion of urban gardening in his home city.
In Urban Roots, McInnis connects  the decline of the city’s auto industry to the rise of  vacant lots that now provide space for gardens.

McInnis’s mother worked for Ford Motor Co. in Detroit throughout his childhood. “That job put braces on my bother’s teeth, paid for our skateboards and our weekend trips up north,” he said.
But as he grew up he watched the industry fall along with …

Michigan’s bats are under attack – not from tennis racquet-swinging bat swatters or vampire-hunters but principally from a deadly fungus with the potential to disrupt the ecosystem.

Nationwide, white-nose syndrome has wiped out an estimated 1 million bats since it was initially seen in a New York cave in 2006. Since then, it’s been identified in 14 states and two Canadian provinces and is moving westward.