By Mallory McKnight
How is a modern Great Lakes girl – jaded by chocolates, roses and candlelight – to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a thoroughly original way?
Old stand-by getaways include the ski lodge, urban hotel room or rustic bed and breakfast. But one destination that usually gets left off the list is a no-brainer for Great Lakes residents any other time of the year.
There are 10,368 miles of shoreline along the entire Great Lakes basin, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. There’s no reason that entire beautiful …

By Shaheen Kanthawala
Do you love clean waterways? This Valentine’s Day you can let them know.
Environment America, an organization that aims to protect air, water and open spaces, developed a campaign to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s initiative to restore the protections of the Clean Water Act. The organization says the law is under attack in the courts, putting some protections in limbo and blocking  attempts by Congress to restore them.
Environment America is sending valentines submitted by supporters of the campaign to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. It fears that the agency’s …

Some communities are exploring green job initiatives as an opportunity for ex-prisoners to rebuild their lives. The Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI), a statewide effort led by the Department of Corrections that does job placement for former prisoners, provide a pathway out of the incarceration cycle for an increasing number of former prisoners.

By Allison Jarrell

Go Meatless:  This Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday so go meatless! The Meatless Monday non-profit initiative hopes to improve personal health (and the health of the planet) by reducing participant’s meat consumption by 15 percent. Not only will skipping meat once a week reduce your carbon footprint, it’s a great way to try new vegetarian recipes, like Black Bean Sesame Veggie Hash or Green Tea Tofu Soba Salad!
Buy Local: Supporting your local economy is a great way to live sustainably while helping others in your community. …

President Obama’s effort to jumpstart long-overdue cleanup projects could be in trouble. Insiders wonder if the new Congress will set the budgetary needle closer to zero. But it will take more than money for the lakes to reach their potential.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has for more than a year reported on the controversy surrounding a binational study on the cause of low water levels on lakes Michigan and Huron:
• The controversy surrounding the study board’s initial results
• The controversy of whether the study board was withholding a second report that contradicted the study’s results
• The controversy of the location and timing of official public hearings on the study
Recently, the International Upper Great Lakes Study published on its website an article on some Lake Michigan property owners’ preferences against government intervention to correct …

The next time you’re complaining about Great Lakes invasive species, do something about it.
Go home, cook one up and eat it.
Spoil your taste buds with some savory, smoked Asian carp or let your kitchen fill with the eel-like fish aroma of sea lamprey pie or lamprey stew.
Yum.
Not into smoked things or pie? Don’t worry there are all sorts of invasive species recipes strewn on the world-wide web.
Like, why not batter the next quagga mussel you stumble upon in lager? I’m not sure what the toxins that accumulate in the bivalve’s …

Cleanup efforts are still underway more than six months after 819,000 gallons of heavy crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River, covering wildlife and the nearby environment with sludge.

Researchers recently hosted a workshop on agricultural contamination in the Great Lakes region, discussing why rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise.
Echo will give readers a glimpse of the workshop in a three-part video series.

This coming Saturday, February 12 the Youth Karate-Ka Association, a Michigan organization dedicated to teaching youth about farming and karate as self-defense, will host YKA Taste of Change — an event that will promote the association and show the documentary, “Kings of Flint.”
Produced by Michigan State University professor and students, “Kings of Flint” follows Flint, Mich. residents as they attempt to build a greener future for the city. Last summer Great Lakes Echo ran a series documenting the progression of the film called “The Greening of Flint.”
The event will also include …