Here is an opportunity for Congress to show some Great Lakes leadership.

But the proposal’s deadline is 20 years away and it lacks funding for critical infrastructure.

To submit to Great Lakes Echo Photo Friday, send your photo, a caption and your name to greatlakesecho@gmail.com.

To submit to Great Lakes Echo Photo Friday, send your photo, a caption and your name to greatlakesecho@gmail.com.

It’s like adopting a highway — Great Lakes style.
Instead of cleaning up the turnpike, 10,000 residents in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin adopted beaches and collected 31,295 pounds of litter in 2010 as part of the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach program.
Beach adopters collect litter on the shoreline, conduct  water quality tests and keep records that tell the alliance about beach health, possible pollution sources and other features. The alliance program was launched in 2003, though alliance volunteers have participated in the International Coastal Cleanup since 1991, …

Nancy Michelli keeps a surgical mask in her car.
But she isn’t afraid of other people’s germs making her sick; it’s how they smell.
It isn’t body odor she is talking about. Instead, the California woman is protecting herself from the fragrances people carry in their clothing, skin and hair from hair products, laundry detergent and perfumes.

With help from readers, the Great Lakes Echo staff has developed several fun, yet informative environmental Facebook quizzes.
Which Great Lake are you?
If you’re quick to judge are you shallow like Lake Erie? Is someone given to stormy outbursts more like Lake Superior? Take the quiz to find out.

Which Great Lakes invasive species is your former significant other?
Check out Echo‘s latest quiz. Learn about those plants and animals upsetting the ecology of the Great Lakes while gaining a new nickname for your ex. Take the quiz.

Michigan deer hunting is a $1 billion-a-year industry but last year license sales dropped 4 percent from previous years.

The state is attempting to boost hunting tourism with new campaigns like advertising that targets out-of-state hunters.

 
 
Salt is the usual go-to agent for melting ice off of slippery roadways.
But not at Michigan State University — They use veggies instead.
For the first time last year, the school used GEOMELT a product made up of agricultural waste –  specifically sugar beet leftovers.
It’s considered by the university to be more environmentally friendly, longer lasting and less corrosive to equipment.
The beet stuff is used with brine – a salt water solution that’s sometimes used for pickling.
Each gallon of brine contains about 2.2 pounds of salt.
If you went the traditional route, …

Rabies remains a problem in Michigan, with 70 animals testing positive in 2010. Most cases of animal rabies are reported in the Lower Peninsula, especially in the southeast. There were 68 positive animal tests last year, 79 in 2007 and 47 in 2001.