Echo

Nominate a cheap outdoor Great Lakes adventure

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With summer approaching are you looking for fun outdoor adventures that don’t burn through your wallet? Three of 21 budget outdoor adventures listed by Outside Magazine are in the Great Lakes states:

Backcountry paddling in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters where Outside prices a night at Canoe On Inn in Ely, fishing licenses, maps, food and even brandy and post-trip dinner at $324. Hiking through the wooden trails of Thompson’s Harbor State Park in Michigan where the magazine says scuba diving at nearby Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a two-night stay at the Cedar Haven Cabin for up to six people, camp provisions and scuba gear all cost $474. Outside budgets Wisconsin’s three-day outfitted Devil’s Lake Multi-Sport trip on the Northwest Passage at $365, including food and equipment. All you need to bring is your sleeping bag.

Echo

Feds demand Chicago River clean-up

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After more than a year of federal requests that state regulators improve the Chicago River, the Obama administration has decided to aggressively intervene by ordering an ambitious sewage treatment program. That’s what Michael Hawthorne reports today in the Chicago Tribune. Part of the plan is a complete overhaul of Chicago’s two largest sewage treatment plants that churn industrial and domestic waste water into the river, Hawthorne reports. The move is the result of what federal officials believe to be massive inaction by Illinois regulators to keep the urban waterway fit for recreation.

Echo

Great Lakes journalists: Can you spare 10 minutes?

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Although I get to be the editor here at Great Lakes Echo, my day job is the associate director at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Echo is among many of the duties I juggle. Another is figuring out ways to help professional journalists/reporters/writers/broadcasters/bloggers/freelancers/communicators better report on the environment. To that end, the Knight Center is involved in a National Science Foundation effort to improve literacy about climate change. We’re part of a regional effort to build and support a network of formal and informal climate change educators.

Echo

Can Great Lakes predators measure up?

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Got a favorite Great Lakes predator? There’s now a forum for you to talk about it. A new website called “Aquatic Predators” lets people discuss aquatic predators from around the world. Animals already featured are as diverse as the great white shark and the African snakehead. Entries native to the Great Lakes, such as the largemouth bass and brown trout, seem rather tame in comparison.

Echo

Morels Draw More Enthusiasts

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More mushrooms are popping up, attracting tourists who taste, hunt and participate in mushroom festivals in Michigan.

The fungi is most plentiful in Northern Michigan and is a good way for the state to showcase locally grown food.