Wisconsin takes another step back, Chicago continues undue influence, sewage bill has no takers and EPA is tone deaf on democracy.

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.

Profiling is allowed for solving this kind of crime.

Health authorities type bacteria to identify sources of pollution contaminating beaches.

Quick, think of the oldest national park in the United States. Did Yellowstone come to mind? If so, well done.

Now, think of the second-oldest national park.

What did you come up with? Maybe Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park on the West Coast? Yosemite National Park?

Try again. And this time, think a little bit closer to home.

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.
It’s a …

Michigan’s agriculture food processing industry is no undersized enterprise.

The state’s agro-food diversity is second only to California’s.

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.
Most threads profile a creature and its living, eating and breeding habits.
What’s your nominee for the most fearsome Great Lakes aquatic predator?

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.

Valuable logs sank to the bottom of Michigan’s lakes and rivers during the 1800s when loggers floated their hauls.
Now proposed legislation would make permits to retrieve them easier to get.

By Ellen Mitchell
For Michigan State University junior Kaitlyn Strehl, nothing feels better than getting out of the house and feeding the ducks along the Red Cedar River in East Lansing, Mich. But the activity she shares with others in the Great Lakes region causes problems for wildlife.
Ducks don’t naturally stay for a frigid Great Lakes winter, but these stubborn waterfowl will stay put year-round if they have a steady food supply.  As many of their relatives fly south, some ducks brave the cold and stay in northern states due to …