Just what is an environmentalist?

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Is everyone who favors protecting the  environment an environmentalist? Or is environmentalist a divisive word, one out of favor even with some people with a strong conservation ethic? Journalists often value an economy of expression. They strive — or at least should — for the precise word when summarizing complex issues. I got to thinking about this after a Great Lakes Echo reader took issue with a recent headline: Environmentalists worry that proposed Lake Ontario wind farm threatens wildlife.

Queen of England to take bite out of Great Lakes lamprey headache

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Queen Elizabeth II will be served a Great Lakes  lamprey pie at her Diamond Jubilee in June. The Detroit Free Press reports that the dish has been given to British monarchs as a delicacy on special occasions since the Middle Ages. Of course, back then the parasitic fish was sourced locally. But apparently it is so scarce there now that it is a  protected species. That’s not the case here where the critter has decimated native Great Lakes fish after invading the freshwater seas through the St.

Echo

Weather, staffing fuel forest fire fears in Michigan

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By Jon Gaskell

Capital News Service

LANSING — Michigan can expect more wildfires this year, officials warn. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is predicting a greater number of forest fires and more acres burned as a result of an unusually warm winter. To make matters worse, long-term shrinking of firefighting resources has reduced the state’s capacity to quell blazes, according to department Director Rodney Stokes. The department’s fire supervisor Scott Heather said Michigan is already seeing blazes much earlier than usual. “Usually for the Lower Peninsula, the season for fires begins around the third week of March,” Heather said.

Flash Point: Bryan Hansel’s toughest Great Lakes photos

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We asked Great Lakes photographers to send us their favorite Great Lakes shots. Bryan Hansel of Bryan Hansel Photography sent us these photos. I was on a 45-day, 800-mile kayaking expedition from Port Huron, MI to Grand Marais, MN when I heard about an upcoming storm that was predicted to blow gales for days. I was on a deadline and needed to get to Houghton to jump a ferry to Isle Royale before the storm hit, so I was paddling 30+ mile days. Before I got this photo, I had paddled about 33 miles and got to camp just as the sunset started.

Echo

Scientists, orphan beetles and a brand new Wisconsin species

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Most people do not get excited about little brown beetles — especially those that don’t bite, cause disease or have economic value. But a researcher that has dedicated his life to finding “orphan beetles” has discovered a previously unidentified beetle species endemic to two Wisconsin counties. The findings are in the March issue of The Coleopterists Bulletin. Darren Pollock, a professor at Eastern New Mexico University’s department of biology, examined dead beetles (three male and six female) that were housed at the University of Wisconsin Insect Research Collection and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. As an expert on little brown beetles, or LBB’s as he calls them, he saw something right away.