What does the voice of the Great Lakes sound like?

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Does all this water makes us talk the same? The communities of the Great Lakes region have long shared an environmental, industrial, commercial, recreational, cultural heritage. Echo claims the region has a shared news community. But a shared accent? That’s what Slate recently indicated in an article cleverly titled Vowel Movement: How Americans near the Great Lakes are radically changing the sound of English.

Echo

Environment reporter receives honor

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Here at Echo we admire quality reporting on the environment, especially in the Great Lakes region. It looks like the Sierra Club does too. Journalist Jeff Alexander was recently honored for his in-depth environmental reporting by the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club. The group cited his investigation into changes in Michigan’s forestry management as an exemplar of the quality journalism he’s doing.  He’s also covered such issues as beach pollution and mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for Bridge Magazine. We’re a little partial to Alexander’s  Asian Carp Doomsday Clock, a feature he created on his blog, All Things Great Lakes, to track how close carp are to entering the Great Lakes.

Pet projects won’t restore the Great Lakes

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Is yet another round of spending on an already restored artificial peninsula in Chicago the proper use for Great Lakes Restoration funds?

One thing you know when you live in Chicago, the city tends to get what it wants, protocol and prudence be damned.

Echo

Grazing goats: the eco-friendly way to control weed growth

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Settler’s Ghost Golf Course in Barrie, Ontario is one of the first Canadian courses to use goats as groundskeepers. It is more eco-friendly and cost-efficient, reports the Toronto Star. The practice is common in parts of the U.S. but remains relatively unknown, said Brian Knox, supervising forester and founder of Eco-Goats, a Maryland-based company that works with industries, landowners and environmental groups to implement eco-friendly vegetation control. “I’ve noticed that goats are suddenly becoming cool throughout the U.S.,” Knox said. “People are rediscovering how sustainable they are as livestock.”

Echo recently reported how authorities on New York’s Staten Island are using 20 goats to control invasive phragmites plants that are choking out the native vegetation in two-acres of wetlands.