Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/2012/10/page/2/)
The Army Corps of Engineers is a convenient scapegoat but it’s only a small part of a broader federal let down on the Asian carp issue.
Meanwhile, things are heating up with the Waukesha, Wis., request to divert Lake Michigan water. Is the request for an expanded service area a red flag?
Researchers are developing software to track the sale of invasive species on the Internet.
Often sellers and buyers of these plants and animals that can harm the environment are unaware that such sales are illegal.
This October in Michigan the federal government awarded grants to a dozen food and agriculture organizations for projects that include improving fruit production, promoting cleaner soil and studying crop pollination. The $1.3 million is divided among 12 recipients, including the Michigan Vegetable Council in Erie, Michigan Farm Bureau in Lansing, Lakeshore Environmental Inc. in Grand Haven and Michigan State University in East Lansing.
These organizations and their projects were selected by the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to receive the federal grants.
If your local river starts to smell like dead sea lamprey, you may be in luck.
That smell could be the solution to a long-standing invasive species problem
A group of Central Michigan University students is using social media to gather information on climate change and periodic natural events, in the Great Lakes region. Tom Rohrer, the director of the Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems at Central Michigan University, and his students created a Facebook page called “Climate Change in the Great Lakes Basin.” On the page students post studies, articles, pictures and other observation, which address changing weather patterns. The page is also open for the public to post their observations, creating a free and vast collection of climate change information. The project stems from a CMU course taught by Rohrer on building sustainability. The idea came during a class discussion on how to influence people do to the right thing for the environment, he said.
Scientists are using small, dead animals to trap the endangered American burying beetles. They are raising the beetles in Ohio and introducing them into forests. Other researchers are looking for them in Michigan.
Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources upgraded its Mi-HUNT computer app for the 2012 fall deer hunting season. Users will be able to view 7 million acres of public hunting lands and print hunting maps.
The other improvements include detailed information and printable maps of Hunting Access Program lands and state game and wildlife areas, and capacity to load that information directly into the user’s personal GPS.
This week Echo reporters asked the public and an expert to estimate what percentage of meat in the U.S. comes from family farms.
Iosco County would become tMichigan’s birding capital under a legislative proposal that’s a dead duck — at least for this year.
The bill stems from work that an Oscoda woman did with the sponsor, Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, to make Iosco County a destination for bird watching tourism.
