First day of Christmas: Carp barrier

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Editor’s Note: It’s an Echo tradition to revisit one of our favorite holiday stories: Tim Campbell’s The Twelve Days of Aquatic Invasive Species Christmas.  

Campbell rewrote the lyrics of the holiday tune for the Wisconsin Sea Grant in 2011.  We’re publishing a new verse on each of the actual twelve days of Christmas.  

 

On the first day of Christmas, a freighter sent to me.. A carp barrier in the city! — There is not only one electric barrier in Chicago, but three!

Nearshore

Feds could revoke Michigan’s wetland authority

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Michigan is one of only two states that have the authority to regulate wetlands.

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing to determine if Michigan’s environmental standards for wetland management meet federal benchmarks.

Campaign targets pollution in watershed

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It’s safe to say most of us take for granted that when we turn on our faucets, clean water comes out. But where does our drinking water come from? How clean is it? And how much responsibility do we, as individuals, have to ensure that our water stays clean?

Waste

Green Gridirons: Michigan State University

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A football stadium may have green grass but does it have green habits? Each week, Great Lakes Echo highlights a Big Ten football stadium’s attempts to do the most to impact the environment the least. All schools have information on the stadium’s diversion rate – the amount of waste recycled instead of put in a landfill. Stadium: Spartan Stadium

School: Michigan State University

Built: 1923

Capacity: 75,005

2012 diversion rate: 56.3 percent

Scouting report: Michigan State University has 80 recycling containers inside Spartan Stadium during games. Staff handpicks recyclables from the grounds outside stadium gates and on Sunday mornings from tailgating lots.

Water

Paying more to lose water by the minute

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As your water rates creep higher, nearly six billion gallons of water that you paid to treat is lost nationwide every day.

In the Great Lakes region, that means enough yearly water loss to submerge Manhattan… and then some.

Waste

Big Ten’s Eco Efforts: University of Maryland

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In the spirit of our “Green Gridirons” series (but just in case college football wasn’t your thing), the “Big Ten’s Eco Efforts” series highlights creative off-the-field sustainability efforts. Students at the University of Maryland are so passionate about protecting their environment that they’re willing to pay for it. In fact, they volunteered to. In 2010 students created the University Sustainability Fund, a self-imposed $12 fee per student each year. The money is then distributed to environmental projects across campus.

Popular Master Gardener program prepping for upcoming anniversary year

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The ever popular and widespread Master Gardener Volunteer Program – which teaches people how to turn horticultural research into community projects – is approaching another year.

In Michigan, the program approaches its 35th anniversary looking to, among other things, rejuvenate Belle Isle and install a therapy garden in a Detroit-area shelter for abused women.