New state program encourages Michigan residents to report bat roosts
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By Clara Lincolnhol
The Department of Natural Resources is encouraging residents to report bat roosts. These are the places where bats sleep and raise their babies like chimneys, trees and bridges. DNR bat specialist John DePue says the Michigan Bat Roost Monitoring Program will collect data that will help scientists better understand bat behavior and improve conservation methods.
Solutions
Aquaculture can help local communities, economies and food security, study shows
By Isabella Figueroa
There are many reasons for aquaculture, like food, stocking, ornamental and bait. Historically, commercial fishing provided local, sustainable seafood. Due to environmental regulations, species decline and economic shifts, however, this industry has shrunk in the Great Lakes Region, according to a recent study.
Wildlife
Wildlife changes found on Lake Huron island
By Eric Freedman
In nature, a lot can change on a largely uninhabited Great Lakes island over the course of a century. And a lot can stay the same. That includes the disappearance and appearance of wildlife species. That’s what scientists discovered when they inventoried mammals and amphibians on Charity Island, a 252-acre speck near the mouth of Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron. It’s one of about 35,000 islands in the Great Lakes, most of them even smaller than Charity Island, according to a recent study.
Solutions
Michigan’s bottle return rates keep falling. Is it time for change?
By Emilio Perez Ibarguen
Michigan beer and pop buyers increasingly aren’t bothering to return their bottles and cans to get their deposit back, and in the process left more than $116 million on the table last year. Some beverage industry representatives are pointing to the decrease as a sign that the law has become irrelevant. Meanwhile, retailers and environmentalists alike are looking at what could be done to make returning empties more convenient — although they butt heads on how exactly to do so.