Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/author/alethia-kasben/)
A traveling play in Michigan is teaching kids about an ominous part of the state’s history – shipwrecks. Shipwrecked! is a play about a family caught in a storm while transporting Christmas trees in 1893.
This summer families cuddling underneath a warm blanket to watch the sunset at one of Michigan’s state parks can enjoy Pure Michigan Caramel Apple ice cream. That’s the state park system’s official flavor. “So many people get ice cream and watch Michigan’s great sunsets, in state parks or along our shorelines,” said Maia Stephens, a recreation programmer with the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Dawn Dummer of Houghton Lake created the new signature flavor, Stephens said. The state and the Holland-based Hudsonville Creamery and Ice Cream Co.
The warm weather in the Great Lakes region this March is unusual, but it should not change hummingbirds’ migration patterns and instincts, according to a hummingbird enthusiast. Lanny Chambers from St. Louis, Mo., is licensed to band hummingbirds, which is when a band with a unique number is placed around the bird’s ankle. This is for educational purposes and reveals a lot about migration habits. He also runs a website where people post when and where they have seen the birds migrating.
A birder and Michigander tells the story of a rare, endangered bird species in his new book, The Kirtland’s Warbler: The Story of a Bird’s Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved It.
How does a scientist use sound to save a 150-million-year-old fish? In Wisconsin, Ron Bruch and Chris Bocast are trying to help restore sturgeon stock by listening for the sound they make when spawning that some call “thunder.” The sound can be heard here. “It’s a real low frequency, you can almost feel it instead of hear it,” said Bruch, fish supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “One of the important measures of success is knowing your stock is spawning.”
Bocast, a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral student in acoustic ecology, discovered the sound while working on an audio book about sturgeons.
Although the water looks clean, a New York professor said she knows plastic pollutes the Great Lakes.
One of the most famous wild animals in a Great Lakes state gets the environmental spotlight today. Phil, a groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pa., has predicted winter’s future for more than 125 years. Since 1886 the town has celebrated Phil’s waking. Groundhog’s Day events there this year include Oreo stacking and a walking tour of sculptures of the little guy. Thousands of people nationwide participate, according to the event’s official website. The events only break when Phil comes out of his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob.
Ice, cold and the seemingly dormant nature of winter have historically prevented a lot of research on the Great Lakes this time of year. But scientists have discovered a lot of algae hiding out under Lake Erie ice.
Residents of Wisconsin believe their home state is shaped like a mitten. Since when? If you’re going to use another state’s trademark, at least choose a state on the other side of the country, not one right next to you. Or be shaped more like a mitten. Those of us who live in Michigan have a hard time accepting Wisconsin as the place where you use your hand to point out where you are from.
A federal program that has spurred clean energy projects throughout the Great Lakes region is facing a huge cut this week as Congress finalizes the budget for next year.