Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/page/2/?s=andy+mcglashen&x=0&y=0)
A group in west Michigan is restoring a heavily polluted creek by drawing on their faith to spur environmental engagement. The Plaster Creek Stewards are leading by example to clean up the river.
Heavy use of the Jordan by party-minded paddlers is raising tough questions about how to preserve the wild character of Michigan’s first designated Natural River.
Two former-Echo-reporters-turned-river-nerds were featured last week on the Greening of the Great Lakes radio show talking about their new website, Michigan River News. Jeff Brooks Gillies and Andy McGlashen launched Michigan River News this summer because, well, they love Michigan and its rivers. They report original news stories and also collect river stories from across the state. But that’s not the whole story. On their website, the founders note that rivers “sustain and enrich human life … provide food and drinking water … irrigate crops and generate electric power.”
And they’re right — rivers give us a lot.
One dam removed while a nearby dam with a sketchy safety record remains in southwest Michigan.
A fish species that vanished from Michigan’s rivers around a century ago could once again swim in the Manistee River if it can survive the predator-laden, dam-warmed waters under consideration.
Experts say removal of the Boardman River dam is the biggest in Michigan history, and the largest-ever wetlands restoration in the Great Lakes region.
Legislators from Detroit and Greenville have teamed up in an effort to ease restrictions on Detroit under the state farming laws.
Abandoned urban land no longer generating tax revenue could produce food. The State Land Bank is brokering leases for urban gardens on vacant lots.
The rules were explicit: “There will be no women or whining, blogging or Tweeting. “There will be whiskey, blood, rocks, fires, snot rockets, swearing, heavily peppered meats, and probably a night or two of freezing our tails off,” the e-mail read. Can four well-domesticated, NPR- listening, chair-swiveling journalists, pushed until they bust like cheap jump drives, turn into steel filing cabinets? It took two planning sessions at local dive bars, dozens of e-mail conversations and online chats before we set out to see. We did it under the auspices of the newly formed Northwoods Organization for Maintaining Authentic Allegiance with Michigan – NOMAAM – and with a plan to hike the 20-mile Manistee River Trail in the Manistee- Huron National Forest.
Jan. 4. 2010
A great thing about journalistic efforts like Echo is that readers contribute to the reports. They aren’t shy about pointing out omissions. They provide valuable context and new story ideas.