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Concerns about the Great Lakes increase, while Ontario loons decrease
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Ontario loons are declining, with fewer chicks being born, according to a new study that took four decades and hundreds of researchers.
drownings
Is Lake Michigan the most dangerous Great Lake?
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Jamie Racklyeft, the executive director of the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said the reason Lake Michigan has the most drownings among the Great Lakes is a combination of wind direction and tourism.
contamination
A 22-year mission to restore a Pennsylvania bay
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After more than two decades of cleanup and community efforts, Lake Erie’s Presque Isle Bay became the second heavily contaminated place in the United States to be removed from the Great Lakes toxic waters list.
Land
Study suggests rural strategies help economies of shrinking cities
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You won’t find barns and silos in Detroit. Or herds of cattle. Or fields of soybeans, sugar beets or wheat. Even so, much of the city is now “ruralized,” a new study says, a phenomenon also visible in Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw.
Echo
Neighbors at war
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By Eric Freedman
Jennifer Cook initially got along amicably with her neighbors in rural Bartholomew County, Indiana. But that relationship went downhill when the neighbors, Brian and Katrina Brumley, bought a Great Pyrenees puppy to protect their poultry, goats, miniature horse and miniature donkey from coyotes, foxes and bobcats, according to legal documents in Cook’s unsuccessful appeal of her stalking conviction for harassing the Brumleys with recorded animal noises. The dog, which reached 130 pounds, sometimes broke free of its restraints, ran loose, defecated in Cook’s yard and barked while confined, but it didn’t bite anyone or act aggressively, the Indiana Court of Appeals said in a recent opinion. “In an effort to muffle the barking, the Brumleys tried moving the dog to various areas on the property farther from Cook’s house,” the court said. To no avail.
Recreation
Hunters need to avoid contaminated game
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To keep healthy this fall, deer hunters have more to worry about than just COVID-19 and the flu. On the beware list: a group of chemicals known as PFAS and lead from ammunition.
Water
Researchers want invasive aquatic critters out of Great Lakes ballast water
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University of Wisconsin-Superior researchers are trying to figure out how to better regulate teeny-tiny invasive organisms that stow away on large vessels traversing the Great Lakes Basin.
COVID-19
Engaging with nature and just getting outside help in the age of COVID-19
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If there’s one upside to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that more people are getting outdoors and connecting with nature.
Echo
Disappearing history: Sites dropped from National Register of Historic Places
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The once-honored Beechwood Store in Iron River Township, the Flint Brewing Co., the shipwrecked schooner Alvin Clark in Menominee, the Fenton Seminary and the majestic Grand Riviera Theater in Detroit have all disappeared from the prestigious National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service recently removed their recognition because they’ve been demolished, no longer retain their historic integrity and cannot convey their historic significance, the State Historic Preservation Office says.
Echo
What drives farmers to join farmers markets?
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New farmers markets in low-income, urban areas of Michigan face challenges in recruiting and retaining vendors, a new study finds. Farmers motivated by their love of gardening or the desire to build community are least likely to drop out of those urban markets, the study concludes.