Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/alice-rossignol/page/6/)
From 2003 to 2007, researchers estimate that the cormorant ate 13 million fewer yellow perch and 600,000 fewer smallmouth bass in two large Lake Ontario cormorant colonies.
A map made by the Michigan Lighthouse Fund has information for more than 100 structures along Lake Michigan, Superior and Huron.
Biologists discovered the disease in New York in 2006, and it has since spread into Pennsylvania, Ontario and 14 other states and provinces.
It’s mixed news for Wisconsin wildlife, reports Ron Seely of the Wisconsin State Journal. Seely wrote a series of three stories recently about the status Wisconsin’s black bear, whooping crane and loon. For the first time since the 1800s, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources believes that Southern Wisconsin is home to a population of black bears, Seely reports. Citizens report various bear sightings and research by the state has begun. And it’s good news for the endangered whooping crane.
Last Saturday a group of University of Michigan students won the American Solar Challenge – a competition where students design and build solar-driven cars and race them across the country. This year’s teams and their vehicles sped 1,200 miles from Oklahoma to Illinois. Michigan’s 700-pound machine dubbed “Infinium” – which can reach speeds over 100 miles per hour – beat 16 other U.S. and international teams and crossed the finish line in about 28 hours. In second place, University of Minnesota’s car “Centaurus 2,” finished over two hours later. Last place finisher “Mercury III,” Illinois State University’s vehicle, came in 38 hours later.
The number of Kirtland’s warblers recorded in the Great Lakes region in 2009 was the highest since a census of the birds began in 1951.
The rare bird faces challenges from climate change and funding for its protection.
It lives only in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario.
Between 3,000 and 5,000 wild hogs inhabit 69 of Michigan’s 83 counties. They ravage crops and forests and carry diseases. The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy – with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services branch – has developed the Michigan Wild Hog Removal Program. It aims to set 100 traps – that cost $450 each — to round them up. Want a piece of the action?
The first falconry field meet in North America was in 1938 in Pennsylvania. It’s a sport that continues to be cherished throughout the Great Lakes states.
“It’s like a front row seat to an I-max movie to nature,” said Kory Koch, communications director of the Michigan Hawking Club.
Each year as Medicine Lake thickens with ice, artists from across the nation flock here for a four-weekend celebration of art, science and the winter season.
By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 13, 2009
There are few places where a government agency lines up for a permit just like everybody else. One of them is at the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board. Founded in 1989, the board is made up of Wisconsin citizens who enforce a series of aesthetic regulations along 92 miles of the Wisconsin River and nearly 80,000 acres of land. “The uniqueness to having a citizen board is that it represents the people who live in the area.