Echo

Emerald ash borer spreads through Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec

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By Nick Mordowanec

Dec. 13, 2009

LANSING, Mich. — Ever since the emerald ash borer swept through Michigan in the summer of 2002, the state has spent tens of millions of dollars to subdue it. But the exotic beetle thought to have come to the United States through airplane or ship cargo remains rampant. Adult beetles cause minimal damage by nibbling on foliage, but the larvae feed on the inner bark of trees, disrupting nutrient and water flow.

Land

Michigan boosts wood exports

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By Caitlin Costello
Dec. 12, 2009
LANSING, Mich. – A 40-foot crate is packed with northern Michigan white cedar panels and siding ready to be shipped to Korea by Boyne Falls-based Town & Country Cedar Products. The company started exporting a year ago to expand its customer base after economic downturns forced the industry to “look at changing the way they do business in order to survive,” said national sales manager Mike Rathbun. Strong personal business relationships are important for international marketing.

Echo

Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota consider fire retardant ban

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By HYONHEE SHIN
Dec. 10, 2009

LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan lawmaker wants to phase out the use of a controversial fire retardant used in electronics and home furnishings. Soil scientists say deca-BDE and two related fire retardants are toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative. They build up in fish and water and can harm the human body and breast milk, as well as water quality.

Echo

Mining limits proposed, opposed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

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By Nick Mordowanec
Dec. 9, 2009

LANSING, Mich. —Environmental groups in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have proposed a mining initiative to protect the state’s water supply. But lawmakers representing the U.P. are opposing a ballot measure by environmental groups like the Save Our Water Committee and Save the Wild UP, arguing that sulfide mining would generate jobs. The initiative claims sulfide and uranium mining threatens water in the Great Lakes basin.

Echo

Michigan considers statewide ban on phosphorus fertilizer; Minnesota already has one

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By HYONHEE SHIN
Dec. 8, 2009

LANSING, Mich. — Some Michigan lawmakers are seeking to protect streams and lakes by restricting phosphorus lawn fertilizer use. Under a bill by Rep. Terry Brown, D-Pigeon, property owners wouldn’t be able to use lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus unless a soil test concludes the existing level of phosphorus is too low or they’re growing new turf. Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, Van Buren, Bay and Saginaw counties have adopted a ban, as has Ann Arbor, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Echo

Recycling challenge: New life for dead auto plants

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By JORDAN TRAVIS
Dec. 6, 2009

LANSING, Mich. — As Ford Motor Co., Clairvoyant Energy and Xtreme Power work to turn the auto company’s former Wixom Assembly Plant into a renewable energy industrial park, other former auto plants sit empty. Some are being torn down, like the General Motors Craft Centre in Lansing. Others, such as the Packard Plant in Detroit, await their fate.

Echo

Isle Royale is an economic engine; can it handle more visitors?

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By ADAM DeLAY
Dec. 5, 2009

LANSING — Wildlife enthusiast Jim DuFresne describes the scene as breathtaking. “You take a six-hour boat ride where all you see is the clear water,” he says. “Then when you finally get there, you really feel like you’re in the wilderness and surrounded by nature. It’s truly an incredible feeling.”

The Clarkston outdoors writer isn’t talking about a far-away Alaskan forest or the famed Yellowstone National Park.

Water

Book tells tale of tragic Lake Huron freighter sinking

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By Eric Freedman
Nov. 30, 2009

LANSING — The Edmund Fitzgerald is the best-known of the Great Lakes’ doomed ships, but the freighter’s demise with its entire crew off Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula is by no means the state’s only such maritime disaster. Andrew Kantar, a Ferris State University professor, tells another such story, that of the ill-fated freighter Daniel J. Morrell. It sank in 1966 off the tip of the Thumb in Lake Huron, northwest of Harbor Beach. “Each of the Great Lakes has its own tragic history, and Lake Huron’s violent moods have become legendary,” Kantar writes in “Deadly Voyage: The S.S. Daniel J. Morrell Tragedy” (Michigan State University Press, $16.95).

Echo

Plan for turbines on Great Lakes modified to measure offshore wind energy potential

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By Nick Mordowanec
Nov. 29, 2009

A university intends to measure Lake Michigan’s potential for offshore wind power with a $1.4 million federal grant. The original plan by Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., was to place wind turbines in the Great Lakes. But that’s changed. “We are not putting wind turbines out there,” said Arn Boezaart, interim director of the university’s Alternative and Renewable Energy Center.

Water

Lawmakers want to lift pesticide ban to battle bedbug blast; Ohio, Michigan among hardbitten

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By Emily Lawler
Nov. 28, 2009
LANSING, Mich. — Forget letting the bedbugs bite – even having them in your home is a danger. The entire United States is dealing with a resurgence of these pesky parasites, which feed on human blood. “They can cause red itchy lesions,” said Kim Signs, a zoonotic disease epidemiologist with Michigan’s Department of Community Health.