Echo

Echo turnover builds a network of Great Lakes savvy journalists

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Turnover is frustrating at university-based news organizations. Just as a reporter hits her or his stride, they graduate and move on to another venue. Of course fostering the growth that allows that to happen is fulfilling for an educator. But I’d also argue that in the long-run, it’s also good for the longterm quality of Echo’s journalism. For with every reporter we train here at Echo, we expand our network of journalists who keep us abreast of creative newsgathering elsewhere, provide Great Lakes news tips and become potential freelancers for when we secure funding for that kind of thing.

Echo

What’s your favorite Canadian adventure in the Great Lakes basin?

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Only one of the top 10 Canadian Adventures recently identified by Outside Magazine falls within the Great Lakes basin. It’s a cool adventure – mountain biking near Quebec. But I have to admit that what really appeals to me about this one is the description of enjoying a beer in view of the St. Lawrence River at a ride’s end. Ontario picked up another nomination with the paddling of the Missinaibi River.

Echo

How are Anglo-Nubian goats like Asian carp?

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To answer that riddle you need to first review Monday’s Catch of the Day. It describes how communities in Texas and elsewhere still import Asian carp to clear an invasive plant out of vegetation-choked waterways. The carp are sterile to avoid substituting one invasive headache for another. (The carp threatening the Great Lakes are definitely not sterile and the longterm concern is that they will proliferate and dramatically change the native ecosystem.)

Where do the goats fit in? A reader notes a similar land-based phenomenon on New York’s Staten Island.

Echo

Carp: Shunned in Great Lakes, welcome in Texas

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While resource managers and other conservationists worry about keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, in Austin they’re giving them a real Texas welcome. In fact, just last week city officials dumped 3,000 of the fish into Lake Austin, according to the Austin-American Statesman. That’s on top of 10,000 they already put in the lake to control hydrilla, an aggressive plant that clogs the lake, fouls propellers and overtakes native plants. The grass carp is one of the species of Asian carp that wildlife experts fear could bypass an electric barrier at the Chicago River and eventually get into Lake Michigan. The concern is that the voracious eaters will thrive, disrupt the ecosystem and threaten the survival of native species.

Echo

News dance: Bees do it. How about journalists?

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It’s a complex world. How best to explain it? That’s the challenge facing journalists — particularly those who cover the environment. Technology increases our communication tools. But can we also use less techy techniques?

Echo

Carp land attack: Highway to Canada

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The Chicago River waterway gets much of the attention as the route Asian carp could use to enter the Great Lakes by way of Lake Michigan. But Canadian authorities say Lake Ontario is also a vulnerable entry point. The Northumberland News recently reported that Canadian border officials have stopped six truckloads of the voracious eaters in the past two years. The average truckload contained about 6,000 pounds of the fish which many fear could disrupt the Great Lakes ecosystem. Two of the six cases have been prosecuted, the Ontario publication reported.

Echo

Here’s a chance to check out your neighborhood from space

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Here at Echo we have a special fondness for satellite imagery. Sometimes outer space offers the best vantage point from which to get a sense of Great Lakes issues. Check out this view of the ice break up on Lake Erie and the subsequent agricultural runoff bringing the nutrients that feed the lakes algae headaches later in the summer. Want more? NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are customizing local landscape images for six U.S. citizens who enter the “My American Landscape” contest.  Just send them an e-mail describing the landscape changes near you and what you hope to learn about them.

Echo

Just what is an environmentalist?

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Is everyone who favors protecting the  environment an environmentalist? Or is environmentalist a divisive word, one out of favor even with some people with a strong conservation ethic? Journalists often value an economy of expression. They strive — or at least should — for the precise word when summarizing complex issues. I got to thinking about this after a Great Lakes Echo reader took issue with a recent headline: Environmentalists worry that proposed Lake Ontario wind farm threatens wildlife.