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VIDEO: Smart policy can mitigate Great Lakes farm pollution

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In the last segment of a three-part video series on Great Lakes dead zones, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute director Don Scavia discusses federal policy and economic constraints to addressing agricultural contamination in the Great Lakes. Scavia and Pete Richards, senior research scientist at Heidelberg University in Ohio, recently hosted a workshop on clues about why the rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise in the Great Lakes watershed. Part I is here. Part II is here. This workshop was part of the Agricultural Conference on the Environment held at The Lansing Center on Jan.

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Great Lakes SmackDown! Part II; Join us in the draft for terrestrial invaders

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By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Let’s get ready to rumbleeeee! Last year we introduced the Great Lakes SmackDown!, an interactive feature that pitted eight aquatic invasive species against each other in science-based “lake fights” to determine the region’s most destructive invader. Experts and readers weighed in on which species they thought was the worst for the lakes. In the end, the quagga mussel prevailed with a nasty filter-feeding addiction and a problem with hoarding toxins. But this time around we’re going terrestrial: birds, mammals, insects and all sorts of plants.

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VIDEO: Research sheds light on Lake Erie water quality

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In the second segment of a three-part video series on Great Lakes dead zones, Heidelberg University senior research scientist Pete Richards discusses recent research on the role of dissolved phosphorous and why it may be causing new problems. Richards focuses on Lake Erie, which has a long history of high algal growth and low oxygen.

Part I of the series is here. Part III is here. Richards and Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute director Don Scavia recently hosted a workshop on new clues about why the rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise in the Great Lakes watershed. This workshop was part of the Agricultural Conference on the Environment held at The Lansing Center on Jan. 27.

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Celebrate Valentine’s Day on a frigid Great Lakes beach

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By Mallory McKnight

How is a modern Great Lakes girl – jaded by chocolates, roses and candlelight — to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a thoroughly original way? Old stand-by getaways include the ski lodge, urban hotel room or rustic bed and breakfast. But one destination that usually gets left off the list is a no-brainer for Great Lakes residents any other time of the year. There are 10,368 miles of shoreline along the entire Great Lakes basin, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. There’s no reason that entire beautiful coastline should be a vacation destination only four months out of the year.

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Five great ideas for dining sustainably on Valentine’s Day

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By Allison Jarrell

Go Meatless:  This Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday so go meatless! The Meatless Monday non-profit initiative hopes to improve personal health (and the health of the planet) by reducing participant’s meat consumption by 15 percent. Not only will skipping meat once a week reduce your carbon footprint, it’s a great way to try new vegetarian recipes, like Black Bean Sesame Veggie Hash or Green Tea Tofu Soba Salad! Buy Local: Supporting your local economy is a great way to live sustainably while helping others in your community. Instead of buying an expensive bottle of imported Port to share with your romantic veggie dinner, buy wine from a local winery.

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Quizzes

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With help from readers, the Great Lakes Echo staff has developed several fun, yet informative environmental Facebook quizzes. Click on the Show All tab in the lower right hand corner of the quiz to display all of the questions or click the next question link. Which Great Lake are you? If you’re quick to judge are you shallow like Lake Erie? Is someone given to stormy outbursts more like Lake Superior?

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VIDEO: Raptor rehab

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A team of Michigan State University veterinary students, guided by veterinarian Dr. James Sikarskie, rehabilitates birds of prey in hopes they can return to the wild.

By learning about wildlife medical care techniques, the students have helped hundreds of birds.

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Cleaning up the Michigan oil spill will take hard work, time and money

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Recent oil spills in Michigan, Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico have led to the release of approximately 208 million gallons of oil into the environment. That’s more than 346 Olympic-sized swimming pools of toxic sludge.

Wildlife centers are one way to minimize the environmental effects of oil spills. Federal and state agencies, oil companies and contractors use variety of specialized methods. But cleaning up an oil spill is messy business. It’s a labor-, capital- and time-intensive process that can take years to complete.