Echo
Meet the Great Lakes SmackDown! Terrestrial Terrors
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The Great Lakes SmackDown! is back with some mean, green, terrestrial fighting machines! The land brawls start March 14!
Recreation
Permit renewal program to spark more park revenue
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By Thea Hassan
Michigan residents renewing their car registration can now simply check “yes” for an annual unlimited pass for state parks and boat launches. Michigan is only the second state to develop this type of park payment plan. Montana is the other. Since the program began last October, almost 20 percent of renewing drivers chose to participate. The new program replaces the previous $24 annual passes sold at park offices.
Echo
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.
Echo
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.
Echo
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.
Echo
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.
Echo
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.
Echo
VIDEO: Workshop renews dialogue on Great Lakes dead zones
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Researchers recently hosted a workshop on agricultural contamination in the Great Lakes region, discussing why rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise.
Echo will give readers a glimpse of the workshop in a three-part video series.
Echo
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?
Echo
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.