Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/guest-contributor/page/121/)
The Bay Shore power plant on Lake Erie has had a checkered environmental past.
But researchers have discovered that the coal-fired power plant near Toledo has also been a harbor in an ecological storm.
Detroit is known for a lot of things, but one of the most surprising is walleye fishing. Contributor Judi Smelser takes us fishing on the river with Lance Valentine.
The fight over the fate of a massive iron ore mine has moved this summer from the state Capitol in Madison to the forests of northwestern Wisconsin.
Tensions have sprung up in Wisconsin over how to allocate finite water resources to many legitimate uses: municipal water supplies, industries, irrigation, private wells, lakes and streams.
Once home to a prized trout fishery, the Little Plover River has repeatedly dried up and this year had the dubious distinction of being named one of America’s most endangered rivers by American Rivers, a water advocacy group.
State support for Wisconsin’s state parks has slid steadily. General purpose revenue covered 50 percent of their operations in the late 1990s, but only 21 percent today.
Two of Wisconsin’s most popular state parks – Devil’s Lake and Peninsula – are cash cows that help support dozens of money-losing parks and recreation areas, state figures show.
After the completion of a two-year project this month, 30 percent of campsites in Wisconsin state parks will be electrified. Electric sites are growing in popularity, according to park rangers.
In 2004, Milwaukee Water Works began monitoring drinking water for estrogen and testosterone, flame retardants, pesticides, explosives and pharmaceuticals.
Researchers still don’t know much about the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals and don’t want to cause alarm.
However, many experts are trying to limit their own and their children’s exposure.