Echo

Inmates harvest food, savings, education and jobs from jail gardens

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Haley Walker
Nov. 20, 2009

James Jiler says the more time prisoners spend in the garden, the less likely they are to repeat an offense. The author and activist has spent years advocating for the benefits of prison horticulture, including making inmates more marketable when they get out. “People are less likely to go back to prison if they come out of it with an education,” Jiler said. “I want them to go home with a skill, and find a purpose in life that is better than making license plates, and learning how to care for the earth is a huge therapeutic benefit that people need.”

Jiler is the founder of the Greenhouse Project, a “jail to street” horticultural training program in the New York City’s Rikers Island Jail system.

Echo

MONDAY MASHUP: Great Lakes Music Map

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By Haley Walker
Nov. 16, 2009
(Editors note: Make your case for a Great Lakes song in the comments and we’ll update this map.)
Becoming a successful musician didn’t require Timothy Monger to move to Los Angeles or New York. Brighton, a southeastern Michigan city of 6,000, is where he was first inspired. It is where he grew up and the place he stayed near. The dream of musical fame often pursued on the East and West coasts was not as great an influence as the Great Lakes – the Third Coast.

Nearshore

Report: Climate change greatest threat to national parks; Indiana Dunes among most at risk

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Click each park to see its threats. View Great Lakes Parks in Peril in a larger map
By Haley Walker and Yang Zhang
Nov. 4, 2009

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is among U.S. national parks most vulnerable to climate change, according to a recent report. The park on the southern end of Lake Michigan faces an increase in flooding, overcrowding and air pollution and a loss of wildlife, plants and fish. Other parks in the Great Lakes region are also at risk of these effects.

Echo

Great Lakes researchers create fruit to meet consumer preferences

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By Haley Marie Walker
Oct. 30, 2009

Jim Luby is a fruit forensics investigator. The University of Minnesota horticulture professor is among 29 researchers on a project using genetics to create fruit with characteristics consumers want. “It is similar to human forensics,” Luby said. “The way we are able to relate differences in DNA from one individual to another, we will now do with differences in traits of fruit.”

The project, called RosBREED, targets five fruits in the Rosaceae plant family: strawberries, apples, peaches and sweet and tart cherries.

Echo

U.S. drivers sat in traffic 4.2 billion hours; Chicago, Detroit most congested in region

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By Haley Walker
October 23, 2009

U.S. drivers as a whole spent the equivalent of 175 million days in traffic jams in 2007, according to a recent report. That’s enough time to listen to War and Peace on your car stereo 160 million times, said the Texas Transportation Institute researchers who published the 2009 Urban Mobility Report. It is a slight drop from 2006. “Congestion went down because of high gas prices in 2007,” said Tim Lomax, research engineer with the transportation institute. While the economy and gas prices slowed congestion in 2007, the 25-year trend shows continual growth.

Echo

Shifting carbon from roads to roofs

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By Haley Walker

Oct. 19, 2009

Planting the rooftops in Detroit has the same environmental benefit as removing 10,000 SUVs off the road, according to a recent study. Michigan State University researchers found that planting vegetation on roofs can store heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. “This study is the first of its kind,” said head researcher Kristin Getter. “We knew these roofs had benefits, but we didn’t know they would be able to store carbon.”

Green roofs have been used to control temperatures, improve storm runoff and increase vegetation and wildlife habitat in urban areas.

Echo

Haley Marie Walker

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E-mail: walkerh4@msu.edu

Haley’s stories on Echo

Haley Marie Walker joined the Great Lakes Echo staff in August 2009. Walker is from St. Augustine, Florida, where has worked Drift Magazine, Close-Up Media Wireless News Service, The Collective Press, and the St. Augustine Record. Throughout her career, she has held positions as editor-in-chief, environmental staff writer, freelance writer and photographer.

Echo

Low oxygen, mercury pollution interaction may pose even greater threat to Great Lakes

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By Haley Walker
Walkerh4@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Oct. 12, 2009

Researchers are studying whether Great Lakes fish contaminated by mercury are threatened more by low oxygen in the water than healthy fish. The International Joint Commission recently recognized runaway plant growth, a cause of low oxygen, as a major Great Lakes problem. The U.S./Canadian commission advises those governments on Great Lakes issues. Low oxygen is called hypoxia, a condition the U.S. Geological Survey says is caused by an increase in nutrients.

Water

Study projects steep Great Lakes water level drop if greenhouse gases remain unchecked

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By Haley Walker
Walkerh4@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 30, 2009

Great Lakes water levels could drop by up to two feet by the turn of the century as temperatures rise, according to a recent series of reports released by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The water decline is a response to global climate change, according to the report by the group of scientists and citizens that advocates for science-based solutions to environmental problems. Warming temperatures reduce ice cover and increase evaporation. Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are projected to have the greatest changes. “Less winter ice and warmer temperatures in the summer could mean a decrease of one to two feet in Great Lake levels by the end of the century,” said Melanie Fitzpatrick a climate scientist with the organization.

Echo

Researchers study environmental impact of free-range pig production

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By Haley Walker
Walkerh4@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 25, 2009

Big Blue, Gus, Chomsky, George and Leonidasto buried their snouts in leafy greens, rolled in the mud, and grunted happily when they arrived recently at Michigan State University’s student organic farm. They had traveled from their birthplace at MSU’s old swine farm to a garden at the university’s organic farm. It was only a physical distance of a few miles, but light years in the way the 6-month-old pigs were raised. These animals are part of a university experiment that will look not only at their growth but also on their impact on the land.