Echo

Dead deer believed to have epizootic hemorrhagic disease

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(MI) Flint Journal – Homeowners in the area around Hoisington and Bennett lakes have discovered dozens of dead white-tailed deer in their yards and waterways over the past few weeks. Department of Natural Resources officials say it appears the deer are victims of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD – an acute, infectious and often fatal viral disease that is spread by a biting fly or midge. However, no definitive lab tests have been conducted at this point to confirm it. More

Echo

It’s Easy Being Green

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(NY) The New York Times – It’s important to understand that claims of immense economic damage from climate legislation are as bogus, in their own way, as climate-change denial. Saving the planet won’t come free (although the early stages of conservation actually might). But it won’t cost all that much either. How do we know this? First, the evidence suggests that we’re wasting a lot of energy right now.

Echo

Parks smoking ban justified

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(MI) Traverse City Record Eagle –  It’s not Traverse City’s job to enact smoking bans in order to encourage healthy lifestyles or make sure adults don’t set a bad example for impressionable teens. But it is the city’s job to enact smoking bans to ensure public safety and health on public property. And that must include a smoking ban in city parks. More

Recreation

Bid to sink warship treading water

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(ON) The Kingston Whig – The federal government would love to see the decommissioned HMCS Terra Nova sold to a local diving group that wants to turn it into a diving attraction. But plans to sink the 112-metre anti-submarine destroyer escort near Gananoque are facing an opponent more formidable than anything the ship faced on active service: provincial regulations. Michael Ryan is a member of the Eastern Ontario Artificial Reef Association, a group of divers that has been trying to turn the boat into a diving attraction for several years.  More

Echo

Samples taken from sediment behind Gorge dam

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(OH) Akron Beacon Journal – If the Gorge dam on the Cuyahoga River is to be demolished, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to know first what’s sitting at the bottom of the lake behind it. Is it just mud, or are there dangerous contaminants? More

Land

Tree-trimmers subject of gripes

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(IN) The Post-Tribune – Stories of mangled trees, inadequate notice and little communication from NIPSCO peppered testimony on tree-trimming practices at a public field hearing on Wednesday night at Merrillville High School. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is conducting a series of hearings across the state on the tree-trimming practices of electrical utilities. More

Echo

Unmanned research sub launched in Lake Superior

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – An unmanned research submarine — painted yellow — was launched in Lake Superior this week. The vessel is on a two-week test drive that scientists hope will prove the feasibility of using a submarine to monitor the lake more cheaply and reliably than is possible with manned boats. “It fills a sampling niche by swimming the lake without us having to be out there,” said Jay Austin, a physicist at the University of Minnesota Duluth who is overseeing the sub’s operation. “Being on a boat for two weeks would be terribly expensive.” More

Echo

Report on St. Clair River erosion delayed

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(MI) The Associated Press – A team studying upper Great Lakes levels has postponed a report on whether they have lost excessive amounts of water through an enlarged river channel so the group can have more time for research, officials said Wednesday. The International Upper Great Lakes Study said the document would be released Dec. 1, instead of Oct. 1 as previously scheduled. The delay will give the group more time to evaluate its research and await peer reviews of a preliminary report issued in May, spokesman John Nevin said.

Land

‘Vine that ate the South’ has landed in the Great White North

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(ON) The Toronto Star – Growing by as much as a foot per day, it reaches up hydro poles and across transmission wires, eventually collapsing them under its weight. It overtakes and suffocates trees and crops, pollutes watersheds and costs the U.S. agriculture industry a reported $500-million per year. And now, the perennial and invasive kudzu vine has made it to Canada. The kudzu was discovered two months ago in a small patch, 110 metres wide and 30 metres deep, on a south-facing slope on the shore of Lake Erie near Leamington, Ont., about 50 kilometres east of Windsor. More

Echo

Muskegon adopts rules for wind turbines

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(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – Muskegon city planners are preparing for what could be an onslaught of interest in installing wind turbines in the city as the technology advances and state regulation improves the economics. The Muskegon Planning Commission this month recommended and the Muskegon City Commission this week enacted a series of zoning ordinance amendments to address installation of wind turbines. More