Echo

Cascade Township slows park planning

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(MI) The Grand Rapids Press – More than 60 Cascade residents, mostly neighbors of a proposed 80-acre park, convinced township officials Wednesday to slow down development plans for the park to be located on the former Leslie E. Tassell estate. Residents who successfully fought a condominium development on the same property last year complained Wednesday at a public input session on a draft plan for the park that they hadn’t been included in the park’s development process.

Echo

Rainwater in sewage system caused overflow

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(MI) Holland Sentinel – Rainwater infiltrating the separate sanitary sewer system in Holland, combined with power outages, led to the overflow of more than a million gallons of untreated sewage into Lake Macatawa on Saturday. Holland’s stormwater sewer lines are designed for rain, while sanitary sewers capture material from drains in homes and businesses. More

Echo

Wind energy companies test waters for offshore projects

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – The federal government on Tuesday issued its first exploratory leases for wind energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf, the first step of what could be a race to harness the powerful Atlantic winds not far from major population centers on the East Coast. The leases will allow wind companies to build testing stations on federal land off the New Jersey and Delaware coasts. Research already has shown that the Northeast has relatively shallow water and few strong hurricanes, which make it a good candidate for existing offshore wind technology. More

Echo

The Green Revolution(s)

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(NY) The New York Times –  End our addiction to the oil that funds Iran’s Islamic dictatorship. Launching a real Green Revolution in America would be the best way to support the “Green Revolution” in Iran. Oil is the magic potion that enables Iran’s turbaned shahs – “Shah Khamenei” and “Shah Ahmadinejad” – to snub their noses at the world and at many of their own people as well.  More

Echo

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

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(NY) New York Times – As early as this week, though, an American start-up company, AltaRock Energy, will begin to drill deep into ground laced with fault lines in an area two hours’ drive north of San Francisco. Residents of the region, which straddles Lake and Sonoma Counties, have already been protesting swarms of smaller earthquakes set off by a less geologically invasive set of energy projects there. AltaRock officials said that they chose the spot in part because the history of mostly small quakes reassured them that the risks were limited. More

Echo

Erin Brockovich will return to Fennville to discuss investigation into Birds Eye plant

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(MI) The Grand Rapids Press – Environmental crusader Erin Brockovich is scheduled to return to Fennville next week to discuss water contamination allegedly coming from the Birds Eye food processing plant. Brockovich, who inspired the 2000 namesake movie starring Julia Roberts, will hold a community meeting regarding Birds Eye, the town’s major employer, which is accused of spraying wastewater from its fruit-processing operation that has led to high levels of arsenic, iron and manganese in the wells of about 50 nearby homeowners. More

Echo

St. Lawrence Seaway at 50: A bypass for Buffalo’s port

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(NY) The Buffalo News – In the shadow of Bethlehem Steel’s empty coke ovens and the new towering windmills generating electricity, the crew of the Port of Buffalo was busy loading limestone onto a ship last week. The freighter was one of the 25 to 30 vessels that dock each year at the privately owned port, which handles about 600,000 tons of bulk material a year. More

Land

Ann Arbor residents question removal of massive maple tree

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(MI) Ann Arbor News – Several residents on Ann Arbor’s west side are angry a massive silver maple tree they believe was healthy was cut down by city foresters. More distressing, they say, is that the 4-foot diameter tree on Charlton Street in the Virginia Park neighborhood was a casualty in a larger pattern. The group believes trees are being removed by default, rather than after efforts to save them. More

Wildlife

Beware! Food will attract yearling cubs

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – The state Department of Natural Resources last week reminded northern Michigan residents that yearling bear cubs are on the loose — and that means extra precautions. This is the time of year mother bears leave their cubs in preparation for the breeding season. The young bears are attracted to food sources in yards. More

Recreation

DNR planning significant expansion of Pike Lake area

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – The Pike Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest – a popular hiking and camping destination just 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee – would be expanded nearly fivefold in the future to protect the headwaters of the Ashippun River and possibly provide hunting opportunities, under a draft master plan for the unit. The developing plan also recommends construction of a ramp for launching boats with motors – the first access for motorboats on the property since it opened as a state park in 1971, said Therese Gripentrog, a landscape architect with the state Department of Natural Resources in Milwaukee. The park was designated as a unit of the state forest in 1997. More