Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/keweir/page/49/)
(MI) Traverse City Record Eagle – The lessons in environmentalism are part of a schoolwide effort to become more ecologically conscious, an initiative that gained recent traction when The Children’s House was awarded state “green school” status. Rapid City Elementary of Kalkaska Public Schools, Mancelona Elementary and Mancelona Middle School share the honor. More
(MI) Grand Rapids Press – When Ron Myszak’s four fishing buddies came to his home on Myers Lake for the start of bass season Saturday, he hoped for pristine boating and angling conditions. “I like to fish, so I like to see a few weeds,” said Myszak, 71, who has lived on the Courtland Township lake for more than four decades. “Yet they do a good job of keeping it clean after they treat the lake.” Weed-control crews were on Myszak’s lake last week for the first of several herbicide treatments, a process that hundreds of local lakes and ponds will undergo this spring as boaters, swimmers and fishing enthusiasts return to the water. More
(MI) The Detroit News – While Michigan struggles with a 12 percent unemployment rate — one of the highest in the nation — great strides are being taken to retrain our work force for the green jobs of the future and get us back to work. And these efforts will have lasting impacts on the quality of our land, air and water. Driving investment in clean energy technologies will create tens of thousands of high-paying American jobs — jobs that can’t be outsourced. And we need those jobs now more than ever. Michigan’s recently released Green Jobs Report shows we already have 109,067 green jobs.
(MI) The Detroit News – All three peregrine falcon chicks — Tucker, Wetzel and Cass — were named after officials with the state’s Department of Natural Resources and the Detroit Zoological Society tagged them with identification bands and gave them a quick physical Wednesday morning. The chicks live with their parents, Nick and Hathor, in an aerie, or nesting site, on an 11th floor ledge of the old County Building, 10 N. Main at Cass in downtown Mount Clemens. The ledge is on the building’s northwest corner. More
(MI) Booth Newspapers – The federal government will speed up a long-delayed assessment of how dioxins affect human health, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. Lisa Jackson promised the quickened timetable while announcing a revised strategy for planning the cleanup of one of the nation’s biggest dioxin pollution zones: a 50-mile section of Lake Huron watershed near a Dow Chemical Co. plant in Michigan. Dow has acknowledged responsibility for the pollution. Dioxins are toxic byproducts from manufacturing chemicals.
(IL) Chicago Tribune – Once championed as a cutting-edge solution to the region’s waste problems, a towering machine built to cook Chicago’s sewage into fertilizer is scheduled for its first test next month off the Stevenson Expressway in west suburban Stickney. In an odd twist, however, officials at the government agency that contracted to build the project’s 60-foot-tall sludge ovens now quietly hope the machine fails. Cryptically nicknamed the “Black Box,” the project ultimately could cost taxpayers $217 million, but staff at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District recently concluded that the project isn’t needed to dispose of the district’s waste. They have begun exploring ways to get out of the contract and its steep price tag, which keeps growing as consultant fees and other costs pile up. More
(OH) The Toledo Blade – Though the Great Lakes have been the driving force behind many environmental laws since the early 1970s, they soon may undergo a moderate shift in how they’re researched and regulated for future generations. Some scientists who attended last week’s International Association of Great Lakes Research conference at the University of Toledo said they’re eager to move on to a new suite of chemicals and a broader array of studies about how the lakes can affect human health, both physically and psychologically. More
(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Jody Barbeau wades into a shallow pond in woods less than a mile from shoppers at Mayfair Mall and commuters on congested U.S. Highway 45 – to glimpse a bustling community of other creatures. Two mallard ducks cautiously paddle away from Barbeau, but there is no indication of aquatic life until he lifts a net out of the water. Reddish dots on the fabric are water mites, he said. More
(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – A “Honk if you need help” sign and free-roaming chickens and cats serve as the welcoming committee at Stone Road Eco Farm. Owners Tom and Laura VandenBosch are usually busy working somewhere on the farm, but they are laid-back folks who enjoy visitors. For the last three growing seasons, they have tried to make a living by opening their farm to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – Consumers Energy customers will begin paying more on their bills to help pay for the utility’s efforts to reach the state-mandated requirement of generating 10% of its power from renewable energy sources. Electricity customers will begin seeing a $2.50 monthly surcharge on their September bills to support Consumers’ Renewable Energy Plan, which calls for 900 megawatts of electricity coming from wind power by 2015. The utility plans to build between 250 and 500 wind turbines in Mason and Tuscola counties to generate 450 megawatts of power. The rest is to be purchased from contractors. More