Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/author/rachaelgleason/page/5/)
Rachael Gleason is a graduate of the Michigan State University and Knight Center for Environmental Journalism master's program. Rachael edited EJ Magazine and reported for Great Lakes Echo for two years. She currently focuses on water privatization issues. Rachael was quiz editor, SmackDown! editor and had a standing feature called Monday Mashup, where she reviewed interactive maps of the Great Lakes region. Rachael is originally from Texas, where she worked as a reporter, photographer and desk editor for several years. In addition to working for the daily newspaper of Huntsville, Rachael also worked as a business reporter for The Houston Chronicle, the newspaper of her hometown. Office: (517) 432-5155 Twitter: @rachaelgleason
“The glaciers made you, and now you’re mine” is a song lyric from a Canadian folk rock band called the Great Lakes Swimmers. The song – “Your Rocky Spine” – is a metaphoric love poem about the region. The words perfectly capture the affinity I now feel for Lake Michigan. A wilderness writing course brought me face to face with a Great Lake for the first time in my life last weekend. We camped at Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area in Manistee, Mich.
What happens when you let several storytellers wander a Great Lakes island for a year? You get videos, pictures and words that capture its vulnerability to the outside world. Belle Island Revealed, a yearlong project by the Detroit Free Press, examines the threat of invasive plants and animals to the city’s 1,000-acre park and how volunteers are trying to restore it. Belle Island is located within the Detroit River; it’s known as the jewel of Detroit. Videos on the website show how Free Press videographer Brian Kaufman captured the island’s sights and sounds.
An interactive map from the Indiana Geological Survey shows a string of scenic beaches and natural areas along Indiana’s Great Lakes shoreline.
Planes outfitted with lasers have been probing the depths of Lake Superior for the past two months. Their mission? Measure lake bottom elevations along the coast using a laser surveying technique called LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging. The process is similar to how bats and dolphins use sound waves to judge distances. The planes shoot lasers into the water and measure how long it takes for the pulses to hit lake bottom and return; time indicates water depth.
Sierra Magazine recently ranked the nation’s greenest colleges. The Sierra Club’s publication asked 900 schools about their global warming and sustainability initiatives.
If you unraveled the shoreline of the Great Lakes, it would just fall short of stretching half way around the Earth. The region has more than 10,000 miles of coast, and a good portion is open to the public for recreation.
Many states have interactive maps that display water trails – water routes for boaters and paddlers – and provide information about beach access and amenities.
The world’s largest medical library mapped Environmental Protection Agency data on toxic releases and Superfund sites to illustrate their impact on public health.
Roughly 7,400 industrial facilities in the Great Lakes region reported the release of toxic chemicals in 2008, according to EPA data.
Last month Echo reported that Great Lakes migratory birds are threatened by the Gulf oil spill. Regional bird expert Francie Cuthbert, a University of Minnesota professor, was busy with fieldwork when we tried to reach her then. But she got back with us for this update:
Female Great Lakes piping plovers will head south for the winter ahead of the males in a couple weeks. Since nothing is cleaned up, they will almost certainly be affected by the spill, Cuthbert says. She expects only a small percentage of plovers that come in contact with the oil to survive.
A biological control facility in Brighton, Mich. produces thousands of tiny, stingless wasps each week that will target invasive emerald ash borers.
Researchers are increasingly recruiting different wasp warriors in the battle against the emerald ash borer, a destructive, tree-eating beetle that has infiltrated the entire Great Lakes region.
Costly insecticides, tree-removal strategies and bans on moving firewood have provided some defense against the critter.
But a bug-on-bug battle strategy appears to hold promise.