Chestnut farmers cope with lower yields

Michigan’s chestnut growers are facing the same problems other fruit growers confront this year.

The early surge of temperatures in March and the inevitable cold weather in April and May curtailed nut production, just as it did for apples and cherries.

Mild winter, early runoff spur swirling sediment in Lake Erie

A mild winter left Lake Erie nearly ice-free. On the first day of spring last week, a NASA satellite snapped a picture of the southern Great Lakes region and showed sediment clouding up the shallow lake. The colors in the image are accurate. The tan colored-water swirling around the shoreline is sediment rushing in from streams and rivers. The warm winter brought more rainfall than snow, so there was increased runoff.