Michigan reduced funding for invasive species projects by $1.2 million. Conservation organizations like the regional Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas (CISMAs) are rethinking their funding priorities for 2026 and beyond.
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Invasive species expert teaches volunteers to overcome ‘plant blindness’
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By Anna Ironside
Carolyn Miller is a botanical technologist at Michigan State University’s W.J. Beal Botanical Garden, as well as a master’s student. Her work has made her a driving force behind restoration projects on campus and beyond. From invasive species removal days to a growing movement to replace traditional turf lawns with native landscapes, Miller doesn’t quit.
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Michigan allocates $77 million to clean thousands of contaminated sites
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By Clara Lincolnhol
Michigan is pouring $77 million into clean-up of contaminated abandoned real estate such as former factories. The director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says the goal is to make the cleaned-up sites safe for housing, commercial developments and other uses.
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Scientists update geological map of northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
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By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva
The U.S. Geological Survey has began large-scale low-level airplane flights over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin to obtain high-resolution data on subsurface mineral structures and bedrock composition. The data will be used to create two- and three-dimensional maps to better understand the geological structure at depths of about 10,000 feet.
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‘Refusal is insisting on your own terms’: Indigenous activism in the Midwest
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By Isabella Figueroa Nogueira
“Indigenous Activism in the Midwest: Refusal, Resurgence and Resisting Settler Colonialism” explores how Dakota and Anishinaabe communities in Minnesota continue their relationships to the land and challenge dominant settler narratives about ownership, belonging and identity.
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Cannabis workers are developing job-related asthma and some have died, study says
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By Clara Lincolnhol
New research says workers picking, grinding and packaging cannabis are developing workplace-related asthma, and two deaths have occurred so far.
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Green clues: Crime-busters turn to moss to help solve crimes
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By Eric Freedman
Tiny pieces of moss can be crime-busters, says a study examining how law enforcement agencies, forensic teams and botanists have used moss to solve murders, track missing people, calculate how long ago someone died and – in a notorious Mason County case – try to locate the body of a baby murdered by her father.
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Anishinaabe fire practices shaped Great Lakes ecosystems, new research shows
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By Victoria Witke
New research shows Anishinaabe fire practices shaped today’s Great Lakes ecosystems. The region’s forests never existed and can’t continue to exist without people – or fire.
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New interest in domestic mining comes with call for sustainability in the market
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By Joe Lorenz
Electrification and tariffs mean rural Midwest communities can cash in on their mineral resources. But how can these ventures balance local benefit to the ecological cost?
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Bear-baiting bear hunting guide hit with hunting ban
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By Eric Freedman
A Wisconsin bear hunting guide has been barred for a year from hunting on federal land. Timothy Collar’s crime: illegal bear baiting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
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Federal wildfire policy sparks debate: timber or trees?
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By Samantha Ku
New federal policy is aimed at addressing the nation’s wildfire crisis by boosting timber production, but some experts say it’s not expected to have a major impact in Michigan.