By Lillian Williams
The shrinking number of farms in Michigan – down by about 1,300 between 2023 and 2024 – and the trend of existing farms to expand to survive is changing the culture of rural communities.
Land
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.
Land
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.
Land
‘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.
Land
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.
Land
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.
Land
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.
Land
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?
Land
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.
Land
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.
Land
Michigan is selling over 120 plots of land. Why?
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By Emilio Perez Ibarguen
Lakefront property in Wexford County, 40-plus acres of forested land in the Upper Peninsula and a tiny island sitting in the middle of Lake Ponemah are up for grabs this year. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is auctioning off those and over 100 other “surplus properties” that officials say are better off in private hands, with the proceeds helping the state acquire more useful land.