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Real Christmas trees go green, fakes won’t decompose

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By EMILY LAWLER
Dec. 21, 2009

LANSING, Mich. — One way to “go green” may be to chop down a real Christmas tree this year. There is debate nationally over whether artificial or natural trees are better for the environment, but some experts say that real trees are always the answer in Michigan. “In terms of carbon balance, using real trees would be more environmentally friendly,” said Alan Rebertus, a biology professor at Northern Michigan University.

Land

Michigan boosts wood exports

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By Caitlin Costello
Dec. 12, 2009
LANSING, Mich. – A 40-foot crate is packed with northern Michigan white cedar panels and siding ready to be shipped to Korea by Boyne Falls-based Town & Country Cedar Products. The company started exporting a year ago to expand its customer base after economic downturns forced the industry to “look at changing the way they do business in order to survive,” said national sales manager Mike Rathbun. Strong personal business relationships are important for international marketing.

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Swap a used coat for admission to state parks in Michigan

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By Caitlin Costello
Nov. 27, 2009
LANSING, Mich. – The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Salvation Army’s Coats for Kids program are helping families bundle up and enjoy Michigan’s outdoors. Coats for Kids encourages the public to bring gently used coats to one of 16 state parks on Saturday, Dec. 5 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. In return, donors will receive free entrance to the park for the day.

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Light rail plans would serve downtown Detroit and connect city to Ann Arbor, Traverse City

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By Adam DeLay
Nov. 15, 2009
LANSING, Mich. — Southeast Michigan officials are pushing for a commuter rail connecting Ann Arbor and Detroit, as well as a light rail running between downtown Detroit and the New Center area along Woodward Avenue. Kirk Steudle, director of the Department of Transportation, said the projects have the potential to offer better options to travelers in the area. “Gas prices hit $4 a gallon last year and will go up again,” he said.

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Welcome to Milliken State Park

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – This park is the perfect way to honor the former governor, who was devoted to protecting Michigan’s natural resources and to ensuring public access to them — at the same time championing the state’s cities, especially Detroit; hence his “odd couple” relationship, as he called it, with Coleman Young. Milliken said he was far happier to have a park named after him than a building somewhere in Lansing. But he was at his best discussing how bad various kinds of divisiveness have been for Michigan and for metro Detroit. More

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Rising threat of food-borne illness lurks in packages of leafy greens

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – A growing threat for food-borne illnesses comes attractively packaged, is stunningly convenient and is increasingly popular with shoppers looking for healthy meals: ready-to-eat leafy greens that make putting together a green salad as easy as opening a bag. Though beef and poultry are a more frequent source of food-related outbreaks than produce, the number of outbreaks tied to lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, whether fresh-cut or whole, has been rising over the last two decades, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. On Tuesday, researchers with the group called leafy greens the riskiest food regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, with 363 outbreaks linked to those foods from 1990 to 2006. (Meat is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.) More

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Detroit, Oakland stall transit plan

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Macomb County commissioners last week took the lead on transit — and regional cooperation — by approving a road map for a Regional Transit Authority. Unfortunately, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing are still largely MIA. Foot-dragging seems to be the one thing Michigan’s richest county and largest city can do in lockstep. While hardly unprecedented, their inaction in this instance is putting all of southeast Michigan at risk. More

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Tree-trimmers subject of gripes

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(IN) The Post-Tribune – Stories of mangled trees, inadequate notice and little communication from NIPSCO peppered testimony on tree-trimming practices at a public field hearing on Wednesday night at Merrillville High School. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is conducting a series of hearings across the state on the tree-trimming practices of electrical utilities. More

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‘Vine that ate the South’ has landed in the Great White North

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(ON) The Toronto Star – Growing by as much as a foot per day, it reaches up hydro poles and across transmission wires, eventually collapsing them under its weight. It overtakes and suffocates trees and crops, pollutes watersheds and costs the U.S. agriculture industry a reported $500-million per year. And now, the perennial and invasive kudzu vine has made it to Canada. The kudzu was discovered two months ago in a small patch, 110 metres wide and 30 metres deep, on a south-facing slope on the shore of Lake Erie near Leamington, Ont., about 50 kilometres east of Windsor. More

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Great Lakes cities not so walkable; rate your own community with this widget

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Find out your home’s Walk Score:

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
August 19, 2009
Great Lakes Echo

Despite rising gas prices and growing concern over greenhouse gases, many Great Lakes residents find it difficult to leave their cars at home. The Web site www.walkscore.com ranked the walkability of 40 large cities across the United States. Of the five Great Lakes cities that were examined, only Chicago made the top ten. So what makes a city walkable? Dan Burden says a walkable community is “built around the human foot.”  He founded Walkable Communities Inc. and has worked with cities nationwide to identify trouble and encourage pedestrian-oriented development.  Burden is also on the board of advisers for Walkscore.com.