Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/category/land/page/45/)
This category encompasses land-based issues. It is further segregated with tags into such issues as farm, urban redevelopment or decay, forest, mining.
(MI) Ann Arbor News – Several residents on Ann Arbor’s west side are angry a massive silver maple tree they believe was healthy was cut down by city foresters. More distressing, they say, is that the 4-foot diameter tree on Charlton Street in the Virginia Park neighborhood was a casualty in a larger pattern. The group believes trees are being removed by default, rather than after efforts to save them. More
(IL) The Chicago Tribune – BP is facing new questions about its Whiting refinery from federal environmental regulators, who accused the company Thursday of starting a project to process heavy Canadian oil three years before it obtained the necessary permit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cited the Midwest’s largest refinery with significantly increasing air pollution linked to asthma, heart disease and early deaths as a result of the project, though the agency did not quantify the amount.Regulators said BP’s actions are troublesome because northwest Indiana, like other parts of the Chicago area, already violates federal standards for harmful smog and soot pollution. The complaint comes a year after the Tribune reported that Indiana regulators had allowed BP to dump more water pollution into Lake Michigan from its Whiting refinery, about 15 miles southeast of downtown Chicago. More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – In a new vision of Detroit’s future, a team of visiting urban planners suggests the city might one day resemble the English countryside, with distinct urban villages surrounded by farms, fields and meadows. The idea may sound improbable, but Alan Mallach, a New Jersey-based planner who led the visiting team, said Detroit is evolving in that direction anyway, with large chunks of the city now largely abandoned. More
(MI) Booth Newspapers – Charles Poat is an architect and senior project manager with the Mannik & Smith Group in Canton. He’s also chairperson of the Detroit Regional Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. “It’s really easy to part of an association that’s associated with green and the environment,” says Poat. “Our membership has quadrupled in the last year.” The Detroit chapter is hosting the Greening the Heartland Conference in Detroit May 31 through June 2.
(MI) Detroit Free Press – The Detroit-based Self-Help Addiction Rehabilitation Inc. (SHAR), a nonprofit drug rehab center funded by the state and others, is proposing that it be given up to 2,000 acres of vacant city-owned land to farm. The project, known as Recovery Park, would have the dual purpose of teaching addicts therapeutic and marketable skills and rehabbing the city itself, said SHAR’s chief executive, Dwight Vaughter. More
(MI) Detroit Free Press – Ever wondered what it takes to open up a park, ever wondered why close a park? Well, Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, which is 70 miles from its mainland headquarters in Houghton, is closed to visitors from Nov. 1 to May 1 every year. This is due to the isolation factor and the severe weather and lake conditions during the long winters, which make it virtually inaccessible. The only exception is for scientists and park staff who participate in the wolf-moose study, which takes place annually from January through early March.
(MI) Detroit Free Press – Clinton Township lawyer Greg Buss imagines walking out the back door of his office to picnic under the trees along the Clinton River. “I’d like to be able to look out there and see the deer. You do see some fox down there,” said Buss, who practices real estate law from an office about a mile from the planned site of a new eco-friendly office building he plans to build. “It’s pretty cool to do something that’s good for the environment.” More
(NY) New York Times – The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified. At first they suspected the turkey. Then they considered the peas, carrots and potatoes. The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a “kill step,” to wipe out any lingering microbes.