Echo

New NWF chief to focus on education, outreach, engagement

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The National Wildlife Federation has a new president and CEO. Collin O’Mara was recently in Michigan for an environmental tour of the Detroit Area, and stopped by Current State. For a CEO, he’s fairly young at 30 years old. Current State’s Melissa Benmark asked him what environmental values he brings to this position that might be different than someone in their fifties or sixties. O’Mara says he’s going to try engaging more citizens with nature in a personal way in order to overcome urgent conservation challenges.

Echo

Former Echo reporter scores another national award, gives success formula

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A former Echo writer has won national recognition for a series of environmental stories about the Great Lakes. Brian Bienkowski, now a reporter and editor at Environmental Health News, received second place in a beat reporting category in the contest sponsored by the national Society of Environmental Journalists. The series is called Stories of the Great Lakes’ People, Places and Creatures. Bienkowski, a 2012 graduate of the Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, also received the same award in the same contest last year. While at MSU, he received the center’s Rachel Carson Award for outstanding environmental journalism graduate student.

Echo

Upending the basin: Making data dance

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Last week I covered the release of an animated model of an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac. The greatest question it prompted in my mind: Why didn’t we do that? I’ll grant that the researcher who put that one together had studied Great Lakes currents for 30 years. Journalists aren’t going to replicate that kind of expertise. But journalists aren’t expected to generate the data.

Echo

PSA: Mercury – It’s in the fish

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Mercury has found its way not only into our households, but also into our aquatic environment, according to this public service announcement from the Michigan Department of Community Health. “A person’s susceptibility to being harmed by the mercury in fish depends on their age, current health status, genetics, and chemical exposure history,” said Christina Bush, a health department toxicologist. “Given this complex set of factors, it is not known how much mercury it would take to harm any given individual. MDCH issues Fish Consumption Guidelines to help people choose fish that are low in mercury and safer for consumption by everyone, including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and young children.” The state hosts a website where these guidelines are available.

Echo

Transparency wouldn’t satisfy Joe Rossi, how about you?

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Commentary
Many reporters of my generation went into journalism because of the Watergate scandal. Holding public officials accountable — public service journalism – was the attraction then. So, too, were Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the president’s men, the movie version of that story. Me? I was more of a Lou Grant kind of guy.

Echo

Your turn: grab a hammer and help build Echo’s future

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You are reading a milestone — the 3,000th post on Great Lakes Echo. And we’re celebrating with a new look. Echo recently turned five years old. That’s ancient for Internet publications, particularly those that produce news. But this facelift is no middle-aged desperate grasp to retain youth.

Echo

Kittens, Great Lakes ice and paying for journalism

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Commentary
The local historical society recently hosted a panel discussion of the history of the Lansing (Michigan) State Journal. That’s my local newspaper and I was particularly interested in the event as I had once worked there as an editor. What really caught my interest in a video of the discussion was a longtime State Journal staffer’s explanation of the publication’s increasing use of metrics to measure how news is consumed. She described how a video screen in the newsroom reports and ranks in real time the top 10 stories that people are reading online. Every week reporters get a report of how many people read their stories each day.