Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/prominence/category-featured/page/11/)
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By Emilio Perez Ibarguen
Now that Memorial Day is behind us, thoughts naturally turn to summer and the return of watersports on the Great Lakes, but Michiganders tempted to take a dip in those inviting waters now might be in for a chilly surprise. Slowed by a cold May, the Great Lakes are slightly cooler than usual for this time of year.
By Isabella Figueroa
In a new book, archeologists who study past societies of the Great Lakes and Midwest agree “you are what you eat,” but they say there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s also how we eat: the ways we “prepare, cook and consume” those foods are influenced by our history, family and natural environment.The book’s essays use the concept of cuisine to go beyond ingredients when studying thousand-year old foodways in regions that now make up Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and other states.
By Clara Lincolnhol
A very round white throated sparrow is the heavyweight champion of the 2025 Wisconsin Fat Bird Week contest. The bird, coined the “spherical white-throated sparrow,” won by a landslide, receiving 72% of the vote in the final round against its nearest competitor, a “rotund ruby-throated hummingbird.”
By Ashley Han and Olivia Watters
Can two animals look the same, act the same, even share a mother and yet be two different species? You can find an answer in a very particular kind of salamander which resides in the Skyline High School wetlands: the LJJ unisexual hybrid salamanders. These salamanders are akin to legend in this Ann Arbor school’s halls. Ask around and you’ll get a dozen different answers to what these creatures are, why they matter –and where they’ve gone.
By Ashley Han and Olivia Watters
Every year, Skyline High School students go salamander hunting. AP Environmental Sciences (APES) students in this Ann Arbor school have heard too much about the school wetlands’ rare salamanders to not investigate for themselves. When construction for Skyline broke ground in 2004, it revealed a rare population of LJJ unisexual hybrid salamanders – first incorrectly thought to be silvery salamanders.
By Gray Longcore
“There’s bears here?” That was a common response this spring to the first public display of photos of a black bear taken from trail cameras just a half-hour drive from downtown Lansing. These sightings are part of a recent southward push of black bears in Michigan.
By Joshua Kim
Water quality experts are using DNA tools to track down contamination responsible for beach closures and reduced recreational opportunities along the Great Lakes and other Michigan inland lakes and streams.
By Victoria Witke Catch and release ethics is credited for the fact that smallmouth bass in Lake St. Clair have been getting larger over the past 50 years, a DNR study finds. Other factors may include warming Great Lakes water temperatures and longer growing seasons due to climate change.
By Kayte Marshall
It only takes a sunny afternoon, a yard full of dead leaves and one bad decision to turn spring cleaning into a wildfire. The DNR and National Fire Protection Association are advising homeowners to fight fire with foresight this year, especially in Northern Michigan where winter storms left massive amounts of flammable debris and dead trees on the ground.
By Clara Lincolnhol Many Ontario farmers acknowledge the positive benefits of sustainable farming practices but don’t have the manpower to actually adopt them, according to a study published by the University of Waterloo.