Three high school students looking at pond samples.
Wildlife

Skyline’s lost salamanders: Forgotten wetlands and the fight for restoration

By |

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. 

Black bear walking through a forest.
Wildlife

Michigan black bears move south 

By |

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.

Firefighters fighting a wildfire.
Land

State asks residents to prepare their homes for wildfires 

By |

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.