Recreation

Michigan’s winter festivals adapt as warmer winters test traditions

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By Donté Smith

Capital News Service

With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasting “warmer-than-average” temperatures for parts of the Great Lakes, Michigan’s winter festivals from Metro Detroit to the Western Upper Peninsula are preparing to adapt. Many, such as Detroit’s Noel Night, Grand Haven’s Winterfest, the Magical Christmas Parade in Zeeland and Holland’s Winter Dutch Fest, count on seasonal cold to enhance their winter ambiance and allure. Detroit resident Dorrian Brooks, a frequent winter festivalgoer, reflected on warmer weather’s impact on these long-standing traditions. “It’s disheartening to imagine a winter festival without the cold and snow – recent warmer winters make the atmosphere feel muted,” she said. According to the National Weather Service, Metro Detroit recorded its fourth-warmest winter on record last year, with average December temperatures rising from 33 degrees in 2022 to 40 degrees in 2023.

Recreation

Audit: Michigan must do better monitoring recreational trails

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By Eric Freedman

Capital News Service

Michigan boasts thousands of miles of trails for snowmobilers, hikers, off-road vehicle operators, dog-walkers, bicyclists, snowshoers and horseback riders, but the Department of Natural Resources needs to improve how it monitors them. That’s the conclusion of the state Auditor General’s Office, which said DNR fell short in monitoring and inspecting the trail system. The office is a nonpartisan legislative agency that assesses how well state programs and departments operate. Its report also said DNR should do better in communicating with county sheriffs’ departments on funding for trail-related law enforcement and safety. The Auditor General said the department failed to notify sheriffs’ offices about $180,000 in additional funding that the Legislature authorized for ORV law enforcement grants in fiscal year 2023.

Water

How a famous Great Lakes shipwreck became trendy on TikTok

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By Clara Lincolnhol

As the gales of November approach, social media users are channeling a famous Great Lakes shipwreck as tongue-in-cheek inspiration for a new fall aesthetic. It began with a video comedian Django Gold posted to TikTok in September. “Brat Summer is over. It’s time for Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Fall,” Gold says in the short video, which has nearly 23,000 likes. Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” plays in the background.

Land

Students at Michigan State and Wisconsin win EPA funding for environmental health innovations

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By Isabella Figueroa

Student researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin are among the winners of an Environmental Protection Agency contest for innovations in sustainability. Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor of packaging at Michigan State, brainstorms with his team

The EPA established the People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition to support teams of undergraduate and graduate students working to develop solutions to environmental and public health challenges. The latest round of grants, announced in September, provided around $100,000 each for teams that previously received up to $25,000 from the agency for promising projects. Michigan State’s team is working to create more sustainable materials for disposable cups, takeout containers and other single-use items. Today many of those products are made with microplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” due to their extremely slow breakdown in the environment. The team is developing fiber-based and paper packaging that works as well as plastic without using harmful substances.

Land

Lawmakers plan bills to protect Michigan sand dunes

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Michigan’s towering freshwater sand dunes make up a one-of-a-kind natural resource and the largest collection of freshwater dunes on the planet. But environmentalists say the state’s legal protections are vague and leave the beloved dunes—and homes nestled among them—vulnerable to shortsighted development. A pair of West Michigan lawmakers seek to solve these problems with planned legislation to protect the state’s most sensitive dunes. The bills apply to areas that the Legislature designated as “critical dunes” in 1989. “They found that certain dunes were a unique, irreplaceable and fragile resource that provides significant recreational, economic, scientific, geological, scenic, botanical, educational, agricultural and ecological benefits,” said Emily Smith, land and water conservation policy manager at the Michigan Environmental Council.

Land

Industry opposition, partisan politics slow polluter-pay bills

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By Elinor Epperson

Capital News Service

It’s been one year since Michigan Democrats introduced legislation that would significantly change the state’s environmental regulations. But those bills are stuck in committee. Election distractions, negotiation, and a slim Democratic majority in the state House have kept a suite of polluter-pay bills in limbo, according to environmental advocates and one of the  sponsors. Polluter-pay laws hold businesses financially liable for contamination they cause. Lawmakers introduced the bills a year ago, but they haven’t made much progress since.

Land

Efforts to bridge digital divide expand in Michigan’s rural areas

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By Donté Smith

Capital News Service

The digital divide remains a pressing issue for Michigan’s rural communities, where broadband access lags due to challenging geography and limited infrastructure. Jason Hamel, the operations manager and product assembler for Hower Tree Baler Corp. in Merritt, says current dial-up connection speeds in the area “aren’t worth it.”

“It was much faster to sit by a window to try and pull something up on our phone than it was to use our dial-up connection,” said Hamel. “Spectrum’s high-speed internet has streamlined things and improved our workflow.”

Spectrum, the nation’s leading rural internet provider, has focused its efforts in areas like Merritt and Cadillac, where connectivity gaps are common. The company recently expanded its reach to 34,000 homes and businesses across Michigan in 2023, aiming to bridge the divide through targeted rural construction projects, says Mike Hogan, the senior director for public relations in the company’s Great Lakes Region.

Land

Animal shelters struggle with challenges

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By Victor Wooddell

Capital News Service

Animal shelters in Michigan are at capacity, even while facing staff and resource shortages. According to experts, more animals are being abandoned and too few pet owners are having their animals spayed or neutered. In 2020, adoption rates soared due to pandemic-related stay-at-home orders across the country, according to an article in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine. A study by the American Humane Association found a dramatic increase in the rate at which previously adopted animals are being returned. Shelter directors in Michigan say that results in long waiting lists for kennel space and more abandoned animals, with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic making the situation worse.

Land

An uncommon wildfire season is exceeding averages 

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By Gabriel S. Martinez

Capital News Service

An unusually busy fall fire season in Michigan has produced more than double the seasonal wildfires originally anticipated so far. About 100 prescribed burns are scheduled on both state and federal land for next year to help reduce damage from future wildfires. According to the state Department of Natural Resources, dry debris is the main cause of wildfires this year, contributing to about 58 more wildfires and 255 more acres burned in September and October than the usual fall average. Jeff Vasher, a DNR fire specialist, said the lack of moisture is a factor in the high number of wildfires. The Ottawa National Forest in the Upper Peninsula reported that the Summit Lake wildfire, started by dry wood underneath the forest floor on Oct.

Energy

Crescent Wind Farm fuels push for greener Michigan

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By Donté Smith

Capital News Service

In the rolling farmland of southern Michigan’s Hillsdale County, the Crescent Wind Farm towers over the landscape, generating renewable energy while stirring both hope and contention among residents. The wind farm, operated by Consumers Energy in Adams, Moscow and Wheatland townships, is part of the state’s growing push to meet aggressive clean energy targets. Yet the path from concept to completion was far from smooth. Crescent, with 60 wind turbines and a capacity of 166 megawatts, has been supplying electricity to homes since it started running in early 2021. That’s enough to power about 75,000 homes.