Echo

Nominate a cheap outdoor Great Lakes adventure

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With summer approaching are you looking for fun outdoor adventures that don’t burn through your wallet? Three of 21 budget outdoor adventures listed by Outside Magazine are in the Great Lakes states:

Backcountry paddling in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters where Outside prices a night at Canoe On Inn in Ely, fishing licenses, maps, food and even brandy and post-trip dinner at $324. Hiking through the wooden trails of Thompson’s Harbor State Park in Michigan where the magazine says scuba diving at nearby Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a two-night stay at the Cedar Haven Cabin for up to six people, camp provisions and scuba gear all cost $474. Outside budgets Wisconsin’s three-day outfitted Devil’s Lake Multi-Sport trip on the Northwest Passage at $365, including food and equipment. All you need to bring is your sleeping bag.

Echo

Feds demand Chicago River clean-up

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After more than a year of federal requests that state regulators improve the Chicago River, the Obama administration has decided to aggressively intervene by ordering an ambitious sewage treatment program. That’s what Michael Hawthorne reports today in the Chicago Tribune. Part of the plan is a complete overhaul of Chicago’s two largest sewage treatment plants that churn industrial and domestic waste water into the river, Hawthorne reports. The move is the result of what federal officials believe to be massive inaction by Illinois regulators to keep the urban waterway fit for recreation.

Echo

Great Lakes journalists: Can you spare 10 minutes?

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Although I get to be the editor here at Great Lakes Echo, my day job is the associate director at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Echo is among many of the duties I juggle. Another is figuring out ways to help professional journalists/reporters/writers/broadcasters/bloggers/freelancers/communicators better report on the environment. To that end, the Knight Center is involved in a National Science Foundation effort to improve literacy about climate change. We’re part of a regional effort to build and support a network of formal and informal climate change educators.

Echo

Can Great Lakes predators measure up?

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Got a favorite Great Lakes predator? There’s now a forum for you to talk about it. A new website called “Aquatic Predators” lets people discuss aquatic predators from around the world. Animals already featured are as diverse as the great white shark and the African snakehead. Entries native to the Great Lakes, such as the largemouth bass and brown trout, seem rather tame in comparison.

Echo

Handouts keep waterfowl year-round

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By Ellen Mitchell

For Michigan State University junior Kaitlyn Strehl, nothing feels better than getting out of the house and feeding the ducks along the Red Cedar River in East Lansing, Mich. But the activity she shares with others in the Great Lakes region causes problems for wildlife. Ducks don’t naturally stay for a frigid Great Lakes winter, but these stubborn waterfowl will stay put year-round if they have a steady food supply.  As many of their relatives fly south, some ducks brave the cold and stay in northern states due to the promise of food from residents. “It’s pretty much good practice not to feed wild animals,” said Ben Purdy, land management specialist for the Grand Traverse Conservation District, a natural resource management company in Traverse City, Mich. Purdy said ducks in the Great Lakes region naturally feed off the greenery on the bottom of rivers and ponds in the spring and summer.

Echo

Trees for more than climbing, Arbor Day Foundation says

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Stormwater clogs wastewater treatment systems, causing overflows that contaminate beaches and drinking water. It also washes roads, parking lots, and other surfaces of oils, sediment, chemicals and debris that end up in rivers, oceans, lakes and wetlands. Trees can help. A search with the Arbor Day Foundation’s National Tree Benefit Calculator shows how. Type in your zip code and get a list of tree species native to it.

Echo

Echo staff finalists in national award; high fives in order

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Great Lakes Echo may be a young news service — it celebrated its second birthday this past March — but the twos aren’t always terrible. And second in the nation ain’t bad either. Echo reporters Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason were dubbed runner ups for their work on the Great Lakes SmackDown! this past fall.  The series earned second place in the country for the Online Commentary and Opinion category of the Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence Awards.

Echo

Tree cities blooming across Michigan

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More than 100 Michigan communities have been honored under the Tree City USA program that promotes the economic, health and aesthetic benefits of trees on public property.

Michigan cities that won the designation include: Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Allegan, Brighton, Charlevoix, Big Rapids, Ionia and Rockford.