Echo

Can you pronounce Great Lakes cities better than a Texan?

By |

If you want to see traces of a region’s native inhabitants, look no farther than the names of its cities. Consider the Lake Superior coastal city Waukesha, Wis., named for the Chippewa or Ojibwe word for “little fox.”

The original Chippewa word most likely sounded like Wau-goosh-sha, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s state dictionary. Today, it sounds like Wok-a-shaw. It’s one of many Great Lakes city monikers originating from native languages. It’s also on my personal list of regional words specifically designed to torture Texans like myself.

Echo

Attacking nonpoint pollution at source

By |

Runoff from urban and agricultural activities has a bad rap–a recent white paper said nonpoint source pollution accounts for 76 percent of Great Lakes water pollution. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said nonpoint pollution can range from “lawn chemicals, fertilizers, road salts and petroleum products to sediment (dirt) and excessive nutrients from cities, malfunctioning home-sewage treatment systems and livestock operations.”

Ohio is taking the problem into its own hands to clean up Lake Erie. But how do you attack the source when you don’t know where it is? An easy answer: educate the humans. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources granted $75,000 toward three coastal nonpoint pollution education specialists in Lake, Lucas and Ottawa counties.

Echo

Technology: Virtual tweets prompt listening for real ones

By |

So many people didn’t get outdoors prior to 2007 that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources asked why. What’s keeping Minnesotans away? Lack of time, equipment, outdoor skills and event information, they say. Maybe that’s because kids aged eight to 18 years old average seven hours and 38 minutes per day on their cell phones, iPods, computers and televisions, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study. The department announced recently that plans developed after the department’s study to get people outside have worked.

Echo

VIDEO: Smart policy can mitigate Great Lakes farm pollution

By |

In the last segment of a three-part video series on Great Lakes dead zones, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute director Don Scavia discusses federal policy and economic constraints to addressing agricultural contamination in the Great Lakes. Scavia and Pete Richards, senior research scientist at Heidelberg University in Ohio, recently hosted a workshop on clues about why the rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise in the Great Lakes watershed. Part I is here. Part II is here. This workshop was part of the Agricultural Conference on the Environment held at The Lansing Center on Jan.

Echo

Indiana Fish of the Year

By |

The longest fish caught in Indiana last year reached nearly to my shoulders. It was a 48-inch blue catfish wrangled by David Ben Mullen in the Ohio River. The catch was recorded in Indiana’s “Fish of the Year,” a contest where fisherman attempt to catch the longest fish of certain species. Fish like Lake Michigan’s brown trout, the longest of which was recorded at 31.5 inches (nearly to up to my hip) caught by David Kniola. Or a 21.5-inch (just above the knee) smallmouth bass caught by Brooke Lingerfel in the Brookville Reservoir.

Echo

Are you hot? Then you probably believe in global warming

By |

Are you hot, as in, feeling warm? Then according to research out of the University of Chicago and University of California Berkley you may be more likely to believe in global warming. The study, published last month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that if people feel warmer, like sitting in a hot room, they’re more likely to believe in the climactic change. They found this out by placing people answering the questionnaires in cubicles, some of which were overheated. The researchers say that people placed in the hot cubicles may have had “a sharper mental image of what a hot world would be like.”

Hmm… if that’s a solution to get a consensus on climate change — I suggest that everyone go to a sauna immediately.

Echo

Great Lakes SmackDown! Part II; Join us in the draft for terrestrial invaders

By |

By Alice Rossignol and Rachael Gleason

Let’s get ready to rumbleeeee! Last year we introduced the Great Lakes SmackDown!, an interactive feature that pitted eight aquatic invasive species against each other in science-based “lake fights” to determine the region’s most destructive invader. Experts and readers weighed in on which species they thought was the worst for the lakes. In the end, the quagga mussel prevailed with a nasty filter-feeding addiction and a problem with hoarding toxins. But this time around we’re going terrestrial: birds, mammals, insects and all sorts of plants.

Echo

In search of transparency

By |

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an interesting take last week on a Feb. 3 report out of the International Upper Great Lakes Study board. The news story questioned whether the report provided an unbiased view, and quoted one person confused over whether the information represented a “straight-up” news piece.  You can read reporter Dan Egan’s take here. Echo reporter Jeff Gillies, who had referenced the IJC report in a post the day before, disagreed with that assessment.

Echo

VIDEO: Research sheds light on Lake Erie water quality

By |

In the second segment of a three-part video series on Great Lakes dead zones, Heidelberg University senior research scientist Pete Richards discusses recent research on the role of dissolved phosphorous and why it may be causing new problems. Richards focuses on Lake Erie, which has a long history of high algal growth and low oxygen.

Part I of the series is here. Part III is here. Richards and Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute director Don Scavia recently hosted a workshop on new clues about why the rates of agricultural nutrients are on the rise in the Great Lakes watershed. This workshop was part of the Agricultural Conference on the Environment held at The Lansing Center on Jan. 27.

Echo

Celebrate Valentine’s Day on a frigid Great Lakes beach

By |

By Mallory McKnight

How is a modern Great Lakes girl – jaded by chocolates, roses and candlelight — to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a thoroughly original way? Old stand-by getaways include the ski lodge, urban hotel room or rustic bed and breakfast. But one destination that usually gets left off the list is a no-brainer for Great Lakes residents any other time of the year. There are 10,368 miles of shoreline along the entire Great Lakes basin, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. There’s no reason that entire beautiful coastline should be a vacation destination only four months out of the year.