Echo
Commentary: Walking through change
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Going back home is so much more than reuniting with my family – it’s reuniting with the environment I grew up in.
Climate
Commentary: Global warming, climate change and my ice cream
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Situated at the end of town by the Flat River, Ball’s Softee Creme is the perfect place to grab an ice cream cone with friends during the summer months. However, climate change has summer shops like Ball’s Softee Creme opening two months earlier than years prior.
Commentary
December: A Visit to the Museum of Ice
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When we were thinking about a new museum devoted to one of the most beautiful and interesting things on our planet – ice – we had to think hard about how best to display and preserve this delicate substance. So welcome to the Museum of Ice, Michigan’s largest museum, open daily (weather permitting) between December and March. Just step outside anywhere in the state and you’re in the museum.
Commentary
November: What’s For Thanksgiving Dinner?
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We all have different Thanksgiving favorites. Some people really look forward to that big turkey, some crave sweet potatoes, and I have to admit that I head straight for the pies. But today, I want to talk about that old Thanksgiving favorite – wet, rotting leaves.
Commentary
October: The smells of autumn
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It’s October, and the stink bugs are moving into my house for the winter. So many things stink in a deliberate attempt to be repulsive. Other things stink to be attractive, but because they’re not trying to attract us, we may not like their aromas.
Commentary
Camp Maplehurst’s enduring legacy
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Located on a strip of land that separates two of Michigan’s largest lakes, Elk and Torch, Maplehurst Natural Area is an unexpected delight to anybody who stumbles across it. The former summer camp is now a protected area of land thanks to a collaboration between Milton Township and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy.
Commentary
September: Connections
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How we name things affects how we think about them. We name fields, and forests, and marshes, and streams as separate things, so we tend to think of them as separate things. But separating these habitats in our vocabulary and in our minds obscures the innumerable connections that bind these habitats into a single working landscape.
Commentary
August: Dibs on the Water
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As anyone who lives in Michigan knows, March and April are the wet months. But like so many things that Anyone knows, this is only about half true. The amount of precipitation (the water in rain and snow) doesn’t change much from month to month in Michigan.
Commentary
July: Stay cool
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July is our warmest month, its steamy days and sticky nights giving us a little taste of the tropics. When we look for ways to beat July’s heat, we often end up in the water – sprinklers, backyard pools, or one of Michigan’s many lakes. So let’s take a few minutes on this hot July day to think about how cool water is.
Commentary
Fifty-year-old law proves we can address environmental challenges
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The Clean Water Act provides us with 50 years of useful imperfection. We should apply it’s lessons to the environmental challenges facing us today – and perhaps be a less patient as we chase perfect solutions.