Wildlife
Grade schoolers vie to name top amphibian
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Elementary students from mid-Michigan are lobbying for one of three candidates proposed for designation as the state amphibian.
Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/current-state/page/9/)
Every Tuesday the Current State public affairs radio program on WKAR in East Lansing runs an environmental story in partnership with Great Lakes Echo. The stories also run on the Echo site and are archived here.
Elementary students from mid-Michigan are lobbying for one of three candidates proposed for designation as the state amphibian.
At the end of each month, we check in with Echo commentator Gary Wilson for updates on environmental stories from around the Basin. Click on the audio clip above for today’s Great Lakes Month in Review which discusses efforts to keep Asian carp and Waukesha, Wis., out of Lake Michigan. This segment is produced as part of a partnership with WKAR’s Current State public affairs program. More radio news about the Great Lakes environment can be found on Current State every Tuesday as part of our partnership.
Due to their locations away from city lights and often near water, dark sky parks offer enhanced opportunities to see, study, and enjoy the night sky and everything in it.
Few parents will produce offspring as rare as those of Eckert and Viper.
It’s morel season in Michigan. The hard to cultivate, but delicious fungi is highly sought after by chefs. While many saute the mushroom in butter, there are plenty of other ways to cook the woodland delicacy.
During the month of May, a different type of hunter takes to the Michigan woods. Their prey, the low-lying honeycomb shaped fungi, morels.
Pig farmers in Michigan and around the nation are losing piglets to a virus that is easily spread and almost always lethal to very young animals. So far, it’s killed over six million piglets.
From now through early June, volunteers will be standing guard over the Black River in Northern Michigan.
They’ll be on the banks of the river making sure that the lake sturgeon, a rare and threatened species in the state, are able to leave their homes in Black Lake and successfully spawn in the Black River.
Why do the fish need guarding?
Ann Feldhauser, who coordinates the program through the group, Sturgeon for Tomorrow, says the goal is to have a presence on the river 24/7 to prevent illegal taking of the fish.
It’s spring and love is in the air for turkeys. The ritual is not an event for two, but three. As Current State’s Melissa Benmark discovered, even turkeys need a wingman to land the lady of their dreams.
Earlier this month Gov. Snyder released a plan to increase recycling in the State of Michigan. At 15 percent, the state has one of the worst residential recycling rates in the nation.