Echo

Detroit, the notorious “food desert,” has healthiest airport restaurants

By Brian Bienkowski | January 18, 2012

If you’re looking for health food in Detroit, your best bet might be the airport. Yes, that’s right. The Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport has been number one for healthiest airport food for three years running. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine conducts the annual restaurant review of the country’s busiest airports. The review determines whether restaurants have at least one low-fat, cholesterol-free meal available.

Echo

Harmful banned pesticide slowly leaving the Great Lakes environment

By Brian Bienkowski | January 18, 2012

Toxaphene is a highly toxic pesticide that has lingered in the Great Lakes since its banning decades ago.

However, the mix of chemicals break down slowly, but appear to be diminishing rapidly in the Great Lakes.

Echo

My Great Lakes Bucket List

By Brian Bienkowski | January 17, 2012

I’ve lived in Michigan my entire life, and, as my city slicker little sister likes to tell me, I’m “such a Midwesterner.”

And she’s probably right. But if having a beard, wearing flannel and vacationing in the Great Lakes is wrong, I don’t want to be right. I’ve seen a black bear meandering carelessly through the Porcupine Mountains. I’ve paid close to a month’s rent on drinks at the top floor of the John Hancock Building in downtown Chicago. I’ve battled nausea, more than once, while trolling Lake Michigan for salmon.

Echo

Great Lakes salmon polluting Michigan’s stream fish

By Michigan River News | January 17, 2012

Removing dams has long been considered a good way to restore the natural flow and ecological balance of a river. But developing research shows that dam removal may allow contaminated fish to spread their toxicity further inland.

Echo

Evolving bacteria have apple tree farmers searching for options

By Brian Bienkowski | January 16, 2012

Fire blight scorches apple and pear trees in the Great Lakes region in the spring. The bacteria that causes the disease has grown resistant to treatment, so Michigan officials are seeking a federal exemption for a non-registered pesticide.

Nearshore

Photo Friday: Sleeping Bear Dunes

By Great Lakes Echo | January 13, 2012

Echo

Extinction is Forever: A Quest for the Last Known Survivors

By Eric Freedman | January 13, 2012

A journey to visit Martha, the last of her species – passenger pigeons.

Martha and other endlings reside in museums from Washington D.C. to Nukus, serving as humbling reminders of human impacts on biodiversity.

Echo

VIDEO: Mussels coating ancient reefs in Lake Michigan

By Great Lakes Echo | January 12, 2012

When people talk about restoring the Great Lakes, they’re not looking back as far as John Janssen, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Scientists. “I want to bring the coral reefs back,” Janssen said. Ancient coral reefs are peppered throughout some of the Great Lakes where glaciers carved out tough rock formations 400 million years ago. Remnants of reefs can be seen on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, the Bruce Peninsula of Lake Huron, the southwestern side of Lake Erie and near Niagara Falls. Lake Superior is the only lake that never had reefs.

Echo

Wireless E. coli detector could shave days off bacteria testing

By Brian Bienkowski | January 12, 2012

Testing water for E. coli typically takes one to three days but a new wireless E. coli detector can report levels of the harmful bacteria in under eight hours.

Echo

The Great Lakes get social

By Brian Bienkowski | January 11, 2012

It appears the Great Lakes are getting social. At least it does if you visit the new aggregation site, Social Great Lakes. The site has Twitter feeds lined up like stock tickers constantly in motion. They pull in tweets on news, travel, weather and sports in the Great Lakes, and then the same categories for each lake. The Twitter feeds are updated by searching entire tweets, not just hashtags.