Echo

Scientists head to D.C. with mercury findings

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Scientists are in Washington D.C. today to present to federal lawmakers research suggesting the Great Lakes region has more problems with mercury than previously thought. Their visit comes just weeks after the GOP-led House of Representative passed two bills that would handcuff the EPA from limiting mercury emissions. As Echo reported, scientists reviewed research on mercury in the Great Lakes region and found despite overall decreases in the pollutant, concentrations are rising in some species and health risks are occurring at lower levels than expected. The new report, published by the Biodiversity Research Institute in the academic journal Ecotoxicology and the journal Environmental Pollution, summarizes the findings of more than 170 scientists, researchers and resource managers.  The report is a collaboration of the Biodiversity Research Institute, the Great Lakes Commission and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Echo

Can lichens cure sick deer?

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Lichens are hardy and unusual organisms.

And they might be the key to solving one of Wisconsin’s burgeoning wildlife issues — chronic wasting disease.

Echo

Every square inch of the Upper Peninsula’s shoreline in one place

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If you ever find yourself wishing you for a bird-eye view of the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s shoreline you are now in luck. (And you and I have a lot in common)

The Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Trust just launched the Great Lakes Shoreviewer, which is an online database full of photos and maps of every inch of the peninsula’s coast. The Shoreviewer was originally conceived as a tool for city and township officials, but will also be used to assist tourism campaigns, help paddlers plan kayaking and canoe trips, and give Great Lakes nerds like yours truly another reason to procrastinate at work. The maps highlight natural features like wetlands, dunes, and hills, giving direction to conservation and protection efforts. And, of course, for those of you who are just dying to check out the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the go, there’s a Shoreviewer app coming soon.

Echo

NASA image of Boundary Waters blaze

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This image was sent to me by a particularly imaginative and dorky friend, who said she saw a “seal looking up.”

Actually, it is an Oct. 10 NASA Earth Observatory satellite image of the remains of a massive wildfire that raged across northern Minnesota for nearly two months. The burned areas show as the charcoal outline. Lightning ignited the blaze in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on Aug. 18.  The fire is now 80 percent contained, according to the Duluth News Tribune.

Echo

Energy policy and water interconnected

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich silenced many of his critics on July 15 when he vetoed legislation fellow Republican Party conservatives engineered that would have gutted the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. Kasich is now in position to preserve even more Great Lakes water.