Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/echo/page/132/)
In this three-part video series, scientists at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., explore the implications of climate change and other human activities for Lake Superior and the African great lakes.
Now that we’ve let you in on the big invasive worm secret, we’re letting you know how to help. Great Lakes Worm Watch is hosting the fourth annual Big Worming Week, which started Sunday and will run through Oct. 2nd. Things started in the Hartley Nature Center where the Worm Watch team taught the public how to sample plots and collect valuable data on worms.
The team offers workshops all year to prepare folks to help out during Big Worming Week. While they encourage and will accept samples year-round, Big Worming Week minimizes the data’s seasonal variability and makes comparing the results easier. In addition to workshops telling you how to be a scientist, there’s a game show about worms, tools to identify worms, books about worms and other wormy things.
Zebra mussels clog pipes, take over boat hoists and slice the feet of unsuspecting Great Lakes swimmers. The invasive pests are typically managed with chlorine, but that could soon be a thing of the past. A study of potassium chloride and polyDADMAC (or, if you’re feeling adventurous, polydiallyldimethylammonium) found they are far more deadly to mussels when used together rather than separately. Essentially, the two toxins are greater than the sum of their parts, and when they’re used together fewer chemicals are needed to manage mussels. Two other mussel-killing weapons are Biobullets and Zequanox.
In this three-part video series, scientists at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., explore the implications of climate change and other human activities for Lake Superior and the African great lakes.
Just in time for the big fall hunting seasons in the Great Lakes region, a recent survey shows a high level of public support for our bright orange and camouflage-clad friends. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed nationwide said they approved of the activity and 93 percent said that target shooting is acceptable. The study was financed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade association. The high level of public approval has been consistent over the past two decades, according to the organization. But the survey went a step further than previous research and found that 94 percent supported the right of others to hunt, regardless of their opinion of the activity. Only 4 percent of respondents wanted to strip others of the right to hunt.
Invasive species don’t have to be exotic, obscure or large to wreak havoc on the Great Lakes region.
Just look to the hardwood forests ravaged by non-native earthworms. Yes, earthworms.
Photo Fridays have been hijacked by the leafers! During the fall, we’ll be posting reader submitted pictures of brilliant autumn colors throughout the Great Lakes region.
An Illinois campus is confronting modern electricity needs by getting on their own grid and offering an innovative solution to the nation’s emerging energy problems.
Michigan officials listened to the sweet songs of Kirtland’s warblers throughout the state in June — and the chorus was a positive one. The population of the endangered birds remains steady, according to the annual survey by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Officials surveyed in mid-June when the birds defend their nesting territories. Birds are detected by listening for their songs — as their singing can be heard for up to a quarter mile. Since only males are belting out songs, populations are estimated by doubling the number of singers
The 2011 survey documented 1,805 singing males, which is approximately what the population has been in recent years. The bird made a strong comeback after singing male populations hit a low in 1974 and 1987, when only 167 were observed. Warblers nest on the ground in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario —but most prominently in northern Michigan’s jack pine forests. The population declined rapidly as modern fire suppression stopped the natural wildfires that provided the barren landscape and young jack pines that warblers love to nest in. State and federal officials now harvest and replant approximately 3,000 acres of jack pine trees a year to mimic natural processes. Large prescribed burns aren’t safe or economical in northern Michigan, according to the state officials.
It’s a horror story: fish and birds wash up dead on the beach, invaders change the environment, poison lurks in the sand.
But it’s no story. It’s avian botulism, a toxin that has shown up on Great Lakes shorelines repeatedly over the past 13 years.