Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/echo/page/178/)
In 2008, a Michigan postal worker went to the emergency room for trouble breathing after a custodian sprayed ants with an insecticide near her feet.
She lost three weeks of work. Events like this are not unique.
A bill in response to a 2004 death aims to make snowmobiling and other trail hobbies safer in Michigan by requiring that chains, ropes and wires that block entry to any property be hunter orange in color and no more than 30 inches high.
The voracious and invasive Asian carp is on its way into the Great Lakes, pitting governments, environmental groups, shippers, boaters and anglers against each other over what ought to be done to stop it.
In an attempt to inject some levity into a potential environmental catastrophe, Echo presents: the carp bomb.
Three ecologists explore the history and future of two vital ecosystems in this book about the savannas and prairies that once cover 7 percent of Michigan.
Farming, logging, development, drainage systems, overuse of groundwater and absence of fire threaten their existence.
A new federal law allows firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, including concealed guns and makes state law applicable within the park or refuge.
In Michigan, that means a person with a concealed weapons permit can have a hidden gun; an openly displayed firearm is also legal. The change doesn’t apply to national forests, which already follow state laws.
Some lawmakers want Michigan to be able to issue bonds to help homeowners pay for energy efficiency measures such as renewable energy systems, storm windows, automated energy controls and new heating and air conditioning units. The proposal is designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
Which Great Lakes fishery do the Asian carp threaten? The $7 billion one or the $4.5 billion one? Does that include the commercial fishery? What about Canada?
A couple natural resource economists help us settle up.
The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies — a joint effort between UW-Madison, NOAA and NASA — runs a blog featuring posts of weather-related satellite imagery. The posts often include beefy animated images of things like volcanoes in the West Indies and potential vorticity anomalies on the California coast. Luckily, the institute’s Wisconsin bias sometimes shows through and they offer up cool Great Lakes scenes. In December, they put together this mesmerizing shot of cloud bands streaming over Lake Superior. Photo: University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center
Be sure to let the whole image load and start looping, which could take a few minutes.
Help Echo turn the Great Lakes basin on its ear and shake up journalism.
Perhaps the greatest change you’ll notice in this Echo redesign is that reporters will ask for your help, tell you about reporting challenges and empty their notebooks of those odds and ends that otherwise never quite become stories.
But expect us to stick with the Echo core concept: We’re a news community that transcends political borders and is defined by a global resource. Check out how we intend to do an even better job of that.
A. Blakeman (Blake) Early died on Sunday, Feb. 7, at the young age of 64 after a long battle with cancer. He was a skilled crafter of some of America’s most powerful pollution control policies.