Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/echo/page/182/)
(IL) Treehugger An emergency operation to stop invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes used more than 2,000 gallons of rotenone to poison six miles of a canal near Chicago this week. Tens of thousands of fish were killed. Just one Asian carp, the target of the poisoning, was found. An estimated 100 tons of dead fish will be taken to a landfill. Studies have shown that Asian carp tend to sink to the bottom when they die.
By Haley Walker
Dec. 4, 2009
Chef Frank Turner buys local and organic food every Wednesday from a farmer’s market a few feet from where he works. Turner uses tomatoes, greens, onions, squash and other items from approximately 18 vendors that set up each week on the grounds of Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield, Mich. The meals he creates from the fresh food aren’t served to restaurant patrons. They will most likely be enjoyed by someone in bed as Turner is the executive chef of the hospital and his customers are the patients.
By Jeff Gillies
Dec. 3, 2009
Lake Erie’s pollution in the ’60s and ’70s killed off its mayflies, insects that spend most of their lives underwater before flying off in huge hatches that carpet coastal towns. But the bugs have returned in a big way. “I’ve seen people out there with snow blowers, blowing them around,” said Justin Chaffin, a doctoral student in the University of Toledo’s biology department. “If you walk down the sidewalk or a parking lot it’s like you’re walking on bubble wrap.”
We’re looking for the best of the best Great Lakes videos on the web. And you can help. Send us a nomination and explain why it is worthy of recognition. The Great Lakes Echo staff will narrow the nominees to 10. Then we’ll ask readers to vote on their favorite of the finalists. It’s sort of like American Idol, but wetter.
Haley Walker
Nov. 20, 2009
James Jiler says the more time prisoners spend in the garden, the less likely they are to repeat an offense. The author and activist has spent years advocating for the benefits of prison horticulture, including making inmates more marketable when they get out. “People are less likely to go back to prison if they come out of it with an education,” Jiler said. “I want them to go home with a skill, and find a purpose in life that is better than making license plates, and learning how to care for the earth is a huge therapeutic benefit that people need.”
Jiler is the founder of the Greenhouse Project, a “jail to street” horticultural training program in the New York City’s Rikers Island Jail system.
By Sarah Coefield
Nov. 19, 2009
The best medicine for diseased deer is the business end of a rifle, according to wildlife experts managing the species. And it’s inoculation time. With hunting season in full swing, conservation officials across the Great Lakes region are relying on hunters to thin the massive herd and slow the spread of disease. At more than 7 million strong, the region’s white tail deer herd is largely healthy, but there are small pockets of disease.
By Great Lakes Echo
Nov. 18, 2009
Echo’s Great Lakes music map map is growing with new reader contributions of songs inspired by the lakes. Check out the additions by clicking on the map found here. Among our favorites of the new additions:
Terry Brown We’ve got this Mucky Water (Clifford Stuehmer) A late entry that helps beef out Lake Huron’s representation. Gun Street Girl (Tom Waits) with the wonderful line: “Sittin’ by the Erie with a bull-whipped dog.”
By Great Lakes Echo
Nov. 18, 2009
With help from readers, the Great Lakes Echo staff has developed another environmental Facebook quiz. Take this one to find out which Great Lakes invasive species is most like your former significant other. As a bonus you may learn a bit about those plants and animals upsetting the ecology of the largest body of fresh surface water in the world. On the other hand, you may just gain a new nickname for your ex.
By Haley Walker
Nov. 16, 2009
(Editors note: Make your case for a Great Lakes song in the comments and we’ll update this map.)
Becoming a successful musician didn’t require Timothy Monger to move to Los Angeles or New York. Brighton, a southeastern Michigan city of 6,000, is where he was first inspired. It is where he grew up and the place he stayed near. The dream of musical fame often pursued on the East and West coasts was not as great an influence as the Great Lakes – the Third Coast.
By Alice Rossignol
Nov. 13, 2009
There are few places where a government agency lines up for a permit just like everybody else. One of them is at the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board. Founded in 1989, the board is made up of Wisconsin citizens who enforce a series of aesthetic regulations along 92 miles of the Wisconsin River and nearly 80,000 acres of land. “The uniqueness to having a citizen board is that it represents the people who live in the area.