Echo

Researchers study environmental impact of free-range pig production

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By Haley Walker
Walkerh4@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 25, 2009

Big Blue, Gus, Chomsky, George and Leonidasto buried their snouts in leafy greens, rolled in the mud, and grunted happily when they arrived recently at Michigan State University’s student organic farm. They had traveled from their birthplace at MSU’s old swine farm to a garden at the university’s organic farm. It was only a physical distance of a few miles, but light years in the way the 6-month-old pigs were raised. These animals are part of a university experiment that will look not only at their growth but also on their impact on the land.

Echo

Unmanned research sub launched in Lake Superior

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – An unmanned research submarine — painted yellow — was launched in Lake Superior this week. The vessel is on a two-week test drive that scientists hope will prove the feasibility of using a submarine to monitor the lake more cheaply and reliably than is possible with manned boats. “It fills a sampling niche by swimming the lake without us having to be out there,” said Jay Austin, a physicist at the University of Minnesota Duluth who is overseeing the sub’s operation. “Being on a boat for two weeks would be terribly expensive.” More

Echo

Report on St. Clair River erosion delayed

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(MI) The Associated Press – A team studying upper Great Lakes levels has postponed a report on whether they have lost excessive amounts of water through an enlarged river channel so the group can have more time for research, officials said Wednesday. The International Upper Great Lakes Study said the document would be released Dec. 1, instead of Oct. 1 as previously scheduled. The delay will give the group more time to evaluate its research and await peer reviews of a preliminary report issued in May, spokesman John Nevin said.

Land

‘Vine that ate the South’ has landed in the Great White North

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(ON) The Toronto Star – Growing by as much as a foot per day, it reaches up hydro poles and across transmission wires, eventually collapsing them under its weight. It overtakes and suffocates trees and crops, pollutes watersheds and costs the U.S. agriculture industry a reported $500-million per year. And now, the perennial and invasive kudzu vine has made it to Canada. The kudzu was discovered two months ago in a small patch, 110 metres wide and 30 metres deep, on a south-facing slope on the shore of Lake Erie near Leamington, Ont., about 50 kilometres east of Windsor. More

Echo

Muskegon adopts rules for wind turbines

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(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – Muskegon city planners are preparing for what could be an onslaught of interest in installing wind turbines in the city as the technology advances and state regulation improves the economics. The Muskegon Planning Commission this month recommended and the Muskegon City Commission this week enacted a series of zoning ordinance amendments to address installation of wind turbines. More

Echo

Assembly backs board appointment for DNR secretary

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – In a move that would sharply weaken the powers of the governor to manage natural resources, the Assembly voted Tuesday to return authority to appoint the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to a seven-member citizens board. The Assembly voted 61-32 in favor of a bill that’s been pushed by conservationists and environmentalists since 1995. More

Wildlife

Emerald Ash Borer found in La Grange

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – They’re metallic green, can fit on a penny and are now a threat to the thousands of ash trees in the Village of La Grange. According to Ryan Gillingham, La Grange’s director of public works, multiple adult Emerald Ash Borers were found in one of the six traps the village has maintained for detecting the beetle. More

Echo

USDA to fund conservation effort in 12 states

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – The troubled basin of the Mississippi River is set to receive a $320 million boost from the Agriculture Department. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was announcing Thursday that he is creating the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which will fund efforts in 12 states along the 2,350-mile long Mississippi River, Agriculture Department officials told The Associated Press. They would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of Vilsack’s announcement. More

Echo

Chicago ‘net zero’ house exceeding energy expectations

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Jonathan Boyer, a principal at Farr Associates, said that the house’s photovoltaic (PV) panels, in operation since March 25, have produced more than 9,000 kilowatt hours of energy. The expectation for the first 12 months was about 11,500 kiolowatt hours. 

In other words, the PV panels have exceeded 80 percent of their expected annual energy production in roughly half a year. More

Water

Recession in recycling

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Battered by falling prices for recycled commodities, one of the Twin Cities’ best-known recycling firms is asking the cities it serves to renegotiate recycling contracts to help the company survive. Officials with Eureka Recycling, one of the largest nonprofit recyclers in the country, say the business is not in immediate danger. Tim Brownell, Eureka’s co-president, said the changes are meant to prepare the company for the future. More