Wildlife

Scientists hope to curb exploding bat lungs near Great Lakes wind turbines

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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 9, 2009

Wind turbines cut air pollution, but they may mean respiratory trouble for bats flying nearby. “Basically, their lungs explode,” said Barb Barton, biologist with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Though wind turbines can kill bats by smacking them out of the sky, the huge spinning blades more often take out bats without touching them. Turbine blades spinning at up to 200 mph leave in their wake a vortex of low pressure, Barton said. Bats get caught in the vortex, and the change in pressure ruptures capillaries in the bats’ lungs.

Echo

Great Lakes govs not so green, but some drive alternative fuel vehicles

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 8, 2009

Several Great Lakes governors own hybrid vehicles, but that’s not enough to place them among the country’s greenest state chief executives, according to one recent study. None of the region’s governors made it into the top ten in the study by Greenopia, an environmental consumer interest Web site and blog. Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota and Pennsylvania’s governors did squeeze into the top 25. The report evaluated the governors’ policies and stances on climate change, energy conservation and tax incentives to encourage green consumers, said Doug Mazeffa, head of research at Greenopia. “We looked at them relative to other governors, and also weighted their transparency,” he said.

Echo

American Environmental Photographs collection holds trove of historic Great Lakes images

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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 6, 2009

Wonder what the rocky cliffs of Lake Superior or the dusty dunes of Lake Michigan looked like 100 years ago? You can find out using the American Environmental Photographs collection from the University of Chicago Library. The collection holds around 4,500 photographs taken from 1891 to 1936, and includes hundreds from around the Great Lakes. The collection is part the work of Henry Chandler Cowles, a botanist, conservationist and pioneer in the field of ecology, said Daniel Meyer, the University of Chicago Library’s associate director of special collections. Cowles taught botany at the University of Chicago, where he often led a summer course that included a trip to ecologically significant locations like the dunes of Lake Michigan, the south shore of Lake Superior and a few of the lakes’ islands.

Echo

Environment agencies in Great Lakes states reorganize, downsize

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 3, 2009

Some cash-strapped state agencies charged with protecting the Great Lakes environment are merging and reorganizing to do more with less. Michigan’s Senate could vote next week to combine that state’s Department of Environmental Quality with the Department of Natural Resources. The House of Representatives approved a similar measure recently. Other states are considering similar moves. Ironically, the functions of both of Michigan’s agencies had once been combined.

Echo

Great Lakes, great wind bring great federal investment

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DOE-funded wind energy projects in the Great Lakes

By Sarah Coefield, coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 2, 2009

Great Lakes wind power is getting a turbo boost. The Great Lakes region will receive nearly a third of the $8.5 million federal officials recently set aside for wind energy development. The region will see $475,929 to study wind energy environmental impacts, $100,000 for development of small turbines, $1,446,942 for wind energy education and training and $587,029 to bring wind energy to market. The projects are aimed at challenges identified in the Department of Energy’s 2008 report, which sets a goal of using wind to supply 20 percent of the country’s energy needs by 2030. Of the $2.6 million coming into the region, nearly $100,000 is going to the Great Lakes Commission, an Ann Arbor-based multi-state agency that coordinates environmental and conservation policy in the Great Lakes basin.

Echo

Getting hands dirty with environmental education

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By Andy Balaskovitz, abalaskovitz@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 1, 2009

On the west side of Michigan’s Okemos High School is Zach Trelstad’s favorite classroom. To the right of the greenhouse entrance is the sandy ground with desert-native plants. To the left is the tropical area filled with large overhanging leaves, ponds with amphibians and intricate vines on lattice. It’s about the same size as a regular classroom but filled with sunlight and plants instead of light bulbs and desks. “When I whisper at them, the frogs will croak back pretty loudly,” said Trelstad whose independent study in this mid-Michigan school’s greenhouse is one of his favorite school experiences.

Echo

Environmental education: Problems and solutions

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By Andy Balaskovitz, abalaskovitz@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
June 30, 2009

Environmental education changes how kids learn. And educators integrating it into other subjects say it’s worth the effort. A nationwide study – Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning – found environmental education raises standardized test scores and reduces discipline and classroom management problems.

The economic downturn makes it tough for such programs to flourish in Michigan and elsewhere. But there are hopeful signs. Recent legislation diverts some civil fines into a state Environmental Education Fund.

Echo

Special Report: Environmental Education

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A look at the benefits, barriers and solutions to an environmental curriculum in public schools. Part one: The case for K-12 environmental education
Randy Showerman leads his boy scout troop out his back door and into the dark and silence. There are no lanterns or campfires, no knot-tying or shelter-building lessons. Silence is key. Part two: Sidestepping funding shortages
The economic downturn makes it tough for such programs to flourish in Michigan and elsewhere.

Echo

The case for K-12 environmental education

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Click for descriptions of environmental education efforts. Larger map. By Andy Balaskovitz,
abalaskovitz@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
June 29, 2009

Randy Showerman leads his boy scout troop out his back door and into the dark and silence. There are no lanterns or campfires, no knot-tying or shelter-building lessons. Silence is key.

Wildlife

For Great Lakes mudpuppies in decline, new Canadian research is a bright spot

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A bizarre salamander and the endangered, clam-like mussel that relies on it got good news recently from Canadian scientists. Federal researchers found an apparently stable population of mudpuppies in Ontario’s Sydenham River. The research is published in the June issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Mudpuppies are native to the Great Lakes and have beady eyes, slimy skin and feathery gills sticking out of their necks. “I find them very interesting animals, but I can see why the general public wouldn’t rate them up there with bluebirds,” said Jim Harding, herpetology specialist at the Michigan State University Museum.