Echo
Fears rise about possible moose die-off in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and beyond
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A national trend in moose die-offs may be hitting the Upper Peninsula, Minnesota and beyond — and officials are pointing to climate change as the culprit.
Echo
Little Things, Big Problems: Aquatic invaders
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Last year, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative began producing a series of educational videos about invasive species in the Great Lakes for the National Park Service. New videos are being uploaded this spring, and you can watch the entire “Little Things, Big Problems” series here on Echo. This video discusses invasive species in Lake Michigan and how they are affecting the food web and the health of birds.
Wildlife
With Michigan wolf hunt less than a month away, debate rages onward
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With Michigan’s first wolf hunt set to begin in less than a month, citizens’ right to hunt the once-protected species has developed into a polarizing issue.
Echo
Great Lakes leaders: Choose good policy over convenient math and exaggerated rhetoric
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We’re trained to trust numbers when analyzing complex issues.
The assumption is that numbers don’t lie and will take us to the answer — the truth.
But is that always the case?
Waste
Green Gridirons: University of Maryland
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A football stadium may have green grass but does it have green habits? Each week, Great Lakes Echo highlights a Big Ten football stadium’s attempts to do the most to impact the environment the least. All schools have information on the stadium’s diversion rate – the amount of waste recycled instead of put in a landfill. Stadium: Byrd Stadium
School: University of Maryland*
Built: 1950
Capacity: 54,000
2008 diversion rate: 41 percent
Scouting report: Maryland’s “Feed the Turtle” program began in 2008 to expand food composting and recycling at home football games. The program’s name refers to the mascot of the school, a terrapin.
Wildlife
Little Things, Big Problems: Spiny water flea
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Last year, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative began producing a series of educational videos about invasive species in the Great Lakes for the National Park Service. New videos are being uploaded this spring, and you can watch the entire “Little Things, Big Problems” series here on Echo. This video discusses the impact spiny water fleas have on the Great Lakes food web.
Nearshore
Artificial wetland in Ohio filters runoff, fights algae
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Ohio officials have built an artificial wetland to help prevent blooms of toxic algae in Grand Lake St. Marys by filtering runoff from a nearby creek.
Echo
Michigan resources help deliver clean water to parched land
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Surrounded as we are by the greatest freshwater system on the planet, even those occasional pesky dry spells rarely give us pause to consider how blessed we are.
Recent days have brought announcements that help me both appreciate our abundance and the growing scarcity of clean fresh water that faces much of the planet.
Echo
Cleaning up a toxic river
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The Ashtabula River may soon be the first Ohio river to come off Ohio’s list of Great Lakes toxic hotspots.
The cost has been astronomical, but advocates say clean up of the toxins protects Lake Erie fishing and tourism.
Echo
Clean energy’s international future
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According to the Pew Clean Energy Program, global energy consumption is expected to increase 35% over the next 25 years, with much of that from growing electricity use and expanding vehicle fleets. Phyllis Cuttino is director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Clean Energy Program. She addresses energy consumption in relation to clean energy. Energy by Great Lakes Echo