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Great Lakes Echo - Environmental news of the Great Lakes region

Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/green-gavel/page/3/)

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Green Gavel

Green Gavel is an occasional series of stories about court decisions affecting the Great Lakes environment.

Echo

New York man gets 16 months in border patrol incident

By Karen Hopper Usher | April 5, 2017

A New York man who tried to flee and then threatened border patrol agents is sentenced to 16 months in prison.

Energy

Indiana man appeals sentence in $55 million biodiesel fraud case

By Lucy Schroeder | March 27, 2017

It’s the state’s largest tax fraud case.

Echo

Ohio man pleads guilty to dogfighting-related charges

By Natasha Blakely | March 7, 2017

After getting caught during a long-term investigation, a man from Columbus, Ohio, plead guilty to conspiring to participate in a dogfighting ring.

Forests

VA bests legal challenge over controversial cemetery expansion

By Ian Wendrow | February 23, 2017

A proposed expansion of the Indianapolis Crown Hill National Cemetery by the Department of Veterans Affairs survived a legal challenge by the Indiana Forest Alliance and construction preparation is now underway.

Green Gavel

Exotic menagerie runs afoul of Ohio regulators

By Eric Freedman | February 20, 2017

Officials obtained a court order and removed 11 animals from Kenneth Hetrick’s property.

Forests

Grinch busted for stealing Christmas — really

By Eric Freedman | February 2, 2017

The U.S. Forest Service busts a 70-year-old Minnesota man for stealing thousands of black spruce tree tops from the Chippewa National Forest in northern Minnesota and selling them for Christmas decorations. Edminster — whose birthday coincidentally falls on Christmas Day — pleaded guilty to stealing federal government property and faces sentencing by U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright later this year.

Agriculture

Man spent federal crop loan on boat, Mexican vacation

By Karen Hopper Usher | January 30, 2017

A $210,000 federal crop loan wasn’t a big deal at first. Now a former Wisconsinite is on probation.

Echo

Court rules against Sleeping Bear trail critics

By Eric Freedman | January 11, 2017

Challengers to a segment of the 17-mile long trailway say the National Park Service failed to fully disclose the environmental impacts of the trail.

Energy

New wind generators a no-go in the U.P.

By Natasha Blakely | December 14, 2016

Heritage Sustainable Energy’s missing paperwork gave Schoolcraft County a reason to reject a new wind farm.

Nearshore

New York man sinks boat in Black Rock Canal, gets probation, fine

By Morgan Linn | December 9, 2016

A yacht club maintenance man who sank a boat in the Black Rock Canal will pay restitution to the U.S. Coast Guard.

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About Great Lakes Echo

Environmental news of the Great Lakes region from the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University.

  • Michigan’s water infrastructure sees improvements, work still needs to be done

    By Clara Lincolnhol The U.S. would need to invest nearly $3.4 trillion over the next 20 years to fix and update drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, says researchers from The Value of Water Campaign. Much of that infrastructure was built 40 to 50 years ago and shows its age. Michigan’s is no exception. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state a D+ for its drinking water infrastructure, a D in storm water management and a C for its wastewater infrastructure. Funding is a major problem. Proposed data centers would put more stress on the infrastructure.

  • Mussels in a green net.
    Endangered spectaclecase mussels reintroduced into the Chippewa River

    By Ada Tussing To combat the population loss of spectaclecase mussels, researchers with both the Minnesota and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released over 177 mussels into the Chippewa River in Northwest Wisconsin.

  • Michigan allocates $77 million to clean thousands of contaminated sites

    By Clara Lincolnhol Michigan is pouring $77 million into clean-up of contaminated abandoned real estate such as former factories. The director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says the goal is to make the cleaned-up sites safe for housing, commercial developments and other uses.

  • Winter makes curved roads dangerous; researchers seek solutions

    By Eric Freedman Flashing light on warning signs near curves can slow drivers and reduce the odds of a crash during winter weather conditions, says a new study by Michigan State University engineers.

  • The cover of “Dead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf-Moose Project." The cover is moose antlers on the ground.
    Great Lakes books for your holiday gift list 

    By Eric Freedman   Looking for a holiday gift for a reader who loves the Great Lakes? Here are five prospects to consider – and what our reporters learned from interviewing their authors this year.

  • A side-by-side of the historic Portage Canal and modern Portage Canal from an aerial view.
    Restoration of historical site improves quality of life for Portage, Wisconsin residents

    By Joshua Kim Following the completion of segments 1 and 2 of the Portage Canal, local residents and visitors can use the historic site and its amenities following years of disrepair.

  • What herring gulls tell us about plastic pollution

    By Victoria Witke Christina Petalas, a doctoral student McGill University, studies herring gulls to learn about plastic pollution near the St. Lawrence River. Across two studies, she found plastic additives in every bird sampled, which could have human health consequences.

  • Scientists update geological map of northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 

    By Kyrmyzy Turebayeva The U.S. Geological Survey has began large-scale low-level airplane flights over Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin to obtain high-resolution data on subsurface mineral structures and bedrock composition. The data will be used to create two- and three-dimensional maps to better understand the geological structure at depths of about 10,000 feet.

  • ‘Refusal is insisting on your own terms’: Indigenous activism in the Midwest

    By Isabella Figueroa Nogueira “Indigenous Activism in the Midwest: Refusal, Resurgence and Resisting Settler Colonialism” explores how Dakota and Anishinaabe communities in Minnesota continue their relationships to the land and challenge dominant settler narratives about ownership, belonging and identity.

  • Cannabis workers are developing job-related asthma and some have died, study says

    By Clara Lincolnhol New research says workers picking, grinding and packaging cannabis are developing workplace-related asthma, and two deaths have occurred so far.

  • Great Lakes Echo

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