Drones may fight invasive species–with cameras

By NATASHA BLAKELY
Capital News Service

LANSING — Invasive plants can grow so thick and tall they hide the world’s greatest Lakes. “In the lower part of the state it’s pretty bad,” said Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, a research scientist with Michigan Technological University. “We were doing work in Saginaw Bay, and there are kids who live there and they don’t even know there’s water there because the weeds are so tall. “So they’re unable to take advantage of the fact that they live next to a Great Lake.”
Help is on the way. Bourgeau-Chavez maps wetlands and monitors them in the field.

Conservation in the Bat Zone

By EAMON DEVLIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan – Bat-ter up! You can step up to the plate at the newly renovated Bat Zone in Bloomfield Hills. We’re not talking new batting cages at a fun park. This is North America’s only sanctuary and education center for bats and other nocturnal creatures.  It is run by the Organization for Bat Conservation at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.