News

Coyotes cause chaos in Los Angeles area

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Imagine waking up to discover your family pet has been killed overnight by a wild animal and the remains have been left in your yard. For Dyann Williams, and many others in Southern California, this wasn’t an imagination, but her reality. About a year ago, a coyote came into her family’s backyard and killed their beloved cat. 

Southern California is a region known for its diverse array of wildlife as the state is home to mountain ranges, coastlines and deserts. Surrounded by mountain ranges and the Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles County is home to many species and coyotes are one of the commonly sighted animals in both urban and suburban areas. 

Although coyotes have lived in the Southern California region “well before European settlement,” according to the National Library of Medicine, there has been an uptick in sightings and interactions according to the LA County website’s “Managing Coyote Problems” page. In 2022, 15 coyote bites were reported while the previous five years all reported five or less.

Birds

Red-winged blackbirds are Back. Watch Out!

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CHICAGO — It’s summertime in the city of Chicago. The weather is nice, the beaches are open and the birds are out. More specifically, the Red-winged blackbirds. 

Entrance to the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary in Lincoln Park. You can spot a male by its black body plumage with red and yellow on the shoulder of its wings.  Females are brown with streaky plumage. Plumage is another term for a bird’s collective feathers.

Article

MSU faculty, students weigh in on Biden’s environmental plan

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Carbon neutral by 2050

President-elect Joe Biden’s main goal in The Biden Plan is to stem climate change by reaching by 2050 carbon neutrality, which means emissions released are offset by being absorbed by an equivalent amount from the atmosphere. 

To help achieve this goal, the President-elect aims to have U.S. electricity production carbon-free by 2035. “It’s attainable, yes, I think it is, but there are many prohibiting factors that could prevent it from happening,” said Bruno Takahashi, a research director at MSU’s Knight Center of Environmental Journalism and associate professor in the School of Journalism. A prohibiting factor could be Congress should it become Republican-controlled. Next month, the country will find out the Georgia Senate runoff results, determining party control. Despite the prospect of future administrations reversing the advancements Biden will potentially make, Takahashi is optimistic that the carbon-free goal is still attainable by 2050.

Arts & Entertainment

MSU junior creates clothing to reduce waste

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Does a garment have to be just a garment or a platform for multiple garments? For Timosha Krivtsov, a junior in the department of Apparel and Textile Design, the answer is the latter. After discovering that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, Krivtsov embarked on a journey to create a new recipe for clothing, one that would reduce fabric waste and harm the environment less. He found that a lot of the same silhouettes are used recurrently. “For instance, a hoodie and a crew-neck are essentially the same thing, but a crew-neck just doesn’t have a kangaroo pocket and a hood,” he said.

Article

Harris Nature Center puts focus on educating the community

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The sound of leaves crunching under your feet, the Red Cedar River flowing right beside you and birds chirping: The sounds and sights of nature are an experience, the Harris Nature Center staff is hoping all visitors can have. “Basically the biggest thing is, that we like people to understand that a nature center is not just the building it’s like the entire park is the nature center that’s where you’re going to have your experience,” said Kit Rich, coordinator of the nature center.  “We want you to come into the building say hello and see what we have in here, but then get outside, kind of create your own experiences.”

The center is tucked away in the woods lining Van Atta Road and is just off the bank of the Red Cedar. First opening its doors in 1997, the center has proclaimed itself as a place for recreation and education. “The nature center means a lot to us,” said Liza Potts, an associate professor at Michigan State who frequents the park.

Environment

Two species – one to preserve, one to control – challenge dam removal

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By IAN WENDROW
Capital News Service
LANSING — A proposed dam removal along the Grand River faces significant delays due to its potential to disrupt river ecosystems. The environmental risks involve the fate of two species: sea lamprey and snuffbox mussels. One needs to be kept out while the other needs to be protected. The Sixth Street Dam in downtown Grand Rapids was installed in the mid-1800s to help ship milled logs downstream by controlling the water’s height and flow. It drowned the river’s naturally occurring rapids, allowing logs to float over them. Eventually log transportation no longer relied on the river, but the dam remained.

News

Lawmakers want citizen oversight of environmental decisions

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By LAINA STEBBINS
Capital News Service
LANSING — Bills introduced by House and Senate Democrats would establish citizen oversight commissions to restore a layer of accountability in environmental enforcement – commissions which have not existed in Michigan for a quarter-century. The boards would allow public input and oversight over the Department of Environmental Quality’s air quality, water quality and oil and gas operations throughout the state. Rep. Sheldon Neeley, D-Flint, the House sponsor of one bill, said high-quality oversight like this is necessary to ensure that incidents like the Flint water crisis will not happen anywhere else in the state. “We had multiple failures in the state department, which had been tasked with making sure things were safe for residents,” said Neeley in regards to Flint. “Moving forward, I think if we put these commissions back into place, we won’t see another [crisis like] Flint,” said Neeley.

News

Tough choice: Fight insect invaders or protect pollinators

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By IAN WENDROW
Capital News Service
LANSING — Neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides frequently used in agriculture, get plenty of bad press for killing pollinators like honeybees. But they’ve also emerged as an important combatant of the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that has devastated ash populations all over the United States with the highest risk in the Midwest and the northern half of the Eastern seaboard. For pollinator protectors in Michigan, that’s a problem. With the recent designation of the rusty patched bumble bee as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – the first time any bee species in the U.S. has landed on such a list — the race for effective conservation tactics has accelerated. That includes proposed bans on neonicotinoids for personal and professional application.