Environment
Paddle boarders cross Platte Lake where a decades-long campaign reduced algal blooms caused by runoff from a fish hatchery.

Great Lakes beach closings are no protection from harmful pollutants

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BEACH CLOSINGS: Scientists say decease-old methods used to test recreational waters for E. coli and other contaminants are inadequate and new methods could better protect public health by more accurate and better timed Great Lakes beach closings, plus inland waters such as the Detroit River and Oakland County lakes. We hear from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, Department of Natural Resources and the International Joint Commission. By Amalia Medina. FOR ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy
Botanist Elizabeth Haber of Seeds for Success looks for native plants at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.

Commentary: Michigan joins federal program that collects native flora and champions restoration

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NATIVE PLANTS: Our writer joins researchers who are collecting seeds of native plant species at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. Michigan is among the Midwest states using federal aid for a program to conserve and restore native flora, and the team is combing through Michigan prairies, wetlands and forests looking for native plant seeds. By Elinor Epperson. FOR ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy
A Poweshiek skipperling is on a black-eyed Susan. The purple spots on the wings mark it as one of this year's releases.

The Poweshiek skipperling has disappeared from most of Michigan’s prairies. Now scientists are raising them in zoos for release into the wild.

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RARE BUTTERFLIES: John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids and MSU researchers are part of an international partnership acing to save a small, inconspicuous – and rare – butterfly known as the Poweshiek skipperling that was once so common in Midwest prairies that collectors largely ignored them. By Ruth Thornton. FOR ALL POINTS.

Construction & Development
Bee City USA sign in downtown Detroit.

Detroit is the place to bee!  Detroit Hives helps fight climate change, boost food security through pollination

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DETROIT BEES: A Detroit couple is popularizing beekeeping in the city, which they say can transform vacant and blighted lots to benefit residents and the pollinators. Their nonprofit program, Detroit Hives, has a grant to expand its work to use pollinator habitats to facilitate food security, activate abandoned areas and promote environmental justice By Jada Vasser. FOR ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy
Electronics contain critical minerals such as copper, nickel, gold, lithium and cobalt needed to make batteries for electric vehicles and to electrify Michigan’s energy grid.

The electric energy future could be wasting away in a junk drawer

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ELECTRONIC WASTE: Michigan’s electric vehicle future will require millions of batteries, hundreds of thousands of charging stations and moving the state to renewable sources of energy. One important source of some critical minerals needed for that future remains under-tapped: recycled old electronic waste. Delhi Township collects e-waste. Experts from Michigan Tech phe Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory explain. By Gabrielle Nelson. FOR ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy
Third Sister Lake, the lake where Dan Bicknell first found contamination in 1984.

Forty years on, future of contaminant plume under Ann Arbor still murky 

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CONTAMINATED PLUME: Gelman Sciences manufactured medical filters for decades, but dioxane from the Scio Township plant leaked into Ann Arbor’s groundwater, creating a plume of contamination more than 4 miles long. Gelman had been dumping the chemical since 1966, and 40 years after its discovery the plume is larger than ever. By Elinor Eppeson. FOR ALL POINTS.