Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/category/news/environment/page/2/)
SHIPWRECK: Only a year after its launch in Detroit, the ill-fated Mojave sank in an 1864 storm, taking its crew of five to the bottom of Lake Michigan. The ship, well-preserved due to the lake’s cold water, was just added to the National Register of Historic Places. By Eric Freedman. FOR ALL POINTS.
DAMS & BLOOMS: Like clockwork, Ford Lake and its downstream neighbor, Belleville Lake, turn bright green every summer due to harmful algal blooms. The lakes, near Ypsilanti, have struggled for decades with phosphorus pollution that spurs algae growth. The quest for a solution is familiar to urban lake communities across the Great Lakes region. Area residents, a U-M researcher and an Ann Arbor public works official discuss. By Elinor Epperson and Daniel Schoenherr. FOR ALL POINTS.
GREAT LAKES BOOK CLUB: Readers across the Great Lakes states and Canada this year will participate in a basin-wide book club hosted by the Library of the Great Lakes. From now until September 2025, participants will read Bloomfield Township author Sally Cole-Misch’s The Best Part of Us that takes place on an inland lake near Lake Huron and deals with family history, heritage and place-based attachment.They’ll also read an Ontario author’s children’s book, The Water Walker. By Kayla Nelsen. FOR ALL POINTS.
BUTTERFLIES: Three butterflies are racing to become Michigan’s official state insect – and the black swallowtail is ahead, at least politically. The Michigan Garden Clubs and a House committee are among its fans, but the Karner blue and the monarch aren’t out of the running yet. Lawmakers, including ones from Meridian Township, Muskegon and Pontiac, are split. By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya. FOR ALL POINTS.
SWIMMER’S ITCH: Researchers from U-M, Hope College and Calvin University have designed a new system to relocate infected mallards from inland lakes where they cause swimmer’s itch. We talk to the Larks Lake Association in Emmet County. Other participating associations are at Higgins Lake in Roscommon County, Crystal Lake in Benzie County and Cheboygan County’s Black and Douglas Lakes. Ducks are being relocated to beaches on Lakes Huron and Michigan. By Alex Walters. FOR PETOSKEY, CHEBOYGAN, TRAVERSE CITY, HARBOR SPRINGS, CRAWFORD COUNTY, CLARE COUNTY, BIG RAPIDS, GLADWIN COUNTY AND ALL POINTS.
GREAT LAKES FOR WHOM?: The cleanup of Muskegon Lake, a designated Great Lakes Area of Concern, after 30 years and $89 million is raising questions about the future of the decontaminated area. Some community residents worry it will become costly condos and other high-end uses. We hear from the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership, a Grand Valley State researcher and the Michigan Environmental Council. Other Areas of Concern in Michigan are the Kalamazoo, Clinton, Detroit, Rouge, St. Marys, St. Clair and Manistique rivers, River Raisin, the UP’s Torch Lake and Saginaw Bay and River. By Theo Scheer. FOR LUDINGTON, OCEANA COUNTY, HOLLAND, TRAVERSE CITY, PLANET DETROIT, SAULT STE MARIE, ST. IGNACE, DETROIT, MONROE, ADRIAN, IRON MOUNTAIN, MIDLAND AND ALL POINTS.
TICKS: Climate change is transforming the patterns of disease-carrying ticks, raising public health concerns as winters become warmer and spring weather arrives earlier. We talk to an MSU researcher, an East Lansing dog groomer and an Oakland Township veterinary technician. By Gabrielle Ahlborn. FOR PLANET DETROIT, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
The way food travels from farm to table is complex. The food that shoppers normally see in massive grocery stores is grown on large farms, harvested in large quantities, stored until it can be transported to market and finally sold in grocery stores. When the food supply chain is local, the process can become even more nuanced. Two stores in Lansing that promote local food production are The Eastside Lansing Food Co-op and Campbell’s Market Basket.Â
SALINITY: Rising salt levels in some Michigan groundwater is killing crops and tainting drinking water. The problem is especially severe in Ottawa County, which is closely monitoring the situation, and also of concern in Southwest Michigan and the Thumb. We talk to a Grand Valley State University researcher, Ottawa County’s director of strategic impact and a Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy expert. By Alex Walters. FOR HOLLAND, MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, MIDLAND AND ALL POINTS.
RESILIENCE: A new memoir by the former director of Michigan’s Sierra Club chapter is the story of a half-century of environmental activism that included bringing a live cormorant with a deformed beak from the U.P. to a congressional hearing live cormorant to a congressional hearing as proof of the effects of toxic air pollution. Jane Elder also played an important role in creation of Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores. By Reese Carlson. FOR MARQUETTE, BAY MILLS, IRON MOUNTAIN, ST. IGNACE, ALPENA, ALCONA, MONROE, TRAVERSE CITY, PETOSKEY, HARBOR SPRINGS, CHEBOYGAN, SAULT STE. MARIE, LEELANAU, HOLLAND, LUDINGTON, OCEANA COUNTY AND ALL POINTS.