Ingham County

Lifeguard shortage can create drowning risk

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Lisa MacDonald didn’t plan to be an advocate for water safety. But all that changed in August 2022 when her 19-year-old daughter, Emily MacDonald, and Emily’s boyfriend Kory Ernster, 22, drowned in Lake Michigan at a beach in South Haven. The two were going for a swim when a current carried them toward the pier, and they were pulled under. A bystander pulled both out of the water but neither regained consciousness. McDonald was a student at MSU at the time; Ernster was a recent graduate.

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.

Agriculture
A Department of Natural Resources technician collects a red swamp crayfish from a retention pond in Novi in August 2022

Michigan trying new approaches against invasive crayfish 

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INVASIVE CRAYFISH: – Researchers are exploring new techniques to remove an invasive crayfish from Michigan waters. The DNR has been fighting an invasion of red swamp crayfish since they first appeared in the state in 2017 but aggressive attempts to trap and remove the crustacean haven’t worked. By Elinor Epperson. FOR ALL POINTS.

Education
Volunteers on a Moosewatch Expedition search for bones of moose that died in Isle Royale National Park.

Moose lessons: What they can teach us about human aging

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AGING MOOSE: Getting old can be rough. Osteoporosis. Osteoarthritis. Periodontitis – a trio of chronic diseases that make bones fragile, make joints degenerate and make teeth become loose. That triple-whammy also besets moose, say Michigan Technological University and Duke University researchers who’ve studied the bones of 180 moose that died of natural causes in Isle Royale National Park. By Eric Freedman. FOR ALL POINTS.