Arts & Entertainment

Ancient mounds show how people lived before Columbus

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By CARIN TUNNEY
Capital News Service
LANSING — Down a narrow rural road in southwestern Michigan, an empty corner has neatly mowed grass and two tiny rolling hills. The mounds would likely go unnoticed if not for a small historical marker that most drivers pass without slowing. But hidden beneath the unremarkable ground lie answers to Michigan’s ancient past. This and similar earthworks sites tell us how ancient hunters and gatherers interacted with their environment in a time before written language documented how they lived. Unlike the majority of mounds across Michigan, these survived development, agriculture and human curiosity.

Environment

Culling deer herd reduced chronic wasting disease

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By CARIN TUNNEY
Capital News Service

LANSING — Federal sharpshooters and more hunting permits that reduced the deer population helped fight chronic wasting disease among white-tailed deer, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reports. Results are in from the first-year management strategy for chronic wasting disease in Michigan. Wildlife officials confirmed the disease in the state’s wild deer herd in May 2015. During the past 16 months, the DNR tested more than 6,000 animals killed by hunters, sharpshooters employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or in traffic accidents. Eight tested positive, the report shows.