Birch bark canoe artists keep Native American tradition afloat

HOLLY DRANKHAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — When Tom Byers first laid eyes on a birch bark canoe, it wasn’t what he saw that captivated him most. It was what he heard. “I hesitate to say the canoe spoke to me, but that’s what happened,” said Byers of Whitefish, Ontario, who has built 74 of the vessels. “It was almost as if there was a spirit that was communicating telepathically with me from this birch bark canoe that I saw. It was really a powerful experience for me.”

Byers, a descendant of the Canadian aboriginal group Métis, is part of a movement to revive a craft once key to traveling the Great Lakes region.

Dawn of the Great Lakes Wolf Patrol

Editors note: This is the second of a two-part story about Rod Coronado, a convicted eco-terrorist now working to protect wolves in the Great Lakes region. By HOLLY DRANKHAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — One of the Great Lakes Wolf Patrol’s first actions after it was established in 2013 was photographing a wolf killed in Michigan and posting the pictures on its website to inspire others to take up the cause. The group has since established chapters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Founder Rod Coronado of Grand Rapids also organized a patrol in Montana to oppose hunting wolves as they leave the protection of Yellowstone National Park. In each location, the group sticks to public lands and roads, and avoids infringing on hunters under the guidelines of hunter harassment laws, Coronado said.

Convicted eco-terrorist pursues legal protection of Great Lakes wolves

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story about the evolution of an animal activist now working in the Great Lakes region. By HOLLY DRANKHAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — In the past three decades, Rod Coronado says he’s gone from an eco-terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list to a law-abiding advocate for the protection of gray wolves in the Great Lakes region. Now living in Grand Rapids, Coronado’s past includes destroying whaling vessels in Iceland, torching a Michigan State University research lab and demonstrating how to assemble bombs at a public rally. His extreme activism began at age 19 when he joined the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, an international marine wildlife conservation group. As part of that group, Coronado helped sabotage a whaling station in Reykjavik, Iceland, destroying computers, generators and refrigerators and sinking two whaling vessels.

Fish virus threatens aquaculture industry

By HOLLY DRANKHAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – Although no fish with internal bleeding or bulging eyes have been reported by fish farms in Michigan or elsewhere in the Great Lakes region, symptoms of a highly contagious virus that has bruised the profits of many businesses. Federal regulation of viral hemorrhagic septicemia – or VHS – caused a business disruption years ago that some fish farmers say continues to haunt them, but aquaculturists hope new management methods can combat disease risks and help stabilize the fledgling industry. Since it was first detected in the region almost a decade ago, VHS has been found in wild fish in all five Great Lakes, Lake St. Clair, the St. Lawrence River and several area inland lakes, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Grassland biofuels better for bees, researchers find

By HOLLY DRANKHAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – A hand-held vacuum seems an unlikely tool in a field ecologist’s kit. But sucking up bees from sunflowers was a necessary step in assessing how human energy needs may affect Michigan pollinators. Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin recently published a study comparing the effects of two types of biofuel production on Michigan’s bee populations. Biofuels are fuels derived from renewable plant or animal sources that can reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The study compared two sources of biofuels: annual biofuel crops, such as corn and soybeans, and perennial biofuel crops, like prairie grass and switchgrass.