Environment

License plates support causes, but how many is too many?

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By JENNA CHAPMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – All Great Lakes drivers have something in common: They can buy license plates that benefit the environment. The causes are as diverse as protecting water, funding nature preserves and saving river otters. Michigan offers 27 plates, including four focusing on the environment and one for lighthouse preservation. That number pales in comparison to Ohio where 164 specialty plates are available, including two that benefit Lake Erie projects. All that variety has drawbacks for some environmental causes, and the increasing competition for specialty plate sales means fewer drivers are buying environmental plates.

Environment

Passenger pigeon discovery raises extinction awareness.

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By JENNA CHAPMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – The Michigan State University Museum has discovered something it didn’t know it
possessed – a full skeleton of a passenger pigeon. Visitors can even touch the rare skeleton of the now-extinct bird – in a digital form, said exhibit
curator Pamela Rasmussen. Viewers can enlarge and rotate the image of the skeleton on a touch
screen. The real skeleton is in a stuffed skin in the museum. It was found while researchers from the
museum worked with the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine to take computed tomography
scans of passenger pigeons to measure their bones. This is a rare occurrence, for most stuffed skins have few bones in them, Rasmussen said.