Environment

Great Lakes ports open their docks for cruise lines

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service
LANSING — A cruise on the Great Lakes is comparable to, if not better than, a tour of the Galapagos Islands. That’s the assessment of one seasoned cruise couple arriving in Duluth, Minnesota, after an excursion through the Great Lakes. “They said the quality of the lectures, to the amount of time at each stop and the fact that every coastline was completely different made it better than any cruise they had been on,” said Adele Yorde, public relations director at the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. More cruise-savvy travelers may have that Great Lakes option this summer. Cindy Larsen, president of the Muskegon (Michigan) Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, is planning for a boost in cruise line tourism in her city.

Environment

Dark sky preserves could boost tourism

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service
LANSING — A new law designating dark sky preserves in Michigan is expected to pull visitors from all over the world, advocates say. “It was a natural fit,” said Rep. Peter Pettalia, R-Presque Isle. Pettalia was behind the law meant to protect northern Michigan state parks from artificial light pollution. “It’s such a neat experience to witness celestial happenings all around you,” Pettalia said. The law specifies Rockport State Recreation Area, in Alpena and Presque Isle counties, Negwegon State Park in Alpena and Alcona counties, and Thompson’s Harbor State Park in Presque Isle County.

Capital News Service

Fourth graders will get field trips to federal parks

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service

LANSING — Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is one of 186 federal parks that will split the $1.1 million National Park Foundation grant to set up field trip programs.

The $4,820 grant secured last fall will get local kids educated through public parks, said Melissa O’Donnell, the interagency education specialist at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Hiawatha National Forest. The money was raised through a crowd funding campaign, supported by the tag #FindYourPark on Twitter. The foundation’s Open Outdoors for Kids program supports the White House youth initiative called Every Kid in a Park. The field trips give elementary school kids a chance to experience public land. National Park Service officials say parks and public lands offer kids great opportunities to get their feet wet while collecting water samples, studying wildlife in its natural habitat or exploring where history happened.

Environment

Bird-safe glass helps birdbrains avoid windows

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service
LANSING — You hear an unpleasant thud; unsettled and surprised you investigate. The culprit is a bird, dead on arrival. Like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, birds are crashing into windows at alarming rates. Between 365 million and 988 million birds die annually from window collisions in the U. S. and Canada, according to a recent study. You may say, “Birds crash into windows, who gives a cluck?” Actually, quite a few people do.

Environment

Artist prints native plants on invasive species

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service
LANSING — An East Lansing artist prints the shadows of endangered plants on handmade paper crafted from the invasive plants that threaten them. “I had been experimenting with shadows,” Jane Kramer said, explaining the project she calls “Foreshadowing- Endangered and Threatened Plant Species.”

When she was selected as one of four Michigan artists to present their work for the 2014 Art from the Lakes art exchange program in Shiga, Japan, Kramer found an incentive to get serious about her shadow hunting. The others chosen for the Japanese exchange were woodblock print artist Linda Beeman of Owosso, fiber artist Martha Liddle-Lamenti of Owosso and pastels artist Thomas Tomasek of Ovid. In her work, Kramer transfers the shadows of endangered and threatened plants onto paper constructed from invasive plant pulp. Making the paper isn’t an easy task and is especially hard on her blender.

Parks & Recreation

Filmmaker sets coming of age story in Upper Peninsula

By |

By KAYLA SMITH
Capital News Service
LANSING — An epic bike trip around Lake Superior inspired a new film that stars the Upper Peninsula. “Superior” is a coming-of-age story:

At the height of the Vietnam War, two boys experience their last summer together before adulthood. One is headed to a university. The other fears the fate of the draft. They bike 1,300 miles around Lake Superior, meeting a slew of interesting characters.