Agriculture

As weather warms, corn will be grown up north

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By WEI YU
Capital News Service
LANSING – Climate change would influence the volatility of corn prices more than government energy policy or changing oil prices, a new study by researchers from Stanford and Purdue universities shows. The study suggests that frequent heat waves will cause a sharp price lift unless heat-tolerant varieties are developed or the geographic concentration of corn production shifts. That means Michigan’s Corn Belt could move north into the Northern Lower Peninsular and the Upper Peninsula. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, corn is the second top agricultural commodity in Michigan. The top five counties growing corn are Huron, Lenawee, Saginaw, Cass and Sanilac, according to Michigan Agricultural Statistics.

Environment

New books highlight Lake Superior’s allure

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Lake Superior has long entranced us – with its fickle, dramatic beauty and threats, with its historic legacies and legends, with its immensity and with the people who live along its shores. Now two new books highlight some of the reasons for our fascination and our awe. “Lake Superior is not as old as the hills,” author John Gagnon observes in “Lake Superior Profiles: People on the Big Lake” (Wayne State University Press, $24.95). At 9,500 years of age, the lake is a newborn in comparison to the billion-year-old surrounding hills. And the period of human habitation has been even shorter.

Environment

Birds back from the brink in the U.P., Lower Michigan

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By BRIAN BIENKOWSKI
Capital News Service
LANSING — Thirty years after vanishing from the Midwest, peregrine falcons are thriving in smokestacks, skyscrapers and cliffs. The numbers not only rebounded, but quadrupled from the 1950s and 1960s when pesticides, mostly DDT, destroyed peregrine falcon populations. DDT caused thin, easily broken eggs. “Historically, we didn’t have that much habitat or birds in Michigan,” said Ray Rustem, assistant to the chief of marketing outreach at the Department of Natural Resources. “They were pretty much only in the Upper Peninsula.”
And while the U.P. population has bounced back, there are also peregrine falcons in the Lower Peninsula, Rustem said.

Environment

More U.P. mining planned, environmental groups worried

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By PATRICK LYONS
Capital News Service
LANSING – A renewed interest in mining in the Upper Peninsula could provide funding for state parks and boost local economies. Three mining projects are in development or underway in the U.P: Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. near Marquette; Orvana Minerals Corp. in Gogebic County; and Aquila Resources Inc. and Hudbay Minerals Inc. near Stephenson. Prior to the renewed interest, mining has decreased in the region.

Business & Economy

Fewer residents mean fewer judges, state says

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By JON GASKELL
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan is eliminating 36 trial court judgeships, a move that is expected to save the state around $6 million a year in judges’ salaries, an average $140,000 each. “This is the largest cut in judgeships ever accomplished in the United States,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young. “It is unprecedented.”
That includes four Upper Peninsula positions. “This right-sizing of our judiciary is the front edge of reforms we need to make for a more service-oriented and efficient court system,” Young said. The cuts will be made through attrition over several years.

Environment

Oh deer, more deer in the U.P.

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By JON GASKELL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan’s mild winter could mean more deer in the Upper Peninsula this year. Experts say unusually warm weather could make more food sources available, giving deer access to more forage sites and an advantage over predators. Those patterns could forecast an exceptional hunting season in the fall. Brent Rudolph, deer and elk program leader for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), said if mild temperatures and low snowfall persist through the rest of winter, deer populations could reproduce in greater numbers. “The most critical time, in terms of having an impact on population, is early spring,” Rudolph said.