Great Lakes Echo

Lake politics: Obama to ban fishing?

Karessa Weir — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:14:33 +0000

The Internet rumor mill was working overtime this week, with stories, columns and tweets flying around that the Obama administration was going to ban recreational fishing in the Great Lakes. It all began with a column on ESPN.com by Robert Montgomery that baldly stated: “The Obama administration has ended public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.” He cites “industry experts” – the industry being sport fishing – as warning that NOAA’s Ocean Policy ...

Marijuana farms trash public lands, threaten public and ecology

Andrew Norman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:47:22 +0000

Long present in western states, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are expanding east, cultivating near large consumer bases like Detroit and Chicago, police say. It’s an often violent, lucrative form of manifest destiny in reverse. And Great Lakes states, too, are feeling the burden.

Animating the Lake Huron ice bridge breakup

Jeff Gillies — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:56:41 +0000

A huge mass of ice at the southern tip of Lake Huron has the Canadian Coast Guard worried, according to the London Free Press and Port Huron Times Herald. Ice builds up there every year, but a warm spell could break up the mass into chunks too big to flow through the St. Clair River. That happened in 1984 and caused big problems. The Times Herald has a cool interactive panoramic photo of the ice from the Blue Water Bridge. But suckers for satellite imagery should check out NOAA’s Great Lakes Coast ...

Great Lakes waterfront report: Progress stymied on fish consumption

Capital News Service — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:21:33 +0000

A recent report rates Michigan's progress in lowering the risk of eating fish as poor. Officials blame the failure to reduce the atmospheric deposition of mercury and on PCB contaminants. And stormwater runoff and sewage overflows are an increasing concern.

The other Great Lakes

Karessa Weir — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:40:00 +0000

Ever Google “Great Lakes”? As part of my job as links hunter for Great Lakes Echo, I will run searches for Great Lakes stories through Google News to catch some of the more obscure publications that I don’t normally check. Google has been great about sending me some interesting reads. But occasionally it also sends me half way around the world. The Great Lakes of Africa are a system of seven lakes spread through three river basins. It is dominated by Lake Victoria, which is the continent’s largest lake and the third largest ...

Falconry is a team sport with Great Lakes roots

Alice Rossignol — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:09:55 +0000

The first falconry field meet in North America was in 1938 in Pennsylvania. It's a sport that continues to be cherished throughout the Great Lakes states. “It’s like a front row seat to an I-max movie to nature,” said Kory Koch, communications director of the Michigan Hawking Club.

Food hardship widespread; Great Lakes residents among those struggling

Haley Walker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:39:14 +0000

Nearly 19 percent of Michigan residents reported a time in the past 12 months when they lacked enough money to buy food. The statistic comes from a national Gallup survey of more than 530,000 Americans.

IJC study: Lake level lament

Jeff Gillies — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:34:10 +0000

This summer, Echo ran a five-part series on a controversial study of a possibly human-driven drop in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The $3.6 million, International Joint Commission-funded study started in 2004 and a final report of the results came in Dec., 2009. The study looked at erosion in the St. Clair River, which runs between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. The researchers found that the “head difference” between the two lakes – that’s a measure of how high the Lake Huron surface is above the Lake Erie surface – has ...

Lake politics: Stimulate America?

Andrew Norman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:29:42 +0000

Stimulus funds for wind turbines and materials for other clean energy projects should go to companies that manufacture them in the U.S., three Great Lakes senators say. Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-PA), along with Montana’s Jon Tester, introduced legislation to include a “buy American” provision on stimulus funds. The senators say more than three-fourths of $2 billion spent on wind-enery projects have gone to foreign companies. “Stimulating” American — rather than foreign companies — seems to be a sensible use of U.S. tax dollars. But ...

Daily carp bomb: Is it carp season?

David Poulson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:13:55 +0000

Perhaps direct confrontation is the best way to repel an invasion. “He’s doing his part to control the invasion of Asian Carp at Leelanau State Park,” writes casglass on the Echo carp bomb flickr group. Want in on the carp bomb photoshop fun? Learn how to create your own.