
The Environment Report
The Environment Report, hosted by Lester Graham, explores the relationship between the natural world and the everyday lives of people in Michigan.
-
Volunteers and conservation groups and agencies are in the jack pine forests this week, counting the Kirtland's warbler which almost went extinct in the 1980s because of loss of habitat.
-
Outdoor activities such as boating, off-roading, and even hiking can spread invasive species if precautions are not taken.
-
Environmental groups concerned about drilling a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac want Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, EGLE, to deny a Water Resources Permit that would allow the project to go forward.
-
Each summer, Lake Erie is plagued by toxic cyanobacterial blooms fed by phosphorus runoff from farm fields. Michigan is struggling to reduce the pollution by 40%.
-
The U.S. Supreme court wants lower courts and agencies to restrict the kinds of environmental issues should be used in permitting infrastructure.
-
A new study shows the Great Lakes are vulnerable to more extreme temperature highs and lows over the decades due to climate change.
-
The new lock at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie is in the third phase of construction. The megaproject is over budget and funds to finish the lock are uncertain. A federal report found if the current lock for large ships fails, it could cause a deep recession, leading to as many as 11 million people to be unemployed.
-
Federal budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration could cause significant disruption in the efforts to restore and sustain fish populations in the Great Lakes.
-
A map of urban tree cover was published by the Washington Post. Michigan metro areas vary in tree cover, ranging from 26% to 48%. Tree cover in urban areas is important because it reduces the heat island effect.
-
Prairie fires were a natural part of the landscape before European settlement. Most prairies were eventually turned into farmland. Because they're vital habitat to pollinators and other wildlife, plus are beautiful in their own right, prairies are being restored. Occasionally, they need to be burned to survive.
-
One evening in the late 1800s, a lighthouse keeper named John Herman was drinking, as he usually did, when he decided to play a prank on his assistant.…
-
On a calm morning in late summer 2019, Jim Bailey was kayaking on Lake Superior near Thunder Bay, Ontario, when he found himself paddling through thick…
-
When you visit one of the Great Lakes, whether it’s a sandy beach or a rocky coastline, it’s hard to imagine how something so big could be affected so profoundly by alien invasive species, or pollution, or climate change.
-
Brian Owens is with Great Lakes Now.Natural populations of oil-degrading bacteria could help to clean up freshwater rivers and lakes after spills from…
-
It’s just before 6 p.m. on a breezy Wednesday evening in Little Village, a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Department of Water Management staffers…
-
In the early 1970s, Chicago embarked on one of the region’s most ambitious and expensive infrastructure projects to date: the Tunnel and Reservoir Project…
-
What does Michigan’s future look like if we adequately prepare the state’s water resources for climate change? Goodbye to septics and shorehugging homes.…
-
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) are forecasting the…
-
Water ran from a fire hydrant, down the street and into a recently redesigned street median in Detroit last week.It was both unassuming and a…
-
Some coal fired power plants are being closed. Still, most of Michigan’s utilities heavily rely on coal.“In 2019, coal still fueled the largest share of…