When John M. O’Shea, the Emerson F. Greenman Professor of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan, and associates from the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropological Archaeology first began to suspect that the unnatural rock formations lying beneath Lake Huron were those of an earlier hunting culture, they stated that they were reserving celebration […]
April 27, 2014
Comments Off on Hibernating Bats in Peril
by Elaine Carlson – This could be a sci-fi thriller. A deceptively harmless white fuzz appears and begins to grow on the unsuspecting and sleeping victims. In short order, the fuzz disturbs its hosts, causing abnormal and erratic behavior which leads to exposure, starvation, and death. The devastation to the defenseless creatures is nearly complete […]
April 22, 2014
Comments Off on Opening Day and Josh Greenberg’s Rivers…
by David Smethurst – The last Saturday in April is always a special day to trout fisherman. It’s the Trout Opener. Even though today it is more of a tradition that an event, with so many streams open, some under special regulations, I think you can fish for trout somewhere every day of the year. […]
April 20, 2014
Comments Off on Please – No Jelly for Orioles
by Kay Charter – As you read this, Neotropical songbirds are in the midst of migrating back their to breeding grounds in North America. Among those species on the move is the brilliant and beautiful Baltimore Oriole. This bright orange and black bird nests across the northeastern U. S. and south central Canada. Orioles may […]
April 17, 2014
Comments Off on Things Are Getting “Real” for Encana and Chesapeake
Following up on a column we posted in June, 2012 (To all of our “Contributors” to the MNRTF… “Say it ain’t so”), it now appears that it may have been “so.” In early March of this year, criminal indictments were announced by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette against Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. for […]
April 3, 2014
Comments Off on New Bill Could Undo Protections From Exotic Swine
Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) provides this update on the “Feral Swine” saga here in Michigan. This, after the March 2014 ruling by the Marquette Circuit Court which overturned the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Invasive Species Order (ISO) which declared wild hogs to be an invasive species. Who knew? Who knew that a face […]
March 30, 2014
Comments Off on March Madness or April Fool – The Latest Trust Fund Raid Proposed
We’re hoping that it is the time of year and the combination of March Madness and April Fool season that was just too much for some to resist. Although the idea of a legislative raid of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) is not a new one, the recently introduced House Joint Resolution EE goes […]
March 21, 2014
Comments Off on It Won’t Be Long Now – Really
As we walk through the still snow-covered and frost-permeated north woods, it somehow seems hard to believe that we’ll soon be hearing the sounds of a changing season. Chief among these sounds is the one produced by the“King of the Game Birds” who, unlike so many of his feathered cousins, endured this long and difficult […]
March 2, 2014
Comments Off on The Economics of Birding
by Kay Charter – Twenty years ago, the state of Texas released a birding trail map for the center section of the Gulf Coast. The map was the first of its kind in the country, and the first of what would eventually be fifteen regional maps that would encompass every part of the state. That […]
February 25, 2014
Comments Off on Straits Of Mackinac Pipeline – The Plan Should Be As Clear As The Water
Within the past year, the nearly 60 year-old, twin oil transmission pipelines which lie at the bottom (mostly) of the Straits of Mackinac have gone from being largely unknown to a chief topic of conversation throughout our region. Public awareness of oil and gas transmission lines here in Michigan seemingly received the equivalent of a […]
April 29, 2014
Comments Off on Mysteries of Lake Huron’s Ancient Hunters Revealed