Author: Corbin Sullivan

School Choice Complicates Land-Use Choice

  • School districts are building huge, palatial schools far outside suburban cities to attract school choice students. Okemos High School in Michigan is an example, with its turrets and sprawling athletic fields. The school is actually facing a dearth of students in coming years. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)

Parents want to send their kids to the best schools, but those schools aren’t always in their neighborhood. Lawmakers in most states say school choice is the answer. Giving students a choice is supposed to make all schools better, but an unintended consequence of school choice is bad choices for land use. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:

Transcript

Parents want to send their kids to the best schools, but those schools aren’t always in the neighborhood. Lawmakers in most states say school choice is the answer. Giving students a choice is supposed to make all schools better. But an unintended consequence of school choice is bad choices for land use. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:


Ken Brock lives in the heart of Michigan’s capital city, and he works just a mile away. He and his family live in a quaint neighborhood of homes built in the 1920s and 30s, with interesting neighbors and light traffic, but when Brock started looking at the Lansing schools, he didn’t find what he wanted for his then fourth grade daughter, and neither did she.


“We actually took her to the urban school. And it was an eye opening experience for her. She said to my wife at one point during the visit, ‘Mom, these kids don’t know how to behave.'”


After shopping around, Brock and his daughter decided on a suburban school a few miles outside the city. The school is 20 minutes from the Brock’s home, and no bus runs from downtown Lansing to the school. Brock’s daughter is going into ninth grade and she’ll be behind the wheel soon. But for now, Brock and his wife are willing to make the 40-minute round trip drive, sometimes three times a day, to make sure their daughter’s getting what they feel is a better education.


“I don’t think we’re unique that the number one priority in our life is our daughter, and we’re going to do what it takes to make sure she has the best education and the greatest opportunities available to her.”


Forty-one states have school choice laws. They’re supposed to make schools compete for students and the government money that’s tied to them. The idea is that competition will force schools to up the ante on education, and in the end, all the choices will be better, but suburban school districts are trying to lure students in other ways.


“Those communities often respond by building very large, wonderful schools. But they feel pressure to build these schools farther and farther outside the city.”


Mac McClelland is with the Michigan Land Use Institute. The institute is a non-profit that promotes smart growth. He says instead of just spending the school choice dollars only to improve education, suburban school districts are building huge, palace-like schools to attract students. These schools are too big to be built near city centers. Instead they’re popping up in the middle of cornfields. McLelland says that’s bad land use.


“Folks are putting pressure on land use and opening up new areas by these new schools, extending sewer lines, extending roads and opening up new areas to development.”


McLelland says the goal of school choice legislation was better education. But instead they’ve ended up with a lot of giant, shiny new schools, and once they’re built, the communities gravitate toward them, following the new roads and sewers. McLelland says it’s a gamble — spending money on a new school to get more students and therefore more money. The gamble doesn’t always pay off, so McLelland says schools should worry more about spending money on their teachers and classes – and try to save money on the actual building.


“In every situation that we looked at, it was cheaper to remodel than it was to build new. Even though there might be some sacrifices, some other changes that may not be necessarily, might not be ideal for all people in the school system, that it was less expensive, provided more value, and also decreased the additional cost to that community in terms of extending sewer, water and roads out to that particular area.”


McLelland says putting the emphasis solely on education would give urban schools a more level playing field with schools in the suburbs. He says there’s no need to keep expanding out, because there’s still space for more kids in urban schools.


Ken Brock took his daughter out of the city schools, but he says he’ s not adding to the urban sprawl that often follows the new schools. He says if it weren’t for school choice, his family would have moved to the suburbs to support his daughter’s educational needs. He thinks school choice might be keeping families like his in cities.


“What I want to say and be very specific is I think middle and upper class families would be a smaller percentage of the city population if there weren’t educational options available.”


Brock is arguing that school choice might actually slow sprawl because families can live where they want and still send their kids to the school they want. But not everyone can manage the 40-minute commute two and three times a day to take their kids from the city out to the school in the suburbs, so many families end up moving closer and new subdivisions pop up in the fields around the big, new schools.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin Sullivan.

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Study: Acid Rain Depletes Soil Nutrients

Acid rain isn’t a new threat to the environment. But its effect on trees and soils has been a point of debate. Now, a new study supports the theory that acid rain can deplete nutrients in forest soil. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan has more:

Transcript

Acid rain isn’t a new threat to the environment. But its effect on trees and soils has
been a point of debate. Now, a new study supports the theory that acid rain can
deplete nutrients in forest soil. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan
has more:


Acid rain is caused by emissions mostly from coal-fired power plants. It’s linked to “dead”
lakes and streams that have become too acidic for fish and other organisms.


But a new study published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal says the
addition of even a small amount of acid to forest soils can deplete minerals needed for
plant and animal survival.


Ivan Fernandez is the lead author of the study. He says the study showed the loss of
several nutrients, but he’s most concerned with calcium loss.


“Calcium both reduces the toxicity of bad things as well as being a required essential nutrient.
If you lose too much calcium, you can have direct nutrient deficiencies.”


Fernandez says when minerals like calcium and magnesium are lost the result is
slower plant growth. He also says the loss of these minerals can lead to poor water quality.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin Sullivan.

Sport of Kings Saving Birds

  • The Goshawk named Buffy is screeching in defense of her master. Goshawks are considered some of the most difficult birds to train for falconry. They're feisty and fast, but that also means they can hunt for more advanced game like duck and pheasant. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)

Falconry was once called the “sport of kings.” Royals trained hawks and falcons to hunt for smaller birds and animals. Birds of prey were revered by the ruling class, and the birds were protected from hunters. Some say it was the beginning of wildlife conservation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports on some falconers who are keeping the sport and its conservation heritage alive:

Transcript

Falconry was once called the “sport of kings.” Royals trained hawks and falcons to hunt for
smaller birds and animals. Birds of prey were revered by the ruling class, and the birds were
protected from hunters. Some say it was the beginning of wildlife conservation. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports on some falconers who are keeping the sport and its
conservation heritage alive:


That’s Buffy. She’s a full-grown Goshawk and she’s angry because I’m a little too close to her
master.


Buffy’s named after a television character who slays vampires. She’s one of two Goshawks that
Dave Hogan uses for hunting near his Southeast Michigan home.


Buffy is tall — about 17 inches high — and thick, with feathers ruffled in the stiff winter wind.
The bells on her feet jingle when she stirs.


It’s too blustery for her to hunt today. But when she does hunt, she perches on Hogan’s fist,
waiting for a rabbit or pheasant to flush.


When game does appear, Buffy springs from Hogan’s leather glove. After she’s killed her prey,
she brings it back to him.


But Hogan’s quick to point out that he’s not the only one who gets something out of the hunt.


“It’s a partnership. They know that you’re out there helping them catch game. They rely on you.
You’re the dog for them and you’re the setup man for them. And they understand that.”


Dave Hogan has been practicing falconry since he was 15 years old. He’s 52 now. That’s 37
years. He uses birds of prey to hunt, he rehabilitates them and he breeds them. With all that
experience, he’s reached the highest level of falconry – a master falconer.


Hogan says some falconers keep the meat that the birds catch for themselves, but he has a lot of
mouths to feed.


The game that Buffy and her mate, Spike, catch helps to feed the birds that Hogan rehabilitates.


Right now he’s got an endangered Merlin and a Red-tailed Hawk. The Merlin broke its wing and
the hawk dislocated its shoulder.


He doesn’t want to get attached to the birds, so he hasn’t given them names. But Hogan will feed
and exercise the birds until they can return to nature.


Hogan says besides tending to injured birds, falconers also have a big role in conserving the birds
they train. Often a master falconer will capture a bird in its first year, train it and then let it go.


Hogan says it’s common to let the bird go only a year later. They’re left to their own devices.
But he says after a year, they’re fully grown and better able to fend for themselves.


Hogan says taking young birds lightens the burden on a crowded nest. And he says a lot of birds
can use that help.


“Eighty percent of all the hawks, eagles, falcons that are born die in the first year. It is that hard
for them to make a living. They get kicked out of the nest when they’re young. There’s
anywhere from, depending on the species, from one to four young in the nest. And the nest sits
way up high in a real tall tree, and very often one of them gets knocked out of the nest.”


So, by using the young birds, falconers say their sport is important in helping birds of prey
survive.


In central Wisconsin, another hunter, Kurt Reed, is about to apply for master falconer status. It
takes seven years to reach this level.


Reed is training his second Red-tailed hawk in a forest behind his home. He says he’s learned a
lot about falconry in the past seven years.


“In taking care of or training a Red-tailed Hawk. It’s all about weight control and
responsiveness. So for example, today my hawk is a little on the heavy side. He’s about 1340
grams and that’s about two ounces more than I would like him to be if I was going to go hunting
with him today.”


It’s beautiful outside, and sunny. Reed says days like this can be bad days to hunt, especially
when the bird is packing some extra ounces.


“If you take your hawk out when they’re way overweight, they’re going to go sit up in a tree and
sun themselves, and you’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”


And that’s just what happened a few minutes later. He let his bird – Bucky – go for a test flight.


So he let the bird go about half an hour ago and it’s still up there – just looking around. It’s
changed trees quite a few times but it doesn’t seem to want to come down any time soon.


Bucky never did come down while I was there. Reed says Bucky does this all the time. He says
he’s learned that patience is the most important skill in falconry.


And Reed says the hard work gives falconers a deep appreciation for the birds they train.


That appreciation might be the reason many of these falconers go beyond daily hunting to help
birds of prey in need.


In fact, falconers have been credited for helping to bring the Peregrine Falcon back from the brink
of extinction.


Back in Michigan, one organization was instrumental in bringing Peregrines back to that state.


The Michigan Hawking Club helped save the endangered bird of prey in urban environments.
One of them is Zug Island in the Detroit River.


Zug’s Barren. It has no trees, just a giant steel mill. Still, Peregrines nest in the mill’s steel
girders just like they’re big tree branches.


Dave Hogan is the president of the Hawking Club. He says young birds would die if falconers
didn’t help them.


“Since 1991, out of the 70 young the wild Peregrines in Detroit have produced, we have had
hands on help on over 31 of them, where we’ve rescued them from certain things and put ’em
back in the nest or raised ’em and put ’em back in a family situation where the parents can take care of
them.”


Hogan says it’s not just about using the birds to hunt. He says the best part about falconry is
seeing the birds live to fly free, whether they come back or not.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin Sullivan.

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New Maps Predict Wolf Attacks

Wolf populations are on the rise. Conservation officials say that’s a victory for wildlife. But more wolves mean more encounters with farms and livestock. Now, a group of researchers has developed maps to predict where wolves might attack. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan has more:

Transcript

Wolf populations are on the rise. Conservation officials say that’s a victory for wildlife. But more
wolves means more encounters with farms and livestock. Now, a group of researchers has developed
maps to predict where wolves might attack. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan has
more:


In a study published in the journal Conservation
Biology, the researchers mapped wolf attacks on
livestock in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They compared
the areas with the most attacks to those with the least.


The maps show that farms with the largest pastures and
the largest herds are at high risk for wolf attacks.


Nearby deer populations also put farms at higher risk.


Adrian Treves helped develop the maps. He says they
can help farmers and state officials focus their efforts to
prevent wolf attacks.


“Instead of diverting time and staff and resources across
the entire range of the wolves, they can choose to invest
their efforts in areas that are moderate to high risk.”


Treves says farmers can choose to use guard animals or
improved fencing to ward off wolf attacks. He says loud
recorded sounds, such as helicopters and gunfire, also
deter wolves.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

Study: Vinyl Alternatives Just as Affordable

The production of vinyl products is considered by many to be an environmental hazard. But vinyl’s affordability keeps it popular. Now a new study says vinyl alternatives can be just as affordable. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:

Transcript

The production of vinyl products is considered by many to be an environmental hazard. But
vinyl’s affordability keeps it popular. Now a new study says vinyl alternatives can be just as
affordable. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:


Vinyl or PVC is used in everything from pipe fittings to
medical gloves. It’s cheap and easy to make.


But when vinyl is produced it releases hazardous substances like mercury and dioxin. Both are
known to threaten human health.


The study was done at Tufts University. The authors say
regardless of health threats, vinyl is only inexpensive in
the short term.


They say that while vinyl is cheap when you first buy it,
it doesn’t last as long as most of its alternatives.


Frank Ackerman co-authored the study. He says since
the study showed vinyl isn’t more affordable, using
vinyl is irresponsible to the environment.


“The excuse that the market made us do it, that we were
economically forced to do something that we knew was
bad for health and the environment. That’s a lousy
excuse. There’s no reason to put up with that. You can
afford to do what you know is right for your health and
for the environment of those around you.”


Ackerman says the alternatives can be materials that
vinyl originally replaced. These are often natural
materials like woods and metals.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

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Study: Mtbe Alternatives Pose Similar Threat

The Clean Air Act says gasoline must contain additives to help it burn more cleanly. But the common additive MTBE is a proven environmental threat. And a new study says the alternatives could be just as dangerous. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:

Transcript

The Clean Air Act says gasoline must contain additives to help it burn more cleanly. But the
common additive MTBE is a proven environmental threat. And a new study says the alternatives
could be just as dangerous. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:


Underground storage tanks at gas stations can leak. Fuel
additives like MTBE leak faster than the gas and can
cause groundwater pollution.


For that reason, seventeen states, including New York,
Michigan and Illinois have restricted or will restrict the use
of MTBE in gasoline.


That means other fuel additives intended to reduce air
pollution will have to be used instead.


Mel Suffet co-authored a new study published in the
journal Environmental Science and Technology.


He says some of the alternatives to MTBE can cause the
same problems.


They can be toxic and can make groundwater
undrinkable. Suffet says to solve the problem, leaks need
to be prevented.


“The first thing you have to do is develop a design of
underground fuel storage tanks to emphasize containment
leak detection and repair.”


Suffet says even modern tanks are prone to leaks. So he
says designers need to go back to the drawing board to
create a leak free tank.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

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Ugly Bikes a Better Alternative to Cars?

  • Community bike projects are springing up in cities and college campuses across North America. The idea - ride a bike when you can avoid driving a car. They're old and made intentionally ugly so people won't steal them. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)

America is a cult of the automobile. We drive everywhere. You can pick up a donut and coffee in the morning, a burger in the afternoon and a six-pack of beer at night and never leave your car. But some environmentally-conscious people want us to leave the car in the garage. And they’re offering us old, ugly bikes instead. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:

Transcript

America is a cult of the automobile. We drive everywhere. You can pick up a donut and coffee in
the morning, a burger in the afternoon and a six pack of beer at night and never leave your car. But
some environmentally-conscious people want us to leave the car in the garage. And they’re offering
us old, ugly bikes instead. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:


(bike bell)


These bikes are old, and they are ugly. But the Michigan
State University Bike Project isn’t worried about how its
bikes look. That’s unless they’re not ugly enough.


These kinds of creaky, old bikes were abandoned long
ago for bikes with gears, handle brakes and cool brand
names. Once they’re taken in, these old bikes are painted
a bright canary yellow – really ugly.


But that’s what the bike project’s organizers want. The
bikes just need to work, but not too well. They need to
stick out, but not in a good way.


Tim Potter says, the less desirable the better.


“We don’t want to make them look too good, because
we don’t want people taking them home and keeping
them. So we try to make them intentionally ugly and
very identifiable.”


Potter says they want people to borrow the bikes, but
they don’t want them to keep them. He helped launch
the project last May. They wanted to give Michigan
State students and professors a free and non-
polluting way to get across campus.


“We just want to encourage more people to use
bicycles to reduce traffic, to reduce pollution, and to
improve their health.”


At Michigan State, the bikes are leased to campus
departments and signed out for daily use.


Gus Gosselin rides one of these old yellow bikes in
the bitter cold of winter and the dead heat of summer.
He and Potter have been working on the bikes ever
since Gosselin brought the idea back from Canada.


“I was vacationing in a cabin in northern Ontario and
my neighbor was a bicycle shop owner from
Virginia. He told me that at his university when he
was a college student, they would take these
abandoned bikes and paint ’em some color, and then
just park ’em all around for people to just use as
needed.”


Similar programs have sprung up across North America.
At other campuses like Hampshire College in
Massachusetts and the University of Texas. And in cities
such as Portland, Oregon, and St. Paul, Minnesota.


Before the concept came to North America, there
were community bike programs all across Europe.
Most U.S. bike programs use yellow to distinguish
their bikes. Amsterdam and Copenhagen use white.
Regardless of color, the concept remains the same:
Use a bike when you can avoid using a car.


The Michigan State bike project is just getting
started.


Across Lake Michigan in Wisconsin’s capitol, the
Red Bike Project is approaching its sixth birthday.


The program here started when a bike shop decided
to donate free recycled bikes to the city of Madison.
Now the bikes are in for their winter repairs.
Dismantled red frames sit on the floor in the back of
the shop. They’re waiting for a new paint job and
wheels.


“For the first three years the bicycles were
completely free so they’d be launched as it were like
on Earth Day in April. And then as we repaired and
painted more, we launched more. They would go
people could hop on them, leave them anywhere.”


Roger Charly owns the bike shop that started
painting and distributing the bikes. He says the
University of Wisconsin students drive the program.
And he says Madison is a biking town. It was ripe
for a community bike project.


The project caught on, but in unexpected ways, says
Charly.


“You know at bar time down on campus you hear
people arguing about, ‘that’s my red bike or I’m
riding this red bike home.'”


And Charly says the arguments for the bikes weren’t
the only problem. He says sometimes, bikes would
end up in the nearby lake, or people would ride them
outside the city and abandon them.


So, he had to make riders put a deposit on their bike.
It gave them more responsibility. And Charly says
the program has flourished.


“Our fleet is about 300 bicycles right now which is
the most its ever been, so I suppose we could top out
at as many as 1000 bicycles.”


But there are 400,000 people in the Madison area.
So, a thousand red bikes might seem like a rather
pedestrian numbers to consider a success.


But these projects don’t have lofty goals of
converting an automobile society to one of bike
riders.


Back in Michigan, the yellow bike project has 25
bikes for a campus of more than 40,000. Terry Link
organizes the Michigan State Bike Project. He says
they would be happy to have 100 bikes by spring.


“Yeah, I think sometimes we look for the big changes
and we don’t tackle things because we such very
little in the ocean of change that maybe we feel we
need. But it’s individual actions that really start. I
think people that find themselves getting on bicycles
more, it changes the way they look at a lot of things.”


And Link thinks a community bike program can work
anywhere.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

Earlier Spring Thaws to Accelerate Global Warming?

Satellite imaging shows that spring thaws in the northern latitudes are happening almost a day earlier each year. Environmental scientists worry that faster melts could accelerate global warming. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan explains:

Transcript

Satellite imaging shows that spring thaws in the northern latitudes are
happening almost a day earlier each year. Environmental scientists worry
that faster melts could accelerate global warming. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan explains:


The satellite readings show that the spring thaw in
the Alaskan tundra and northern forests is coming
more than a week earlier than it did in 1988.


John Kimball co-authored a study of the NASA
images. He says the greenhouse effect is responsible
for earlier melting. And he warns that faster thaws
could lead to more greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.


“The potential here is that this warming will
actually reinforce that greenhouse related warming
trend that we’re seeing. That would occur at a much
faster rate.”


Kimball says microorganisms in the arctic soil are
the reason for the increase in heat-trapping gases.


He says the organisms become active when the soil
thaws, breaking down carbon in the soil and
releasing methane and carbon dioxide.


Kimball says an earlier thaw means more
greenhouse gases will be produced each year. That’s
in addition to the gases produced by human sources
like automobiles and power plants.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

Related Links

Study: Mercury From Boreal Fires Reaching U.S.

New evidence shows that forest fires near the Arctic Circle release a toxic heavy metal into the atmosphere. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports the smoke can make its way down to the Northeast United States:

Transcript

New evidence shows that forest fires near the Arctic Circle release a toxic heavy metal into the
atmosphere. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports the smoke can make its
way down to the Northeast United States:


The study was published by the American Chemical
Society. It shows that fires in the boreal forests of
northern Canada are sending up massive amounts of
mercury into the atmosphere.


Scientists say the mercury released by the burning
evergreens is mostly natural. They say it comes from
volcanic eruptions.


Jeff Sigler of Yale University conducted the study. He
says in a given year, the fires can release as much
mercury as human sources like coal-fired power plants.


“A large Canadian boreal fire can really enhance the
ambient mercury, the mercury in the air, in the northeast
even though it’s already a fairly polluted area.”


Mercury is a heavy metal known to damage the central
nervous system. It’s toxic if ingested even in small
quantities.


Mercury becomes a threat to human health when it
returns to the earth in rain and makes its way up the food
chain in fish.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin
Sullivan.

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Trying to Stop Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic Wasting Disease has killed deer and elk in 15 states. The fatal brain disease – first discovered in Colorado – has spread as far east as Wisconsin and Illinois. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports there is no proven plan to stop it from going further:

Transcript

Chronic Wasting Disease has killed deer and elk in 15 states. The fatal
brain disease – first discovered in Colorado – has spread as far east as
Wisconsin and Illinois. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports there is no
proven plan to stop it from going further:


Michigan is the latest state to unveil a plan to prevent Chronic Wasting
Disease from crossing its borders. A state task force is urging more
effective tracking of captive deer and elk herds.


Howard Tanner is the co-chair of Michigan’s Chronic Wasting Disease Task
Force. He says, so far, there is no evidence of the disease in Michigan.


We’re gonna keep it out. We’re gonna prevent it. We don’t want to have to
deal with it after the fact if we can possibly avoid it.”


There are more than 3,000 deer and elk farms in the Great Lakes region.
Tanner says the farms are a risk because the animals can escape and infect
wild herds.


If Chronic Wasting Disease spreads throughout the Midwest, officials say it
could decimate the wild deer population.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium this is Corbin Sullivan.

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