Frogs Help Us Understand Human Effects

Frogs and toads have lived on earth for more than 100-million-years. Theysurvived whatever extinguished the dinosaurs, yet in our age, they seem tobe vanishing. Reporting for the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, Mary Losure(low-sure) examines this scientific mystery, in the first of a three-partseries. It’s a detective story in which the victims are frogs, notpeople…but people may have a big stake in the mystery’s solution.Amphibians are sensitive indicators of environmental problems. If we canfind out what’s killing frogs, we may also learn if it will someday harm us:

Lake Effect Aids in Cranberry Farming

Cranberries are a well-established crop in Wisconsin, but other Great Lakes states are looking to grow the berry as well. On the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, farmers are hoping to take advantage of the heavy lake effect snows to cut the cost of growing the crop. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Eugene Sonn reports:

Tires Are Finally Cleaned Up

Last summer, millions of scrap tires sat piled together in a huge tire dump outside of Akron, Ohio. This week (7/13/98), the last tire will be removed…thanks to an E-P-A fund created to clean up the state’s tire dumps. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Vincent Duffy reports, funding for future clean up efforts could be in jeopardy:

Commentary – Driving Through Wildlife Habitat

With natural habitat continuing to shrink, wildlife encounters of the worst kind are on the rise. Roadsides throughout the Midwest bear sad evidence that many wild animals will never adapt to the presence of our vehicles. As Great Lakes Radio Consortium Commentator Gayle Miller points out, we might spare the lives of countless creatures by doing a bit of adapting ourselves:

Commentary – Playing Hooky

The pressure to produce more with less is leaving us all feeling more than just a little bit worn out. As Great Lakes Radio Consortium Commentator Suzanne Elston has discovered, sometimes what we all need for re-fueling is a big back yard on a warm summer day:

Weapons of Mass Destruction – Part 2

President Clinton has announced plans to better protect citizens from the use of biological weapons. He’s called for greater research and development of new vaccines and medicines to protect people who face a biological or chemical attack. But there’s debate about who should be able to access these potentially dangerous substances for experiment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant Cooper reports on efforts by cities to prepare themselves against a weapon of mass destruction:

Weapons of Mass Destruction – Part 1

After the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Congress approved funding to help cities prepare to defend against acts of terrorism. The Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation (also known as The Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996) brings together various federal agencies, such as the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, the FBI, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Over the last year, they’ve been visiting the most populated cities to train local emergency responders in dealing with nuclear, biological, and chemical terrorism. In part one of a two part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant Cooper reports:

Fishing Lessons

Learning how to fish isn’t hard, but if you don’t have someone to show you how…chances are, it’ll take a lot of trial and error before you learn the subtle nuances of the sport…like how to bait a hook so the fish can’t steal all your worms.For most of us, these fishing lessons were informal, taught by parents or older brothers and sisters. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson found out, this summer, the state of Michigan is helping people get into the act:

Explosive Cargo Heads for Great Lakes Ports

A new cargo heading for the Duluth-Superior port this month is calling for special precautions. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports, the potentially explosive goods must be handled with care: