Some Success in Non-Native Beetle Fight

  • The Asian Longhorned Beetle rapidly kills hardwood trees and had plagued Chicago for some time, but officials now report that progress is being made in the fight against the beetle population. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan DNR)

The City of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
are celebrating a small victory in their battle against an invasive pest. The Asian Longhorned Beetle arrived from China in packing materials and is responsible for destroying thousands of hardwood trees in North America. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee has more:

Transcript

The City of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are celebrating a small victory in their battle against an invasive pest. The Asian Longhorned Beetle arrived from China and is responsible for destroying thousands of hardwood trees in North America. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Shawn Allee has more.


Chicago saw its first Asian Longhorned Beetle back in 1998. USDA and Chicago officials quickly destroyed more than fifteen hundred trees to stop the infestation. They also slapped a quarantine on the historic Ravenswood neighborhood, which prevented residents from removing tree cuttings from the area.


Now officials are lifting those restrictions, saying no one’s seen the bug in the area’s stately tree canopy for nearly two years. Joe McCarthy is the City of Chicago’s chief forester. He says a beetle hotline and a diligent press made the difference.


“There’s so much coverage of this thing, that the beetle is on TV, out in the papers, on front pages. And that’s how all the main infestations were found in the Chicago area.”


McCarthy points out that another Chicago neighborhood is still under quarantine.


The USDA is also fighting the Asian Longhorned Beetle in New York City and parts of New Jersey.


For the GLRC, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Alewife Die-Off Sparks Worries for Salmon

  • Because alewives make up a large portion of salmon diets, alewife die-offs are causing concerns that salmon populations might also decline. (Photo courtesy of the Fish and Wildlife Service)

A small fish is dying off in parts of the Great Lakes. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the amount of alewives in Lake Michigan dropped nearly 70 percent last year. And biologists say the decrease might signal trouble for the salmon fishery. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette reports:

Transcript

A small fish is dying off in parts of the Great Lakes. According to the U-S
Geological Survey, the amount of alewives in Lake Michigan dropped nearly 70
percent last year. And biologists say the decrease might signal trouble for
the salmon fishery. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette
Reports:


Lake Michigan’s alewife population has been lower than it is now a few times
in the last 20 years. But Lake Huron’s alewife population is practically zero.


That’s why salmon in Huron are small and many are coming over to Lake
Michigan to feed.


USGS Biologist Charles Madenjian says the problem is stocked salmon are now
reproducing naturally.


And the growing numbers of salmon are eating up all the alewives.


“People fear that if alewives stay at this low level, the salmon are more
prone to disease and you’ll get a die-off.”


Neither salmon nor alewives are native to the Great Lakes.


Alewives swam in from the Atlantic Ocean through the Welland Canal. Salmon were introduced in part to control the alewife population.


For the GLRC, I’m Peter Payette in Traverse City.

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High Hopes for Whooping Crane Eggs

  • A baby whooping crane walks toward the camera. (Photo courtesy of the USGS)

Wildlife experts hope an experimental flock of whooping
cranes will lay more eggs this spring. The first egg produced during the experiment was recently found damaged. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Wildlife experts hope an experimental flock of whooping cranes
will lay more eggs this spring. The first egg produced during the
experiment was recently found damaged. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:


Scientists working on the project to develop 25 nesting pairs of
migrating whooping cranes in the eastern U.S. hope this is the year the
young cranes start to produce offspring.


But Michael Putnam of the
International Crane Foundation says one obstacle to the hatching of
crane eggs may be inexperienced parents.


“Once they do produce a fertile egg, then the birds have to exhibit the
right behaviors to tend the nest, incubate… and we’ve found some of
our birds- The females might be very good incubators at the
beginning, but it may take the male a year or two to catch on that’s
supposed to take a turn sittin’ on the egg.”


Putnam says other difficulties may include predators eating the eggs.
if the birds are successful, it’ll be the first whooping crane egg to
hatch in this part of North America in more than a century.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Empty Ballast Tanks Still Carrying Critters

  • A scientist collects samples of ballast sediment. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The study by the University of Michigan and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at ships coming into the Great Lakes from the ocean. Nearly 80-percent of them declared “no ballast on board” and avoided inspections by the Coast Guard.


But several of those ships were tested by the researchers. They found that although the ballast water was pumped out, there were thousands of organisms left behind in the sediment in the bottom of the ships’ ballast. Then, when the ships unloaded at their first stop, they took on Great Lakes ballast water which stirred up the sediment.


And that made it possible for the biological contaminants to be pumped out at the next Great Lakes port.


The authors of the study warn that more restrictions must be placed on how the ships handle ballast water, or the Great Lakes will continue to be invaded by more invasive species such as the zebra mussel, round goby, and 180 other foreign aquatic species that have harmed the Lakes’ ecosystems.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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Up Close and Personal With a Prairie Fire

  • Park managers determined that this area of land in southeast Michigan was historically a prairie. They're using fire to return it to that state, and to keep invasive plants and shrubs in check. (Photo by Mark Brush)

Some natural areas need fire. A number of prairie plants and pine trees must have fire for their seeds to pop open or germinate. But burning a natural area can quickly turn into a wildfire without a team to keep it under control. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent a day with a burn crew… and brings us this audio postcard:

Transcript

Some natural areas need fire. A number of prairie plants and pine trees
must have fire for their seeds to pop open or germinate. But burning a
natural area can quickly turn into a wildfire without a team to keep it
under control. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent a day
with a burn crew… and brings us this audio postcard:


(sound of walking through dry grass and birds)


“Good morning, Hi, How’s it going?”


“Little dry?”


“It’s pretty dry, it’s forecasted, I think to be twenty one percent humidity…”


“My name is David Mindell, and I am the burn boss for this project. I’m a contractor that does ecological restoration. The first step is we’ll take a quick walk through and rake some of the fuel around stuff we don’t want to burn. This is the kind of thing if fire got in here, it’d burn for hours and hours and just put out a lot of smoke…”


“My name is Lee Root, and I just am a burn crew member. I’m filling up what’s known as an ‘Indian tank. It’s a backpack frame that has a water tank and a hand pump. This is our little portable fire engine, is what it is. So, you see where the black top is? If that was our fire, and we didn’t want the fire to come onto the grass, we would just…


(sound of squirting)


“…spray like that, and that would prevent the fire from crossing over.”


“Well, my name is Ross Orr, and I’ve been working with David for a couple of years, and um, we’re wearing these crazy, screaming yellow body suits that are flame-retardant fabric, and also helps keep us cool from the radiant heat of the burn, and big, big cumbersome helmets with visors that flip up and down…


(Sound of visor plastic clacking)


“…we’ll ingite using drip torches, which are these canisters filled with a mixutre of diesel and gas. It’s got a wick on the end, a burning wick, and as you tip the canister, it dribbles gas-diesel mix across the wick, and trails fire as you go.”


(sound of fire crackling and wind)


“Okay, I’m gonna burn it up right next to you Lee. All right, here we go.”


(sound of crackling and walkie-talkies)


“Catherine, keep coming right around.”


“Is this one of the crabapples we wanted to save, or they’re on the other end?”


“I believe they’re on the other end, unless they’re crabapples there?”


“Nope, it’s a hawthorne.”


“My name’s Catherine Marquardt, and I do whatever they tell me to do…


(sound of laughter)


“…whether it’s lighting fires or putting them out. Um, I think it looks like a Dr. Seuss story, actually, sometimes when you burn and it’s all black. You don’t get to see this very often, it’s very cool. And then it greens up so quickly, that’s the other amazing thing, is that if you come back here in a couple of days, it’s already getting green. So, it changes so quickly.”


“You know, I’m guessing it took probably forty-five minutes for the backburn to go a third of the way through the unit, and I think the headburn will run through the other two-thirds in about three minutes.”


(sound of large flames fading out)


(sound of walking, rubber squeaking and metal clanging)


Mindell: “And we’re, basically just walking around looking for things that are still smoking. Got a juniper that’s smoking at the base…


(sound of spraying)


“And just spraying out the smoldering bits.


“Burning is extremely fun, but it’s also a great management tool for improving the ecological quality of natural areas.”


(sound of wind and bird chirping)


HOST TAG: “This audio postcard of a prairie burn was produced by the
GLRC’s Mark Brush. To see photos of the burn and learn more about fire
as a management tool, you can visit glrc dot org.”

Related Links

Legal Battles Over Oil and Gas Drilling

  • Oil drilling rigs similar to this one are popping up all over northeastern Ohio, and many residents and local governments are opposed to the drilling. (Photo by Tammy Sharp)

In some states, local governments have been able to stop developments they thought might be bad for the area or damaging to the environment. But across the nation, state governments have been taking some of those decision-making powers away from local governments. The latest battle is over drilling for oil and natural gas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:

Transcript

In some states, local governments have been able to stop developments they thought might be bad for the area or damaging to the environment. But, across the nation state governments have been taking some of those decision-making powers away from local governments. The latest battle is over drilling for oil and natural gas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:


A year ago Joel Rudicil, owner of Bass Energy Company, couldn’t drill an oil and gas well in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. He had a property owner with more than twenty acres who was willing to deal. But city officials would not permit it.


“I had met with city council here on many occasions dating back to 1998 and they simply did not want well-drilling to occur in their community. So we were really at a point of just walking away from this opportunity, or litigation.”


Instead, he joined the oil and gas industry to lobby for a bill that would take authority to regulate drilling away from local communities.


(Sound of pounding)


Today, his workers are placing piping down well number three on the Knollwood Cemetery property in Mayfield Heights. Once the oil and gas bill became law last fall, all local laws pertaining to oil and gas drilling were scrapped and the state took sole authority.


“In our case, we’ve drilled 28 wells since the bill was signed into law.”


Eight of the communities where Bass Energy dug those wells had had regulations or outright bans on oil and gas drilling.


“Of those 28 wells that I just mentioned, we would not have been able to drill 20 of those wells.”


Mayfield Heights has become the poster child for Ohio’s battle for control of oil and gas drilling. Margaret Egensperger is the city’s mayor.


“Our area’s all built up here. Anywhere you’re going to build a well, you’re going to hurt our residential areas.”


Northeast Ohio is the most densely populated part of the state, but also has much of the oil and gas companies want to extract. Mayor Egensperger says one of the wells Bass Energy dug at Knollwood Cemetery was next to townhouses, condominiums, and the street.


Egensperger: “And they are right up by the condos and the noise was absolutely awful. I believe they drilled for 5 or 7 days there. We have a noise ordinance. The city was told that if, once they start to drill, if we stop them, that we’d have to pay 5-thousand dollars a day. So, of course we didn’t enforce the noise ordinance. That’s a lot of money.”


Niehaus: “It is what’s called state pre-emption…”


Republican state senator Tom Niehaus sponsored the bill that gives the authority to the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources.


Niehaus: “The state has exercised its right to say that this is an important state resource. I personally feel, and my fellow legislators felt, that the state division was in the better position to evaluate whether or not drilling should be permitted in certain areas.”


Grant: “What to do you say when they say ‘we know our issues, we know our citizens, we know the land here and our planning better then the state could ever know it’?”


Niehaus: “I probably would agree that they know their local community better, but I would argue that they do not know the best way to tap the natural resources that exist underneath the land.”


Many local governments are like Mayfield Heights; they want to fight the state law in court, but worry it would cost too much money.
Some homeowners are also concerned that oil and gas wells will reduce their property values. But the oil and gas industry feels there are bigger issues at stake. Tom Stewart, Director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, says the nation needs energy.


“And you see how emotionalism is stifling what we need to do in this country to find the energy sources we need. And obviously we’re not doing the job, because you’re paying $2.30 for a gallon of gas. Right? We’re not doing the job. And we’re fighting wars. Meanwhile, we have this wonderful resource base in the United States, and every hole is a fight.”


It’s arguable whether the relatively small amount of natural gas or oil reserves left in the continental United States will make any real difference in the price of gasoline at the pump. Many city officials believe the trend tonward bigger government control will have much larger costs.


For the GLRC, I’m Julie Grant.

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Big City Mayor Pushes “Green” Building

  • Having a plaque like this on the outside of a building means that the construction, materials, and utilities of the building are eco-friendly. "Green" building has started to increase in popularity. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Green Building Council)

Buildings consume 70 percent of the electricity and create
most of the landfill waste in the U.S. Some cities are looking at “green building” methods to lessen the burden on the environment. The mayor of one major city has set “green” standards for all new buildings, using a mix of mandates and incentives. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Robbie Harris reports on the economic tug of war over building green:

Transcript

Buildings consume 70% of the electricity and create most of the landfill waste in the U.S. Some cities are looking at “green building“ methods to lessen the burden on the environment. The mayor of one major city has set “green” standards for all new buildings, using a mix of mandates and incentives. Robbie Harris reports on the economic tug of war over building green.


(sound of PA system)


Last year, the first green police station opened in Chicago. It will use 20% less energy, and 30% less water than a typical police station. It’s built of recycled and locally available materials. But it looks pretty much like the other newer police stations you see around the city. Officer Jeffrey Bella who has worked here since it opened, says most people have no idea this is what’s known as a “high performance green building.”


“…and the fact that nobody talks about it and nobody notices it is pretty much a testament to how well it does work.”


This is the first police station in the country to earn a LEED Silver rating from the US green building council. LEED – that’s L-E–E-D- for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system that awards points for features such as energy conservation, site usage, indoor air quality, light pollution reduction, even proximity to public transit. Levels range from basic certification to silver, gold and platinum.


Last spring, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced every new building built by the city, must meet basic LEED standards. Private developers aren’t required to meet LEED standards but they must meet the less stringent city Energy conservation code.


Even that has the development community concerned about higher costs. The Mayor had this to say at the Building and Design conference in February.


“Here in the city of Chicago we have to really educate architects, and engineers and I mean you talk about challenges, that alone – and contractors- because they look at money. Money is the source of their profession, like any other profession. How much money… developers, engineers, archiects, contractors, and subcontractors …so green technology to them means money, it doesn’t mean the technology that maybe you and I think about.”


Even the mayor wouldn’t dispute that most LEED certified construction costs more up front. Washington D.C. economist Greg Kats puts it at roughly 2 percent more. Kats ran a performance study of 40 LEED-certified buildings around the country and found higher initial costs were offset ten fold by a variety of benefits.


“And those benefits pay back very quickly in the form of lower energy costs, lower water costs lower operations and maintenance costs, better building operations. And frankly, people are more happy, they’re more productive, kids’ test scores go up, asthma and allergy problem, which is a real concern for a lot of parents like me, tend to go away in green builings.”


On February 14th, one of the city’ largest real estate firms, LR Developers broke ground on what will be the first LEED-certified luxury high rise in Chicago. LR’s Kerry Dixon says, they built green to differentiate themselves in the luxury condo market, and although they’re not required to be LEED certified, they knew it would please the Mayor. But Dixon says it hasn’t exactly been an important selling point.


“We’re not getting feedback from the marketing and sales staff that yeah, everbody’s interested in it.”


If most condo-buyers are not showing much interest in green buildings, more and more large corporations that want to project greener images are.


“We are one of the nation’s largest energy producers. We are by far the nation’s larger operator of nuclear power plants. Some love us for that, and some are skeptical because of that.”


John Rowe is the CEO and chairman of Exelon. The company is looking to consolidate 3 corporate offices into one location and Rowe was fascinated with the idea of building a new green headquarters.


“But it basically worked out so that it would probably be cheaper. And that if we worked on being green we could probably get just as much credit for using an existing building as a new one.”


That’s because the U.S. Green Building Council also certifies commercial interiors. When it’s finished in 2007 Rowe is confident Exelon’s new corporate headquarters will qualify for LEED’s silver rating. He’s hoping it even makes gold.


For now, the Daley administration has chosen to LEED by example – and hope the private sector follows.


For the GLRC, I’m Robbie Harris.

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Members of Congress Fighting Over Great Lakes Drilling

  • Many worry that drilling on the Great Lakes is not only unhealthy for the environment, but the residents who live near the drilling facilities as well. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan DEQ)

Two members of Congress are fighting over whether the federal government should ban drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Two members of Congress are fighting over whether the federal government should ban drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


Right now it’s up to each state to decide whether to allow drilling. Bart Stupak is a Deomcrat Member of Congress from Michigan whose district touches three of the Great Lakes. After an incident in his district where hydrogen sulfide fumes from a gas well head made residents and emergency workers sick… he’s for banning drilling altogether…


“We should just once and for all permanently ban oil and gas drilling in and on the shores of our lakes through a method called directional or slant drilling. There’s so little oil and gas there, it’s not worth it.”


Stupak introduced an amendment to ban drilling in the Great Lakes… but another Member of Congress from Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers blocked it. Rogers’ office says taking state control away on drilling could lead to taking state control away on other issues such as water withdrawal. He doesn’t want the more politically powerful arid Southwest states using it as a precedent to take federal control of the Great Lakes.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

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Chemical Companies Put Green Spin on Lawn Care

  • Some people use chemicals on their lawn to fertilize or kill weeds. But many cities are now restricting use of lawn chemicals because they are concerned about the safety of these chemicals. (Photo by Ilja Wanka)

As the weather’s heating up… so are ad campaigns on the use of lawn pesticides and fertilizers. The campaigns are responding to a growing number of local restrictions on the use of these lawn chemicals. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

As the weather’s heating up, so are ad campaigns on the use of lawn
pesticides and fertilizers. The campaigns are responding to a growing
number of local restrictions on the use of these lawn chemicals. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:


Dozens of cities in North America, mostly in Canada, now have restrictions
on using lawn chemicals. In response, lawn care and chemical companies
formed a PR group called Project Evergreen.


The group is producing ad campaigns targeted to landscape companies. One ad
warns that the industry will lose money because of the regulations. Den Gardner directs Project Evergreen.


“We felt it was important that there be another side to that story, and all
the products that are used and are being recommended for elimination all
have been approved by the EPA and have gone through years and years of study
and tests.”


Critics of lawn pesticides argue that the chemicals have not been thoroughly
tested.


In a brochure published on its website, the EPA states that although all
pesticides legally sold in the U.S. must be registered by the agency,
“registration is not a guarantee of safety.”


For the GLRC, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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New Strategies to Stop Emerald Ash Borer

  • The emerald ash borer is a pest that kills ash trees, and is spreading quickly throughout the Midwest. (Photo by David Cappaert, courtesy of invasivespecies.gov)

Scientists and government officials are focusing on what they call “gateway areas” in their fight to stop the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

Scientists and government officials are focusing on what they call
“gateway areas” in their fight to stop the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:


Emerald Ash Borer beetles have killed or are killing more than 15
million ash trees in Michigan, surrounding states and one Canadian province.
Deb McCullough is an entomologist at Michigan State University. She
says right now, infested or dead ash trees are being chopped down and
destroyed. But she says there’s not nearly enough government funding to
target all of the infested areas.


“So a decision has been made at a national level to focus what
federal funding is available on what we’re calling the gateways, the areas
that would let Emerald Ash Borer move into the rest of the country or into
the rest of the North America.”


McCullough says federal resources are being spent to stop Emerald
Ash Borer from spreading to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and from spreading
deeper into Ohio, Indiana and Ontario.


For the GLRC, I’m Erin Toner.

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