Hot Temps, Smaller Animals?

A scientist who has been studying the effects of a period of global warming that took place millions of years ago says there could be similar effects going on now. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

A scientist who has been studying the effects of a period of global
warming that took place millions of years ago says there could be similar
effects going on now. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton
reports:


University of Michigan Paleontologist Philip Gingerich has been studying
fossils of mammals that lived 55 million years ago. During that time, there
was a period of global warming that lasted 80 thousand years. The mammals
became much smaller when it was warm, and returned to their normal size
when the environment cooled. Gingerich says he thinks the animals adapted
to eating less nutritious plants. He says it’s not too soon to
start looking for similar changes because of today’s increasing
temperatures.


“So where it will lead, we don’t know. We don’t know if it will have
the same consequences. I mean, if it did, we might be three feet tall in
the future or something.”


Gingerich points out that the earth did not have polar ice caps 55 million
years ago. So another global warming could be more devastating this time
around, especially for the millions of people living at sea level.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.

Prisoners Nurture Baby Pheasants

Hunting season for pheasants in most areas doesn’t begin until fall. But the work begins now to make sure there are plenty of pheasants available when the season starts. One state’s environmental conservation program makes pheasant chicks available to anyone who wants to raise them for later release. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce Kryszak has more on the program’s rather unusual partner:

Transcript

Hunting season for pheasants in most areas doesn’t begin until fall. But the work begins now to
make sure there are plenty of pheasants available when the season starts. One state’s
environmental conservation program makes pheasant chicks available to anyone who wants to
raise them for later release. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce Kryszak has more on the
program’s rather unusual partner:


There are plenty of people you’d expect who are interested in raising the baby pheasants.
Farmers, hunters, 4-H club kids and wildlife lovers, certainly. But for the last two years, the
program has gotten a lot of help from… Attica prisoners. Inmates at the upstate New York
correctional facility raise a couple thousand of the chicks each year. James Snider is a state
wildlife biologist. He says, hardened criminals or not, they’re giving these baby birds lots of
TLC.


“Basically you’re taking a day old chick, which was hatched the day before, out of an
incubator, brought in and certainly you know, those first two or three weeks some
of the critical things are keeping them warm, because they don’t have a mother to take care
of them. You know, it’s a continuation of food and water all the way up until finally
they grow their adult flight feathers.”


Snider says it’s also a beneficial program for the prisoners, who take a lot of pride from their role
as nurturers.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Joyce Kryszak.

Cautious Approval for New Herbicide

Corn farmers in Minnesota could soon join their neighbors in using a new herbicide known as “Balance Pro.” The EPA approved the herbicide for most of the Midwest four years ago. At that time, Minnesota – along with Michigan and Wisconsin – rejected it, until more studies could be done. Now those states are reconsidering. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill explains:

Transcript

Corn farmers in Minnesota could soon join their neighbors in using a new
herbicide known as “Balance Pro.” The EPA approved the herbicide for
most of the Midwest four years ago. At that time, Minnesota – along with
Michigan and Wisconsin – rejected it, until more studies could be done.
Now
those states are reconsidering. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Stephanie Hemphill explains:


Agriculture officials were worried Balance could pollute water supplies.
They’ve been studying tests on fields where Balance has been applied
over the last four years. They say if it’s only used on heavily organic
soils, and far enough from lakes and rivers, it won’t harm the
environment.


Wisconsin recently approved Balance, but required such stringent
monitoring, the manufacturer, Bayer CropScience, decided not to market
it there.


Minnesota has now approved Balance, also with restrictions. The state
Agriculture Department says having a new weed killer could reduce the
use of other herbicides. And it should help farmers cope with the
resistance some weeds develop when just one chemical is used over and
over.


Environmental activists say they’re pleased the Ag Department is
imposing strict limits on where in Minnesota the new herbicide can be
used.


Michigan is still considering whether to approve Balance.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill in Duluth.

Legislation Targets Aquatic Invasives

Legislation introduced recently in Congress is aimed at protecting the Great Lakes and other parts of the country from invasive aquatic species. The exotic organisms cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Michael Leland has more:

Transcript

Legislation introduced recently in Congress is aimed at protecting the
Great Lakes and other parts of the country from invasive aquatic species.
The exotic organisms cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Michael Leland has more:


Most aquatic invasive species are introduced into the Great Lakes
region after hitching a ride in the ballast water tanks of freighters.
Scientists believe the zebra mussel got to North America from Europe
that way in the late 1980’s. Since then, government and industry have
spent billions of dollars trying to keep the mussel from clogging intake
pipes of water and power plants.


Congressman Vern Ehlers of Michigan is co-sponsoring legislation aimed
at regulating the shipping industry and researching new ways to prevent
exotic species from reaching North America.


“I think the biggest problem is that people just don’t understand the problem
and how dangerous it is. And, so it’s hard to persuade ship captains that they
have to sterilize their ballast water or at least exchange it while they’re
crossing the ocean.”


The legislation calls for ships put into service after 2006 to have on-board
treatment systems for ballast water. The federal government says economic
losses and the cost of fighting invasive species in the United States add up to
about 135-billion dollars a year.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Michael Leland.

Drug-Resistant Bacteria on the Rise

There are again warnings in the United States and Canada about the overuse of antibiotics. Researchers say some strains of bacteria are becoming more resistant to drug therapy. They published their findings in the most recent edition of the journal Nature Medicine. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk has more:

Transcript

There are again warnings in the United States and Canada about the overuse of antibiotics.
Researchers say some strains of bacteria are becoming more resistant to drug therapy. They
published their findings in the most recent edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk has more:


Medical experts looked at strains of bacteria that cause things like pneumonia, meningitis, and ear
infections. They found that more were becoming resistant to penicillin and erythromycin. They
noted that while strains resistant to only one of the drugs appear to have leveled off in recent
years, strains resistant to both drugs are increasing.


Donald Lowe is chief of microbiology at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He also has another
warning.


Lowe says, last year, many people, especially in the U.S., stockpiled the antibiotic ciprofloxicin
because of fears of a bio-terrorism attack from anthrax. He says since it was in their medicine
cabinets anyway, many used it to alleviate flu symptoms, believing it would help. But Lowe says
the cipro drugs are not effective against pneumonia.


“If you came into your doctor’s office with symptoms of pneumonia and you had been on cipro
a month, two months ago, that strain already could be resistant and your doctor doesn’t even
know it, puts you on the antibiotic and you fail therapy.”


Lowe and other researchers say it all points to the need for more regulation of antibiotic use and
finding new methods to treat drug-resistant bacteria.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

Battling the Emerald Ash Borer

  • The Emerald Ash Borer is destroying hundreds of thousands of ash trees in Southeast Michigan and in nearby Ontario. The Asian insect likely made its way to North America in wood packing materials. (Photo courtesy of David Cappaert, Michigan State University)

Ash has become an extremely popular tree to plant along streets in the United States. It’s being used in many cases as a replacement for the American Elm. Stately Elm trees lined streets for more than a century in many towns. But that’s changed since the 1930’s when Dutch Elm Disease wiped out millions of Elms throughout the country. Now the Elm’s replacement, the Ash, is facing a similar fate from a new tree killer, the Emerald Ash Borer. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

Ash has become an extremely popular tree to plant along streets
in the United States. It’s being used in many cases as a
replacement for the American Elm. Stately Elm trees lined
streets for more than a century in many towns. But that’s
changed since the 1930s when Dutch Elm Disease wiped out millions
of Elms throughout the country. Now the Elm’s replacement, the
Ash, is facing a similar fate from a new tree killer, the
Emerald Ash Borer. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Erin Toner reports:


In Michigan, a grounds crew is surveying dozens of trees spray-
painted with big, orange X’s. The trees are dead or dying because
of disease. They’ll get chopped down, chipped up and hauled away.


(sound of chainsaw)


At Michigan State University, the campus loses about 100 trees every year.
And officials here see that as a big blow to the university’s appeal.
So campus leaders are especially worried about the potential devastation
caused by a little metallic green beetle.


The Emerald Ash Borer is eating its way through trees in the upper
Midwest. Deb McCullough is a professor of entomology at Michigan State.
She’s part of a team of federal, state and local officials working on the
Emerald Ash Borer problem.


“It’s like a tidal wave, I mean there’s just so many of these beetles and Ash is
everywhere. Once you start looking for it, and you notice it. It’s the tree
that’s along roadsides, it’s along railroad rights of ways, it’s in woodlots.
It’s amazing how dominant Ash has become.”


So dominant, that Emerald Ash Borers have plenty to chew on. They’ve already
killed or are killing five-and-a-half million ash trees in the Great Lakes region.
McCullough says by next summer, that number will double, to nearly 11
million dead ash trees.


“Local communities are basically spending their entire forestry and
street-tree budgets on cutting down and destroying Ash right now. That
means no money is going into planting and pruning or the kinds of activities
that they would normally be doing. Other communities don’t have those kinds of
resources and they’re just watching their Ash trees die.”


(sound of wood chipper)


The Emerald Ash Borer was first discovered in the United States about five years
ago. Researchers say it probably came here with wood used to pack imported goods from
Asia. That’s the way many invasive pests have been transported to the U.S.


Frank Telewski is a plant biology professor at Michigan State. He says so far,
researchers have not found any Ash varieties that are resistant to the Emerald Ash Borer.
And right now there is no insecticide proven to kill the beetles.


“When an organism is introduced to a brand new environment where the trees
haven’t been evolving with the disease or with the insect pest, then that
organism just has a free reign, it’s dinnertime.”


There’s currently a quarantine around the infested areas. That means no one can
transport any ash trees, lumber or firewood outside several counties in Michigan, Ohio
and Ontario, Canada.


Entomologist Deb McCullough says the quarantine alone won’t stop the Emerald
Ash Borer from spreading to new states. It’ll take money – a lot of it – to
pay for a plan to stop the beetle. McCullough says a long-term plan to wipe
out the disease would likely cost more than 60 million dollars. And she says time
is wasting. The adult beetles start emerging in a few months, ready to lay
eggs in new trees.


“This is not just a Michigan problem. I mean, everybody’s got Ash. If
we don’t stop it here, Ohio is going to be the next one, Indiana, Wisconsin.
This thing will certainly spread and they’re going to be dealing with the
same situation.”


State and federal governments have put together an Emerald Ash Borer
eradication plan. It includes surveys to see if the disease has spread,
methods to manage the existing outbreak, and telling people about the problem.


But right now, there’s no guaranteed funding for the plan. Anna Cherry is
with the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.


“Whenever there are situations like this, there’s always discussion about
whether or not it’s appropriate or necessary to seek emergency funding,
there’s questions about what’s available in local and state governments.
You know, it’s always a mix of resources and you can’t rule one out or count on
one at this particular point in time.”


Michigan’s governor and the state’s Congressional delegation are working to get
federal money for the fight to stop the Emerald Ash Borer.


(sound of chainsaw)


Without some money soon, cities in the Midwest will likely be cutting down
millions more dead ash trees in coming years.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Birders’ Passion Helps Scientists

  • Backyard birders across North America are helping scientists track the fate of our feathered friends. (Photo courtesy of USFWS)

Every year, tens of thousands of avid birdwatchers wander through frozen fields and marshy swamps. Their job is to record as many birds as they can find in a given area. For birders, it’s a day to enjoy the outdoors while doing what they love most. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports, that passion serves another purpose – it helps scientists:

Transcript

Every year, tens of thousands of avid birdwatchers wander through
frozen fields and marshy swamps. Their job is to record as many birds
as they can find in a given area. For birders, it’s a day to enjoy the outdoors
while doing what they love most. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Karen Kelly reports, that passion serves another purpose – it helps scientists:


(sound of footsteps)


Georgina Doe: “There’s five robins right there and there’s three common mergansers,
males…”


Georgina Doe scans the shoreline with her binoculars. Within seconds,
she spots a tiny glimpse of a bird and names it.


She knows them by the way they dive in the air, and the way they thrust
their chests out.


Doe has been scanning the treetops of Carleton Place, Ontario for
more than 30 years. She says she loves the chase and the element of surprise.
And over the years, birding has also been her escape.


She remembers watching a robin build its nest when her grandson
was seriously ill.


“So I used to count the birds every morning before I went off to
the hospital. And then after that, you come back to reality. Somehow a
little bird can just make you feel better.”


Birds have been a part of all of our lives. We might not know their names.
But we can remember holding a baby chick. Or hearing a cardinal on a crisp cold day.


But now, many bird species are dwindling. And scientists are
counting on birders like Georgina Doe to help them find out why.


Doe is one of many birders in North America who collects
information for scientists. Jeff Wells works with that information
at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology.


“There’s no way that we could ever pay the tens of thousands of
trained biologists that would be necessary to gather this kind of
information. It’s only possible when we can engage volunteers like
we do in citizen science projects.”


Cornell runs at least a dozen programs that rely on information
from average birders.


There’s the Christmas Bird Count. About 50 thousand people participate.
Another 50 thousand track species during the Great Backyard Bird
Count in February.


The volunteers reported that wood thrushes are disappearing in
many areas. And they’re tracking the effect of the West Nile Virus
on bird populations.


“If a little bird dies, usually it just disappears quickly
and no one ever sees it. So we don’t really know the impact.
And so looking at the differences in the numbers and distribution
might give us some sense of when the disease was rampant in the summer,
whether it killed off enough birds to make a noticeable
difference in our count.”


(sound of quiet footsteps)


Robert Cermak: “You can see it’s about 10 inches high. It’s all fluffed
up right now so it’s
hard to get a sense of
its mass…”


Birder Robert Cermak tiptoes closer to a barred owl sitting in the
crook of a tree.


We’re in Ottawa, Canada’s capital and a city of about a million
people. When it comes to bird counts, this is Cermak’s territory.


“It’s not often that you actually see a barred owl, any owl, during
the day. They’re usually more secretive. This one is not too
afraid to be out so it’s probably become more accustomed to having people
around it, since this is the center of the city.”


Like Georgina Doe, Cermak has been birding for years. But even with
veterans, there’s always concern about their accuracy. Cermak
discovered this firsthand when he reported seeing a rare
harlequin duck last year.


“I sent it in and a few hours later, someone from Cornell –
very politely because it’s a delicate subject to question
someone’s sighting of a rare bird – but they very delicately
indicated that a harlequin duck is extremely unusual in Ontario and
could I please provide a few extra details.”


Cermak sent them a published account of the sighting. He also
gave them the number of a local expert.


Jeff Wells says researchers check their facts carefully. They look
for reports that don’t match others in the surrounding area. Sometimes
an investigation turns up a trained ornithologist… and sometimes not.
But overall, Wells says the information has formed the basis for
hundreds of published studies.


That’s something that makes birders like Robert Cermak and
Georgina Doe feel proud.


“It’s nice because you’re contributing. You’re doing a
lot of hours, it uses a lot of gas, you go around a lot of blocks doing this
kind of count
but we just think it’s important.”


(sound of Georgina Doe walking)


Georgina Doe says she doesn’t really think of herself as a
scientist.


But she’s out there every day, with her ear to the wind. And that’s
what the scientists are counting on.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.

Related Links

Converting Food Waste Into Power

Imagine turning food waste into power. It’s a prospect that could be on the horizon for some food manufacturers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cindi Deutschman-Ruiz has more:

Transcript

Imagine turning food waste into power. It’s a prospect that
could be on the horizon for some food manufacturers. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cindi Deutschman-Ruiz
has more:


Let’s say you transformed your love of potato chips and
candy into a business empire. Every day, you produce tons
of treats along with vats of wastewater that must be cleansed
before they can be dumped. Now let’s say there’s a way to
take your wastewater and turn it into energy you can sell or
use.


It’s a scenario that could become reality, according to Penn State
researcher Steven Van Ginkel. He’s part of a team that has identified
bacteria found in ordinary soil as a key part of the process.
But before the soil can be used, it must be prepared.


“And we just take it, bake it like a cake in our oven for two hours
at 100 degrees Celsius.”


Having killed the bacteria they don’t want, researchers
introduce surviving bacteria to the wastewater. The bacteria
produce energy in the form of hydrogen.


Researchers need to reproduce their findings reliably and
on a large scale to prove the process works. And it looks like
they’re going to get the chance to do so. Van Ginkel says
Utz potato chip maker is already on board for further testing.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Cindi
Deutschman-Ruiz.

Native Americans Walk Lakes to Raise Awareness

A group of Native American women plan to circle each of the Great Lakes on foot to draw attention to environmental problems in the watershed. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:

Transcript

A group of Native American women plan to circle each of the Great
Lakes on foot to draw attention to environmental problems in the
watershed. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:


Traditionally, women in the Anishinabe tribe were the protectors
of water. They carried it and ensured its cleanliness for the rest of the
tribe.


This spring, a group of native women in Thunder Bay, Ontario are
renewing that tradition.


Over the next few years, they plan to walk around each lake,
carrying a bucket of water, to express their concern about
pollution and water diversion.


43-year-old Tecla Nehgonigeeshick says they worry that the
clean water her tribe has depended on is disappearing.


“It is a concern that something that was once free and clean
and natural, it has to be a commodity now.”


The Women’s Water Walk will begin in Bad River, Wisconsin on April
18th on the shores of Lake Superior.


Supporters are invited to join them during the two-month journey.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.

Corps Backs Away From Seaway Expansion Study

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pulling back from the idea of expanding locks and channels in the St. Lawrence Seaway for bigger ships. Instead, the Corps is going to study more about the Seaway’s existing conditions, including environmental concerns. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:

Transcript

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pulling back from the idea of expanding locks and
channels in the St. Lawrence Seaway for bigger ships. Instead, the Corps is going to
study more about the Seaway’s existing conditions, including environmental concerns.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says more research still needs to be done on the
current Seaway system. The Corps will focus on the costs of maintaining existing locks
and channels for the next fifty years.


For environmentalists who say dredging a deeper channel would devastate the ecology of
the Great Lakes region, the shift in focus is good news. Stephanie Weiss directs Save
The River in northern New York.


“The navigation study has really changed quite a bit. What the Corps is talking about
now is a study that doesn’t look at expansion. It’s looking at the waterway in its current
configuration.”


Many Midwest lawmakers support expansion. But congressional representatives in New
York have been applying pressure on the Corps to step back from expansion. Groups in
Canada have said their government wants the Seaway study to include more
environmental factors.


There are reports Canada has agreed to help fund the study after months of negotiations
with the U.S. But details have yet to be made public.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.