Dairy Farm Endangers Trout Stream

In the tiny town of Martell in western Wisconsin, residents are trying
to stop a big new dairy farm they fear will pollute one of the best
trout streams in the Midwest — the Rush River, about an hour’s drive
east of the Twin Cities. Its the same kind of battle small towns and
rural residents are fighting across the Midwest, as large-scale
livestock operations continue to expand. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mary Losure reports:

State Commits to Farmland Preservation

This spring the state of Ohio begins a program to preserve farmland
that’s facing development pressures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports… it’s one of the first statewide efforts in the
Midwest to control urban sprawl:

Rethinking the Subdivision Design

Big homes on big lawns on long winding roads. That’s how many
residential subdivisions have been designed for decades. Now, some
people are trying to change these traditional methods and make
development less damaging to the environment. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Todd Witter visits one site:

Golf Craze Sweeps the Region

Business is booming for Michigan’s golf industry. According to the
National Federation of Golf, Michigan now exceeds both California and
Florida for most public golf courses per capita. Even universities are
cashing in on the golf craze by converting parts of their campuses into
golf courses. But now one university, in a wealthy Detroit suburb, is
encountering opposition from environmentalists as they try build a
course on their land. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Marisa Helms
reports:

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: