The infestation of Asian long-horned beetles is spreading in North America. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Transcript
The infestation of Asian long-horned beetles is spreading in North America. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
An Asian long-horned beetle, about two inches long and black with white spots was found in an
industrial park outside of Toronto.
It arrived in packing material from Asia. And it burrowed into nearby trees – making this the first
infestation in Canada.
Forestry specialist Gordon Henry says the beetle poses a serious threat to Canada’s native
hardwoods.
“If it was to get into wild areas and attack maple trees, it would impact probably on tourism, it
would certainly pose a problem for anybody producing maple syrup, would also be a nuisance
pest for any homeowner who’s trying to grow one of the host trees.”
The beetle has also infested trees in Chicago, New York City and New Jersey.
Henry says it takes years to fully eradicate them.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.
A coalition of environmental groups and others doesn’t want the Army Corps of Engineers to even study the idea of widening and deepening channels for larger ships on the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A coalition of environmental groups and others doesn’t want the
Army Corps of Engineers to even study the idea of widening
and deepening channels for larger ships on the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Great Lakes United represents organizations across the Great Lakes region who oppose
opening up the lakes to larger cargo vessels. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is
considering a 20-million dollar study to see if expanding channels makes economic sense
for shipping. Jennifer Nalbone is with Great Lakes United. She says it would be a waste
of money and time.
“Why spend five years to investigate what previous studies of the Great Lakes navigation
system have already told us, that expanding shipping capacity costs too much and gives
us too little.”
Nalbone says any economic benefit of expanding the channels could be offset by hurting
other economies such as tourism and fishing. Nalbone indicates Great Lakes United
doesn’t trust that the Army Corps of Engineers will give those industries and the
environment proper consideration.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
It’s no secret that the Great Lakes are cleaner than they were 25 years ago. But some of the wildlife that’s rebounded because of the cleaner water is causing some problems for people who live near the lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Paul Cox explains:
Transcript
It’s no secret that the Great Lakes are cleaner than they were 25
years ago. But some of the wildlife that’s rebounded because of the
cleaner water is causing some problems for people who live near the
lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Paul Cox explains:
(sound of waves and seagulls)
It won’t be long before a sleeping multitude awakes in the Great Lakes.
Millions of mayfly larvae have been burrowed in the muddy bottom of the
lakes. Soon, they will rise, take wing and fly off in search of a mate.
Often, they end up on shore. There they get on everything.
Breck Coombs has seen them invade the car dealership he manages in
Port Clinton, Ohio on Lake Erie.
“I have bugs all over the whole building. It’s almost like you’ve got to
have a second set of clothes when you come into work a lot of times.
You sit down and they make a big mess on your clothing. It’s pretty bad.”
During mayfly season his workers have to wash every car in the lot every
day so the bugs and their droppings don’t mar the paint.
The mayor in Port Clinton is Tom Brown. He says since the mayfly has
been increasing in population the insect has caused some bizarre
events. The way he describes it, it sounds as though it’s like living in an
Alfred Hitchcock thriller. He remembers once getting hit by the bugs
while he was at a drum and bugle corps competition.
“We were watching the show and all of a sudden I looked to the sky
and I saw a black cloud. The mayflies came onto the field, they began to
swarm. I was covered with mayflies from head to toe.”
Aside from the mess they make, the mayflies are – for the most part –
harmless. Fred Snyder is an aquatic biologist with the Ohio State
University Extension Service. He says the mayfly is a bug with no bite.
“Mayflies do not have working mouths. This is a mouthless insect. It has no stinger.”
But Snyder says the mayfly is still something of a nuisance because they
don’t smell very good.
“One evening just coming back into town I noticed a very,
very disagreeable smell. The place stunk. Sort of like dead fish, but
different. But very strong.”
And… the sheer numbers of the mayflies are a problem because the
insects not only fly by the millions, they die by the millions.
Mayor Brown says when that happens… the dead bugs can be a bit of a
hazard.
“When they were heavy we had signs on the streets: ‘Slippery, mayfly hatch.’
And there were a couple of accidents from people sliding around on those mayflies.”
As you might imagine… millions of smelly, messy and dead mayflies are
bad news for any town… but especially so in a tourist town such as Port
Clinton.
But biologist Fred Snyder say the mayflies are also good news. The huge
mayfly population means the lake is environmentally healthier.
“Mayflies have a high need for oxygen. So when you find
good numbers it tells you that the oxygen level in the water is very
good.”
It’s not always been that way. Pollution in the lake took its toll. Oxygen
levels dropped. And the mayflies almost disappeared by the 1950’s.
Dr. Carl Richards, with the Minnesota Sea Grant program, says the
presence of organisms such as the mayfly can be a better indicator of
the lake’s health than testing for polluting chemicals.
“It’s often very expensive and difficult to measure chemicals.
And the ultimate reason we’re interested in chemicals is because of
the organisms. It’s the fish, the birds and the plants we’re concerned
about. So the idea is if the fish and the birds and the plants are
healthy, then the environment must be healthy.”
And a recent federal grant will help scientists look further into the
connection between the health of organisms such as mayflies and the
environmental state of the Great Lakes.
Lake Erie near Port Clinton is not the only example of rebound in the
mayfly population. There’s also been a sharp mayfly population increase
in the waters immediately near Erie, Pennsylvania.
It’s not only good news for the mayflies. It’s good news for fish too.
Some fish feed on the mayfly larvae. So, with more mayflies, there’s
more food for fish.
But, people still have to deal with the annual mayfly onslaught. In
places such as Port Clinton, that means trying to find ways to reduce the
invasion. One thing the city does is turn off streetlights and ask
residents to turn off as many exterior lights as possible in hopes of
attracting fewer bugs during the peak season.
The mayflies that do make it ashore and die are picked up with street
sweepers and composted. In fact, the city got a grant to build the only
licensed landfill in the U.S. for mayflies. There, they compost the
carcasses. Biologist Fred Snyder cooked up the recipe.
“It’s basically sawdust that is mixed about two to one with the
mayflies that are picked up by the street sweepers and brought to
the composting site.”
After several months the mayfly compost is used for gardens and lawns
all over town.
(sound of waves)
Now, Mayor Brown is trying to convince the townspeople to look beyond
the nuisance factor and embrace the mayfly as the standard-bearer for a
cleaner lake.
“We even came up with a theme: Come to Port Clinton where
your dreams may fly.”
It might not offer much comfort to those afflicted by the annual mayfly
invasion… but hey, it’s catchy.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Paul Cox.
Pleasure boaters from Canada will find getting permits to enter Great Lakes ports across the border a little more demanding since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Pleasure boaters from Canada will find getting permits to enter Great Lakes
ports across the border a little more demanding since the terrorist attacks
on the U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
It used to be… a Canadian boater simply had to send in an application for
what’s known as an I-68 permit to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service and once it was received, they could freely travel back and forth.
Kimberly Weissman is with the INS office. She explains, since September
11th, the new rules first require Canadians to go to a port of entry.
“Going in for an inspection… it’s no longer done by mail. You
have an interview and you take a photograph and have fingerprints. Once all
of this is complete, you know, you’ll be given your one year permit and then
you will no longer be required to go to a port of entry for any other
further inspections.”
Weissman says the U.S. government didn’t want to hurt the marina and
tourist-based businesses in the Great Lakes, but felt the new stricter
program was necessary for the security of the country.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Zoos in the Great Lakes region are helping save two species of hornbills by collecting feathers from their captive birds for ceremonial headdresses in Malaysia. photo by - D. DeMello / Wildlife Conservation Society
Malaysian indigenous people welcome the hornbill feathers from zoos and say they will likely reduce the hunting of the birds in the wild. photo by - E.L. Bennett / Wildlife Conservation Society
Zoos in North America are collecting feathers to help save a threatened bird in Malaysia. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham explains:
Transcript
A watchdog group is out with its annual list of endangered rivers, and this year it’s placing most of the blame for damage to the rivers on one government agency. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
This year the American Rivers’ list of endangered rivers included a section devoted to criticizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Melissa Samet is with American Rivers. She says this time they looked back at the past several years of the organization’s endangered rivers list.
“We revealed a pretty startling statistic, that 60-percent of the rivers that we have listed over the past 16 years as in danger were on the list because of the Corps of Engineers.”
The American Rivers report accuses the Corps of Engineers of destroying rivers and wasting taxpayers’ money by citing reports of whistle-blowers and independent analyses that charge the Corps exaggerates the cost-benefits of the projects it constructs on the rivers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Illinois has the bluegill. Minnesota has the walleye. But Ohio lawmakers have argued for years over Ohio’s official fish. It’s a toss up between the smallmouth bass and the walleye, and the debate doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston has more:
Transcript
Illinois has the bluegill. Minnesota has the walleye. But Ohio lawmakers have argued for years over Ohio’s official fish. It’s a toss up between the smallmouth bass and the walleye, and the debate doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston has more:
Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder says it’s tough to say which fish is more important to Ohio. But an Ohio House committee recently voted 15-4 to make the smallmouth bass the reigning fish. Householder says, though, the decision will not be heard by the full House anytime soon.
It’s a touchy subject because the smallmouth bass is found in all of Ohio’s 88 counties. Yet the walleye brings in millions of tourist dollars into areas along Lake Erie. Tim McCann owns the charter fishing boat service Fisherman’s Wharf in Port Clinton. McCann says walleye fishing lures tourists into town each spring and fall. He says the walleye is so important to the economy that there is an annual walleye festival on New Year’s Eve:
“Just like in Times Square we drop a walleye from a crane. It is a 50-foot walleye made out of paper mache. And it’s very, very big, you know, for our economy and everything else here in Port Clinton.”
But McCann says he recognizes the importance of the smallmouth bass throughout the state. The fish is plentiful in southeastern Ohio. That’s where Ohio House speaker Larry Householder grew up. But Householder’s spokeswoman Jenn Detweiler says her boss doesn’t have a preference.
“The Speaker himself has, has avidly pursued both the walleye and the smallmouth bass … (laughs) so, making a decision about which one is more appropriate could be a tricky one.”
Over the years, Ohio schoolchildren and fisherman have cast their votes for their favorite fish. But lawmakers have the final choice, and, right now … they say they have bigger fish to fry. It is an election year, and lawmakers worry a vote for the wrong fish could cost votes at the polls.
So, some say perhaps the state should leave the decision to others. For instance, school children in Illinois picked the bluegill more than 30 years ago because they liked the way it looked, and the politicians didn’t lose any votes over the decision.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Natalie Walston
Each year the National Park Service gives out awards to projects that help people understand the country’s parks. One of this year’s winners is a book about Isle Royale – a National Park in the middle of Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
Transcript
Each year the National Park Service gives out awards to projects that help people understand the country’s parks. One of this year’s winners is a book about Isle Royale – a National Park in the middle of Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports:
More people visit Yellowstone National Park in a week than visit Isle Royale National Park in a year. Each year some of those visitors are artists participating in the park’s artist-in-residence program. They stay on the Island for about 2 weeks, take pictures, paint, sketch, or write songs and poetry about the park. A book called “The Island Within Us” features work by these artists. Jill Burkland is the executive director of the Isle Royale Natural History Association. The association put the book together.
“Not very many, not very many people ever go to Isle Royale so this is a way of sharing the island with people who can’t necessarily go or don’t plan to go.”
“The Island Within Us” has tied with a book about the Grand Canyon for best general book in the National Park Services Excellence in Interpretive Media Awards. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
Changes to our world – and to our environment – have been a matter of course throughout history. But knowing that offers only limited comfort to Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Mike VanBuren:
Transcript
Changes to our world – and to our environment – have been a matter of course throughout history. But that knowledge only offers limited comfort to Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Mike VanBuren.
Many years ago, when I was a rookie newspaperman working in northern Michigan, I often drove from my home in Mancelona to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior.
Whitefish Point was a glorious place to visit – particularly during the spring and fall, when raptors, waterfowl and songbirds were migrating through the Great Lakes region. Hundreds of thousands of birds funnel through the Point each year, thanks to land and water features that create a natural flight corridor.
I enjoyed going there to walk the beaches, watch the birds and see the giant freighters pass by on their way to and from the busy locks at Sault Ste. Marie.
Whitefish Point was a peaceful place in those days. And I was often alone, as I stood on the shore with my face against the invigorating Superior winds.
But something unsettling has occurred in the two decades since I made those pilgrimages. The Point has been discovered by large flocks of tourists. And the narrow road that reaches north from Paradise is sometimes clogged with cars, SUV’s and tour buses.
I returned to the Point recently, hoping to find the same peace and serenity I’d enjoyed there as a young man. I was pleased to discover that the old lighthouse – first lit in 1849 – had been carefully restored, along with a handful of whitewashed outbuildings.
That would have been enough for me.
But developers apparently thought the Point needed something more to attract visitors. They built a new facility to house the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, along with a large gift shop – complete with meeting space and flush toilets. Wooden walkways had also been laid across the sandy dunes to allow greater access to the surrounding forest and beach.
I didn’t see many birds that day, although the folks at the tiny Whitefish Point Observatory could probably have told me where they were. I did see a lot of people, though.
“All things must change to something new – to something strange,” said Longfellow.
You’d think I’d be used to it by now – that I’d no longer be surprised by change. But I am. It always leaves me feeling a bit disoriented.
In my more lucid moments, I know the Great Lakes region will continue to evolve. And I know I’m as much a part of this process as real estate developers and gift shop proprietors.
Some change is even good – although the definition of “good” varies from person to person. Life itself is an uncertain migration – with constant shifts in our needs, attitudes and relationships to the outdoors.
I think it has always been that way.
As I retreated that day from the Point and drove south toward the Mackinaw Bridge, I thought about the Native Americans who lived beside Lake Superior long ago. Like me, they probably watched earlier generations of hawks, eagles and owls cross Whitefish Bay – and marveled at their beauty and grace.
I can imagine their ghosts, skirting the shores of the bay in birch bark canoes on cool moonlit nights – searching for some familiar landmark that will lead them home.
Perhaps one day mine will do the same.
***Mike VanBuren is an environmental writer who lives near Richland, Michigan. ***
Jim Carlson’s family has been fishing the waters of Lake Michigan for more than a century. While there used to be thousands of fishing operations like Carlson’s in the Great Lakes, that number has dwindled over the years. It’s estimated there may be only a few hundred left. Carlson says he could soon join that trend, if a year-old fishing treaty between the State of Michigan and five Native American tribes brings his family business to ruin. And that has his neighbors worried, too. That’s because on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, fishing and tourism rely on each other for survival. And the demise of Carlson’s business could have a profound impact on the local economy. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rick Pluta has the story:
The terrible events in New York City and Washington have left a legacy of personal tragedies. For Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston, the story of September 11th began as a journey of peace:
Transcript
The terrible events in New York City and Washington D.C. have left a legacy of personal tragedies. For Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Suzanne Elston, the story of September 11th, began as a journey of peace.
I’ve never been to New York City. So when we got an invitation to visit the Big Apple and participate in a children’s peace festival, we jumped at the chance. My husband Brian and two of our kids, Peter and Sarah, were going to be part of a church service marking the opening of the 56th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Sarah was going to carry the Canadian flag and Peter was going to give a reading. The kids were wired and so were we.
Our plan was to leave Toronto Tuesday morning by train. The daylong trip would take us to New York City. We’d have all day Wednesday to do touristy things before the service on Thursday. We’d even managed to get tickets to a Broadway play. It all sounded so exciting that I couldn’t believe that it was actually going to happen.
We’d been on the train for about an hour when we first heard the news. Our traveling companions were 18 members of the Toronto Children’s Peace Theatre, also en route to the peace festival. The director of the company received a cell phone call that gave us sketchy details of the initial attack on the World Trade Center.
At first I refused to believe it. Here we were heading for an international children’s peace festival.
It felt like we were on the voyage of the damned. We continued on our journey, barreling down the tracks to a destination that we knew we would never reach. We heard rumors – the border was closed, there was shooting in the streets. People with cell phones were frantically trying to get a hold of somebody they knew who could give us an update.
The children from the theatre group were particularly upset. For most of them it was their first time away from home, and they were scared. As we discussed the latest details that we’d heard, one of the kids started to throw-up.
We moved to another car and tried to explain to a group of university students from England that they wouldn’t be flying home the next day from New York. As the news continued to filter in, we soon realized that they wouldn’t be flying home from anywhere. An elderly couple at the back of the car sat in stony silence. Their daughter worked at the World Trade Center and they were frozen in fear.
The conductor was stuck like a moose in headlights. Most of the passengers still didn’t know what was going on. My husband finally took him aside and explained that he had to make an announcement. People needed to make arrangements, to talk to their families. But he was just a kid and as scared as the rest of us. He wanted to wait until he had something official from Amtrak’s head office.
Finally, at 11:00 a.m., he made a formal announcement. The border was closed and we all would be disembarking at Niagara Falls. It was Tuesday evening by the time we got home and saw the horrific images of what had happened.
It wasn’t until then, when we were safe and home and together that we had a shocking revelation. The first stop on our sightseeing trip was going to be the World Trade Center. For the sake of a mere 24 hours we could have been buried at the bottom of that rubble like so many others.
Our great journey of peace ended with many prayers. We prayed for the victims and their families, we prayed for peace. Finally, we gave a prayer of thanks that we’d all made it home safely. After witnessing Tuesday’s horror – that was a gift beyond measure.
