Year: 2010

Michigan to Ban BPA?

  • Bisphenol-A lines the inside of most metal food and drink cans. (Photo courtesy of Sun Ladder at Wikimedia Commons)

Bisphenol-A or BPA – is a chemical that has been used for more than 40 years in food and beverage packaging. It can leach out of those packages and get into food and drinks. More than a hundred peer-reviewed studies have linked bisphenol-A to health problems. Until recently the Food and Drug Administration said that our current low levels of exposure to BPA were safe. But new studies have shown subtle effects of low doses of BPA in lab animals. Based on those studies, the FDA now says it has some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.
The six major baby bottle manufacturers have voluntarily removed BPA. But BPA is still used in the linings of almost every kind of food and beverage can…including canned liquid baby formula.


Nine states have passed laws to ban certain uses of BPA in children’s products… and Michigan could be next.


Democratic State Representative Mark Meadows from East Lansing has introduced a bill to ban BPA in children’s products, and he joins me now. Representative Meadows, why do you feel this is necessary?

Advice for parents from the Department of Health and Human Services

Related article from USA Today

Transcript

Meadows: Well, I think the scientific research has shown us there is a danger particularly to children and infants with regard to BPA leaching into their systems and the result of that has been like a crescendo of scientific evidence that indicates it should be banned at least in those products.


What specific products are you targeting?


Meadows: We’re targeting anything that comes in contact with children and particularly those things which contain food items so that we would be assured that at least in younger people they wouldn’t be exposed to BPA. And I think there’s been a recognition in the industry that this is coming, although the major opponents to this legislation continue to be the chemical manufacturing concerns in the United States.


Have you had any reactions from those manufacturers?


Meadows: Yes, you know, Dow Chemical of course is a big employer in the state of Michigan and they’ve been adamantly opposed to this legislation. I think though that we made some changes to the legislation to try to address some of the issues they raised with regard to it.


What changes did you make?


Meadows: We made a few changes to limit the language. One of the exclusions is bike helmets, which we need the rigidity that’s produced by BPA in those things which provide a great protection to young people.


We’ve seen laws passed in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York and six other states that ban certain uses of BPA in kids’ products. What have those laws accomplished so far?


Meadows: Well they have reduced the use of BPA products with regard to children in all of those states.


How quickly would companies have to come up with alternatives under your bill?


Meadows: I can’t remember the exact phase-in period, but they would have time to come up with alternatives. But in fact the testimony we received indicated that in fact those alternatives are available now.


So your bill has passed the House Great Lakes and Environment Committee. How much support do you believe you have to bring the bill up for a vote in the House?


Meadows: You know, we would bring the bill up for a vote in the House and I think it would pass handily in fact. But because of the nature of the lame duck session we’re in right now, I do not expect it to come up for a vote this year. I think it’ll be reintroduced in January and hopefully we’ll move it through committee again next year and get a vote on the floor for it.


Mark Meadows is a Democratic State Representative from East Lansing. He has introduced a bill to ban certain uses of the chemical bisphenol-A in children’s products. Thank you so much for your time.


Meadows: No problem.


That’s the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams.

Getting Fresh Air Into an Air Tight House

  • How an air exchanger works. (Diagram courtesy of Matt Grocoff)

For the past couple of years, we’ve been visiting Matt Grocoff’s house in Ann Arbor. He’s been working to make it the oldest net-zero home in America. That means when he’s finished, the house should produce as much energy as it uses. Lester Graham has an update:

Transcript

Matt Grocoff’s home is 110-years-old. It was originally heated by coal… and had no insulation. Coal was cheap… so you could stoke that furnace all day long without much worry about heat escaping. These days energy is more expensive… and there are concerns about using fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.


So, Matt is heating and cooling his house using a geo-thermal system. It uses a fraction of the energy that a gas or electric furnace would use. And… I’ve watched as Matt as worked to seal up every nook and cranny of the house. From attic, to walls, to windows to basement he’s insulated, caulked, used spray foam or found some other way to seal up his home. But… with everything so tight… he’s now got a bit of a problem. If it’s closed up, as during the winter, not enough fresh air can get in like it used to through drafty areas. That can cause the air to get stale.


MG: “A phrase I heard was ‘Insulate tight and ventilate right.’ If you’re sealing up your house so tight you’re no longer getting good quality fresh air in there, you’ve got to provide some mechanical ventilation when you’re running your air conditioner or heating system.”

LG: That would seem to defeat the purpose to me because now you’re going to be using electricity to ventilate a house because you’ve gotten it so tight.

MG: “Ahhh, that’s exactly where the energy recovery ventilator comes in. In a normal house what you’ll have is like a little bath vent that’s going to be sucking the stale air out of your house. But, with that stale air, you’re also blowing right out through your roof vents really warm, conditioned, expensive-to-heat air during the winter time. With the energy recovery ventilator, you can actually recover some of that lost energy and pay for the energy that it’s costing to run those fans.”


The energy recovery ventilator is not that big. It fits in a small space in his attic. It works kind of like a heat pump. As the contractor, Doug Selby explained it to me… it draws air out, but before it goes outside, the unit recovers much of the heat… and it’s the heat that costs you.


DS “With an energy recovery ventilator or a heat recovery ventilator, you can recapture up to 95-percent of the energy that you’ve already paid for once. And you can do that infinitely. The fact of the matter is, yes, these homes do need to breathe. But, the worst way you can do it is just by having an uninsulated, loose house that loses most of its energy out the attic and out the basement. And, you still end up with poor interior air quality and you’re not getting any benefit from that from an energy standpoint.”


So, you get fresh air… but you recycle almost all the heat.


Matt Grocoff says he’s spent quite a bit of money during the past couple of years reducing his energy consumption… but he looks at it as an investment. He says he’ll save money at a rate that’ll out-perform the stock market. In other words… the money he’ll save on energy costs will pay back the cost of the equipment and then some.


Now,he’s about to change gears. All this time he’s been working to reduce his energy usage. The next step… he’s going to produce energy.


MG: “Yes, we are now ready for solar panels because we will be efficient enough to produce more energy than we consume.”


LG: That’s Matt Grocoff with Greenovation-dot-TV. I’m Lester Graham with The Environment Report.


HOST TAG: The next time we visit Matt… we’ll bring you the story of putting up those solar panels… the final chapter of his work to become net-zero.
That’s the Environment Report for today. I’m Rebecca Williams.

Opening Up the Deer Hunting Season

  • Michigan conservation officials hope to expand the number of female deer killed in this year's hunt, but many hunters would much rather shoot bucks. Antlers are the big prize. (Photo by Scott Bauer - USDA)

Last year in Michigan, there were more than 60,000 car accidents caused by deer. Farmers say they can lose a lot of money when deer eat their crops. And there are deer munching on backyard gardens and even running down sidewalks.

Wildlife managers say there are just too many deer in the state. And they want hunters to help.

This fall the Natural Resources Commission is increasing the number of does hunters can kill in certain parts of the state. Especially in southern lower Michigan where there are lots of deer.

They hope that by reducing the number of does in the fall, there’ll be fewer fawns born in the spring… and eventually the deer population will swing back into balance.

Tips on avoiding a deer-car crash


More info about the new regulations (.pdf file)


A related Environment Report story on deer birth control

Transcript

(sound of game area)

I met up with Brent Rudolph at the Rose Lake game area near East Lansing. He’s a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. He says the deer hunting rules are conservative in northwest Michigan and the UP… because there aren’t as many deer there. But he says southern Michigan has lots of deer.

“So in southern Michigan we have gone to allowing individual hunters to buy an unlimited number of antlerless licenses.”

Hunters can get five permits a day… with no cap on the number of does they can take in the season.

“A lot of people see that and think there’s going to be a dramatic surge and oh my gosh are they trying to eliminate the deer herd in southern Michigan? It’s not the case. We’ve had regulations close to and possibly even more liberal than that in the past.”

Rudolph says they actually expect most hunters won’t take advantage of the new rules. He says they set the quotas higher than they need to. They don’t expect to sell all the permits.

Rudolph says that’s because most hunters want a buck.

“They don’t head into the woods thinking they want to go manage their deer herd today. So they’re still in a lot of places a lot more interested in taking bucks, in the tradition of taking a deer with antlers on its head and we’re trying to get folks over that.”

Rudolph says it’ll probably take a few years to see how the new rules affect the deer population.

(sound of Cabela’s store)

Joe Ross is the general manager of the Cabela’s store in Dundee. He says hunting license sales are up.

“We don’t have the exact figures for it yet but we have seen a definite increase in interest in license sales especially with antlerless licenses so far this year.”

The customers we talked to had mixed feelings about the new rules.

Chad Chissom lives in the Thumb. He says he’ll be taking only does this year.

“I think that’s a good thing for around my property. We have a square mile. Yesterday I counted 98 does with one buck which was a spike horn. So I have quite the ratio that’s not correct.”

Some hunters said they prefer taking a buck, but might take a doe for the meat. Other hunters said the rules are way too liberal.

Danny Nagle hunts in northeastern Michigan. He hunts in one of the counties where there’s a problem with tuberculosis in wild deer. So the state’s been aggressively controlling the herd there.

“There’s no deer left. You can hunt two weeks without seeing a deer. You go up there, you spent a lot of money, you go up deer hunting and you don’t see any deer. It’s not a cheap trip, especially all the equipment you buy.”

Although not everybody likes the way deer are managed… state officials say hunting is the best tool they have to get deer under control.

The lower peninsula doesn’t have a significant wolf population. There just aren’t the natural predators there used to be. So it’s up to the state to come up with a management plan that makes hunters happy but also controls the deer.

That’s the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams.

Special thanks to Suzy Vuljevic for her help with this story.

Greenovation: A Hot Roof and a Cool Attic

  • Ann Arbor based Meadowlark Energy sprays foam onto Matt's attic ceiling creating a "hot roof" which ironically keeps the attic much cooler in the summer. (Photo by Matt Grocoff of Greenovation.tv)

What happens if you seal up the leaks in your house… add a bunch of insulation… and then find out it’s too tight?

For a while now, we’ve been telling you about an attempt to make a 110-year old house in Michigan the oldest net-zero home in America. Net-zero means it uses no more energy than it produces. Lester Graham has the latest installment in our ongoing story.

A site where you can find an authorized energy auditor for your home

Matt Grocoff’s website, Greenovation TV


Tips on adding attic insulation from Energy Star


A Greenovation Story: New Storm Windows


A Greenovation Story: Fixing Old Windows

A Greenovation story: Spray Foam Your Home

Transcript

Matt Grocoff is getting close to his goal. He’s been sealing up his drafty old house, restoring and tightening the windows, insulating everywhere possible. But he’s got to make a change. The house is so tight, he now needs an air exchanger to get some fresh air circulating, otherwise, the air would get too stale – too much CO2 and not enough oxygen.

He kinda knew eventually he’d have to have one, but wasn’t exactly sure what kind or where he’d have to put it. It turns out the attic is going to be the best space because of easy access to return air ducts. Since this project is all about energy efficiency, the air exchanger is a fancy energy-saving unit. We’ll talk about it more in our next report.

But first the attic has to be insulated at the roofline.

I’ve climbed up a stepladder to lift myself into the attic and peek at what’s going on. A guy in a hazmat-like suit and filter mask is spraying insulation foam on the underside of the roof.

If you think of the attic as the triangle shape at the top of the house… you’d usually insulate the bottom of the triangle to keep the rooms below warm. But, because of the new equipment Matt will be installing… the angled sides of the triangle need to be insulated. This is called a ‘hot roof.’

Doug Selby is with Meadowlark Energy. He’s the contractor for this job.

DS: “With a ‘hot roof,’ what we’re able to do is to insulate the actual roofline itself. So, it creates a conditioned space in the attic and what that does for us is seal a lot of the places where a house leaks naturally and it also creates a space where we can run our mechanicals without fear of losing a lot of that energy to the atmosphere.”

We’ll get to why that’s important in our next report on the energy efficient air exchanger that they’re installing.

But for now… let’s just say… it’s kinda cool to see this sticky foam sprayed on the underside of the roof… expand for a bit… and then harden into a sort of styrofoam that’s sealed every nook and cranny. Matt Grocoff says this is easier than it might sound.

MG: “You’re right, we’re spraying it into the rafters rather than laying the stuff onto the floor. And if you look for Greenovation TV on our Facebook page, you’ll be able to see some photographs that we’ve got up there and you’ll be able to see exactly how this stuff is installed and sprayed in and what it looks like when you’re done.”

It’s making a whole new usable space out of an attic that was not usable for much of anything.

Matt can finish it off with drywall, paint it, and then put down a floor. Voila! New space.

MG: “Well, that’s one of the cool things, is that we’re kind of fantasizing now about what we’re going to do with this extra space. And what we think we’d like to do is just have this little cozy space, we’ll put a little pull down ladder up in the attic and have a little yoga space or a little place with some cushions where we can read and stuff like that. And just make it a really cozy, quiet getaway up there in the attic that will be conditioned.”

LG: Matt Grocoff the Greenovation-dot-TV guy, doing yoga in his attic. Alright, thanks, Matt.

“My wife is the real yoga expert.”

We’ll look at the new air exchanger the Grocoffs will install in a small part of that attic space… next Tuesday on the Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.

If you’re wondering how to make your house more energy efficient…. Matt recommends first getting an energy audit to find out where the leaks are in your house. You can find out how to do that and you can catch up on Matt’s adventures on our website: environment report dot org. I’m Rebecca Williams.

Michigan’s Environment and a New Administration

  • Governor-elect Rick Snyder says businesses are overburdened with regulation. What will this mean for environmental regulations in the state? (Photo from Snyder campaign website)

There wasn’t a lot of talk about environment during the race for governor, but Governor-elect Rick Snyder made it clear during the campaign that he thinks the state’s regulatory system is broken and said he wants fewer regulations on businesses. That has some people wondering whether that means there will also be fewer of the regulations that prevent pollution in the state.


A related article in the Lansing City Pulse

Transcript

James Clift is here with me to talk about this. He’s the policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council. So do we know what to expect from the new governor?

Clift: It’s a little bit of a clean slate here. In his victory speech he talked about protecting and promoting the Great Lakes. We think that’s a good thing. He talked about the importance of revitalizing our central cities, including the city of Detroit. We hope to work with him on that. I’m a little concerned about some of his comments regarding regulations but we’re willing to work with him to make sure that unnecessary regulations are limited but the ones that are designed to protect the Great Lakes and the environment, we need to keep those in place.


There’s not only a new Republican governor, but the Michigan legislature is dominated by Republicans. They now have a supermajority in the Senate and a majority in the House. There’s this impression that Democrats tend to vote more favorably on environmental issues… has that actually proven to be the case?


Clift: In general, you see some of the innovation and ideas over the years come from the Democratic side of the aisle, but we’ve seen kind of broad, bi-partisan support for protecting the Great Lakes and our natural resources. So in times when – and this isn’t the first time that Republicans have controlled both chambers and have had the governorship – we haven’t seen a steep erosion. But you know, you have to watch things like funding levels for the departments to make sure that the people who are out there watching over our environment are properly staffed and funded to do so.


Some groups have expressed concern that a Snyder Administration would weaken protections on so-called factory farms. Do you think that’s likely to happen?


Clift: Most of these facilities are under permit today. Where I fear is kind of on the monitoring side. You know, are we doing enough monitoring to make sure that when these manure sludges are applied to fields that they’re not running into our rivers and streams.


Mr. Snyder said during the campaign that he would fast track permits for coal burning power plants. What would that mean for Michigan?


Clift: That’s a situation where I think he really does need to look closely at where’s the innovation occurring, how much innovation are we seeing in the renewable and energy efficiency areas? We need to keep our transition to clean energy going, because I think that’s what’s putting Michigan’s manufacturing base back to work, not some short-term construction jobs for a coal plant that will end up obligating Michigan ratepayers to buy more coal from out-of-state sources for the next 40 years.


During the campaign Mr. Snyder did express support for bringing more clean energy jobs to Michigan. Do you expect he’ll follow through on that?


Clift: I think he will. I mean, I do think this is where a lot of the venture capital is going these days. You’ve got some people doing just amazing work across the state. We’re using our automotive know-how and putting it toward clean energy. So we’re producing parts for wind turbines at a cost below the Chinese. A lot of really exciting things going on in that area and a lot of jobs being created in that area and I think he has to do everything he can to foster those gains we’ve made.


All right, well, thank you so much for your time.


Clift: Thank you very much.


James Clift is the policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council. That’s the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams.

NIMBYs Derailing Bike Trails

  • A bike trail might one day take cyclists riding between Traverse City and Elk Rapids along Petobago Creek. (Photo by Peter Payette)

Why plans for rails to trails bike paths sometimes go off the tracks…


This is the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams.


Michigan has more than 1,500 miles of bike paths.
Most were put in place through rails to trails programs. Those are trails that are created from former railroad corridors.
Now many communities are trying to connect the existing trails, so cyclists can ride cross-country over large regions of the state.
But as Peter Payette reports, the work is getting harder and bike trails are not always welcome.

Look up bike trails near you

Transcript

In the foreseeable future you might be able to get from Harbor Springs to Traverse City on a paved bike path.
That’s about eighty miles.
There are few paved bike paths that long in the United States.


The question is how to route it.
One easy way would be to build a path alongside US-31. But the federal highway is not the most exciting route through the region.

You’d miss hidden gems like Petobago Creek.

“I don’t want to call it the best kept secret, but it’s far enough off it’s not where people normally come. If you know, you’ll come back multiple times. It’s very attractive here.”

That’s Dean Branson standing near the remains of an old bridge over Petobago.
Across the creek are a couple hundred acres of marshland that are designated a state game area.

A thick patch of woods separates us from the highway so the car noise is dampened.

Branson says this would be a perfect place for a bike trail.

“Family bikers really like to be further away, where they don’t hear the roads or the safety problems associated with fast cars. And this presents an opportunity for us to be quiet, out in nature.”

Branson has been working for years to connect Elk Rapids to Traverse City’s bike trail system.
It’s a project led by Rotary Club of Elk Rapids.
The hope is to eventually build north all the way to Charlevoix.

That would connect with the Little Traverse Wheelway, an existing bike trail that wraps around Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs.

The problem is there’s not a single railroad line that would make the connection.
And the railroad grades that do exist were abandoned years ago and now belong to adjacent property owners.

Eric Oberg, with Rails to Trails Conservancy says that is the situation for many trail groups these days.
Rather than deal with one railroad company, they have to deal with as many as 30 property owners in one mile.

“It only takes one person to say no I’m not interested in this at all and if they’re strategically located where you can’t get around them, your whole project gets derailed and you’re kind of back at square one, how do we get from A to B if we can’t go that way because one out of thirty said no?”

And sometimes property owners are not interested.

While some see a bike trail as a nice amenity even worth mentioning in a real estate listing, others see a trail as a path for endless strangers to invade their solitude.

Fifteen years ago in Leelanau County, opposition to a new trail was almost militant.
At one point someone stretched barbed wire across the pathway.
Someone else dug a ditch in the trail and a cyclist crashed and broke his shoulder.

Tim Brick owns Brick Wheels, a bike shop in Traverse City.
He says there’s more appreciation for bike paths today but he’s not sure everyone clearly sees the economic value of trails.

“If you look at a car going through Traverse City in the summer I would bet you seven out of ten of them got a bike rack on it. They come here to ride, because we have great trails, because we have nice places to ride. But, if you read Chamber of Commerce brochures you’d think all we do here is do wine tours and golf. And I’m telling you, a lot of people come here to cycle.”

And if trails are long enough they can attract national attention and become a destination where visitors can ride for days.

For the Environment Report, I’m Peter Payette.

Snyder vs. Bernero on the Environment

  • Democrat Virg Bernero and Republican Rick Snyder are running for governor in Michigan.

Michigan’s next governor will have a lot of influence over what happens to our farms and lakes and state parks. Today we’re taking a look at the two major party candidates for governor, and how they compare on some of the big environmental issues.

Virg Bernero’s environment page

Rick Snyder’s environment page

Transcript

Republican Rick Snyder and Democrat Virg Bernero actually agree on a few things. They both say the Asian carp is bad and the Chicago shipping locks should be closed to keep them out of Lake Michigan. They both want to limit urban sprawl, and they both want Michigan to become a manufacturing hub for wind and solar power.

In a surprise move, the non-partisan group Michigan League of Conservation Voters endorsed both candidates in their respective primaries.

“This was the first time the Michigan LCV has ever endorsed a gubernatorial candidate on the Republican side of the ticket.”

That’s Ryan Werder. He’s the groups political director.

“We endorsed Rick in the primary because he demonstrates real commitment to Michigan’s environment and he has a standing history of working on conservation issues.”

Werder admits it can be hard to evaluate someone who’s never held public office. He says Virg Bernero, on the other hand, voted in step with the LCV’s positions 87 percent of the time when he was in the legislature.

Bernero calls himself one of the greenest mayors in the state.

“I’m not going to put up with long term damage of the environment for short term gain. Whether it’s factory farms or mining or anything else. We’re going to look at the long term implications of every use of our environment.”

The League of Conservation Voters has not endorsed either candidate in the general election.

Other groups have clearly favored one candidate over the other. Virg Bernero’s gotten the endorsement of the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.

Rick Snyder has been endorsed by the Michigan Farm Bureau’s political action committee.

Wayne Wood is the Farm Bureau’s president. He says he likes that Rick Snyder is in favor of the current program of voluntary environmental standards that’s in place for farmers.

“His support of that recognizes we can do more for the environment by creating incentives than we can by using the stick if you will.”

During a call-in program on Michigan Radio, Rick Snyder said the regulatory system in Lansing is broken.

“My goal is to switch that system from penalizing people and using it as a back door revenue source to saying how do you treat people as if they’re good honest people and how do you help them win compliance, and then the bad people, you really go after those people.”

But Snyder’s position on regulation worries some environmental groups.

Anne Woiwode is the state director of the Sierra Club. She says she’s concerned about pollution from the state’s several hundred concentrated animal feeding operations – sometimes called factory farms. She says they’re already poorly regulated.

“We’re extremely nervous that Mr. Snyder’s position right now appears to be one of rolling back protections of public health, food and water quality and air quality that would be the result of moving to a voluntary system for regulating agriculture particularly for these massive operations.”

Repeated attempts to schedule an interview with Rick Snyder were unsuccessful.

Another controversial issue is whether to build new coal fired power plants. The Detroit Free Press reported Rick Snyder wants to fast track permits for new coal plants.

Bernero says Michigan needs to be more energy efficient, but he won’t rule out new coal plants as long as they’re cleaner than the old plants.

“The real question is if we can’t get enough with reduction and with different renewable energies are we better off with newer coal technologies than the old plants?”

What either candidate would actually do as governor is still not entirely clear. The environment has not been a strong campaign issue on the stump. In their one and only general election debate, the environment did not come up at all.

Rebecca Williams, The Environment Report.

The Kudzu of the North

  • Vern Stephens wrestles a strand of dog-strangling vine. It's part of his job to spray a targeted herbicide on the invasive plant to kill it. (Photo by Rebecca Williams)

If you’ve ever lived in the south, you know kudzu. It’s an invasive plant that grows like crazy. Covers highway signs and telephone poles and anything that doesn’t run fast enough. There’s a plant in Michigan that’s getting a little crazy too. It’s not kudzu-crazy yet, but experts say we need to get a handle on it.

It has a memorable name: dog-strangling vine.

Pictures of the plant

A Wiki post on the plant

More from the invasive species atlas

Transcript

It’s also sometimes called swallow-wort.

I’m on Michigan State’s campus and I’m here with Vern Stephens. He’s a senior wildlife assistant with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Rebecca Williams:We’re out here so you can show me this stuff. Does it live up to its name?


Vern Stephens: Yes, it does. It’s a horrible plant. In fact if we look at it a little more we’ll see it’s actually a series of ropes and vines that entangle upon themselves, and if we try to walk through it we won’t get very far.


(sound of Stephens pulling on vine)


And you can see the rope that’s formed, it’s growing up this high bush cranberry. But you can see that the plant is easy to identify if you know what it looks like because it’s a very glossy leaf. It stands right out and it’s very waxy. It can go anywhere. It can adapt. And on some of the sites it was only a small patch for five years. And then the plant acclimated. And then it exploded. And now it’s taken over 20 acres of woodlot. When we say taken over, it’s at least chest high. Vines that look like this inch think rope everywhere. You can’t even walk through it. So it makes it very difficult.


RW: Before you pointed this out to me, I wouldn’t have known what it was. It just looks like any other Michigan plant.


VS: Right. And that’s the problem. This actually is a plant that becomes a biological trap for monarchs. They go to it because it’s in the milkweed family. And then lay their eggs on it and either the eggs don’t hatch or the butterflies, the caterpillars, die, because it’s toxic to them. Nothing feeds on it because it’s toxic to cattle. It’s toxic to horses or any animal that grazes on it. So if it gets into a pasture it becomes a problem.


RW: How long has this plant been in Michigan and how did it get here?


VS: We don’t know exactly how long it’s been in Michigan but back in the 1850’s is when it came to the United States. We suspect it was brought in through botanical gardens and escaped. It doesn’t take very many pods to all of a sudden populate an area.


RW: So we see pictures of kudzu in the south where it’s covering trees, telephone poles, cars…


VS: That’s what this looks like in Springfield Township. On the corner of Davisburg Highway and Dixie Highway. It’s just columns. Going up the guide wires to the poles, going up the trees, covering the trees. It’s unbelievable.


RW: How widespread could this get in Michigan?


VS: If it’s made it to Petoskey and it’s on the west side of the state, we’ve found some in Grand Rapids, and it’s on the southeast side of the state, it’s just a matter of time before it’s everywhere. If we don’t do anything at all. I’m not convinced we don’t have populations in the UP. I don’t know that we’re on top of it, but I know we have a good idea on where it’s at and what its capabilities are.


RW: Vern Stephens is a senior wildlife assistant with the wildlife division of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. Thank you very much.


VS: You’re welcome.


RW: If you want to find out what dog-strangling vine looks like, you can go to our website, environment report.org. I’m Rebecca Williams.

New Rest Stops for Midwest Birds

  • Ben Preston hunts ducks in Michigan. Duck hunters are worried about what will happen to migratory ducks when they fly to the Gulf. (Photo by Brian Preston)

As the temperature drops, millions of birds are heading south. Biologists are worried the birds will find their usual hang-outs have gone through some serious changes since the BP oil spill, but some people are working to create new habitat to help the birds.

Transcript

The Mississippi Flyway is the most happening route of migration for Midwest birds. It stretches from north of Michigan all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. Species such as blue green teal, herons and egrets, wood ducks, and scaup are already on the move.

Mark Robinson says it’s a long journey south.

“By the time they’ve migrated down to the Gulf they’re absolutely exhausted.”

Robinson is a birdwatcher & zoologist. He says the food birds eat in the Gulf is essential to their survival.

“If they travel on further then they’re gonna need it to cross down into South America. Or to replenish their energy if they just stay in the Gulf to travel back up north in the spring again.”

Robinson and other scientists are worried about the birds’ habitat in the Gulf. He says most of the visible oil has been cleaned up. But there is still a lot of submerged oil in wetlands and soils that can’t be seen. And the fish, plants, and insects that birds eat could be affected for years to come.

That’s why along the main cruising strip, biologists from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited are creating new pit stops, so migrating birds can rest up and fuel up.

Bob Dew is with Louisiana’s Ducks Unlimited. He’s about 15 miles from the open waters of the Gulf.

“Just off in the distance there’s a ridge with a lot of old live oak trees. In between where we’re standing is an old rice field.”

They’ve flooded what used to be a rice field and turned it into a wetland.

“You see flocks of blue winged teal of 50 to 100 to 150 birds flying around the fields and know that they’ve made a journey of over 1000 miles to get here. That’s very rewarding and very encouraging as well. Because we know that we have a very large fall flight this year and we’re expecting a lot of birds to be here.”

Dew says birds are flocking to these rice fields turned wetlands because they can find great things to eat. Like leftover rice grain and plenty of bugs.

Hundreds of farmers are getting paid to allow their fields to be flooded in the off season. These projects are funded in part, by BP.

The money is coming from the profits BP is getting from selling the spilled oil.

Organizers hoped to flood around 20 thousand acres this fall. But the response from farmers has been huge. More than 75 thousand acres have been turned into bird friendly wetlands.

But we won’t know until next spring if the project’s successful. Scientists will have a better idea after they count the birds returning home.

But if fewer birds and ducks return from the Gulf next year, it could impact Michigan’s conservation efforts. That’s because the bulk of conservation dollars comes from hunting related fees.

Brian Preston is a duck hunter in Michigan. He says his family spends their extra money on hunting. He says a lot of other duck hunters do the same.

“Buying gas, getting restaurants, buying hotels so they can sit in a marsh in the UP for two days. Then they’ll come home, go to work, and do the same thing again the next weekend.”

He says if the duck populations decrease or if the birds return unhealthy, his family might have to find new hobbies until things improve. Project organizers along the Mississippi flyway hope they’ll continue to see large numbers of birds stopping by.

Nikki Motson, The Environment Report.

Keeping Electronics Out of the Trash

  • Although China banned electronic waste, illegal operations still take American waste to retrieve precious metals. (Photo by Ted Land)

A lot us recycle, but what about that “less-than-smart-phone” you just replaced with the latest model? What about those batteries in the clock? As Tanya Ott reports, sometimes it’s hard to know how to recycle electronics.


Photos of where our electronic cast asides can end up


Where to recycle rechargeable batteries and cell phones


Where to recycle other electronics


Where to recycle single-use batteries

Transcript

Up to half of all Americans say they recycle common materials, like paper, plastic and glass, “all of the time.” Husband and wife Don Dickman and Kathleen McEvvit live in Laingsburg, Michigan.

“Well, we recycle glass, we recycle metal, we recycle plastic, magazines, paper. I’m trying to think if we recycle any electronics. I don’t think we have. No, not lately.”

When it comes to electronics, many of us need a little nudge… say, from the kids from the television hit Glee.

Clip from Glee: “Test, test one… oh hold on we got a dead mic (batteries clanking in trash can) you know you’re not supposed to throw batteries out, right?”


A new survey from the consumer electronics marketplace Retrevo finds that more than 60% of respondents nationwide don’t recycle their old electronic gadgets.

Clip from Glee: “Does it count as recycling if you collect old batteries to throw at clowns?”

Many people say they don’t know how to recycle electronics, or that e-recycling isn’t available where they live.

Most people recycle their old cell phones and batteries at retail outlets like Radio Shack, Home Depot and Staples. Jeff Morris owns the Cartridge World franchise in Ann Arbor.

“We take in batteries for recycling and then they get sent off. Usually I send them over to the local batteries plus store or there are some local charities that can actually make a little money with them if we send them there.”

Morris says he’s lost track of how many batteries and toner cartridges his shop recycles each year. It’s a lot.

Lisa Pollack is with the nonprofit group Call2Recycle, a free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program in North America. Since 1994, Call2Recycle says it has diverted more than 50 million pounds of rechargeable batteries from landfills. Still, says Pollack, that’s just a drop in the bucket. Does this sound familiar?

“Often times we hoard them. We keep them in our drawers or they sit in our closets or our attics, instead of bringing them in for recycling, and the fact that they sit there means we know we’re not supposed to throw them away, but we’re not necessarily sure what we are supposed to do with them.”

For some products, like cell phones, it’s important to recycle them as soon as possible. The longer you wait the harder it is for recycling companies to make money off them, because they get outdated. If you want to find a place to recycle your phone and rechargeable batteries, Call2Recycle has a network of 30,000 collection sites nationwide, including 740 sites in Michigan.

Pollock says this year there’s been a sharp increase in rechargeable battery recycling in the American south, a place where recycling has been slow to take off. She says it’s not clear why that’s happening. Michigan is in the middle of the pack, but there’s been a very slight decrease in battery recycling, about 1%. So far this year, Michiganders have recycled just over 71,000 pounds of rechargeable batteries through Call2Recycle.

Tanya Ott, the Environment Report.

Host:The Consumer Electronics Association says the average household has about 24 different types of electronic devices. Most of these TVs, computers and cell phones eventually end up in the garbage.

Special thanks to Suzy Vuljevich for her production help on this story.

Rebecca Williams, the Environment Report.