Business & Economy
Eradajere Oleita displays a sleeping bag made of snack chip bags.

Chip Bag Project turns snack wrappers into sleeping bags

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CHIP PROJECT: A 25-year-old immigrant from Nigeria has launched a project in Detroit that makes sleeping bags from foil-lined snack chip bags and gives them to people who live outdoors. Each sleeping bag requires at least150 chip bags and can take up to four hours to complete. Eradajere Oleita’s project has expanded into a team of millennials who collect donations and create more sleeping bags. By Asha Dawsey. FOR ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy

DNR offers $1 million to improve wildlife habitat

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WILDLIFE GRANTS: The DNR plans to award about $1 million in wildlife habitat grants this year under a program that was sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. We talk to DNR program manager and past grant winners Lenawee Conservation District and Michigan chapter of the National Turkey Federation. Past grants went for the federation’s habitat work in Oceana, Lake, Newaygo, Barry, Muskegon, Manistee, Alcona, Crawford, Oscoda, LIVINGSTON and Otsego counties. For news and outdoors pages. By Kirsten Rintelmann. FOR BLISSFIELD, MONROE, CRAWFORD COUNTY, OCEANA COUNTY, MANISTEE, ALCONA, LAKE COUNTY, LUDINGTON, FOWLERVILLE AND ALL POINTS.

Conservation
Adult zebra mussels are large enough to be seen in containers with moss balls.

Forget freighter ballast, these mussels got here on moss balls

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MOSS BALLS: The new hitchhikers in the Great Lakes region aren’t stopping drivers with a thumbs up. They’re riding moss balls across the ocean, and aquarium owners should be on the lookout for invasive zebra mussels. The warnings come from MSU Extension, Michigan and Wisconsin natural resource departments and the U.S. Geological Survey. By Taylor Haelterman. FOR ALL POINTS.

Commentary
In 2018 goldenrod shimmering in the summer sun reclaims what had once been a golf course in East Lansing.

Needed: wild places in urban spaces

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URBAN GREEN SPACE: An abandoned golf course near the the edge of the MSU campus had been shrouded by tallgrass and sparkling goldenrod, filled with asters and milkweed that lured birds every summer, with sycamores and willows shading the shore of the Red Cedar River. Now that sanctuary is gone amidst development, and its disappearance is a reminder of the importance of urban greenspace. Commentary. By Marshall Lee Weimer. FOR LANSING CITY PULSE AND ALL POINTS.

Business & Economy

Record visitation at Michigan’s national parks expected to continue

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NATIONAL PARKS: Despite the pandemic, the number of visitors to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore zoomed last year, and so did problems with parking and insufficient staffing. How are park managers planning to handle another possible onrush this summer? Isle Royale numbers, however, plummeted because the ferries between the island and the mainland shut down. By Samuel Blatchford. FOR MARQUETTE, LEELANAU, TRAVERSE CITY, SAULT STE. MARIE AND ALL POINTS.

Agriculture
Sheep graze under the shade of solar panels in Lenawee County, an example of agrivoltaics.

Crops grown under solar panels and pollinator habitats could be wave of the future

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SOLAR FARMS: A new report about combining solar power and farming has advocates saying the practice could take hold in Michigan, boosting productivity of crops while also providing much-needed refuge for bees and other pollinators. We talk to an MSU expert, and an extension educator in West Olive For news and agriculture pages. By Sheldon Krause. FOR MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, HOLLAND AND ALL POINTS.

Diversity Issues
Children playing nearby air pollution sources in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood.

Chronic health problems linked to pollution fuels environmental justice movement

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DIRTY AIR: Environmental justice activists say the health of residents in Southeast Michigan’s communities of color is disproportionately harmed by poor air quality. Studies show that one indicator of the disparities is the high rate of asthma in some Detroit neighborhoods. We talk with Detroiters Working for Environment Justice and the deputy director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. By Jakkar Aimery. FOR DETROIT AND ALL POINTS

Environment

A new EPA app aims to help track water quality at beaches

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WATER TESTING: The EPA has a new app to help monitor contamination at freshwater beaches and other water recreation spots. But Michigan is ahead of the game with the BeachGuard program it’s been using for years. Last summer’s closures included beaches in Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Macomb, Hurron and Isabella counties. We talk to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and District Health Department #10, which covers Crawford, Kalkaska, Lake, Manistee, Mason, Mecosta, Missaukee, Newaygo and Oceana counties. By Sophia Lada. FORCRAWFORD COUNTY, OCEANA COUNTY, BIG RAPIDS, LUDINGTON, LAKE COUNTY, MANISTEE, TRAVERSE CITY, LEELANAU, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.