Conservation

Polluter ordered to jail for illegally discharging untreated waste

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POLLUTER JAILED: The president of a Flint company has been ordered to spend a year behind bars for illegally discharging more than 47 million gallons of untreated waste — enough to fill 72 Olympic-size swimming pools. Robert Massey pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act over an 8½ year period between 2007 and 2015 for illegally discharging leachate from eight Michigan landfills, including ones in Clare and Saginaw counties. By Eric Freedman. FOR DETROIT, CLARE, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, CORP! AND ALL POINTS.

Agriculture
The Spoonville Peninsula and archaeological site along the Grand River in Ottawa County.

Abandoned food caches offer evidence of Native American survival strategies

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CACHES: You have to look hard to spot the Spoonville Peninsula on a map of Southwest Michigan, but it was an important location for native peoples for centuries before European contact — and may contain the largest collection of cache pits ever excavated in the Upper Great Lakes. Researchers from a Williamston archaeological firm and MSU undertook the project near the mouth of the Grand River in Ottawa County, finding important evidence about how these caches were used to store food as a “risk management strategyďż˝? to improve their capacity for survival “in the difficult environment of the region,ďż˝? according to a new study. By Eric Freedman. FOR STURGIS, THREE RIVERS, HOLLAND, BAY MILLS, LANSING CITY PULSE AND ALL POINTS.

Commentary

Mourning roadkill

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ROADKILL COMMENTARY: Does the abundance of roadkill detach us from our compassion for the death of animals? The State Police reports about 48,000 vehicle-deer crashes each year in Michigan. Can these vehicle-deer crashes be avoided? Commentary. By Nina Felicidario. FOR ALL POINTS.

Community News

Scientist describes first documented meteotsunami in the Great Lakes.

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GREAT LAKES METEOTSUNAMI: Large waves from Lake Michigan struck Ludington on April 13, 2018, in the first documented case of a meteotsunami in the Great Lakes. That event provides an opportunity for scientists to better understand and forecast such events. Will meteotsunamis become more frequent in the summer due to climate change and to assess their danger to the ecosystem by increasing erosion and releasing contaminants from sediments? An expert at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor explains. By Brandon Chew. FOR LUDINGTON, OCEANA, BENZIE, HOLLAND, ALCONA, TRAVERSE CITY, HARBOR SPRINGS, LEELANAU, PETOSKEY, CHEBOYGAN, ST. IGNACE, SAULT STE. MARIE, MONROE, MARQUETTE AND ALL POINTS.

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.