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Friday: Outdoors

Outdoors North

Probably back to the earliest times people have been creating images of wildlife, deer have been one of the constants. As far back as the cave paintings of Lascaux in France, which date to somewhere around 20,000 years ago, deer — specifically stags — are represented no less than 90 times in a gallery of about 6,000 figures depicted, including 900 animal images. Crafted as a cross-cultural positive element lent to a painting, drawing or other depiction, deer have been featured as quarry, measures of affluence, longevity, grace and agility and have been woven into the mythology ...

Firewood quarantine

MARQUETTE — The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is placing quarantines around Michigan to contain an outbreak of invasive species, mainly by way of transporting firewood infested with pests. Laurel Downs, the forest health conservation coordinator for the national Don’t Move Firewood campaign, said when insects get introduced into a new ecosystem from global trade, sometimes through packaging material and mostly by firewood transportation, they typically lack any natural predators in the new environment. That allows them to infest the wood. “Usually it’s ...

Outdoors North

A wintry wind blew the snow in, and it piled up rather quickly. I had been busy working in my study/studio and had my head down with my nose to the grindstone. When I am concentrating on something, time whips by. I only noticed the weather outside when I would make occasional trips to the ...

Study warns of climate risks to hazardous waste facilities

LANSING — A new Government Accountability Office study of hazardous waste facilities found them at risk of damage from climate-related events such as flooding and hurricanes. Some are in the six-state Great Lakes region, including ones near southern Lake Michigan. According to the ...

Outdoors North

Stepping out to the wet street that morning, the capitol was covered in a feathery veil of snowflakes, the lights shining in a yellowish glow up high around the dome, the colorful flags folding and unfolding in the wind. At the Ottawa corner, the pines and other trees decorating the stately white lawn were flocked in nature’s first touches of winter. There seemed to be a lot of visitors in town, like me. I asked one young woman for directions and she said she could only guess. Turns out, she guessed right. A couple minutes later, a man stopped in his car and rolled down the ...

Industry opposition, partisan politics slow polluter-pay bills

LANSING — It’s been one year since Michigan Democrats introduced legislation that would significantly change the state’s environmental regulations. But those bills are stuck in committee. Election distractions, negotiation, and a slim Democratic majority in the state House have kept ...