LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday announced the appointments to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission and the Michigan Wildlife Council. Michigan Natural Resources Commission James R. “JR” Richardson of Ontonagon is the vice president of environment and safety at PM ...
HARVEY — Although the COVID-19 pandemic has canceled or postponed many educational programs, the underlying need for their missions still remains. So, the nonprofit Chocolay Raptor Center was pleased to receive a $2,000 grant from the AEP Renewables’ Apple Blossom Wind Project, a ...
“On a clear day rise and look around you, and you'll see who you are,” – Alan Jay Lerner The bright afternoon sunshine made me squint, while a warm breeze pushed up dirt from this rocky road, tucked into a wild section of the countryside filled with the sounds of the bugs and ...
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Danielle Johnson doesn’t know what she’d be doing to earn an income right now if it weren’t for a recent outdoors startup to get those displaced by COVID-19 back into the workforce swing of axes and hazel hoes. As unemployment across the country reaches highs not ...
“Are you reelin’ in the years.” — Walter Becker/Donald Fagen When I was a young kid growing up, I remember my dad had two fishing rods and reels he prized that I wasn’t allowed to touch. One was for plunking worms into streams and creeks for brook, brown and rainbow trout. It was ...
LANSING — It may be tempting to capture spectacular aerial photos of wildfires, but using drones is not only reckless, it’s illegal and could have deadly consequences, firefighting experts say. Both commercial and recreational use of drones have increased over the past several years, ...
MARQUETTE — In the relatively new world of gravel biking, otherwise known as “gravel grinding,” a trip to Nahma has added to the funds of a local school scholarship. Clyde Hecox, who lives about 60 miles south of Wetmore and is a member of the Graveraet Class of 1964, decided to ...
COPPER HARBOR — Standing as a silent guard at the very top of the Upper Peninsula, the Copper Harbor Lighthouse once guided vessels traveling in Lake Superior to safe harbor. Originally built in 1848, the lighthouse site consisted of a 44-foot stone tower with a lantern room, a detached ...
“Fly me to the moon.” – Bart Howard Sometimes it’s strange how one thing leads to another. Nature recently granted me a tremendous opportunity that began in quite unrelated fashion on a cloudy spring afternoon. A few days beforehand, we had put up the hummingbird feeders in the ...
MARQUETTE — With warmer temperatures and increased fire danger, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is getting a little help from a familiar face — Smokey Bear — to boost the public’s fire safety acumen. But the department is sharing the 75-year-old icon in a new way through a ...
“If you want to taste the water, gotta come to the river,” – Gary Louris In the far eastern reaches of the county, where the lines of demarcation commence, there lies what some might consider to be a river of little importance flowing sluggishly into Lake Superior. Despite the ...
DENVER— After a couple days of hard hiking last fall, Tim Brass thought it was time to track down a motor. He was bowhunting in a trophy unit near Creede, and plenty of other hunters were using a motorized trail for swift access. His friend offered an e-bike. Brass got his elk. "Best ...
The term wildlife might conjure up thoughts of large, exotic mammals in faraway places. Or perhaps some of the larger mammals we have in Michigan, such as a moose or a black bear, may come to mind. But wildlife isn’t just the big, iconic animals we tend to think of, it includes smaller ...
“Can you cook and sew, make flowers grow, do you understand my pain?” — Bob Dylan When I walk or drive down the dusty streets of these old iron ore towns, it’s easy to view a dilapidated vacant building and see the shop or store there that no longer exists, except in old photographs, ...
MARQUETTE — The Superior Watershed Partnership and the Great Lakes Conservation Corps are conducting a comprehensive tire clean-up assistance project for communities in the Upper Peninsula with grant assistance from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Almost all ...
HANCOCK — The Lake Linden Trail, between the Portage Lift Bridge and Dollar Bay, in Houghton County has been closed temporarily based on a local public health and safety advisory. In reissuing its health advisory on May 7, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department asked the public to ...
“You fill up my senses like night in a forest.” — John Denver The dark red and orange coals of the dying campfire glowed in the blackness of an early May night. It was shivering cold tonight for this time of year. With an old, gnarled apple tree branch lying over the fire pit, ...
LASING — Arctic grayling died out in Michigan in the 1930s but could make a comeback. “The chances are very good,” said Todd Grischke, the assistant chief of the Fisheries Division in the Department of Natural Resources. “We are probably three to five years out from actually having ...
HARVEY — A “golden birthday” is a rare event; it happens during the year you turn the same age as your birthday. It can happen with chickens too. Stella, an Ameraucana hen who lives with 10 other chickens and her “human parents,’ Heather and Mike Mlsna of Harvey, is set to ...
“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon Dragging around the house, bogged down with them coronavirus quarantine pandemic blues, I knew I had to break out or at least try. I’ve been on a surreal rollercoaster ride of curvy ups and downs lately, ...