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Editorial

Isle Royale structures protected under new alliance

The federal government, an entity many people wouldn't necessarily consider the best for the purposes of planning, seems to be out front in establishing an organization to advance coordinated protection and improvement of Isle Royale National Park's historic structures. The Isle Royale Heritage Alliance will be responsible for approximately approximately 90 cabins, 19 fishery buildings and four lighthouses. The Alliance will be powered by volunteers, with coordination by the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation, the designated nonprofit park partner for Lake Superior's five ...

The long rise of the new Democratic Party

Can I claim to have predicted, way back in 1988, the result of Michigan's fiercely contested Democratic primary for U.S. senator this week? The developments that have made Abdul El-Sayed — who lost the 2018 gubernatorial primary to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) by 20 percentage points — ...

Cutting DNR stocking program a bad idea

Superiorland residents, indeed residents of the Upper Peninsula in general, who are of a certain age, cringe when the word alewife is mentioned. That’s because even an average memory will vividly recall U.P. beaches in the 1960s and 70s being a foot deep in dead alewives, reeking to high heavens, making swimming all but impossible. Where did they come from? These little invasive fish found their way into the Great Lakes from the ocean in the 19th and 20th centuries via canals. Once here, and facing no natural predators, they ate massive amounts of zooplankton, starving native fish ...

Prime time of year to visit farmers markets in area

Though seeing the summer days slip by carries a little sadness, one of the prime benefits of August is fresh produce and other products that can be purchased — often only a short time after being picked — at the farmers markets that set up in area communities. Most gardens or farms that cultivate fruits and vegetables are now far enough along in the season to have a wide variety available for sale. And many area communities, even in the Upper Peninsula, have regular days of the week or month when vendors gather with what they've grown this year. In Marquette County, farmers markets ...

Positive movement in city dog park development

Where are the good ideas for municipal government coming from these days, ideas that address a specific need and the funding to implement it. From where we sit, good ideas along these lines have always come from both the government itself and the people it represents. Get those two elements working in tandem and things start to happen. That seems to be the case with plans to set up a summer off-leash dog park in the city of Marquette, to be located just past the NTN North Trails 550 trailhead. A lot of dog owners support this effort which was identified in the city's 2025 Master Plan ...

War against sea lamprey expensive but worth the money

While it might seem to some that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is throwing good money after bad fighting the invasive sea lamprey, we support continued efforts by this agency and others to rid the Great Lakes and adjacent waters of the nasty invasive species. Sea lamprey are parasitic fish native to the Atlantic Ocean that invaded the Great Lakes via shipping canals in the early 1900s. They attach to fish with a suction-cup mouth lined with sharp teeth, feed on their body fluids, killing up to 40 pounds of fish during their parasitic phase. Many Great Lakes anglers can ruefully ...