Beetlemania
Author, teacher and bioregionalist, Stephanie Mills offers readers another in her series of essays on natural resource experts and their work in Northern Michigan. In
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Managing Resources
Citizens rely on nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies to discover, research and respond to changes in the natural resources of Northwest Lower Michigan. In fact, there are dozens of nonprofit groups across the region dedicated to measuring, assessing, limiting and managing the impacts of development, invasive species, climate change and climate variability. The region’s land conservancies, watershed groups, conservation districts, hunting and fishing organizations and many others are playing critical roles in preserving our natural resources and preparing for what comes next.
These short multimedia stories explore some of the many ways public organizations are working to retain the regions abundant natural resources while helping to add resilience against the adverse impacts caused by invasive pests and diseases, development and disruptive climate changes.
The stories in this section answer the question: What are our nonprofit and public organizations doing to conserve, preserve and protect the natural resources, critical ecosystems and heritage landscapes of Northwest Lower Michigan?
Preparing for Wildfire in Leelanau County
In this brief video, District Forester Kama Ross pays a visit to the Cedar Area Fire and Rescue Department in Leelanau County for
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Water & The Public Trust
This new video was submitted by FLOW – For Love of Water to help explain how the public trust doctrine applies to water.
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Local Governments Combating Invaders
The following article was submitted by Katie Grzesiak, Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network to help inform Nature Change readers about local government efforts
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Carbon Capture in Forest Soils
In this short video, forest ecology researcher Dr. Luke Nave (University of Michigan Biological Station) describes recently completed research to quantify the amount
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Stopping a Tree Killer – The Race to Control Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Up and down the west side of Lower Michigan, small armies of natural resource professionals and conservation volunteers are scouring the woods and
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New Chestnut Trees for Northern Michigan
In this video (click above), we hear about efforts by researchers working on combating tree diseases, including the American Chestnut blight. Researchers at
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Keeping the Count – Richard Couse, Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch
In this short video, we meet Richard Couse, the new Executive Director of the Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch (MSRW). An avid birder and
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Viewers’ Choice 2018
Fish and goats, boats and butterflies, rivers and snails are all topics of the most viewed Nature Change stories published in 2018. With
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A Conversation with Forest Ecologist Marvin Roberson
As the Forest Policy Specialist for the Sierra Club – Michigan Chapter, Marvin Roberson has long advocated for management practices that assure greater
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Enhanced Migration of Trees – Climate Adaptation on Tribal Forest Lands
This fall, Nature Change visited the Little Traverse Bay Bands (LTBB) of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs. We were there to ask about
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Managing Change at the Little Traverse Conservancy
The new Executive Director at the Little Traverse Conservancy (LTC), Kieran Fleming has grown into this position from within the organization. With a
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The Changing River – Delta Formation at the Mouth of the Boardman River
As shown in a recent Nature Change mini-documentary (Bringing Down Sabin), Sabin is the last of three dams to be removed from the
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Stewardship and the Sixth Great Lake
In this essay, author and environmental policy specialist Dave Dempsey reflects on the importance and vulnerability of Michigan’s groundwater . For generations, schoolchildren
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Wetland Wild Lands – Protecting a Biodiversity Hotspot
Where can you find dragon’s mouth lady slipper, yellow lady slipper, showy lady slipper, purple fringed orchid, rose pogonia orchid, pitcher plants, sundews
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Bringing Down Sabin – Another Step in Restoring the Boardman River
Excavator and bulldozer operators are working long hours together with truck drivers and engineering and safety teams to finally bring down the Sabin
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A Monarch Killer Comes to Kingsley
This story begins with monarch butterflies. In their larval stage – as caterpillars – these much beloved, colorful creatures rely on milkweed as
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Rivers of Snails
The on-going restoration of Boardman River to its natural, pre-industrial condition has been good news to trout fishermen, kayakers, canoeists and river-lovers of
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The Once and Future Northern Forests
In this photo essay, we join author, teacher and bioregionalist, Stephanie Mills on a visit to Houghton to meet Stephen Handler, a Climate Change Specialist based
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Collecting the Evidence of Change
Over the last 30 years, invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels and the round goby have rapidly and completely changed the water
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The River Restorer
From the time of European settlement in the 1800s, Michigan’s rivers have been dammed, channelized, and pinched by road crossings. Often heating up
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Kids’ Work – Conservation Grazing with Baby Goats
This spring, Nature Change returned to Leelanau Conservancy‘s Clay Cliffs Preserve to find out how such incredibly cute baby goats could be part
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Grabbing the Thistle
Author, teacher and bioregionalist, Stephanie Mills offers our readers another in her series of essays on natural resource experts and their work in Northwest Lower
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The Fate of the Lower Boardman River
Is the Lower Boardman River being choked with development? Can it handle the stormwater pouring off urban areas throughout the Traverse City Area?
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