Restoring the Pine River
This past summer (2021), the sounds of trucks, bobcats and excavators echoed down from the high bluffs above the Pine River in Northwest [...]
TagWater Quality
Managing High Water: Part Two – Restoring Natural Lakeshores
Limnologist Ralph Bednarz moved to his new home on Rennie Lake in Grand Traverse County just a couple of years ago and already [...]
Managing High Water Impacts on Inland Lakes: Part One – Private Well & Septic Systems
The National Weather Service says we are in one of Michigan’s wettest periods in modern history. We see it in the record breaking [...]
Earth Day 2020 – The Unimaginable
In this essay, author and environmental policy specialist Dave Dempsey reflects on the challenges humans face today, fifty years after the first Earth [...]
Michigan Septic Summit – Protecting Fresh Water from Septic System Pollution
PLEASE JOIN US! This fall, Nature Change is joining with FLOW – For Love of Water, League of Women Voters of Leelanau County, [...]
Witness: Dave Dempsey, Great Lakes & Water Policy Expert
Currently a senior policy specialist for FLOW – For Love of Water, Dave Dempsey has worked in and out of government as an [...]
Flushing the Future – The Challenge of Failing Septic Systems
What risks do failing-septic systems pose to the health of people and the environment? How do we know if septic wastes are ending [...]
Witness: Rob Karner, Watershed Biologist, Glen Lakes Watershed
A freshwater biologist and educator, Rob Karner has helped to care for the Glen Lake Watershed in Leelanau County since 1977. A retired [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
The Young Documentarians – Investigating the Changes in Our Environment
Recently, eleven of our region’s natural resources experts took turns in the hot seat, responding to questions posed by 8th grade science students [...]
Why It’s Time to Clean, Drain & Dry
The clean, clear beauty of Northern Michigan’s lakes and streams are threatened. Non-native plants and animals invading our waters can change water quality [...]
Nature Change Heros: Volunteer Conservationists
In this essay, Nature Change Editor, Joe VanderMeulen reflects on the heros among us. If you love fishing, bird watching, walking in the [...]
Controlling the Spread of Aquatic Invaders
All summer long and into the fall, Jane Perrino and two dozen volunteers have been setting up a portable boat washer and an information [...]
Monitoring Change in the Waters of Leelanau
Change is inevitable. But some changes in the region’s natural resources are caused and accelerated by human activities. In these cases, informed people can make [...]
Improving Tree Canopy for Climate Resilience
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay is sharing some good news. Mature trees can play an important role in controlling and limiting stormwater [...]
Moving to the Land of Milliken – The Values of Place
Submitted by Dave Dempsey, this essay starts with a critical question. How important is place? To Michigan’s longest serving governor, Traverse City’s own [...]
The Future of Nature: Panel Discussion
Climate change, climate variability and invasive species threaten the future of natural resources in Northwest Lower Michigan. Changes in rainfall patterns and increased [...]
Two Writers & The River – A Conversation with Jerry Dennis & Michael Delp
[Update July 1, 2016: We have uploaded a 30-minute version of this conversation. Access is available below.] Avid outdoors men, Jerry Dennis and [...]
Improving Road-Stream Crossings: Better Habitat & More Resilient Rivers
Maybe you’ve noticed them driving county and local roads, the culverts and little bridges passing a stream under the roadway. And maybe you’ve [...]
Grand Traverse Baykeeper: Advocating for Clean Water
The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay joined the Waterkeeper Alliance in 2002, hiring John Nelson as their first Baykeeper. As a Navy veteran and [...]
Managing Resources: The Re-Wilding of Bowens Creek
The Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) began a project to restore the aquatic habitat of Bowens Creek in 2010 under a partnership with [...]