environment

Under the agreement with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, nearly 500 acres will be permanently protected and the YMCA Hayo-Went-Ha Camps will gain millions to put toward needed maintenance of its historic facilities.

Maple season is in full swing here at Hidden Acres Sugar Bush in Gaylord, a business run by Jennifer RiChard and her husband. But it wasn’t so long ago that none of this seemed possible. A look at how the sugar bush is recovering a year after an ice storm devastated tens of millions of trees across northern Michigan, including many sugar maples.

There's been a fivefold expansion of seawalls, riprap and other coastal armoring, which protects properties from erosion but makes things worse in the long run.

Cigarette butts are one of the most common kind of plastic pollution found on Great Lakes beaches.

The programs focus on environmental education. In some communities, they are one of very few afternoon and summer childcare options.

The Traverse City nonprofit runs programs in schools that often don't have other free summer or after-school options.

The meeting comes after controversy over the practice of land applying septic system waste as a type of fertilizer.

Waste from the energy-producing digester was at the center of the disagreement.

One scientist thinks the next two decades could bring a higher risk for more frequent, severe freezing rain events.

The complaint says the proposed expansion will, “result in various pollutants raining down on the headwaters of the Au Sable, one of the most famous trout streams in the United States.”