Burbot, a native Great Lakes fish species, are slimy, big-mouthed bottom feeders. They’re also threatened in many parts of the world. They’ve recovered in the Great Lakes, but that could mean trouble for plans to restore lake trout.

Lansing, Mich. recently hosted a recycled art exhibit and fashion show. Purses created from recycled plastic bags and can tabs, sculptures made from chip bags and fast food cups, and a motorcycle created from washing machine parts lined the lobby of city hall. Watch the video

We took some of the best reader contributions to our carp bomb feature and assembled them into their own gallery. And yes, we realize that this invasive species is a serious threat to the Great Lakes. We also think it’s OK to lighten up once and awhile. So enjoy.

Flowering plants top a Michigan list of extremely rare species groups. Threats are as diverse as climate change and off-road vehicles.

Five Great Lakes cities made the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of metros with the most energy-efficient buildings. New York and Michigan lead the region with the most buildings with the Energy Star label.

Some Great Lakes power companies are looking to biomass to lower their carbon footprint while keeping the lights on. But critics are leery of cutting down forests to power refrigerators and say biomass is only carbon neutral in a political sense.

Outside Magazine this month tells outdoor travelers to ignore the obvious big name national parks and seek out the lesser used state parks, national lakeshores and recreation areas.
Only one of the nine public lands the magazine profiles is in the Great Lakes region – Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Here at Echo we find that a particularly unimaginative choice. Not that we don’t like Pictured Rocks – by all means get there if you haven’t been already. But it’s hardly an unknown destination, at least among regional outdoor lovers.
And it’s the …

The Red Cedar River adds beauty to Michigan State University’s East Lansing campus.

But it can also become polluted with trash as it runs runs through a campus of more than 47,000 students.

The university’s Fisheries and Wildlife club recently hosted a day where volunteers cleaned up the river. See video.

The number of Kirtland’s warblers recorded in the Great Lakes region in 2009 was the highest since a census of the birds began in 1951.

The rare bird faces challenges from climate change and funding for its protection.

It lives only in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario.

Does the name Elena Kagan ring a bell? For those following the legal wranglings of the Asian carp invasion, it should. Kagan, as President Barack Obama’s Solicitor General, argued against closing the Chicago locks to prevent the invasive carp from entering Lake Michigan.
She wrote that although allowing the carp to enter the Great Lakes would produce “grave and irreparable harm,” it was only “speculative” that the harm would occur “imminently.”
Now that Kagan has been nominated to the high court, environmental journalists across the spectrum are trying to fathom her stances …