Environment

With almost 300,000 off-road vehicles hitting northern Michigan trails every year, Michigan’s state forests are reaching a breaking point.

Researchers at University of Michigan say it's the most detailed survey of animal feeding operations across the country ever.

Cooler temperatures this week are giving Michiganders a break from air conditioning and a chance to pull out their fall sweatshirts. For birds, it’s migration time — with more than 3.6 million birds moving across the state last night.

After the great “moose lifts” in the 1980s, researchers were confident Michigan’s moose population would continue to grow, with a projection that the population could reach numbers in the thousands within 15 years. Researchers from DNR, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and Northern Michigan University are trying to discover why that hasn’t happened.

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

Extreme rainfall and reduced evaporation during the 2010s caused the Great Lakes to rise to record-breaking levels by 2020, swallowing up beaches and digging away at the dunes behind them, threatening waterfront homes like the Brickleys’ which is in Berrien County.

Wake boats are making big waves, and thus bigger clashes on Michigan’s inland lakes. Kalamazoo lawmaker proposes state limits.

A spokesperson says they didn't plant jack pine trees this year due to a "dormancy issue" with young trees. The trees are the only habitat where the Kirtland's Warbler can live.

Wildlife officials hope genetic tests will help reveal how invasive crayfish got to a state fish hatchery in Mattawan.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving to roll back rules on greenhouse gases and exempt oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and others from clean air regulations.