By developing renewable energy on abandoned or underused industrial sites, Michigan could create 17,500 jobs and bring $15 billion in new investments to the state, all while creating enough electricity to power nearly half the state’s homes, according to a new report from MSU’s Land Policy Institute.

The roughly 44,000 acres of so-called brownfields where wind and solar power could be harvested offer “a prime opportunity to expand Michigan’s renewable energy capacity,” said LPI Director Soji Adelaja.

Converting the brownfields could help the state meet the target set last year of meeting 10 percent of its energy needs with renewables and increased efficiency by 2015.

-Andy McGlashen

ESPP affiliate Michael Nelson will give a talk and signing of The Wilderness Debate Rages On, a volume he co-edited with J. Baird Callicott of the University of North Texas.  He’ll be at Schuler Books and Music in the Meridian Mall (note - not the Eastwood store) on Tuesday the 27th at 7:30 p.m.  My apologies for not announcing the event sooner, but I just learned about it myself.

Nelson is jointly appointed by Lyman Briggs College and Fisheries and Wildlife, and teaches philosophy and environmental ethics.  It promises to be an enlightening talk from a friendly and engaging speaker.  And I finally returned the book to the MSU library, so it may at last be available for checkout - though it’s certain to disappear again soon after tomorrow night’s event.

-Andy McGlashen

The Natural Resources Defense Council recently added to its Web site a neat feature called Picturing Smart Growth. The page uses manipulated photos of cities in the U.S. to show how they could be wisely developed to create healthy, walkable and economically robust communities. It’s an impressive site, and a strong shot of optimism for the future of our towns. Be sure to check out their scenario for a revitalized riverfront in Lansing.

In related news, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on Thursday launched its Low Impact Development Manual for Michigan. For the sake of our forests, it’s best to view the manual online; at 512 pages, it’s something of a behemoth. But inside you’ll find maps from MSU’s Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Sciences and a citizens’ introduction to MSU Extension. The Green Roof Research Program is among the references.

OK, I admit it, I read the abstract, looked at some photos and that was about it. But for those with more than a passing interest in soils, streambank erosion or stormwater management, the manual is definitely worth a look.

-Andy McGlashen

MSU ecologist Bruce Robertson was featured on The Environment Report recently for his research on insects, though the story failed to mention that he’s a Spartan.  Not surprising, since the show’s studios are in Ann Arbor.  We won’t let it - ahem - bug us too much, since UPI, the Philadelphia Inquirer and others also ran stories on the research.

Robertson and fellow researchers from Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest found that polarized light reflected from man-made structures often confuses insects.  Dragonflies, beetles and other bugs lay their eggs on asphalt, vehicles, buildings or other surfaces, mistaking them for water.  Such insects are key players in their native ecosystems, and whole food chains are affected by dips in their populations.

The findings were published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Robertson said people can control the problem by, for instance, putting white curtains on dark windows or making white markings on asphalt.  So don’t worry, there’s no need to outfit all those bugs with tiny polarized sunglasses.

-Andy McGlashen

Well, not quite.

But yesterday, while performing my final e-mail check of the Bush Era, I found a link to this story from the BBC about researchers who used a synthetic male sea lamprey pheromone to lure ovulating females into traps. I was happily surprised to find that an MSU associate professor - Weiming Li of Fisheries and Wildlife - led the project, with help from assistant professor Sang-Seon Yun and graduate students Nicholas Johnson, Henry T. Thompson and Cory Brant.

The so-called “vampire fish” were accidentally introduced into the Great Lakes in the late 1800s, the BBC said (though the Great Lakes Fishery Commission says it was in the early 1900s). They latch their sharp teeth onto trout, salmon and other species, and suck out their bodily fluids, often killing the host fish. Lampreys are not only disgusting*, but costly too: they’ve already caused the extinction of three species of whitefish, and it takes about $20 million per year to keep them from destroying outright the lakes’ valuable sport fishery. The researchers said the synthetic pheromone could be a valuable weapon in the fight to eradicate the eel-like intruders.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While Li and his fellow researchers are not affiliated with ESPP, we see GreenBoard as a venue for any MSU-related (or not) environmental work that catches our eye.

* OK, we know, all living things are wonderful in their own way, and we only think they’re repulsive because we don’t know them well enough. But have you seen these slimy nightmares? Ick.

-Andy McGlashen