Living Sustainably: On-going study looks at improving Lake Mac health

By Dan Callam ’09, ODC Network How can you tell if a lake is healthy? It’s not as simple as what’s in its water and on its shores. Lake Macatawa’s watershed – the area that drains into it – comprises most of the greater Holland/Zeeland area and is made up of neighborhoods, shopping and business districts, and …

Living Sustainably: Free trees can help cut energy use

A properly planted tree can help a homeowner save up to 20 percent on energy use. And Holland Board of Public Works residential electric customers can reserve a free tree this spring to strategically plant in their yards to save energy and lower utility bills.  From the Arbor Day Foundation, the Energy-Saving Trees program began in 2012, …

CONFRONTING A THREAT IN WEST MICHIGAN FORESTS (Hope College Spera Magazine)

KATHY WINNETT-MURRAY, PH.D. | PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY K. GREG MURRAY, PH.D. | T. ELLIOTT WEIER PROFESSOR OF PLANT SCIENCE VANESSA MUILENBURG, PH.D. | ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY Hemlock woolly adelgid, the invasive and destructive insect, which sucks the sap from North American hemlock trees and dooms many of them, has taken hold in the Hope …

FOR ALL OF GOD’S GOOD EARTH (Hope College Spera Magazine)

STEVE BOUMA-PREDIGER, PH.D. LEONARD AND MARJORIE MAAS PROFESSOR OF REFORMED THEOLOGY “A term like ‘earthkeeping’ is more biblical and simply refuses to accept the view that the natural world is a commodity to be used by humans who only manage its resources for our own ends,” he explains. “Being a keeper, in the biblical sense, …

Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution – Thursday, February 21

Please join the Macatawa Creation Care Group on Thursday, February 21 in Graves Hall for a film screening of “Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution.” Doors open at 5:45, and the film starts at 6:00. The film will be followed by a panel of representatives from the City Of Holland, Holland Board of Public Works, and …

Living Sustainably: It’s all about global “weirding”

By Sarah Irvin, Naturalist at DeGraaf Nature Center Climate is defined as the weather in a particular area over a large time period, which unveils patterns when recorded, allowing us to create models that mimic and make predictions. Unfortunately, climate trends will become increasingly more challenging to predict as temperatures and precipitation events shift; the phenomenon that we …

Living Sustainably: Session will tell about saving our lakes from runoff

By Kyle Hart and Matt Belanger, West Michigan Environmental Action Council The Great Lakes contain 20 percent of all available freshwater on the surface of the Earth, and stormwater pollution is the number one threat to the quality of that water. In February, the Living Sustainably Along the Lakeshore series will start off the year with a presentation …

Living Sustainably: New Park Passport encourages nature exploration with prizes

By Dan Callam ’09, Outdoor Discovery Center Macatawa Greenway Has your family been on an adventure recently? There’s no need to wait until spring break or for a road trip to a warm, far-off destination. Your local nature centers are encouraging families to explore spaces around them in 2019 by visiting nearby parks with their new Park Passport …

Hope College Student Research Presentations at MACC’s Annual Meeting

Hope College Student Research Presentations Holland Sentinel “Living Sustainably Column” Article. “Four groups of Hope College Advanced Environmental Seminar students presented the results of their semester long research projects on December 6 at the Macatawa Watershed Annual Meeting. All student groups focused on some aspect of heavy metals. Copies of their presentations are available here. The …

Living Sustainably: Elephants in the room – Plastic waste is a big issue

By Madison Ostrander ’18 and Eighth Day Farm Intern Try to picture just over 1 billion elephants roaming around. Maybe at first the elephants would be a fun novelty, but I’d be willing to bet after a short while we’d have had enough, with things getting dangerous and crowded. This bizarre scenario relates to the dilemma our …