6:23
To hold the line, people like Kara Ermatinger and Grant Trukowski spend their winter walking. And walking. Up and down dunes, dodging melting snow and ice puddles.
“This week has been pretty nice though with the warming up, says Trukowksi. We’re not really trudging through snow, but still kind of battling the elements and the wind especially the last few days.”
Trukowski and Ermatinger work for the Mason-Lake Conservation District. Their full-time job from December through March is looking for the hemlock woolly adelgid or HWA.
The invasive bug from Japan can kill a tree within four years. It does this by sucking nutrients from the host tree.
Credit Dan Wanschura / Interlochen Public Radio
The inflatable sculptures are scattered throughout the museum ― some even hang from the ceiling. They re part of a new art exhibit at the Dennos called Blow Up II: Inflatable Contemporary Art. It’s a bright, colorful mix of very large-scale sculpture that makes a little noise because of the fans involved in keeping them inflated,” says Jason Dake, curator of education at the Dennos Museum Center.
“It’s something fun and different that we wanted to bring for part of our 30th anniversary year here at the museum,” he says. Untitled (Flamingos only hang by the pool) by artist Susan Lee-Chun.
7:10
IPR s Dan Wanschura talks with Michigan DNR Conservation Officer Matt Theunick about finding the men who poached three elk in the Pigeon River Country in 2019.
Blood stains the snow where an elk was poached in the Pigeon River State Forest in 2019.
Credit Dan Wanschura
Christian White, 29, of Gaylord, Harry White, 70, and Ronald White, 56, both of West Branch, have all been charged for illegally shooting three cow elk east of Vanderbilt in December 2019.
The relatives pled not guilty during their arraignment Monday in the Otsego County District Court. They face a total of eight charges of wildlife crimes.
“I think they made a massive mistake, and they made the choice to not report that mistake to the DNR,” says Conservation Officer Matt Theunick.