Environment

The Pointe Mouillee Waterfowl Festival is coming up, continuing a downriver tradition at a place known for its birds, its people, and decades of fun and entertainment.

A meteor that crashed through the atmosphere over the Great Lakes produced shockwaves before landing near Lake Huron. Canadian meteor hunters eventually tracked the space rocks to Cockburn Island.

Beavers are returning to Michigan and damming up the place. Oakland University came up with a clever solution that allows us to co-exist alongside them. Also on Brother Nature this week, space rocks in Lake Huron and the Pointe Mouillee Waterfowl Festival. 

As beavers return to their native habitat in Southeast Michigan, questions about how we co-exist alongside nature's engineers are growing. At Oakland University, a family of beavers have built a dam at Galloway Creek. Researchers came up with a solution to mitigate the worst of the flooding that comes with their presence. 

Deep in the Northern Michigan wild is a toilet that makes going to the bathroom while camping more pleasant than one might expect. And the science behind the toilet is just as cool. The National Park Service built the facility at Pictured Rocks campground.

Creek chubs, darters, and crayfish? For such low water levels, the tributaries of the Rouge River are teeming with life. The Friends of the Rouge nonprofit surveys dozens of locations along the river every year, creating a database of the kinds of fish they find and their abundance.

The Rouge River is teeming with life - you just have to look and the Friends of the Rouge spends its summers doing just that. Its fish surveys inform our knowledge of the system's water quality. Also on Brother Nature this week, ambush bugs, noisy cicadas, Pictured Rocks cool toilet.

The piping plover's return to the Great Lakes is a success story for the region. After the number of nesting pairs dwindled to less than 11, the species' numbers have rebounded, nearly reaching a hundred. 

The crown jewel of professional Disc Golf play returns to Kensington Metropark for the annual world championship tournament. Hundreds of players will take on the two courses, including the 18 holes at Toboggan. Also on Brother Nature, the restoration behind some of the holes. 

Randy Thomas is a Detroit-native and wildlife biologist who swims with sharks and gives audiences a rarely-seen vantage into the ocean's apex predators. Also on Brother Nature this week, the Great Lakes' underwater filmmakers who livestream their dives as well as a trip to Pictured Rocks.