Points North | Great Lakes. Great Stories.

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The Price of a Permit Apr 15, 2022

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On Lake Charlevoix, a landowner is seeking permits to build a controversial boathouse. But conflicts arise where public waters meet private property.

Presenting Outside/In: Why Antlers Are Freaking Amazing Apr 01, 2022

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This week we’re featuring an episode of Outside/In from New Hampshire Public Radio. It’s a podcast about the natural world and how we use it. Whether you grow them, collect them or grind them up and swallow them, antlers are one of the most astonishing sets of bones on the planet.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 7: Frankenfish Mar 25, 2022

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Lake trout are on life support in Lake Michigan.Every year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spends tens of millions of dollars raising and stocking them.But what if there was another way? Genetic engineering is advancing fast. Could it be used for conservation?

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 6: Damned If We Do, Damned If We Don’t Mar 18, 2022

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Over time, people have caused extensive damage to rivers by scouring their banks with logs, channelizing them through towns and cutting them up with dams. In the last 50 years, scientists have discovered removing dams can vastly improve conditions in rivers. But not all dams can come down. Sometimes they are our greatest protection against invasive species.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 5: Rekindling Wilderness Mar 11, 2022

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Most people think of the wilderness as a place untouched by humans, but that’s far from the truth. Evidence stored in tree rings in the Minnesota Boundary Waters affirms an oral history of Indigenous land management through controlled burns. Those intentional fires created one of the Great Lakes’ most popular wilderness destinations.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 4: 'Forest Of The Living Dead' Mar 04, 2022

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North Manitou Island is like a petri dish. It shows what happens when the deer exhaust a food supply, and all the young plants and greenery are eaten to a nub. It’s a cautionary tale about the entangled fates of whitetail deer and the forests they inhabit.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 3: What To Do With The 'Big Bad Wolf' Feb 25, 2022

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This month, gray wolves went back on the endangered species list. But it wasn’t because the population suddenly plummeted. It had more to do with an ongoing fight between stakeholders who have strong, opposing feelings about protecting wolves.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 2: Houses Built On Sand Feb 18, 2022

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There’s a long-term impact to armoring shoreline on the Great Lakes. And as it turns out, it actually exacerbates the erosion it’s meant to stop.

[Un]Natural Selection Ep. 1: A Necessary Weevil? Feb 11, 2022

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In the 1960s, scientists released a foreign insect to control invasive plants.But the plan backfired. The bugs are attacking a rare native plant in the sand dunes of the Upper Great Lakes.

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