I've never considered myself an environmentalist.

Part of that comes from being a journalist. We think of ourselves as impartial chroniclers of events.

But as I talk to people active in environmental issues, I see my actions tell another story. At our house, we recycle newspapers, tin and plastic. A couple years ago we built a compost bin out of scrap lumber, some of which I pilfered from a neighbor's trash. We've taken an eco-tourism vacation, we're getting veggies this summer from a local farmer, we try to walk and ride our bikes as much as feasible. Our cars, while not hybrids, are still pretty fuel-efficient.

But an environmentalist? I guess it all comes down to how you define it.

If you think of an environmentalist as someone who rattles the cages of power, that's not me. But if those who care deeply about our natural world are environmentalists, count me - and millions of others - in.

In this summer edition of Green MI, you'll meet many who fit this definition. I'm sure you know others who are taking our environment seriously. We hope you'll share some of those names with us as we look ahead to our fall Green MI publication, coming in October.

Rick Fitzgerald
The Ann Arbor News
rfitzgerald@annarbornews.com
810-844-2004

The publication you are holding in your hands was printed primarily on newsprint made from yesterday's newspaper.

The brighter newsprint used for the cover of Green MI was made at a "manufactured carbon neutral" newsprint mill in British Columbia, Canada. The rest of the paper used in the section is 100 percent recycled newsprint, made from old newspapers and magazines at a mill in Ontario.

The cover stock is made by the Catalyst Paper Corp., a company that has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent since 1990. The company says it has been able to achieve that primarily by switching from using fossil fuels in its plants to using biomass fuels (sawmill leftovers).

The company is able to achieve its carbon-neutral manufacturing process by making a number of other fuel-efficient changes and through the purchase of carbon offsets, or paying for emission reductions elsewhere.

The bulk of the paper used for this publication comes from the Atlantic Newsprint Co., which earlier this year was awarded Forest Stewardship Council certification for its 100 percent recycled newsprint, making the company the first to get such certification.

Alan Warren, The Ann Arbor NewsA rower makes use of the pond above Argo Dam on the Huron River in the city of Ann Arbor during a workout last month. City officials are considering removing the dam.

It's been almost 50 years since the Argo Dam has served its original purpose of providing hydro power.

Now, many environmentalists find it an obstacle to improving the Huron River, an obsolete structure built to serve grist and flour mills that have long since disappeared.

There are 98 dams on the 136-mile trek of the Huron River from Oakland County to Lake Erie, four of which are owned by the city of Ann Arbor. The Barton and Superior dams are hydroelectric dams that, combined, produce enough electricity to power 840 homes for a year. The Argo and Geddes dams no longer are used for energy production and are considered recreational dams because they create ponds that are popular for rowing and fishing.

Jim Jagdfeld, Special to The NewsVolunteers filled these boats junk pulled from the Huron River during the annual river cleanup day this spring in Livingston County's Hamburg Township.

BY JO COLLINS MATHIS

You turn on the faucet and water comes out.

But where did it come from?

That's something most people don't even think about, said Bethel Skinker, a district engineer with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Water Bureau.

Alan Warren, The Ann Arbor NewsMaster gardeners plant a green roof at the A3C Collaborative Architecture building in downtown Ann Arbor. The project will reduce water runoff from the roof and help to create a garden-like atmosphere for adjacent work spaces.

This spring, local master gardeners meticulously fitted trays of healthy sedums in shades of green, red and burgundy onto the roof of the A3C Collaborative Architecture offices in downtown Ann Arbor (on the Web at www.a3c.com).

A3C principal Dan Jacobs consulted with landscape architect William Knighton of Atwell-Hicks Inc. in Brighton to design a green-roof garden that would complement the firm's rooftop conference suite - a building on top of the building - completed last fall to serve as an urban retreat for staff and clients.

Lon HorwedelMike Suchomma, golf course superintendent at Tecumseh Country Club, and his dog Kodiak, on the fringe mower that Suchomma and one of the course mechanics converted from straight diesel to run on vegetable oil.

BY LISA ALLMENDINGER

Watch the video.

Golfers' noses at Tecumseh County Club are not deceiving them when a Toro mower goes by and it smells like something's cooking.

This spring, one of the course's mowers was converted to run on vegetable oil by Golf Superintendent Mike Suchomma and mechanic Andy Jacobs.

"This winter I was watching a science show on TV that focused on used vegetable oil as an alternative fuel source for diesel-fuel-burning machines," Suchomma says, which gave him the idea to try it.

Alan Warren, The Ann Arbor NewsPeter Baker with his Flymo Electrolux SH 400 push mower he uses to cut his small yard in Ann Arbor.

Listen to nonmotorized push-reel mower user Peter Baker, and you'll wonder why anyone would use a gasoline-powered mower.

"It's about as simple as it gets," Baker, 30, said. "It's a big, spinning blade that you push around over your grass. ... There's a whole lot of practical reasons beyond the environmental, feel-good reasons: They're cheap, there's nothing that can really break on it. All you have to do is sharpen and grease once in a while."

Need some guidance in your quest to go green?

Just updated this spring is the interactive CD called "Green Info Guide: A Toolbox for Environmental Best Management Practices in Washtenaw County." It was developed originally is 2006 by the Washtenaw County Department of Planning and Environment, in partnership with the Washtenaw County Consortium for Solid Waste Management.

The purpose of the CD is to provide the residents, academia, business owners and government agencies of Washtenaw County with practical information about local solid waste and recycling services as well as information on best management practices concerning household hazardous waste, yard waste and energy efficiency. The "Green Info Guide" is designed to include Web addresses and PDF files to accommodate both Web and non-Web, Mac and PC users.

Check this Web site (www.ewash tenaw.org/government/departments/planning_environment/dpw/green_info_guide) for the locations where you can pick up the new CD, or use the Web version of the guide there.

Leisa Thompson, The Ann Arbor NewsKiwanis Club members Jerry Hartweg, left, and Peter Schork carry a piece of furniture someone dropped off for the Kiwanis Club's rummage.

What you can lose, another person might use.

One person's junk is another person's treasure.

Such notions permeate the weekly rummage sale at the Kiwanis Activities Center in downtown Ann Arbor.

The Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor sells gently used donated merchandise every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, except around major holidays, from a building at the corner of First and Washington streets. There also is a special two-day Christmas sale.

BY RICK FITZGERALD

A couple of high school students pull up to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore off Jackson Road on the west side of Ann Arbor with a well-used cedar chest in the back of a pickup. ReStore manager Jackie Hermann shows them where to put it and gives them a receipt for their donation.

A few minutes later, a shopper in the store tracks down Hermann to get a price, and the trunk is on its way to a new home.

Rick Fitzgerald, The Ann Arbor NewsJackie Hermann, manages the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Scio Township, which has sold $300,000 in donated merchandise over the last 11 months to support Habitat projects in Washtenaw County.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials are flush with pride now that the first "green" campground toilet and shower is operational at Grand Haven State Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

The new building includes such energy-saving features as natural daylight, energy-efficient lighting with occupancy sensors, timer-controlled showers with on-demand water heaters and reduced water flow shower heads, toilets and urinals.

The building also includes solar panels to augment electricity used for the ventilation system and solar heating for part of the hot water used in the facility. The toilet and shower facility is the first of a design that will be used to replace similar buildings at state campgrounds.

The Grand Haven State Park project cost $750,000, which included demolition of the previous structure and utility upgrades. The state estimates the new design will reduce water consumption by about 40 percent.

JEFFREY CUNNINGHAM, THE MUSKEGON CHRONICLEThis new bathhouse at Grand Haven State Park is the first in the state to be "green" with low flow tiotets, timers on showers, solar panels to produce electricity and motion sensors on light switches.

The sprawling Muskegon River system in western Michigan is very healthy and supports one of state's best fisheries, but urban sprawl could harm water quality and increase flooding in the future, according to a new study.

Results of an eight-year study concluded that most of the 219-mile-long river -- and its numerous tributaries, wetlands and lakes - have good water quality, abundant fish and a wide range of other aquatic life.

By JUDY McGOVERN

It was a plan that took shape in an Ann Arbor living room close to 30 years ago.

"We wanted to make the watershed more noticeable in the community," said Eunice Burns who - with Shirley Axon - dreamed up a celebration of the Huron River. "We came up with the idea to get people down to river to see it and learn about it."

In this issue

Editor's note: Green is more than a phase

Video: Earthwork Music

Roots:

Plant green seed in kids

Green Tone: Injecting eco-message

For Ypsi nonprofit, gardens are an agent of change

Items find new life at area stores

Environmental issue: Invasive species

Environmental issue: Sustainable food system

Environmental issue: Electronic waste

Environmental issue: Watersheds

Advice:

The climate on global warming

New Green Info Guide ready

Feature: Serious business

Fashion: A perfect fit: Retailers stock eco-friendly fashions

Essay: What's so special about Earth Day 38?

Calendar: Save these eco-dates

Unless you've been living under a Styrofoam cup the last few years, you recognize why the time is ripe for a magazine such as this.

MCT News Service

Don't tell Jackson native Mitzi Cranmore one person can't help save the planet.

"I'm one person, and I just changed 650 kids' lives," says the mother of two and leader of EcoTribe, a group of students, parents and staff at Paragon Charter Academy invested in making the Jackson school green. When Cranmore discovered that 50 percent to 60 percent of the average school's waste is paper goods, she initiated buildingwide recycling. Integrating these and other sustainable habits is no longer solely about teaching Earth-friendly behavior, she says: Communities of the future will have have no choice but to live sustainably.

Erik Holladay / Jackson Citizen PatriotBrandon Foote, left, Kelly Pond, and Laura Bates of the band Bates and Foote perform their blend of old-time, folk, bluegrass and country at Nomad Bookhouse in Jackson.

For Earthwork Music member Susan Fawcett, her harmonica is far more likely to discourage the Yellow Dog River mine project than any rousing political speech.

The visible successes of Growing Hope, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit that helps people improve their lives and communities through gardening, dot Washtenaw County. Count them: 25 gardens, a farmer's market and — coming in summer 2009 — an environmentally friendly office site that will demonstrate organic gardening and sustainability to downtown passersby. But the organization has its sights set much higher than salad fixins.

By Lon Horwedel/The Ann Arbor NewsGary Urick, manager of the Reuse Center at Recycle Ann Arbor, sits among old golf bags and clubs at the center.

Decorating a home with other people's castoffs is getting easier — and trendier — all the time.

With a growing number of resale shops offering all kinds of home goods throughout the area, there is more choice than ever when it comes to recycled construction materials.

In addition to the Recycle Ann Arbor Reuse Center, which has been diverting kitchen cupboards, electric stoves, refrigerators and other appliances from the local landfills since 1997, there are now Habitat for Humanity ReStores in Ann Arbor, Jackson, Brighton and Adrian selling all kinds of building materials that someone no longer wants.

Who: The Dahlem Environmental Education Center in Jackson.

Issue to highlight: Invasive species (according to the Federal Executive Order, "an alien species — a plant, animal, insect, bacteria or fungi — whose introduction is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health").

Who: Michael Garfield, director, Ecology Center, a membership-based nonprofit in Ann Arbor.

Issue to highlight: There are plenty, but Garfield says creating a sustainable food system is an important goal.

Who: Steve Noble, president, Recycling Jackson.

Issue to highlight: E-waste (safely disposing of everything electronic, from whole computers to appliances to processors).

Who: Todd Zeller — This water enthusiast kayaks, canoes and seriously studies the water throughout Jackson County and beyond. A pipe-fitter by trade, he also is the Rivermaster for the GREAT, the Grand River Environmental Action Team, and a member of the Summit Township Zoning Board of Appeals.

Issue to highlight: Stormwater drainage (how water flows from impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete into area rivers) in the Upper Grand River Watershed.

MCT NEWS SERVICE

Think global warming is a hoax? Or just "the environmentalists' version of Y2K," as one skeptic put it? Maybe you just have your doubts.

We gathered some of the most popular and compelling arguments against the existence of climate change and global warming, then threw them to a panel of experts.

Need some guidance in your quest to go green?

Just updated is the interactive CD called "Green Info Guide: A Toolbox for Environmental Best Management Practices in Washtenaw County." It was developed originally is 2006 by the Washtenaw County Department of Planning and Environment, in partnership with the Washtenaw County Consortium for Solid Waste Management.

The purpose of the CD is to provide the residents, academia, business owners and government agencies of Washtenaw County with practical information about local solid waste and recycling services as well as information on best management practices concerning household hazardous waste, yard waste and energy efficiency.

The Green Info Guide is designed to include Web addresses and PDF files to accommodate both Web and non-Web, Mac and PC users.

Check the Department of Planning and Environment Web site for the locations where you can pick up the new CD, or use the Web version of the guide there.

Lon Horwedel / The Ann Arbor NewsHusband and wife team Daniel Little and Cecile Green pose in a Hiscock Street home in Ann Arbor, where Heart & Soul is helping build an addition using natural building materials. The walls, the sink, even the floor, all are made of local, non-toxic materials.

It's easy to say being environmentally minded and successful are no longer opposing ideas. But we wanted to prove it. So reporters from both newspapers scouted businesses in the region to identify which ones already have made changes with an eye on the Earth -- without losing focus on the bottom line. Our list is by no means comprehensive and the order is strictly random, but the investment each of these businesses has made in the planet is clear.

Heart & Soul, 1715 Chandler road, Ann Arbor

For husband and wife Daniel Little and Cecile Green, being environmentally friendly isn't just something they do along with their business. Being green is the core of their business.

"I don't think we'd be here without it," says Green, who with Little opened Heart & Soul, an ecological landscaping and natural building business in Ann Arbor eight years ago. "I'm really here to facilitate other people's conversion to a green way of life," she says.

By Eliyahu Gurfinkel/The Ann Arbor NewsNick White and Celeste Malvar show off eco-friendly items.

Pulling on a sporty-looking hooded shirt and some stretchy black yoga pants, Celeste Malvar's outfit looks worlds away from the stereotypical vision of environmentally friendly Birkenstocks.

April 26: Dance for the Earth benefit for the Ann Arbor Ecology Center's environmental health fund. Details: 734-761-3186 or on the Web at www.ecocenter.org