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State to install firewood quarantine starting Jan. 1

The problem with invasive species in Michigan has reached a point where the state is taking what it calls “the next step” to stem the spread: A quarantine on untreated firewood. Starting Jan. 1, such firewood cannot be brought in from outside Michigan under Act 189 of 1931 — The Insect Pest and Plant Disease Act, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Michigan Invasive Species Program announced Thursday. The quarantine will not apply to firewood that has been properly heat-treated and certified by MDARD, another state agriculture department or the ...

Marshfield Clinic Research Institute wants your ticks

With weather turning cooler as fall approaches, it might be expected the threat of ticks would start to diminish. No such luck, apparently. Marshfield Clinic Research Institute research has shown an autumn surge of deer ticks, which transmit Lyme and other diseases. With people outdoors taking in the fall foliage, hunting or perhaps doing pick-your-own of the year’s farm produce, that means being tick aware and taking preventive measures. But the institute has another request: If a tick turns up (hopefully not attached), don’t throw it away or otherwise dispose of it. They want ...

Adopt-A-Highway fall cleanup to begin Saturday, last of 2026

Adopt-A-Highway volunteers will take to the roadsides again starting Saturday through Sept. 27 for the third and final scheduled litter collection of 2026. Adopt-A-Highway is a Michigan Department of Transportation program designed to help keep the state’s highway roadsides clean and attractive. Participants adopt both sides of a section of state highway roadside to tend for at least a two-year period. A minimum 2-mile stretch of roadway is recommended. For the safety of all, motorists should watch for these volunteers, who wear high-visibility, yellow-green vests required by federal ...