Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund: In 1976, Michigan created a conservation fund from oil, gas and mineral revenues; 50 years later it has awarded nearly $1.4 billion and is putting $6.5 million toward almost 22,650 Keweenaw acres

One of the biggest allocations is for the Keweenaw Peninsula (Photo: Michael George via The Nature Conservancy) Michigan has awarded nearly $1.4 billion for land protection and recreation projects across the state. The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund that was created in 1976, is also marking 50 years of a conservation fund that has used…

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In 1967, Emily Frew Oliver sold her family’s Wyoming dude ranch to Grand Teton National Park but kept a life estate; 39 years later she gave it up, ending her family’s 79-year stewardship of the historic ranch

Emily Frew Oliver and dudes on porch of Main Cabin. (Picture: History Jackson Hole) The 4 Lazy F Ranch sits on the west bank of the Snake River in Wyoming, just north of the Grand Teton National Park headquarters in Moose. Below the Teton Range, the ranch preserves a part of the area’s homestead and…

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New York City restaurants are saving 800 pounds of oyster shells from landfills every day and sending them to rebuild reefs, with 19 acres of reef habitat already restored | World News

New York City restaurants are giving discarded oyster shells a second life by keeping hundreds of pounds of them out of landfills every day and sending them to a project rebuilding oyster reefs across New York Harbor. The Billion Oyster Project collects more than 300,000 pounds of shells from participating restaurants each year, equivalent to…

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3 US Secret Service officials placed on leave amid potential misconduct probe

Members of the US Secret Service police. (AP Photo) Three US Secret Service officials have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct, with the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducting the probe.The officials were working in non-law enforcement roles, the Secret Service said, according to the Associated Press. The agency did…

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In 2018, Florida opened America’s first permanent underwater sculpture garden 58 feet below the Gulf; it has grown into a living reef where more than 100 species have been documented

According to its official website, the museum was a collaboration between the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County and the South Walton Artificial Reef Association in 2018. Imagine you are diving under the Gulf of Mexico and come upon what looks like a museum, only instead of galleries and polished floors, there is an unreal…

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Les Paul’s 7-acre New Jersey home, studio and workshop sold for $990,000 in July; weeks later the property where he pioneered multitrack recording was demolished, and his son says the family got no warning

A 1957 photo of Les and Mary with their collie (Image credit: Ben Martin/Getty Images via Guitar Player) The New Jersey home where legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul lived, worked and helped reshape modern music recording has been demolished, just weeks after the seven-acre Mahwah property was sold for $990,000. The loss drew particular…

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A Rhode Island woman bought her family’s coastal farm in 1908, spent decades painting and birdwatching there, then left the land to become a sanctuary that now protects 300 acres

Cerio began planning a bird sanctuary soon after buying Paradise Farm. (Newport History Society photo) Mabel Norman Cerio spent much of her life between art and nature at Paradise Farm in Middletown, Rhode Island. In 1908, she bought the coastal property from the estate of her brother after the death of her father. Decades later,…

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