Category Archives: Alumni

       
 

Wildfires are changing and the way we report on them should change too, says experts

By Clara Lincolnhol

Clara Lincolnhol

This is the 5h in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

Urban wildfires differ from those that burn through remote forests, and forest management won’t stop them from happening, fire ecologists at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference said.

Fire historian and author Stephen Pyne says we’re dealing with a fire crisis. There’s too much bad fire, too much combustion and not enough good fire, he says.

“We have broken the serial ice ages of the Pleistocene and transformed a minor interglacial into a fire epoch — what I call the Pyrocene,” Pyne said.

The major culprit for increased “bad fires” is human fossil fuel combustion which contributes to climate change and makes wildfires more intense, he said.

Thinning forests is a way to prevent out-of-control fires, but those treatments are rarely done near communities and structures, rendering them unhelpful to deal with the problem of urban wildfires, said Dominick DellaSala, the chief scientist at Wild Heritage, a forestry organization.

These methods are called “fuel treatments” because they attempt to eliminate natural overgrowth and an abundance of kindling materials that fires use to grow and spread.

Thinning and logging can also create problems and contribute to the problem of “bad fires” since deforestation releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Brian Kittler, the chief program officer of American Forests, says building fire-resilient communities requires preparing the communities and not just the forests nearby.

Updating zoning laws, infrastructure, using ignition-resistant materials while building and having defensible space around one’s property are more effective than “fuel treatments,” he said. Continue reading

Knight Center partners team up to report on threats to Great Lakes whitefish

Clara Lincolnhol

Environmental journalism intern Clara Lincolnhol of WKAR radio and environmental journalist Kelly House of Bridge Michigan recently discussed threats to Great Lakes whitefish populations in a public radio broadcast.

Lincolnhol’s internship is underwritten by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. House, a Knight Center alum, reports for Bridge Michigan, which partners with the Knight Center as part of the Mott Foundation’s Great Lakes News Collaborative.

Here are the highlights and a transcript of Lincolnhol’s interview with House.

Great Lakes whitefish populations could soon disappear for good

By Clara Lincolnhol

Whitefish are a beloved and iconic Michigan species that have been a staple of the state’s cuisine for centuries.

But their numbers have dwindled drastically recently leaving some worried that the fish will no longer populate the lower Great Lakes.

Kelly House

WKAR’s Clara Lincolnhol spoke with Bridge Michigan reporter Kelly House who recently reported on why the fish population is declining and whitefish’s cultural and economic significance to Michiganders.

Interview Highlights

On how invasive quagga mussels are threatening whitefish

Scientists have been responding to the threat by trying to find some way to suppress mussel populations in the Great Lakes. They now cover essentially every inch of the lakebed, and the problem is that they’re filter feeders, and they have filtered away the plankton and nutrients that other species in the Great Lakes really rely upon for food. So, these baby whitefish are born. The only thing they eat in their first days of life is phytoplankton, and those plankton are now nowhere to be found, so these babies are essentially starving to death before they ever have the opportunity to grow.

Photo Credit: Michigan Sea Grant

On the future of whitefish in parts of the Great Lakes Continue reading

Knight Center alum investigates toxic plume in Ann Arbor

Elinor Epperson

What began as a professional project at Michigan State has turned into a feature project at Michigan Public radio.

Elinor Epperson spent 18 months researching, writing, fact-checking and editing a series of threelongform articles about the Gelman plume, an area of groundwater contamination under Ann Arbor that is several decades old.

The contamination comes from the disposal of industrial wastewater disposal by Gelman Sciences, a one-time medical filter manufacturer.

She also wrote a reporter’s notebook and appeared on the Stateside podcast to provide a more condensed version of the project.

Epperson earned her master’s degree in journalism from the MSU School of Journalism in fall 2024 and still works at the station as an intern.

Remembering Madison Hall

Madison Hall poses for a photo in front of mountains in Polynesia.

Madison Hall poses for a photo in front of mountains in Polynesia.

Madison Hall, a Knight Center alum who changed careers from the world of finance to the environmental world, died on New Year’s Day at age 66.

Madison earned a master’s degree in environmental journalism in 2007, then stayed at MSU for doctoral studies in Fisheries & Wildlife.

Madison’s Knight Center friend and classmate, Hannah Northey, said, “For the past few years, Madison Hall traversed the globe giving science- and environment-focused lectures aboard cruise ships. Madison’s genuine love for the natural world came through these presentations to rave reviews. No matter the destination, Madison enthusiastically shared in-depth knowledge on topics ranging from glaciers in Alaska to marine life in Australia.”