Category Archives: Students

 
Journalism and non-journalism students at Michigan State University explore how to better report environmental issues to the public at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
 

Environmental journalism courses can help students meet the School of Journalism’s elective requirements. They can also be used as part of an environmental theme to complete the school’s concentration requirement by combining them with environment-related courses outside the journalism program. See your academic adviser or contact the Knight Center.
 
Non-journalism students interested in environmental issues are encouraged to contact instructors to discuss waiver of pre-requisites. Often a journalism environmental course may meet communication course requirements of other departments.
 

 
Undergraduates are also encouraged to join the student Environmental Journalism Association and write for Great Lakes Echo to gain resume-building experience and clips.
 
Undergraduate students are eligible for several awards and scholarships in environmental journalism.
 
They are encouraged to augment their study with environment classes and programs elsewhere at MSU such as the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment.
 
 

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

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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

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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.

From plagues to dinner platters?

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This is the 4th in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Julia Belden

Julia Belden

Journalism – environmental and science journalism in particular – demands from its practitioners a curiosity that often lands one in unusual places.

Out of a myriad of mini-tour options at the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Tempe, Arizona, I chose to visit the laboratory facilities of the Global Locust Initiative.

Apparently, attracting conference attendees to visit a basement lab full of locusts was a tough sell.

Of the hundreds of environmental journalists swarming Arizona State University’s campus for the week, I was the only one to attend this insect-themed tour.

It’s a shame, really. Despite their abundance, variety, and ecological and economic importance, insects rarely inspire thoughtful, nuanced press coverage.

Locust meet & greet: a dream for an animal nerd like me!

Here in the United States, most people are familiar with locusts only in Biblical terms. (Fun fact: it’s thought that the Moroccan locust, Dociostaurus maroccanus, is responsible for the swarms depicted in the Old Testament.)

But in the Global South, locusts swarms can cause catastrophic damage to agriculture – so much so that in 2019-21 desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) swarms landed on a United Nations list of global disasters.

“Locusts don’t attack people directly, they don’t spread disease. The thing that makes them incredibly dangerous is their voracious appetites,” research scientist Rick Overton tells me as we prepare to enter the lab.

Along with ASU professor Arianne Cease, Overton co-directs the Global Locust Initiative, leading a team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers and collaborating with stakeholders from 40 countries to develop strategies for locust management.

“We affectionately call it ‘Hoppertown,’” Overton says of the laboratory, which is home to tens of thousands of locusts, representing three to six species from around the world, depending on research needs.

The lab adheres to strict standards set out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). Continue reading →

‘No Desecration for Recreation’: Indigenous nations speak out against corporate pollution

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This is the 3rd in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Mia Litzenberg

Mia Litzenberg

When most people flush the toilet, the thought of where wastewater ends up goes down the drain.

At the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort, treated wastewater is used to create artificial snow that blankets the San Francisco Peaks – a sacred mountain to over a dozen Indigenous tribes.

“I was out here inspecting the area one time and some family with some kids were out here, and they were eating the snow,” said Diné activist Shawn Mulford.

Mulford said the parents had not noticed the sign saying the resort was using reclaimed wastewater that should not be drunk. Since the incident, Mulford said the sign was moved away from the entrance even further down the hillside.

An empty ski lift at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort in April. Credit: Mia Litzenberg

Although the resort uses Grade A+ reclaimed water to make its snow, it does not pass drinking water standards.

The Indigenous tribes who have stewarded the sacred mountain, called Dookʼoʼoosłííd in Navajo, have harvested medicinal plants and held religious ceremonies there for thousands of years.

“My elders have been telling me ‘You can’t go harvest on the peaks anymore,’” said Ka-Voka Jackson from the Hualapai tribe. “We don’t know what’s in those plants – the drugs, the chemicals, hormones. Birth control is a big one that’s not something they can filter out or that they do.”

The San Francisco Peaks of Arizona. Credit: Mia Litzenberg

The Rio de Flag Wastewater Treatment Plant that supplies reclaimed water to Snowbowl does not have the technology to remove contaminants of emerging concern, according to the facility’s staff. These include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and PFAS, which are all classified as endocrine-disrupting compounds for their damaging effect on organisms.

In the 2008 Supreme Court case Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service, the court ruled that “there are no plants, springs, natural resources, shrines with religious significance or religious ceremonies that would be physically affected by the use of such artificial snow.” Continue reading →