Ellie Katz

Michigan

Environment Reporter at WICA-FM (Traverse City, MI)

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Articles

Grow & Tell: Trellising Tomatoes with Twine

2 weeks ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Dylan Kulik |Ellie Katz

Grow & Tell is IPR’s biweekly gardening segment to guide you through the growing season. In each episode, I’ll walk you through gardening tasks tailored for northern Michigan’s climate and soils — whether you're working with raised beds or patio pots. Have gardening questions you want Grow & Tell to answer? Email me at [email protected]. We’re out in the garden today with our Jasper cherry tomatoes.
The bait debate

3 weeks ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Ed Ronco |Ellie Katz

Just one story for you this week, and it's about deer, money and big piles of carrots. Or apples. Or whatever else deer are interested in eating. Since 2018, it has been illegal for hunters in the Lower Peninsula to put out bait for deer. You know: a pile of carrots or something. There are people who think the ban is really important to stop the spread of disease. And others who think it doesn’t make sense, for a few reasons.
Residents to hold meeting on Leelanau County sewage application

3 weeks ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Ellie Katz

A Leelanau County group concerned about sewage being used as fertilizer is holding a meeting on the issue Wednesday evening in Cedar. The meeting, hosted by the newly formed Leelanau Citizens for Sewage Safety, comes after controversy over septage, or waste from septic tanks, being injected into farm nearby fields. In 2024, a farm in Centerville Township began land applying septage waste as a fertilizer for crops — an accepted agricultural practice that's regulated by state and county agencies.
Grow & Tell: Direct Seeding

4 weeks ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Dylan Kulik |Ellie Katz

Got gardening questions you want Grow & Tell to answer? Email me at [email protected]. Welcome back to Grow & Tell, IPR's biweekly guide to gardening with the seasons. Today we’re getting our hands in the dirt. It’s time to direct seed. It’s late May, the sun is out, and the soil is finally warm — perfect conditions to sow seeds directly into the garden, also known as direct seeding.
Will DNR budge on baiting to get higher license fees? Some think so.

1 month ago | radio.wcmu.org | Ellie Katz

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Project, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan. This time of year, Jim Sweeney's food plot in Leelanau County doesn't look like much. It's a small field with some sparse grasses and a deer blind off to the side. But, come fall, it'll be a different story. "(It's) like a lush lawn," Sweeney said. Sweeney mostly plants clover, beets and turnips these days.
Will the DNR budge on baiting to get higher license fees? Some think so

1 month ago | bridgemi.com | Ellie Katz

Chronic wasting disease has been found in 14 Lower Peninsula counties and one Upper Peninsula countyDeer baiting has been banned in the Lower Peninsula since 2018 in an effort to prevent the spread of the diseaseSome lawmakers think they can now negotiate lifting the baiting ban because the DNR needs money This time of year, Jim Sweeney’s food plot in Leelanau County doesn’t look like much. It’s a small field with some sparse grasses and a deer blind off to the side.
Will DNR budge on baiting to get higher license fees? Some think so.

1 month ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Ellie Katz

This time of year, Jim Sweeney’s food plot in Leelanau County doesn’t look like much. It’s a small field with some sparse grasses and a deer blind off to the side. This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Project, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan. But, come fall, it’ll be a different story. “(It’s) like a lush lawn,” Sweeney said. Sweeney mostly plants clover, beets and turnips these days.
Grow & Tell: Planting Tomatoes That Thrive

1 month ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Dylan Kulik |Ellie Katz

Got gardening questions you want Grow & Tell to answer? Email me at [email protected]. Grow & Tell is IPR’s biweekly gardening segment to guide you through the growing season. In each episode, I’ll walk you through gardening tasks that are perfect for northern Michigan’s climate — from your backyard to your balcony. Today’s tip: Plant deep for stronger, sweeter tomatoesEarlier this spring, we started tomatoes from seed.
Four years later, a sturgeon returns to the Boardman-Ottaway River

1 month ago | radio.wcmu.org | Ellie Katz

So when biologists with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians found a lake sturgeon in the Boardman-Ottaway River in 2021, they tagged it. In the last four years, the female sturgeon has mostly stayed in East and West Grand Traverse Bay, occasionally venturing up to Little Traverse Bay. "But it was this spring that we actually had the first detection of her at the DNR weir.
Four years later, a sturgeon returns to the Boardman-Ottaway River

1 month ago | interlochenpublicradio.org | Ellie Katz

So when biologists with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians found a lake sturgeon in the Boardman-Ottaway River in 2021, they tagged it. In the last four years, the female sturgeon has mostly stayed in East and West Grand Traverse Bay, occasionally venturing up to Little Traverse Bay. “But it was this spring that we actually had the first detection of her at the DNR weir.