-- To the state Department of Environmental Quality for funding two projects aimed at trying to trace ecological problems in Grand Traverse Bay. The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay received a $195,000 Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant to address elevated E. coli levels in the bay through source tracking, storm water testing and an informational campaign. Grand Valley State University Professor Richard Rediske got $60,000 to collect and test samples of Cladophora, a dense green algae believed to be a breeding ground for bacteria.
-- To hundreds of students from more than 30 northern Michigan schools whose works were displayed at the Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society regional competition at Mesick High School. Students competed in a variety of industrial technology fields, including woodworking, metal fabrication, computer-aided drafting, architecture and graphic arts. Works included everything from a powered wood splitter to fine furniture. First- through fourth-place finishers were invited to compete in Lansing.
-- To Friends of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, which recently donated $350 to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to construct about eight nesting platforms in wetlands along several lakes. The platforms are intended to attract loons and trumpeter swans and help replace nesting sites lost from decades of logging.
-- To Carly Moore, whose essay on the use of Internet filters in high school libraries took first place among nearly 50 submissions in the annual Grand Traverse-Leelanau-Antrim Bar Association Law Day essay contest. The Traverse City East Junior High school ninth-grader cited United States Supreme Court case law in arguing that filtering Internet access "preserves the integrity of educational value" of libraries. East Junior High students Molly Grettenberger and Mack Sovereign placed second and third, respectively.
-- To Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore officials for bringing an exhibit featuring a stuffed cougar to the park to educate park patrons about the big cats. Dozens of visitors have reported seeing the big cats in the park and northern Lower Michigan, but state officials say they have yet to collect hard evidence of their existence.
-- To Curtis Warnes of Empire for helping to bring one big cat back home. Warnes created a steel structure of a black panther to replace a wooden panther in front of Long Lake Elementary school that finally disintegrated to the point that it had to be removed. The panther is the school's mascot. The steel version is expected to last for decades.
-- To Glen Lake Community Schools for landing a $1.7 million federal grant that will help offset lost income from nontaxable national park property within its borders. Superintendent Joan Groening spent more than two years poring over tax records to identify every parcel, when the federal government acquired it and who had owned it -- about 46,000 parcels spanning 25 years. Her persistence and hard work paid off.
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