Endangered species protections have been reinstated for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that Endangered Species Act protections are reinstated for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region.

However, the status may only be temporary.

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Can a winter’s holiday feast be local and sustainable? It doesn’t seem such an easy task, even for a locavore like myself as I contemplate turnips, a few remaining pumpkins and sweet potatoes. Even so, with some resourcefulness and help from regional chefs of the Bon Appetit Management Company, we can all have a Low-Carbon Christmas — even in the frozen tundra of the upper Midwest.

Bon Apetit, a company that offers corporations, universities and colleges onsite catering and food service with a commitment to sustainable, local cuisine, had four of its chefs from various regions of the country put together low-carbon, high-flavor menus for the season.

The regions include Upper Midwest (follows), Northeast, West Coast and Southeast. Each of the menus will be featured in an Eat Drink Better post beginning with the upper Midwest menu, below.

General tips for parties and seasonal gathering that keep things low carbon include not using bottled water or disposable dinnerware. Don’t use bottled water and compost food waste as much as possible. Use less beef and dairy products.

Menu after the jump.

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In general it is thought that rural America feels more closely aligned with the Republican Party’s conservative social views.  However, right now it’s the Democrats who support the ethanol and subsidy policies that help so many farmers in the middle of the country to stay afloat.

Corn growers from across the nation are heading to the polls next week, and many are still feeling confused.

John Wallbrown owns a 2,800-acre farm in Portage County, Ohio.  He said that he has heard from peers who are upset with the Republican Party, and though he still plans to cast his ballot for McCain, he told the Beacon Journal in Ohio that:  ”McCain will probably lose some votes this year.”

Historically McCain and Obama have not agreed on the issue of farm subsidies.  Subsidies offer a financial safety net for farmers across the nation, whose livelihoods are very tied to the whims of nature.  McCain has been opposed to them, while Obama has offered support.

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Maybe one of the best things we can do it offset our CO2 is also one of the simplest: stop cutting down trees. In a recent issue of Bioscience, Ohio State University Professor Peter Curtis wrote that carbon storage in Midwestern forests could offset greenhouse gas emissions from two-thirds of the nearby population. Maintaining the forests could even increase storage capacity in the future.

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Author’s Note: While I usually report on green building developments in the Pacific Northwest, today I am examining green building trends in my own geographic region, Southeast Ohio. The architect for the LEED project discussed below is my husband, Don Dispenza.

Nationwide, there are currently more than 12,000 building projects pursuing LEED certification. But in economically depressed regions, there are still only a handful. For example, in Southeast Ohio, defined as an eight-county region in the Appalachian foothills, there are only two registered projects on the USGBC website. In areas such as this, which have a minimal amount of new construction overall, increasing a project’s cost by building green is rarely considered.

An exception is the Chamberlain Office Building in Athens, Ohio. The building’s owner, Russell Chamberlain, is a local real estate agent whose desire to build green stems from his own personal value system, and also from the belief that that investing in LEED certification will differentiate his company as being a progressive one. The project is expected to achieve a LEED Silver rating.

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This particular dead zone has formed, in part, thanks to farm runoff that has made its way down the Mississippi River, all the way from Iowa and Wisconsin. Chemicals used on the farms are washed in to local waterways, which all eventually end in the Mississippi which thus makes its way down and out past New Orleans in to the Gulf of Mexico.

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Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Wisconsin, and the Canadian province of Manitoba all signed onto the agreement at the Midwestern Governor’s Association (MGA) Energy Summit that was held in Milwaukee, WI earlier this month. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (D) and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) co-chaired the summit. The governors of Indiana, Ohio, and South Dakota signed on as observers to the process but did not commit to the accord.

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