Michigan news roundup

Report raises concerns about well-being of forests: A new DNR report warns of more perils for Michigan’s forests, including invasive species with adverse environmental and economic impacts. We hear from Michigan Tech forestry experts and a member of the Michigan Association of Timbermen’s board of directors.

North Country Trail hikers set 100-mile centennial goal: The North Country Trail Association, headquartered in Lowell, is sponsoring a 100-mile hiking challenge this year to mark the National Park Service’s centennial. Hikers completing 100 cumulative miles on the 4,600-mile, seven-state North Country National Scenic Trail, which winds through both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, will be rewarded with a commemorative patch. Early participants include hikers from Scottville and Marshall.

Vaccination waivers drop, decreasing disease risk in schools: More Michigan schoolchildren are getting vaccinated, thanks to a rule change that requires parents to seek a waiver from their local health department rather than from the school. Michigan had the nation’s sixth-highest waiver rate with more than 5 percent of kindergarteners not fully vaccinated in 2014. We talk to the Michigan Association for Local Public Health and Kent County’s director of community nursing.

They’re back! ‘A Beaver Tale: The Castors of Conners Creek’: A beaver family reappeared near the Detroit River in 2008, more than 100 years after industrialization and a profitable fur trade wiped out the species in the area. Monroe author and illustrator Gerald Wykes tells the story of the beaver family’s astonishing return in his new book, “A Beaver Tale: The Castors of Conners Creek.”

Book explores Michigan’s POW camp: Little physical evidence remains of Camp Au Train near Munising and four other World War II POW camps in the UP. But Marquette novelist and retired Northern Michigan University Professor John Smolens captures what life was like at Au Train in his new book, ”Wolf’s Breath.” Other parts of the book are set in postwar Detroit and Sault Ste. Marie. For news and features sections. By Eric Freedman.