This year’s Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute (GLEJTI) seminar attracted journalists from different sectors of the media. Twenty-five journalists are selected for the weeklong seminar each year through an application process.

“Environmental journalism is the fundamental story … nothing trumps the fate of the plant,” says David Poulson, Knight Center’s associate director.

He says many issues found in all areas of society relate to the scarcity of resources such as clean air and water.

Though the Great Lakes were the focus of this year’s seminar, participants learned about a variety of related issues. During the workshops journalists learn about some of the hot environmental issues through discussions, field trips, lab work and computer-assisted reporting.

Last year the Knight Center’s environmental journalism conference was held with the Society of Environmental Journalists national conference. This year Tim Wheeler, president of the Society of Environmental Journalist, was one of the GLEJTI speakers.

Participants also heard from a variety of world-class scientists. Activities included stopping at a large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), engaging in a Sierra Club panel discussion, touring a wind farm, hearing from a forest ecologist and wading in rivers with algae.

The GLEJTI seminar focused on energy resources including wind power and bio-diesel. “Even the people who were looking at algae were exposed to this (energy resource) issue,” says Poulson, who explains there is potential to harvest vast amounts of oil from algae.

The Knight Center seeks not only to educate people who are going to write about environmental issues but “to create an awareness of environmental issues among reporters of all kinds.”

“I used to cover business and I think there are great environmental stories in business, there are big environmental stories in education, in government, in local politics and it’s our mission really to sensitize reporters of all kinds to that environmental angle,” says Poulson.

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is part of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism. Undergraduate and graduate students can choose to take a variety of environment-related courses in conjunction with their journalism classes to specialize in the area. This fall the school will offer a master’s environmental journalism degree.

Knight Center students are offered a variety of environmental journalism courses, such as investigative environmental reporting, environmental writing and Great Lakes wiki.

The school also offers resources for their students and the public, such as an online daily news scan of environmental issues and a toolbox designed to help reporters cover the environment.