@keithmatheny

'Don't believe everything that you breathe.' - Beck. I'm the environmental reporter for the Detroit Free Press kmatheny@freepress.com

 Detroit, MI
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Joined February 2011
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151Media
By 2022, researchers counted only nine Poweshiek skipperling butterflies anywhere in the U.S. - all in one prairie fen complex in Oakland County. Today, a big intervention has the Poweshiek edging back from extinction. @freep freep.com/story/news/environ…

A butterfly nearing global extinction gets new hope in Michigan

Restoring the Poweshiek skipperling's lost habitat and bolstering populations has the endangered species' prospects more hopeful.

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Billy Finn stands on his front porch in Dowagiac, discussing life living across from a Bitcoin-mining, AI data center. That noise you hear in the background is near-constant, and meets the parameters of the city's recently enacted noise ordinance. freep.com/videos/news/local/…

Dowagiac resident on Louise Ave. talks about the Hyperscale Dowagiac Data Center noise

It's a near-constant noise like an idling passenger jet engine, every day. The data center is offering to buy out the most aggrieved nearby residents

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My story on the Hyperscale Inc. data center in Dowagiac and neighbors' class-action lawsuit against it: freep.com/story/news/environ… @freep

Constant noise from Dowagiac data center prompts class-action lawsuit

It's a near-constant noise like an idling passenger jet engine, every day. The data center is offering to buy out the most aggrieved nearby residents.

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Fire Monday at DTE Energy's Fermi 2 prompts the nuclear plant's emergency shutdown. Employees, public were at no time under threat, DTE says. freep.com/story/news/environ… @freep

Fire at DTE Energy's Fermi 2 nuclear plant leads to temporary shutdown

"At no time was there any risk to the health and safety of the public or our employees," a DTE spokesman said.

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"I can confidently say that 100% of the eagles that we admitted in 2025 had some level of lead," a Grand Traverse County raptor rehabilitator said @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Lead-sickened bald eagles being found throughout Michigan

"I can confidently say that 100% of the eagles that we admitted in 2025 had some level of lead," a Grand Traverse County raptor rehabilitator said

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A U-M study dives into yet another factor in crashing bird populations: the impacts of noise pollution. freep.com/story/news/local/m… @freep

Bird populations are declining. This Michigan study might explain why.

Of nine different behavioral or fitness-related responses in 160 bird species examined, noise pollution had negative impacts on eight of them.

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Controversial Wayne Disposal hazardous waste landfill gets new operating license from @MichiganEGLE, approval for 24% capacity expansion. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Wayne Disposal hazardous waste license renewed, expansion OK'd

Wayne Disposal is licensed to receive 722 types of hazardous waste considered too potentially harmful for disposal in a conventional landfill.

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A relentlessly cold and snowy winter across much of the country has de-icing road salt in scarce supply - and its cost skyrocketing. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Salt shortage has Michigan scrambling to keep roads clear

Salt-selling stores have near-empty shelves. Prices are 3x to 4x what they were months ago. Now, communities are salting only highest-priority roads.

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Hyperscale data centers nationwide are expected to consume between 16 billion and 33 billion gallons of water by 2028, according to a recent study. That approximately equals the amount of water every resident of Metro Detroit uses in three months. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

AI, other data centers are coming to Michigan — and they need a lot of energy and water

Data centers are rapidly expanding across the country, and the amount of power they need is rising exponentially. Now they're here. Is Michigan ready?

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A meteor Monday night seems to have broken apart and possibly reached the Earth very close to the final resting place of the Edmund Fitzgerald in eastern Lake Superior -- one week to the day before the 50th anniversary of her sinking. 😳 H/T @MiStormChasers
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Bottle and can redemptions above a dime? More redemption-eligible containers? Those are among the ideas floated to bolster Michigan's declining program. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Michigan's 10-cent beverage bottle and can deposit program is on the decline. Here's why.

Bottle and can redemptions above a dime? More redemption-eligible containers? Those are among the ideas floated to bolster Michigan's declining program.

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Peanut, a rescued ill fawn, is slated to be killed this week after a Michigan DNR euthanization order. A wildlife rehabilitator who helped the fawn says it's over a missed paperwork deadline, and that the DNR is misinterpreting its own rules. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Michigan DNR calls for rescued fawn's euthanization — and rehabber says its over paperwork

The Michigan DNR has ordered the killing of Peanut, an orphaned fawn rehabilitated for months by Detroit Animal Welfare Group.

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I had the honor of interviewing Jane Goodall on Sept. 8, less than a month before her passing today. She approached the world around her with a sense of wonder, appreciation and responsibility, and approached her own mortality the same way. I share a clip from our talk here.
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My story from last month: freep.com/story/news/local/m…

At 91, legendary chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall comes to Detroit with a message of hope

"Every single day we live, we make some sort of impact on the world," Goodall said. "Most of us can choose what sort of impact we make."

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After two years of study, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' scientific research arm has a plan for dealing with the rising problem of blue-green algae muck on the shorelines of Lake St. Clair. It won't be small, quick or cheap. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Army Corps of Engineers devises plan for chronic Lake St. Clair muck. Will it go anywhere?

An early step in correcting the problem will involve massive amounts of mechanical removal of the piled-up muck — more than 200 semi trucks full.

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Childhood friends from Milford, after traveling together and visiting about 20 U.S. National Parks, got an idea: What if they visited them all? 63 National Parks, from the Alaskan Arctic to the U.S. Virgin Islands. From American Samoa to Maine. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

Lifelong friends from Milford to fulfill goal of visiting all 63 U.S. national parks

A planned visit to Isle Royale National Park in western Lake Superior on Labor Day weekend will finish the quest of three lifelong Milford friends.

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Circuit Court judge issues injunction stopping all shipments of elevated radioactivity waste from legacy U.S. atomic weapons and energy sites to Wayne County hazardous waste landfill. freep.com/story/news/local/m… @freep

Judge halts shipment of radioactive wastes from atomic sites to Van Buren Twp. landfill

The elevated radioactivity soils and other materials arise from World War II-era development of atomic energy and weapons

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A summer cooler for you. A journalistic popsicle. freep.com/story/news/local/m…

In 1816, Michigan didn't have a 'summer.' Here's how that happened.

Frosts, ice and snow in June, July and August? It happened one legendary summer — and it took scientists about 100 years to understand why.

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Unfortunately, what you're seeing today is not fog surrounding the @mackinacbridge but smoke coming from the wildfires and our neighbors to the North.
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Controversial Wayne Disposal hazardous waste landfill in Van Buren Township seeks @MichiganEGLE permission to further expand and add a new hazardous waste treatment procedure. @freep freep.com/story/news/local/m…

As some neighbors seek to close it, Wayne Disposal hazardous waste landfill looks to expand

The hazardous waste landfill off I-94 near Belleville receives low-radioactivity waste and hundreds of the most dangerous chemicals known to mankind.

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