Environment
The Coalition to Save the Menominee River 5K
The Coalition to Save the Menominee River held their 5k Walk-athon on Sunday August 28 at Stephenson Island in Marinette. Registration was from 8 AM until the start of the walk at 10 AM. Walkers left Stephenson Island and traveled along the river on Riverside Avenue and looped back to Stephenson Island. Pictured is a necklace that one of the participants, Mary, created. Each bow has the name of a water protector who contributed.
Pastor Ken Michaelis gave a welcome invocation prior to the start. After the walk there was music by Skip Jones. Food was available from ...
Water Celebration Address
Welcome to the Second Annual Water Celebration. We have much to celebrate—there is no sulfide mine next to the Menominee River. If permitted, the proposed Back Forty sulfide mine would be a perpetual pollution machine discharging acid mine drainage to ground- and surface waters in perpetuity.1 So we have to continue with our opposition because the Gold Resource Corporation has taken over the permitting process after Aquila Resources was forced into bankruptcy.
The effort to protect the Menominee River has been going on for over 20 years. How did we get to this point? ...
Water Protectors
Water Protectors: The H.E.L.P. Campaign to Save the Penokees
You need to read this book.
The H.E.L.P. Campaign to save the Penokees is still powerful in showing what grassroots organizing can do and what community activism looks like.
Back in 2013 I arrived in Mellen with several others from the Wausau area. We were greeted by none other than the author of this book, Nick Vander Puy. Along with him were Penokee Pete and Paul DeMain, and several others. It was an educational day for me up there, one of many that would follow. That day in Mellen at the Penokee ...
MARATHON COUNTY COMMITTEES’ MINING MEETING
I attended the joint meeting of Marathon County’s Environmental Resources and Metallic Mining Committees’ meeting at the Marathon County Courthouse, as a landowner and taxpayer in Marathon County. I was there to witness citizen’s concerns regarding the Canadian company, GreenLight Metals, Inc. and the mining company’s presentation who has applied for a permit for a metallic mining exploration at the Easton Reef Deposit.
It was shocking to witness the lack of respect and treatment of our fellow citizens as they spoke to the committee of their concerns. Only 2 ...
The Fine Art of Green Washing
I am writing to express my thoughts and concerns about the presentation by Green Light Metals on Tuesday, August 2, at the Environmental Resources Committee of Marathon County. I felt several Marathon County Board members asked some very good questions. Their questions, however, did not receive adequate answers.
Green Light Metals should not be trusted. Their board of directors is made up of the last mining company, Aquila. Just because they have a shack in Medford, does not make them a Wisconsin based company either. This is a Canadian company. When the mining ...
Foxy Guitar
Warren McKenney, custom guitar builder, pictured on left, presented his hand crafted guitar named "FOXY" to MaKena Johnson-Haroldson, on right, of Lake Villa, Illinois.
MaKena held the winning raffle ticket for the guitar at the 2nd Annual Water Celebration, July 23rd,
held by The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc. on Stephenson Island in Marinette, Wisconsin.
MaKena, only 15 years old, plays guitar, piano, clarinet, ukulele, and has been accepted to the Chicago Academy for the Arts.
Warren McKenney also gifted MaKena with a hand-made case, ...
Residents Warn Against Proposed Marathon County Mine
A new Canadian corporation called Green Light Metals came into Marathon County seeking to create a massive open-pit gold mine 450 feet deep. Others have looked into this before but abandoned the terrible idea and moved on. Here we go again.
This new foreign corporation is only 2 years old, yet they are trying to persuade the Marathon County Board of Supervisors and the DNR that they have the exceptional skills to pull this off without polluting our precious ground water, to say nothing of the nearby Eau Claire River and further downstream Lake Wausau. The water ...
Concerns about exploration drilling at the Wausau-Reef gold deposit in Marathon County
The long known gold deposit 10-miles east of Wausau is being considered for a 450-foot deep open-pit gold mine. Although gold is in abundance and already stored in vast quantities in bank vaults and jewelry collections around the world, advocates for the project are claiming that the world needs more for the new “green economy”. This is an unsupported claim as the manufacturers of smart phones and computers confirm there are only trace amounts of gold in their products and they are moving away from the mineral. However, even the small amount of gold contained in a ...
Opposition to Mining
The Ho-Chunk Nation opposes the request by Green Light Metals for an exploratory drilling permit, and any future efforts to engage in gold mining near the Dells of the Eau Claire River in Marathon County.
The staff of Middle Wisconsin expresses their thanks to the Ho Chunk Nation.