Folks,
The tidal wave is growing. Yesterday our petition passed 20,000 signatures. Today, it's already well over 21,000.
We have just recently been featured in the largest newspaper in Wisconsin, and (somewhat less reputably) the largest tabloid in Britain. That's right: word of the proposed Copperwood waste mine has spread beyond Michigan and even beyond the United States. Why? Because the significance of Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains transcends all map lines and political boundaries.
This is exactly what the boom-and-bust profiteers fear the most: that the people will unite near and far to demand a halt to their ransacking of our ecology and economy (remember that eco means "home"). Don't believe me? Consider that for the first time in their annual report, the Keweenaw Land Association — the entity controlling the mineral lease rights beneath the Copperwood deposit, as well as those beneath 400,000+ acres of Upper Peninsula land — has expressed concern about threats posed to their revenue by "environmentalists, activists, and Native American tribes."
Little do they know, we're just getting started...
Let's celebrate this tremendous milestone in our movement with a COLLECTIVE ACTION!
That very same Keweenaw Land Association (and "association" is a big word for a company with only two permanent employees...) just recently requested an additional 10,000 acres of metallic mineral lease rights from the DNR, in public lands spanning Baraga, Dickinson, Iron, Marquette, and Menominee counties. What starts with mineral rights soon leads to mineral exploration; exploration leads to discovery; and discovery leads to new mines in sensitive ecosystems, which poison our waters, bury our wetlands in waste, dissuade tourists and outdoor recreationists, and stop our economies from evolving. That's why it's crucial we fight back now, at the very beginning of the process!
On Wednesday, April 17th, the DNR will be holding two public meetings on this topic — at 11am EDT and 5pm EDT — with an opportunity for public comment (2 minutes per person).
Join us in attending one or both of these meetings to remind the DNR that their job is to protect our natural resources, not race to sell them off like they're worried minerals will soon go out of style. In order to give a comment, you must pre-register here. Again, registration entitles you to comment at both meetings.
Feel you'd like to speak up to protect our lands and waters but aren't entirely certain of what to say? No worries! We'll be hosting a strategizing session on Monday night dedicated to this very topic. And you can register for that session here (registration is required for this event!).
Organizations like the DNR (and like the Michigan Strategic Fund) until now have tended to rubber stamp whatever crosses their desk, and our efforts this time may or may not be able to break them out of their rote complacency. But it isn't just about winning or losing: it's about building connection, and building momentum, until what's impossible today becomes inevitable tomorrow.
In solidarity,
Tom and the ProtectThePorkies team
www.ProtectThePorkies.com
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Reminder that while donations to promote the petition are appreciated, funds given directly to the campaign allow for far more constructive use.