Save the Wild U.P. Celebrates 5 years
Group plans summer of fundraising

By CHRISTOPHER DIEM Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: May 14, 2009

MARQUETTE -Members of the environmental group Save the Wild UP are celebrating the organization’s fifth anniversary by enjoying that which they strive to protect – the Upper Peninsula wilderness.
Members and supporters of Save the Wild UP -along with partner organizations Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and Freshwater Future -are putting on a summerlong fundraising event called Great Lakes Walk, Paddle and Roll.
The event kicks off on June 6 with a 5-mile paddle around Lake Independence, continues on July 12 with an orienteering event in Big Bay and a biking event in August in Marquette.
“It’s a really positive way to get people out and enjoying the out-of-doors,” said Kristi Mills, director of Save the Wild UP.
She said participants can either solicit pledges by setting up a Web site at www.firstgiving.com/freshwaterfuture or donate directly to the organizations. All proceeds will support environmental outreach and educational activities around the Great Lakes region.
Babette Welch, board president and co-founder of Save the Wild U.P., said she and Dick Huey of Marquette started the organization to protect the open land and access to water, hunting, fishing, biking and hiking widely available in the U.P.
“We saw that that was becoming at risk … because many of the large tracts of land were coming up for sale and being sold. We were also concerned when we saw this proposed proliferation of mines,” Welch said.
The organization is strongly opposed to Kennecott’s proposed Eagle Mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. In February, Kennecott’s parent company, Rio Tinto, deferred the mine project until market conditions improve.
Welch said members of the organization will continue to oppose the mine project but will also begin new efforts to preserve the water and land in the area, encourage activity in the outdoors and try to promote economic development while protecting the environment.
“Everyone recognizes water is going to be one of the next real in-demand resources on the planet, and preserving the quality of the water in the Great Lakes is critical,” Welch said.
Save the Wild U.P. staff compiled data from Michigan courthouses and environmental protection advocacy Web sites in assembling a Lake Superior-area map showing the locations of proposed metallic sulfide mining sites and proposed metallic sulfide/uranium exploration and mining sites.
“These are all near watersheds too, so that’s a big concern,” Mills said about the exploration sites.
Mills said there is uranium mining exploration going on near the Ottawa National Forest.
“That’s some scary stuff to a lot of people who know a little bit about the dangers of radioactive materials and the handling of those,” she said.
Welch said the organization also wants to educate the public about surface-owners’ rights.
“The rights of surface owners have been divorced from the mineral rights and right now mineral rights trump surface owners,” she said, adding people’s homes and camps could be affected. “If mining companies want to develop the mineral rights underneath them, mining companies can come in and build a road, put a building, put a vent shaft, whatever they need to access those minerals.”
Members of Save the Wild U.P. support only non-violent opposition to Kennecott’s and other proposed mining activities. In a recent news release, the organization said it will not condone or tolerate violence and will take legal action if the organization or its members are targets of violence.