Recently the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve has been generously awarded grants from the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC) and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). The $700 grant from UPEC will be used to support a K-12 environmental education project. UPEC received a record breaking number and quality of applications this year since the program began. “It was difficult to decide which to fund because all proposals had merit. UPEC salutes the area educators who help young people appreciate nature and the environment. Today’s young people will be tomorrow’s voters and leaders who will determine the destiny of our beautiful peninsula,” states UPEC President, William Malmsten. The YDWP is extremely proud to offer an opportunity for community youth to better understand how watersheds function as well as the impacts of metallic sulfide mining and its potential to severely thwart a rivers ability to recover. Program Assistant of the YDWP Julie Christiansen remarks, “Working with local youth to ensure they have an understanding of how watersheds work is a central tenet to the work of the YDWP. We will show students how to use sound science to determine the health of the watershed and where potential sources of pollution are coming from. The watershed is facing development issues related to mining, timber and road building and those will all be discussed.”

The second grant the YDWP received was from the Indigenous Environmental Network for $3,000. The IEN is an alliance of grassroots indigenous Peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening, maintaining and respecting traditional teachings and natural laws. The YDWP was awarded a Western Mining Action Network and Indigenous Environmental Network Indigenous Communities Mining mini-grant to support and enhance the capacity building efforts of mining impacted indigenous communities to assure that mining projects do not adversely affect human, cultural, and the ecological health within their traditional territories. The YDWP will be using this grant to fund a special edition newsletter that will contain a large aerial photo documentation of development in the watershed.

YDWP is pleased to receive these funds that will continue to assist our group in providing quality programming for this community.