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SB 78 Removes “Conservation of Biodiversity” from State Forest Management Goals
The Senate Bill 78 recently passed through the Michigan Senate (26-11) on March 5, 2013 and will soon be headed for a vote in the House of Representatives. Michigan legislators have decided to change the long-standing legal and scientifically supported definition of conservation in the bill which is called “Removes Biodiversity and Restoration as Forest…
YDWP Receives National Forest Foundation Grant
The Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve has received a grant from the National Forest Foundation to restore the health of sensitive wetlands in the McCormick Wilderness Area by removing non-native invasive plants and reseeding treated areas with native species. These wetlands provide habitat for several varieties of rare, threatened, and endangered plants and should be protected…
Rio Tinto Eagle Mine highly criticized at Public Hearing for Air Quality Permit
The informational session and public hearing about Rio Tinto’s latest Permit to Install (PTI) application for proposed modifications to the Eagle Project brought attention to concerns about air quality, the environment and public health last night. Almost all of the attendees who spoke at the hearing were against the permit modifications.
Air Pollution Comment Period and Public Hearing
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Air Quality Division is looking at a new Permit to Install (PTI) application from Rio Tinto for operations at Eagle Mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. Rio Tinto believes that due to the reconfiguring of their plant and the move of the original underground cement batch plant and associated…
YDWP Supports Keep Michigan Wolves Protected Campaign
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected is a coalition of conservation groups, animal welfare organizations, wildlife professionals, hunters, ranchers and other Michigan citizens working to protect Michigan’s fragile wolf population. For about the last 50 years wolves have been fully protected in Michigan and have been on the Endangered Species List for close to 40 years. With the…
County Road 595 Project Kicked to the Curb
On January 3, 2013 Susan Hedman, the USEPA Regional Administrator for Region 5, received a letter in her Chicago office from Dan Wyant, Director of the MDEQ. In the letter, Wyant states, “This letter serves as formal notification that due to the short time frame allowed by statute and the complexity of the issues remaining,…
NMU Academic Service Learning Project
Throughout the fall of 2012, a class of English Composition students from Northern Michigan University engaged the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve through an Academic Service Learning Project. With their professor, Rochelle Dale, the students worked on essays revolving around the idea of wilderness preservation. To help get their ideas started, the YDWP provided the necessary background…
EPA Issues Decision on CR 595
December 5, 2012 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday, December 4th, that they are both removing and upholding objections to the permit for County Road 595. The objection over whether the Marquette County Road Commission did an adequate job analyzing the alternative routes was removed. The objection over whether the Road Commission supplied an…
Wayne Snyder Donates proceeds from Coaster Brook Trout Prints
Wayne Snyder is an American author, photographer, illustrator, painter, poet, and conservationist, and has written a number of books about the world of fly fishing. He has written three books entitled: The Golden Age (Rochester Media, 2010), Why I Fish (self-published) and Rivers Of No Return (Rochester Media, 2012). Last year he created a painting entiteled “Isle…
Strong Public Opposition to CR 595 at Hearing
On Tuesday night atNorthernMichiganUniversity, the U.S. EPA held a public hearing at the request of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to hear comments about the EPA’s objections to issuing a permit to build County Road 595. County Road 595 is a project that has been put forth by the Marquette County Road Commission. The…