Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River receives ‘Freshwater Hero Award’
The award, given by Freshwater Future, honors and celebrates everyday people who jump into action to solve the most pressing issues facing the Great Lakes.
MENOMINEE, Mich. (WLUC) - A local environmental group was honored this week with a national award for their efforts to protect the Menominee River.
The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the Menominee River safe from the threat of an open pit metallic sulfide mine, received the 2020 Freshwater Hero Award. The award, given by Freshwater Future, a non-profit organization based in Petoskey, Michigan, honors and celebrates everyday people who jump into action to solve the most pressing issues facing the Great Lakes.
The award features a miniature canoe and is inscribed with the following:
Dale Burie, President of the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc. issued this statement:
“We are humbled to receive this award from Freshwater Future. They have been one of our many mentors and have stood by us during our mission” stated Burie. “We accept this award on behalf of all the volunteers, donors, and leaders who have accepted huge responsibilities to help the Coalition forge ahead to protect the Menominee River for the generations to come.”
The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River, Inc. was established in 2017. They have affiliated with environmental organizations throughout Michigan and Wisconsin encompassing the Great Lakes. They operate with an all-volunteer staff and raise money to compensate their legal counsel to legally represent the people.
Burie said, “I truly believe in the promise: Of the People, By the People, and For the People.”
In honoring the Coalition, Freshwater Future celebrated a recent court victory against the Back Forty Mine project, which proposes to excavate an 84 acre open pit metallic sulfide mine, 800 feet deep, 150 feet from the Menominee River. Through the efforts of the Coalition, other grass-roots group and the Menominee Indian Tribe, the wetland destruction permit for the mine was recently denied through a contested case.
Freshwater Future applauds all those who worked so diligently to ensure the mine can’t harm the Menominee River, Lake Michigan and the surrounding areas.
For further information about the 2020 Freshwater Hero Awards, click here. For more information about the Coalition to SAVE the Menomonee River, click here.
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