Date: June 30, 2005
Contact: Anne Woiwode, (517)
484-2372
Clayton Daughenbach (708)-795-0514
AMERICA’S GREAT OUTDOORS Highlights Efforts to Protect Salmon Trout
River
New Sierra Club Report Profiles Ways and
Places to Secure Our Natural Heritage
Lansing,
Michigan – As summer
vacation kicks into full gear with the July Fourth holiday, the Salmon Trout River on the Upper
Peninsula’s Yellow Dog Plains is receiving national
attention today with the release of America’s
Great Outdoors, Sierra Club’s new report outlining a vision
for protecting our natural heritage.
The Salmon Trout River in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula is home to the last breeding population of Coaster Brook Trout,
and a waterway to the pristine Lake Superior.
The Kennecott Minerals Corporation acquired approximately 500,000 acres of
mineral rights in the Upper Peninsula and has
proposed sinking an underground mine at the river’s headwaters. The
ore from the mine will inevitably create sulfuric acid when exposed to air or
water, potentially polluting one of the nation’s purest rivers.
Stories in America’s Great
Outdoors tell of passing legislation and regulations to protect Salmon Trout
River and other precious
places. People tell of their efforts to revitalize communities and keep them
poison-free. Others focus on encouraging the implementation of clean energy
sources to protect our coasts and wild places from drilling and free children
and adults from the pollution that causes asthma, sewage contaminated water and
global warming. There are accounts of neighbors working to build communities
where growth is well-planned to create more livable neighborhoods. There are
people fighting to see that their taxes are invested wisely to benefit all
– not just developers or a favored few.
“All across America,
communities are uniting to protect the neighborhood special places where they
camp, hunt, hike, fish and find solace and solitude,” said Anne Woiwode,
Michigan Sierra Club state director. ”America’s Great Outdoors
outlines ways we can work together to make our neighborhoods safe and healthy
places to live and highlights those natural treasures that can still be saved
if can summon the foresight to act now.”
The report highlights a variety of landscapes, from the famed
Everglades in Florida
to those best-kept secrets closer to home like the Salmon Trout River, whose
cherished retreat and refuge are not longer guaranteed.
“We are fast approaching the point where no place is sacred,
where no part of America is safe from drilling, logging or development,”
said Rita Jack, Michigan Water Sentinel who is working with Sierra Club
volunteers to monitor water quality on the Salmon Trout River. “Here in Michigan and across the
country, Sierra Club is working with others to save open spaces, leave trees
standing, keep communities intact, and connect citizens with their neighbors in
order to care for our lands and wildlife.”
Nationwide, local faith, labor, and sportsmens groups are finding
common cause with the Sierra Club, and communities are coming together to
promote solutions that save these extraordinary places, including:
• Preserving our natural heritage by designating lands as
permanently protected parks, refuges, forests, and wilderness;
• Restoring forests, riverfronts, wetlands, and community open
spaces through the rebuilding and recovery of healthy, natural ecosystems;
• Improving lands to protect wildlife species and their native
habitat;
• Acquiring additional acreage by purchasing threatened land to
protect it for future generations;
• Encouraging thoughtful design and planning of development
projects to protect open space, reduce traffic, save tax dollars, and create
more options for Americans to own a home;
• Protecting water quality by improving sewage and waste disposal
practices as well as keeping sensitive places free from such threats as
drilling and commercial logging; and
• Drawing attention to the damage from unmanaged motorized
recreation and encouraging federal land management agencies to enforce the laws
that allow off-road vehicle use only on designated roads and routes, and to
educate riders that wild areas are closed unless posted open for off-road
vehicles.
“Protecting America's
natural heritage means that we have to protect places big and small,”
said Anne Woiwode. “America’s
Great Outdoors is Sierra Club’s vision for Salmon Trout
River and other backyard
treasures as well as national gems like the Arctic Refuge and Giant Sequoias.
All of them are beautiful, all of them are threatened, and all of them can be
saved.”
On July 4th we celebrate our nation’s birth as a Republic, a system
of government designed to encourage and ensure public engagement on the issues
and policies that affect them. By crafting such documents as the Declaration of
Independence and the Bill of Rights, our nation’s founders created a
culture in which citizen activism is an act of patriotism.
“The stories in America’s
Great Outdoors highlight the threats to national and neighborhood special
places, and they show how powerful public participation can be,” said
Rita Jack. “Sierra Club members and others are continuing the legacy of
democratic participation by working for positive solutions that ensure the
protection and restoration of our natural heritage for future
generations.”
The places profiled in the report were chosen by citizen
conservationists in all 50 states, the District of
Columbia, and Puerto Rico for the
unparalleled recreational opportunities, clean water and wildlife habitat they
provide.
The full report, list of places and a photo slideshow are available at http://www.sierraclub.org/greatoutdoors.