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For Immediate Release May 31, 2007 Contact: Hugh
McDiarmid Jr., State’s
top environmental honor bestowed on ex-legislator, lifelong activist from Mary C.
Brown earns Milliken Award; CAFO pollution fighter Lynn Henning gets top
grassroots award Tireless, effective advocacy for natural resource protections in Brown, of The award will be presented by the Michigan Environmental Council on
behalf of its 75 member organizations June 5 during a gathering at the Arcus
Depot in Lynn Henning, a farmer near Henning has become one of the leading advocates of safeguards for human
health and water quality near polluting mega-farms that discharge massive
quantities of animal waste. “These two amazing women are shining examples of how committed, informed
citizens can drive positive change in their communities, their state and their
nation,” said “Sometimes that change begins on the floor of the state House, as
it often did for Mary. Other times it starts at the epicenter of an
environmental nightmare like it did with Brown: Unparalleled knowledge Brown’s is the political career of a public servant whose depth
of knowledge is unparalleled on an array of issues, including social justice,
environmental stewardship and gender equity. “There were times when she’d be questioning expert
witnesses at a hearing, and it was clear she knew more about their business
than they did,” said Lynn Jondahl, a former legislator and current
director of Michigan Prospect. “She had her fingerprints on an awful lot
of legislation.” That legislation included many clean air rules, and many other
protections for the health of Michiganders and the preservation of the
state’s natural grandeur. As a result, she stamped her mark on dozens of
important state laws that still provide a framework for enlightened resource
stewardship. Retirement from the legislature in 1994 changed the venue where she
practices her particular brand of activism, but not her tenacious approach. Her lifelong passion for working with the Girl Scouts continues. She is
a state Natural Resources Commission member and sits on the boards of the state
YMCA, the Michigan Environmental Council and the American Lung Association of
Michigan. She is a founding member of the Kalamazoo Environmental Council and
the Coalition for Urban Redevelopment in Henning: Fighting Back Henning, the winner of the grassroots award, was a content farmer until
massive factory farms moved in next door. Then massive, polluting, mega-farms surrounded her family home near
rural Henning fought back. She taught herself to track and document
pollution. She learned law, chemistry, biology and bureaucracy. She took on the
corporate Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) owners, state regulators
and local officials, forcing them to confront the problem. As vice chair of Environmentally Concerned Citizens for South Central
Michigan and a water sentinel with the Sierra Club’s Michigan Chapter,
Henning now monitors CAFOs statewide and trains others from across the Who We Are: From the urban rivers that pulse
through downstate cities to the tip of the rugged Keweenaw Peninsula, the
Michigan Environmental Council has been in the forefront of battles to protect
the state’s air, water, land and public health for more than a
generation. Created in 1980 by six groups
including the Grand Rapids-based ### |