GLIN==> Lake Superior Binational Forum Holds a Public Input Session

The Lake Superior Binational Forum will be hosting a two-hour community exchange session to gather input from citizens about their concerns regarding environmental issues in the Lake Superior basin. A second portion of the session is scheduled to learn what two community groups are doing to resolve some of these issues.

The listening session will be held on Saturday, February 28, 10 a.m. to Noon, in the Michigan Room at Barker's Island Inn and Conference Center, 300 Marina Driver, Superior, Wisconsin. The session is free, and the public is welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.

The public is encouraged to tell Forum members what they think are the priority environmental issues in the Lake Superior basin that need attention. The Forum will share this feedback with members of the Lake Superior Binational Program, which includes governmental agency staff in the US and Canada that are responsible for conducting restoration and protection programs.

Two regional volunteer groups will also describe their efforts to restore or protect natural resources. The Environmental Association for Great Lakes Education (EAGLE) is a nonprofit environmental outreach group in Duluth, Minnesota, that is dedicated to educating the public about Lake Superior water issues, with a focus on water privatization and water quality. EAGLE has created a network of over 1,000 environmental organizations in the Great Lakes basin and is working with citizens on an international scale to protect Lake Superior.

The second group is the Inland Sea Society, headquartered in Ashland, Wisconsin. The Society focuses on projects that promote environmental stewardship through education and recreation, sustainable communities, and watershed-based organizing. The Society has organized annual symposiums since 1988, established a Lake Superior water trail, organized several citizen monitoring programs in river watershed groups, and initiated the Bay City Creek Task Force.

The Lake Superior Binational Forum is a citizen partnership group of 24 volunteer stakeholders from the US and Canada who offer input, information, and analysis to the state and federal governments of the United States, Canada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario about ways to protect and restore the Lake Superior basin. The Forum also conducts outreach programs, such as this public input session to learn what people are concerned about in the basin.

Forum members meet four times each year to discuss environmental issues facing Lake Superior. Members were selected from a diverse cross-section of volunteers from the basin including businesspeople, environmentalists, industrialists, tribes, municipal officials, academics, and the faith community.

Forum members agree, as summarized by the group's vision statement, that "water is life and the quality of water determines the quality of life." The Forum recognizes that the Lake Superior region cannot have a sound economy without a healthy environment. This philosophy provides the consensus from which Forum members explore strategies for phasing out the use of persistent toxic chemicals and for managing this freshwater treasure.

For more information, please call Lissa Radke, the US Coordinator for the Lake Superior Binational Forum, at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, at (715) 682-1489.

Please forward this announcement to other interested people or groups.

Here is the agenda:

10: 00 Welcome and Introductions/Purpose of this meeting-Bob Browne,

Forum's US Co-chair

10:15 Introduction of (EAGLE)-Bob Browne

10:30 Discussion about how to collaborate with this group--Joel Cooper,

Chair of the Forum's Outreach Committee

10:45 Introduction to the Inland Sea Society-Bob Browne

11:00 Discussion about how to collaborate with this group--Joel Cooper,

11:15 Open public input

Guests are invited to bring up their concerns, hopes, ideas, or

questions about what is happening in their communities

11:45 Closing-Jon Magnuson, Director, Cedar Tree Institute

12:00 Adjourn