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Bad River Chippewa Against Proposed Mining Legislation In Wisconsin

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from http://www.intercontinentalcry.org/


BY  JAN 8, 2012

The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are working, along with several NGOs, to stop a controversial mining bill that would gut existing environmental protections and effectively silence the public in order to streamline mining projects in the state of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin State Assembly Bill 426 looks like it could’ve come straight from former Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s waste basket, for all the good it would do. The 183-page billwants to:

  • Allow for the destruction of high quality wetlands
  • Allow mining waste to be deposited in floodplains and on the shores of lakes and rivers
  • Remove the right of citizens’ to sue for illegal environmental damage by a mine
  • Prohibit the DNR from monitoring mine waste sites or facilities, stopping work at a mine if there are permit violations or pollution, or making mine companies pay fines for those violations.
  • Force the DNR to make a decision on a mining permit within 360 days, otherwise it is automatically approved.
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Protecting Wisconsin Waters

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from http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/

Anti-Mining Struggles in the Penokee Hills and Lake Superior Region

By Sarah Tops

Open water stretches for miles to the north, and a soft, cool breeze whips your hair into your eyes.  The hardwood forest opens behind you to a pale sand beach into which you sink your toes.  Gulls laugh and a single piping plover searches for mollusks amongst the gentle lapping waves.  The rough outline of a commercial tug can be made out through the sea haze.  No, you’re not on the east or west coast.  This is the northern coast, often overlooked by most Americans, but not Midwesterners.  The inland seas, our Great Lakes, have been an inspiration and way of life for generations up here.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world, covering an area the size of South Carolina.  Its sloughs and shorelines contain rich wild rice beds and its waters over 80 species of fish.  The Lake Superior region, spanning Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as Ontario to the north, has been home to the Ojibwe people for over two hundred years, and before then, the Dakota and Huron.  However, like most of America’s beautiful, natural places, it, too, is under threat of destruction and poisoning by industrial civilization.

Since the late 1800s, the Lake Superior region has suffered from large-scale iron mining operations, supplying over three-fourths of the nation’s iron ore.  The land was stripped of this resource half a century ago, but with current rising prices of iron and other minerals surrounding Lake Superior, mining companies are going back to dig out the dregs, a low-grade iron ore called taconite.  Communities in the upper Midwest have been affected by air and water pollution as well as poverty associated with the boom-bust cycle of resource extraction.  In the past several decades, however, Wisconsin has become a stronghold against large mining operations due to a mining moratorium law passed in 1998 after a prolonged struggle against sulfide mining that began in the 1970s.  Now, Wisconsin’s strong environmental laws are being rewritten by a new administration working hand-in-hand with mining companies.

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Gray Wolfs Delisted in Midwest, Wolf Kills to Begin Soon

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from https://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it was removing Endangered Species Act protections for the wolf in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and portions of adjoining states.

After the announcement, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ordered the state Department of Natural Resources to implement a state wolf management plan.

Wolves – which can travel up to 30 miles a day – have reached a population of about 800 in Wisconsin. That exceeds the state’s goal of 350. There are now more than 4,000 wolves in the Midwest. The region, once considered a bastion of wolf reintroduction and protection, may soon witness aerial wolf hunts and wolf seasons akin to the US West.

Under the state management plan, the DNR or those acting on its behalf will be able to kill “problem wolves.”

The Center for Biological Diversity said the decision was premature, and contended that wolves remained threatened by disease and human persecution. It criticized Minnesota for using a bounty system to kill problem wolves, and said there should be less emphasis on lethal controls. The group said it supports the government’s conclusion to retain protections for wolves in the Northeast.

As wolf numbers soared in recent years, the wolf became a lightning rod of controversy. Motorists bought Wisconsin license plates with its iconic image, but some deer hunters blamed wolves for reducing the deer population in parts of the north. At least seven wolves are believed to have been killed during the 2011 deer hunting season.

Despite their prevalence today, wolves were wiped off the state’s landscape between 1960 and 1974. In the mid-1970s, they began to migrate from Minnesota.