Links related to NMU
EK II Student Team protecting wolves - more coming including
interview/story with Kaitlin's hometown newspaper in Jackson, MI
ABC10 WBUP-TV/CW 5
does preview story on NMU EarthKeepers II Student Team petition
signing event to protect Michigan wolves
The "Wolf Hunt
Petition Signing Night" is from 7-10 p.m. Today Wed., Feb. 27,
2013 in Jamrich 103 on the NMU Campus sponsored by the NMU
EarthKeepers II Student Team and the Native American Students
Association (NASA).
For spiritual,
religious, cultural, ecological and common sense reasons, two groups
of Northern Michigan University students are hosting an anti-wolf
hunt education and petition signing event today to help put the issue
before Michigan voters.
Thanks to ABC10 News
Director/Station Manager Cynthia Thompson and ABC10 Senior News
Reporter Mike Hoey
EK II website
(thanks Obadiah for being fast)
Cedar Tree Institute
website (thanks Obadiah for being fast)
EK II blog
Got a shout-out on
official Keep Michigan Wolves Protected Facebook page (scroll down a
tad)
Many photos on our
Facebook pages
Here is an album:
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(Marquette, MI) –
For spiritual, religious, cultural, ecological and common sense
reasons, two groups of Northern Michigan University students are
hosting an anti-wolf hunt education and petition signing event this
tonight (Wednesday) to help put the issue before Michigan voters.
The "Wolf Hunt
Petition Signing Night" is from 7-10 p.m. this Wed., Feb. 27,
2013 in Jamrich 103 on the NMU Campus sponsored by the NMU
EarthKeepers II Student Team and the Native American Students
Association (NASA).
Saying she opposes
the proposed Michigan wolf hunt "because it is senseless"
and motivated by money, NMU EarthKeepers II Student Team member
Katelin Bingner, 20, said "the wolf isn't our enemy, the wolf is
closer to being something like our brother."
Only registered
Michigan voters can sign the petitions provided by Keep Michigan
Wolves Protected that is seeking enough signatures to force a
November 2014 referendum on the wolf debate.
Hunting wolves is a
trophy sport because they have little or no fur value and are not
generally consumed by humans, said Bingner, an NMU sophomore biology
major from Spring Arbor, MI.
In 2011, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service removed western Great Lakes wolves from
Endangered Species Act.
In a lame-duck
session, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed Public Act 520 in
late 2012 turning the wolf into a game animal and giving the Michigan
Natural Resources Commission the power to decide the creation of a
wolf hunting season.
Keep Michigan Wolves
Protected organizers have until March 27 to get 161,305 signatures in
the effort allow voters to decide the fate of the wolf hunting bill.
“It is premature
to have a wolf hunting season in Michigan and trophy hunt animals
that were just taken off the endangered species list,” said NMU
EarthKeepers II Student Team member Adam Magnuson, 21, of Marquette.
“There are less
than 700 wolves in Michigan and they are a recovering population,”
said Magnuson, an NMU environmental studies and sustainability major.
“The wolves were
on the federal endangered species list for 40 years – and it seems
pointless to spend the taxpayers money to protect them for 40 years
and then hunt wolves immediately after they are off the endangered
species list,” Magnuson said.
Anti-wolf hunting
groups are actively trying to defray fears about wolves and are
attempting to educate the public about reasons the predators should
be protected – especially those unfamiliar with the U.P. wolf
packs.
Religious reasons
for protecting Michigan wolves include respect for nature and human
impact on the environment including wildlife, said Tom Merkel, a peer
minister at NMU Catholic Campus Ministry in St. Michael Parish.
Quoting
the many environmental and wildlife protection messages from retiring
Pope Benedict XVI, Merkel noted the head of the Catholic church told
followers that “preservation of the environment, promotion of
sustainable development and particular attention to climate change
are matters of grave concern for the entire human family.”
Often called the
Green Pope, Benedict XVI noted that “the order of creation demands
that a priority be given to those human activities that do not cause
irreversible damage to nature.”
Merkel said the
pope's messages can be directly related to the slaughter of Michigan
wolves including the statement that “the world is not something
indifferent, raw material to be utilized simply as we see fit.”
Wolves do not pose a
significant threat to humans and the Michigan Department of Natural
Resources "cull problem wolves involved in livestock
depredation," Bingner said.
"It is
absolutely vital that we remember to take the Native American
perspective” about wolves that were once wiped out by Michigan
residents and it has taken five decades to start the recovery of the
gray wolf with the latest state population estimate of 687 wolves,
she said.
Michigan's proposed
2013 wolf hunt “is distressing, saddening and I don't like the idea
at all,” said Amanda Weinert, 21, co-president of the NMU NASA and
citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
In addition to moral
reasons for not hunting Michigan wolves, Weinert said the wolf is
significant in Anishinaabe heritage and culture.
Recounting stories
told to her by elders, the Garden, MI native said wolves are
“important to our group because of the story of the Great Spirit
Gitchi Manitou" and the connection between the first man with a
wolf as they "traveled Turtle Island."
“In traditional
Anishinaabe storytelling the first man is lonely so he asks Gitchi
Manitou – the Great Spirit for a companion and is given the
ma'iingan or wolf,” said Weinert, an NMU senior with a major in
metalsmithing and jewelry, and is seeking a bachelor in science and a
minor in Native American studies.
“The wolf came
with him on the journey to name all the animals and plants,”
Weinert said. “At end of the journey Gitchi Manitou said the two
would part ways but would still be connected.”
“The Anishinaabe
and the wolf are connected and live parallel lives,” she said.
The early 1900's
slaughter and injustice suffered by Michigan wolves reminds Weinert
of similar mistreatment of Native Americans at the hands of
European-American settlers.
“There are great
similarities with Anishinaabe peoples mistreatment and not being
understood with the the general mistreatment of wolves,” she said.
“Wolves have been
driven out of their homeland” and that “compares to the
Anishinaabe because they too got re-located (and) put on
reservations,” Weinert said “Wolves got pushed out of their
territories by the mining and logging industries – it's man's
effect on the forest.”
Merkel
said the message to protect wolves can be seen in the pope's mesage
that “the order of creation demands that a priority be given to
those human activities that do not cause irreversible damage to
nature" and "care for our environment are of vital
importance for humanity" because “the deterioration of nature"
is "closely connected to the culture that shapes human
coexistence" adding man shouldn't "turn his back on the
Creator’s plan.”
A Catholic, Merkel
said protection of wildlife and nature is important in many religions
including the Dalai Lama who said “wealth is not necessarily a bad
thing” but must be “earned in an honest manner” while ensuring
that neither “individuals nor the environment suffered for
it.”
Merkel said the Dalai Lama told followers that mankind
should “maintain gentle, peaceful relations with our fellow human
beings” and we must “extend the same kind of attitude toward the
natural environment.”
The NMU petition
signing to protect wolves will include watching a short video titled
“The Timber Wolf of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan."
In the proposed wolf
hunts occurs during the fall of 2013 in the U.P., Michigan would be
the seventh state with a wolf hunting/trapping season, according to
wolf hunting opponents who say Wolves once roamed most of North
America until being over-hunted and destroyed by humans
Wolves have had
little effect on Michigan deer population, anti-wolf hunting groups
have said adding Michigan needs to increase compensation to farmers
suffering related livestock losses instead of slaughtering wolves for
trophies
Restoring federal
protections for gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region that
ended in 2012 is goal of recent federal lawsuit that charges the
removal of wolves from the endangered list in Michigan, Minnesota and
Wisconsin is threatening wolf recovery throughout most of their
historic range
The Feb. 2013
lawsuit was filed against Suit filed against the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and U.S. Secretary
of the Interior Kenneth Salazar by the Humane Society of the United
States, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Animals and Their
Environment, Help Our Wolves Live, and Born Free USA.
Minnesota had an
estimated 3,000 wolves before they came of the endangered species
list, while Michigan and Wisconsin had 687 and 782, respectively.
**Editors Note on
background/story contact info:
Article/news release
written by Greg Peterson, EarthKeepers II volunteer media advisor
906-401-0109
EarthKeepers II is a
two-year interfaith energy conservation and community garden
initiative across the Upper Peninsula that will create of 30 native
plants gardens and provide free energy audits for 40 churches/temple
plus award grants to help the houses of worship make repairs in an
effort to reduce airborne mercury from entering Lakes Superior and
Lake Michigan.
The EarthKeepers II
Student Team in an autonomous group planning its own project plus
recording radio and television public service announcements while
assisting with the native plants gardens initiative and energy
conservation education.
EarthKeepers
II is funded by a grant from EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
with assistance from the U.S. Forest Service Eastern Region office in
Milwaukee in cooperation with U.P. Anishinaabe tribes, the nonprofit
Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette and Delta Green, a Marquette
nonprofit corporation specializing in energy conservation.
The energy
conservation audits began Monday (Feb. 25, 2013) in Marquette with
inspections at three churches and one temple.
Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community (KBIC) Natural Resources Committee Chair Charlotte
Loonsfoot, who is part of the EarthKeepers II project will be
collecting anti-wolf hunt petition signatures at the Lac Vieux Desert
Pow Wow on March 9 and 10.
Below is contact
info for those interviewed in story, and links related to the
initiative:
Keep Michigan Wolves
Protected
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The NMU EarthKeepers
II Student Team:
Adam Magnuson
262-364-7078
Katelin Bingner
517-416-4811
Thomas “Tom” J.
Merkel
906-396-7522
---
Native American
Students Association (NASA)
NASA is a student
organization that plans and promotes events related to Native
American heritage and culture on campus
Amanda Weinert,
Co-President of the NMU Native American Students Association
906-399-9147
906-227-1397
Hannah Vallier,
Co-President of the NMU Native American Students Association
906-450-1274
Native American
Students Association (NASA) Co-Supervisors:
Tina Moses, CNAS
principle secretary
Grace Chaillier,
Contingent Assistant Professor for CNAS
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Adam Robarge, Upper
Peninsula coordinator for Keep Michigan Wolves Protected
Petition to request
a Referendum on Michigan Public Act 520 that makes wolf a game animal
in Michigan
Presentation on
wolves at Portage Library in Houghton, MI
Feb. 15, 2013
Petition signing by
Adam Robarge, U.P. co-organizer of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected
February 26, 10-2 PM
NMU students and
wolves
Adam Robarge
---
Nonprofit Cedar Tree
Institute (CTI)
403 E. Michigan St.
Marquette, MI
49855
Rev. Jon Magnuson,
M.Div., MSW
EarthKeepers II
Founder
Executive
Director/Founder of Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute
Marquette, MI
906-228-5494 (hm)
Cedar Tree Institute
projects include Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project, the Manitou Project
and the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project
Kyra Fillmore
Ziomkowski, EarthKeepers II Project Coordinator
906-250-7643 (cell)
Greg Peterson
Volunteer media
advisor for the EarthKeepers II and other Cedar Tree Institute
projects
906-401-0109
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Great Lakes
Restoration Initiative
Great Lakes
Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS)
Deborah Lamberty
Program Analyst
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Great Lakes National
Program Office
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL
60604-3590
312-886-6681 (wk)
312-692-2974 (fax)
Plus Elizabeth 'Liz'
LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs
Office in Chicago, Ill
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Jan Schultz,
USDA U.S. Forest
Service
USFS Eastern Region
(R-9)
Non-native Invasive
Species Program Leader
Special Forest
Products Program Leader
Milwaukee, WI
414-297-1189 (wk)
906-345-9885
(Marquette)
U.S. Forest Service
(USFS)
Larry Stritch
National Botanist
USDA U.S. Forest
Service
Washington, DC
202-205-1279
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Doug Russell
Executive Director
of Delta Green, a Marquette-based nonprofit corporation
906-250-7461
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Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community (KBIC)
KBIC Tribal Chair
Warren C. “Chris” Swartz Jr.
906-353-6623
906-201-1703 cell
KBIC Natural
Resources Department (NRD)
Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community (KBIC)
Charlotte Loonsfoot,
Chair
Keweenaw Bay Indian
Community (KBIC) Natural Resources Committee
Evelyn Ravindran,
KBIC NRD natural resources specialist
906-524-5757
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Borealis Seed
Company
Big Bay, Michigan
(906) 226-8507
office
(906) 345-9636
nursery
Owners:
Suzanne Rabitaille
Judy Keast