Michigan Environmental Council

What a beautiful weekend at Crystal Mountain! A weekend full of helpful presentations and panels, activities, fantastic views and most importantly, great people. A huge thank you to all who attended and helped to make our first ever ECOSystems Conference incredible. Congratulations again to our Petoskey Prize honoree, Sandra Sorini Elser!

Plastic doesn't go away, it just gets smaller. Microplastics are in our Great Lakes and in us, too. Luckily, a couple great members, Alliance for the Great Lakes and Friends of the St. Clair River, are addressing concerns as we speak. Read more below!

We're excited to welcome our Development Manager, Tamara El-Khoury to the family! Tamara's previous experience as director of the Center for Arab American Philanthropy, the nation’s only Arab American community foundation and branch of member group ACCESS - Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, will guide her success as she implements the development activity of the Environmental Council. To learn more about Tamara, read her staff profile here: https://lnkd.in/gcMX2ndB

Please welcome our Movement Building Director, William Wood to the team! Bill is joining the staff of the Environmental Council after serving on its Board from 2017-2024, where he represented member group West Michigan Environmental Action Council. We're so excited to see where his leadership and experience can take our movement! To learn more about Bill, read his staff profile here: https://lnkd.in/gdia4tvj

We'll be at the #2024MIClimateSummit this September. Will you? Connect with @MiClimateAction and fellow climate advocates to rally around social action and climate justice. If you come, make sure to check out our panel on creating unusually effective campaigns. ?? https://lnkd.in/eXuQMqBw

The AJ Birkbeck Scholarship is awarded each year to an exemplary student that embodies the vision of the PFAS Alliance and the spirit of Birkbeck himself—a collaborator, a strategist, a protector, and a mentor. Each year, with your help, we award one student from a Michigan college or university at least $3,000 to complete and share a PFAS research project. This year's recipient is Holden Nelson, a Michigan State University PhD student and now PhD Intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Grace Hasley wrote an excellent piece on Holden for the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. We encourage you to visit that piece by following the linked article! If you wish to contribute to the Birkbeck Scholarship Fund: https://lnkd.in/gECQi3KV

Dunes are beloved. Michigan's dunes laws? Not so much. New legislation will make it so our laws love our dunes as much as we do. Two westside Michigan legislators have a plan to help dunes and their nearby communities thrive. The power of their legislation is not through bold demands or declarations but better guidance.

The Milliken Award honors the greatest environmentalists like our latest recipient, John Erb. The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation has powered Michigan's environmental movement, with $165 million given to nonprofits of all sizes to protect water and communities. We also want to thank our Superior Sponsors the Hon. Rebekah Warren and the Hon. Alma Wheeler-Smith for making the award possible. (They're the women on the left in the last two pictures.) Read more about John's impact: https://lnkd.in/eBTMEB3m

Almost a century ago, the Civilian Conservation Corps employed some 3 million people to help conserve American nature. Now, Michigan has its own civilian corps of climate workers—and we're part of it! We're looking for someone to help bring Michigan’s carbon neutrality goals to rural Alger County, population 9,000. They'll organize community events, plan strategy and bring funds to the cause alongside a team of stellar locals. Apply through Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) here: https://lnkd.in/dzmhaaZk

Michigan is lucky to have the world's largest assemblage of freshwater dunes, and the dunes are lucky to have Rachel Hood and Joey Andrews IV as their champions. Last week, at Saugatuck's Oval Beach, the lawmakers introduced bills to bring back longstanding protections that allow communities to thrive near—but not dangerously atop—our state's most fragile, unique dunes. Then, David Swan of the SAUGATUCK DUNES COASTAL ALLIANCE took the 40 journalists and advocates attending on a tour to put the bills into context. We're honored to have co-led this press conference and can't wait to work on making this legislation law. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dkPVhm5Q