Episode 44 of State of Water

We’re happy to welcome Tom Grotewohl of Protect the Porkies, who are organizing against the development of the Copperwood Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Important and time-sensitive calls to action:

✍🏽Visit protecttheporkies.com to learn more about all of the campaign efforts including links to sign the petition opposing Copperwood Mine and write a letter to Governor Whitmer.

🗣️Sign up contribute a public comment to the Michigan Strategic Fund’s public comment session on March 26th at 10am (in-person in Lansing or virtually). You can get all the info about attending, pre-registering a virtual comment, or submitting a comment of opposition via email from the ‘register to make a comment’ button on protecttheporkies.com homepage or from this direct link.

🌲Join the Protect the Porkies virtual town hall this Saturday, March 23 at 11am to get more campaign updates. Register for the townhall here.

🌊 Tune in to our new State of Water podcast episode to hear an in-depth conversation with Tom Grotewohl of Protect the Porkies! Listen on Spotify, Soundcloud or Apple Podcasts.

This proposed metallic sulfide mine would be the closest to Lake Superior in history as well as bordering the North Country Trail and Porcupine Mountain State Park – which is not only the largest State Park in Michigan, it is the largest designated Wilderness Area in mainland Michigan with 40,000+ acres of designated Wilderness including 35,000 acres of old growth forest which is the largest tract of mixed coniferous-deciduous old growth remaining in the Midwest. It was recently ranked as “most beautiful State Park in the country.”

The Michigan Strategic Fund is currently considering a $50M grant to the proposed Copperwood metallic sulfide mine – this move would be an incredibly irresponsible use of taxdoller money and most likely open the door to additional investment and funding that would help the foreign energy company get the necessary resources to start development.

Tom goes in-depth in the episode to how we got here, what’s at stake and all of the current calls to action that we’re encouraging folks to take. Please join us in taking action and spreading the word to your friends!

State of Water is a program of the Michigan-based non-profit organization Title Track, and is powered by the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan. The podcast is made possible through a generous contribution from the Esperance Foundation.

EPISODE 44

Tom Grotewohl interviewed by Seth Bernard

Produced, edited and mixed by Dan Rickabus and Chris Good

Narrators – Alex Smith, Ben Darcie, Dan Rickabus, Jenny Jones, Angela Gallegos, Rachel Marco-Havens

Graphic by Chris Good, Photos courtesy of Tom Grotewohl

Theme Music – Mike Savina, Seth Bernard & Dan Rickabus

Featured Music – “Homestretch” by Ecotone; “Authors (instrumental demo)” by Dan Rickabus; and “La Nana de la Loba” by Maple Moon