WRPC website address: http://www.wrpc.net/index.html

January 16, 2004

Dear WRPC Member, 

On October 28, 2003, the Mole Lake Chippewa and Forest County Potawatomi purchased the Crandon mine site in order to protect the environment, Northwoods tourism and cultural resources at the headwaters of the Wolf River. The two tribes paid $16.5 million to purchase Nicolet Minerals Company from the Connor family. The first act of the new owners was to inform the DNR that they were withdrawing their application for the Crandon mine project thus ending the 28 year old controversy. "With this purchase," said Sandra Rachal, Mole Lake Chairwoman,"we can prevent environmental threats from unsafe proposals to mine at the headwaters of the Wolf River. The risks to the water, the land and the air from the proposed project were much too great."

"But the successful end to the long fight to prevent the Wolf River mine was not just a victory for the environment," said Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison). "It was a victory for the power of the people over the power of money." Zoltan Grossman and Debra McNutt of the Wolf Watershed Educational Project emphasized that "This movement brought Native American nations together with sportfishing groups, environmentalists with unionists, and rural residents with urban students"
(see WSJ 11/10/03).

While the grassroots victory over the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, is a cause for celebration, it is not the end of the story. Although the Potawatomi paid with cash for their half of the purchase, the Mole Lake Tribe paid for their half with a loan. The tribe will owe that $8 million note in 2006 to BHP Billiton, the mining company that sold NMC to the Connor family.

The Wolf River Protection Fund has been established to help the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Community pay the note and guarantee the protection of the watershed. People who worked to stop the Crandon mine can protect the Wolf River and help the Mole Lake Tribe by making a tax-deductible contribution. Donations to the Fund can be made online at the website: http://www.wolfriverprotectionfund.org/  A form for mailing donations is enclosed. 

The most recent threat to the Wolf River watershed comes from a plan to privatize our water by pumping it out of the ground, bottling it and selling it around the country. Conservationists and the Menominee Tribe have taken legal action to protect public water resources, but they need your help to pay for their challenge to the DNR's approval of a high capacity well for Polar Ice Water. See attached appeal from the Antigo Chapter of Trout Unlimited. If you send a donation, please be sure to include your e-mail address, if you have one.

Sincerely, 

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec. 
info@wrpc.net
www.wrpc.net