Columns

Dave Dempsey

Who Should Be First
in Enviro Hall of Fame?

November 18, 2011

Who are the Babe Ruths of Michigan conservation?

Answering the question is a new project of the Muskegon Environmental Research and Education Society, which this past summer announced its plan to create a Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame. Society Treasurer Ron Brown said induction will be for persons who’ve devoted “time and resources to the environment, an environmental project that has made a great impact, a nonprofit organization or school that has the environment in the forefront of its activity.”

Little known statewide, the Society operates the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve in North Muskegon. Its ability to maintain a Hall of Fame over time is uncertain, but its idea is a sound one, since conservation and environmental protection are a major element of Michigan’s heritage.

“We were looking for some way to honor those who’ve done a lot for the environment,” Brown said. “At first we were going to do just West Michigan, but after additional thought decided on all of Michigan. The term Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame came after we did some research and could not find one in Michigan.”

There’s a comparable organization next door. The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in Stevens Point has dozens of inductees with ties to the state, ranging from Sierra Club founder John Muir to U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, often called “the father” of the first Earth Day in 1970.

Which raises the question: will the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame take nominations to induct former officeholders and politicians?

Sure, says Brown. “If a politician has been active in the environmental arena for some time, we will consider him or her.”

Which raises a second question: which Michigan political figures might qualify for Hall of Fame recognition? It’s probably a short list.

Michigan’s longest-serving governor, William G. Milliken, is one. He advocated and signed most of the state’s modern environmental statutes, including the Environmental Protection Act, Inland Lakes and Streams Act, Wetlands Act, Sand Dune Protection and Management Act, Hazardous Waste Management Act and on and on.

Milliken also used his office to articulate the importance of protecting land, water and air in a way no other Michigan chief executive has done. He memorably said, “In Michigan, our soul is not to be found in steel and concrete, or sprawling new housing developments or strip malls. Rather, it is found in the soft petals of a trillium, the gentle whisper of a headwater stream, the vista of a Great Lakes shoreline, and the wonder in children’s eyes upon seeing their first bald eagle.”

That’s not a sentiment you hear much from politicians these days.

Another candidate for induction is the late State Representative Tom Anderson of Southgate. A former auto worker, the first mayor of Southgate and lifelong hunter and angler, Anderson served for two decades in the House, retiring in 1982, and later as a member of the Natural Resources Commission overseeing the Department of Natural Resources. As chair of the House Conservation Committee he put his affability and legislative smarts to work engineering the passage of many of the laws Milliken signed.

Reaching farther back into Michigan political history, it’s difficult to think of any politicians who spent time on conservation or environmental protection, let alone effecting milestone laws. Individual contributions came from several. Wartime governor Harry Kelley in 1944 proposed the actions and funding to establish the nationally significant Porcupine Mountains State Park in the Upper Peninsula.

Agency directors who cared are more numerous. P.J. Hoffmaster, director of the Department of Conservation from 1934 to 1951, dramatically expanded the state park system (a state park in the dunes near Muskegon bears his name). Howard Tanner, DNR fisheries chief and then director, introduced Pacific salmon to the Great Lakes in 1966, helping build an enormous sport fishery that continues to generate recreation and tourism dollars today. He led the DNR under the approach of “erring on the side of the resource,” also a sentiment not much heard today.

Two potential citizen inductees with huge impact on the Capitol also come to mind. Joan Wolfe, founder of the West Michigan Environmental Council in 1968, camped out in the halls under the dome to pressure lawmakers to pass the Environmental Protection Act in 1970. She was also watchdog over the Inland Lakes and Streams Act in 1972, a law proposed by her husband, the late Willard Wolfe.

And anyone involved in conservation issues in the ’70s and ’80s will never forget Tom Washington, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs. Crude but shrewd and bear-like, Washington was instrumental in bypassing a stalemated legislature to win voter approval of the state’s container deposit law in 1976. The law remains the most successful and effective of its kind in the nation. For years, Washington’s voice was feared in the Capitol.

Response to the Hall of Fame announcement has been encouraging, Brown says. The group has had “little trouble” receiving enough nominations to meet its quota of five inductees, he reports.

If you want to make a nomination for the first batch of inductees, the deadline is February 12 and the person to contact is Brown via email. More information on the Muskegon Environmental Research and Education Society is available at its website.

Dave Dempsey served as environmental advisor to Gov. James Blanchard from 1983-90 and is the author of several books, including Ruin and Recovery, a history of Michigan conservation, and William Milliken, Michigan’s Passionate Moderate.