UPEC Livestreams: Keeping you connected with the UP environment
Our series of livestreams, co-hosted by Board President Horst Schmidt and Vice President Evan Zimmermann, keeps you up-to-date with environmental issues facing the Upper Peninsula.
Please note: as of November 2021, you can view all archived recordings of the livestreams anytime on UPEC’s Facebook page. Earlier posts below link to UPEC’s YouTube channel, which is no longer being used for this purpose.
Conan Smith, head of the Michigan Environmental Council, discusses the work of a statewide outdoor recreation workgroup to develop recommendations for Governor Whitmer and state agencies for a systematic, phased reopening of outdoor recreation activities and facilities to safeguard people from infection by Covid-19.
This livestream looks at the controversy over re-permitting Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline, which passes through the Upper Peninsula and crosses the Straits of Mackinac along the lakebed. Jeff Towner, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers retired wildlife biologist and UPEC Board member, and Mike Ripley of the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority are the guests. Towner explains the regulatory path Enbridge has to go through for the Line 5 tunnel approval. Ripley discusses tribal efforts to shut down Line 5 because of the dangers a spill would pose to their fisheries, which they operate under rights recognized by the Treaty of 1836.
