Black River for kids and kids at heart

Thirty-eight kids and 'kids at heart' paddled, played, swam, camped on a sandbar, hiked up a waterfall, swam again, rolled down a sandbank, saw an eagle, learned a few things, paddled, swam, and played some more. Perfect weather. Fine water levels ranging from 1400 cfs to 1100 cfs. Sing-a-long, s'mores, and dramatic cloud displays, too. Thanks to Pat and Bobbie for organizing and leading this trip!!

See pictures here.

Serenading the Wild Waters

Friends of the Upper Mississippi will host an event on July 26 at Chad Erickson Memorial Park, 3601 Park Lane Drive, La Crosse. Serenading the Wild Waters will be an evening of food, fun, and music provided by Eddie Allen, an American Folk singer and songwriter who has been active on issues regarding the clean waters of the Mississippi since 1980 and Mike Caucutt, the lead singer for Mr. Blink and 2009 winner of the Great River Folk Fest Songwriting Contest.

The goal of the event is to introduce people of all ages to the great outdoors, raise awareness of the environmental risks that face the Upper Mississippi every day, and to talk about what YOU can do to aid the Friends’ efforts. More information can be found on the Friends’ Facebook page.

July 26 Clean Energy Roundtable in Platteville

The Wisconsin Climate Table is an umbrella group of 16 or so state organizations, including the Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin, and Citizens' Climate Lobby,  working on clean energy issues.  The group offers opportunities to collaborate, share best practices, and document lessons learned around climate and energy work. 

Through a grant from the McKnight Foundation the Wisconsin Climate Table is holding meetings in various locations around the state to hear what the issues are, opportunities and challenges in addressing them, and any efforts that are underway so we can figure out ways that the Climate Table might be able to support clean energy efforts in this part of the state.

The southwest, Wisconsin meeting will be held in Platteville on Wednesday, July 26.  

What:  Clean Energy Roundtable Discussion

Where: Community Room in the Platteville Public Library

               225 W Main St, Platteville, WI 53818

When: July 26^th, 6 pm to 8 pm

 

OPEN STREETS LA CROSSE - September 3

[from Wisconsin Bike Fed]

Calling all La Crosse food vendors, art vendors, & local businesses: Get your spot now for La Crosse Open Street, September 3rd, 2017, 12-4pm

La Crosse Open Streets is a partnership between the Wisconsin Bicycle Federation and Explore La Crosse with support from Downtown Mainstreet, Inc, the City of La Crosse and the La Crosse City Vision Foundation.

La Crosse Open Streets is an event that will take place Sunday, September 3rd during the seventh year of the La Crosse Labor Day Bicycle Festival. This is an effort to bring a new event to the area, while still capitalizing on the audience that will already be attending the Bicycle Festival.

2012 Open Streets Minneapolis

Open Streets events create car-free spaces where people and families can exercise and play; at the same time, neighborhood businesses and vendors can engage the community and visitors in new ways. We will use about a mile of downtown streets for this special event, activating space that is otherwise quiet on a Labor Day afternoon, and bringing new customers and sightseers to businesses. 

Open Streets is a worldwide movement modeled after Ciclovia, which began in Bogota, Columbia. The idea focuses on minimizing the use of cars and temporarily promoting biking, walking and active living in the communal spaces that are otherwise dominated or made unsafe or unhealthy by moving and parked cars. 

Open Streets events are designed to be recurring – possibly weekly or monthly through the summer. The idea is to give a glimpse of other ways to get around and use city space. While there are events throughout world, the most famous Open Streets events are in places like Toronto, LA, and St. Petersburg, Florida. 

We would like to begin by creating an annual event. While we know that temporary car-free spaces allow community involvement and support physical activity or the broadening of transportation choices, creating a welcoming community and encouraging people to return, we also know that it is difficult to imagine those choices with so many cars. The Open Streets event temporarily shows what is possible.

The City of La Crosse will close a stretch of downtown between Cameron Park and Burns Park. A map will be created to illustrate where activities will take place including yoga, dance, art, hula hooping, ladder ball, bean bag toss, jenga blocks, bubbles, bike checks, bicycle skills courses and more. Organizations and businesses are invited to participate and encouraged to have an activity for participants. Food trucks and craft vendors will also be invited. 

A Facebook page has updates leading up to the event. Open Streets will be promoted on social media and printed posters, post cards, fliers, signs and maps.


Please contact Carolyn Dvorak to reserve space outside your business or along the route and for event sponsorship.


Carolyn Dvorak
carolyn.dvorak-at-@wisconsinbikefed.org
O: (608) 709-2945
C: (608) 317-2825 cell

DNR revising clean water rules

This was sent by Wisconsin Rep. Jill Billings (D-95):

Step Toward Safer Water in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a proposal Monday that seeks to address the issue of groundwater contamination by revising some of the DNR's administrative rules. The draft rules would be stricter on large farms whose manure runoff contaminates groundwater. The water quality has been especially poor in Kewaunee County, where dangerous pathogens were found in well over half of the tested drinking wells. However, La Crosse County has seen its share of groundwater pollution, with a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) depositing nitrates in the water near the Town of Hollandale.

In a statement, Clean Wisconsin said the DNR is taking a good  first step toward making water in Wisconsin safer, but warned again the fact that the new administrative rules would not cover all of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, this rule does not cover any karst geology that runs along the western side of Wisconsin, in the La Crosse area. 

As part of revising their rules, the DNR will prepare an economic impact analysis for the proposed rule changes. A preliminary draft of the rule can be found here. The public has an opportunity to give input for the economic impact analysis between July 7 and August 7. A public meeting will also be held on the proposed permanent rule this fall.

SIERRA CLUB POSITION AVAILABLE

SIERRA CLUB SEEKS  Organizing Representative in Milwaukee

The Sierra Club is looking for a top-notch Organizing Representative located in Wisconsin who will be focused upon the goals of the innovative Beyond Coal campaign (www.beyondcoal.org). Primary responsibilities include grassroots and grasstops organizing, partner coordination, and participation in strategy development at the state level in a manner that encompasses and demonstrates the Sierra Club’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion values. Additionally, the Organizing Representative will represent Sierra Club in the media with our Internal Communications department, coordinate outreach and visibility activities, and work closely with existing staff and volunteer leaders. This position may also require some work in other states and some travel.

If you are passionate about building volunteer teams and partnerships, rallying community members and stakeholders around a transition from coal to clean energy, and have 3 years of experience organizing, we want to talk to you! To apply, submit your cover letter and resume to https://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm01/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=SIERRACLUB&cws=39&rid=913

 Applications are being considered immediately. Sierra Club offers competitive salary and benefits.

--
Teresa McHugh

Senior Organizing Manager

Sierra Club

131 N. High St., Suite 605

Columbus, OH 43215

614.484.7024

Transportation Budget Actions

from Cassie Steiner, state Sierra Club:

There's some motion in the transportation budget this week. This link is providing to-the-minute updates on this: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article159879204.html

Now more than ever it's time to call your elected officials, email them your photo petition, submit letters to the editor and tweet/facebook post. Below are some resources that can help you. Please share this email with your networks.

1. Calls:
   
   Find your elected official at https://myvote.wi.gov/en-US/MyElectedOfficials
   
   Script:
   Hi, my name is ____ and I’m a constituent from [hometown].
   
   
   I’m calling because I want to encourage the Representative/Senator to focus on meeting important local needs in the transportation budget.
   
   
   Please cut spending on highway mega-projects and invest instead in local needs - like repairing existing roads and funding public transit that connects people to jobs and the places they want to go. I also want to make sure that public transit stays in the segregated transportation fund.
   
   
   Thank you!
   
2. Photo Petitions (use this release form if you have others do photo petitions): Post on social media with #MyTransportationPriorities and email them to your elected officials
   
3. Letters to the Editor: Here are talking points and a fact sheet  to help you write these. If you have any questions about writing or submitting a letter, please feel free to email me at cassandra.steiner@sierraclub.org
   
4. Like and retweet this: https://twitter.com/wiCMRT/status/883021910375890944
   Like and share this: https://www.facebook.com/CMRTWI/photos/a.1596764417217498.1073741828.1595501130677160/2076508292576439/?type=3&theater

Cassie Steiner PR and Outreach Associate Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter 754 Williamson Street (The Council of the Blind Building) Madison, Wisconsin 53703

July Newsletter

Sustainability: Act Locally  A year ago, the eighth largest city in America, San Diego, led by a Republican mayor, committed to getting 100% of the city’s energy from clean and renewable energy sources by 2035. In September, the second largest city in America, Los Angeles, took the next big step by commissioning a study to map its pathway to 100% clean energy. While these U.S. cities may be some of the biggest, they’re certainly not the first, and they won’t be the last. International cities, like Vancouver, Paris, and Sydney, and now more than 30 other U.S. cities, have all made similar commitments. Proving that 100% clean and renewable energy is important for all cities and all communities -- big and small, red and blue, locally and globally.

So far, more than 115 mayors, including La Crosse mayor Tim Kabat, have endorsed the goal of #ReadyFor100, a movement of people working to inspire our leaders to embrace a vision of healthier communities powered by 100% clean energy. The overall goal is to achieve 100% clean, renewable energy across the United States by the year 2050.

Mayor Kabat has also joined more than 340 mayors from around the United States who have vowed to reduce their cities’ greenhouse gas emissions and to support efforts for binding federal and global-level policymaking. The group’s website, climatemayors.org, includes a Climate Action Compendium, a detailed inventory of municipal actions on climate change and other sustainability issues. Concerned citizens can encourage their own municipal leaders to join the effort and sign up at the website for updates on future actions.

And the #WeAreStillIn campaign is a group of more than 1,000 mayors, governors, college and university leaders, businesses, and investors who are joining forces for the first time to declare that they will continue to support climate action to meet the Paris Agreement.

This week the US Conference of Mayors passed the “100% Renewable Energy in American Cities” resolution which could pave the way for cities across the country to adopt 100 percent renewable energy targets within their communities.

These positive actions by elected officials are heartening. We can work to increase the number of civic and business leaders working toward these goals. If your mayor has signed on already, the next step is to organize to help implement them. It’s one thing to sign a document, but it’s another to budget for more mass transit (transportation is now the leading sector for greenhouse gas emissions) or install solar panels on public buildings or support solar roof or net zero retrofit programs in the community. This is where Sierra Club members can make a difference.

A new report by six global experts on climate change warns , “... should emissions continue to rise beyond 2020, or even remain level, the temperature goals set in Paris become almost unattainable. The UN Sustainable Development Goals that were agreed in 2015 would also be at grave risk.”

Learn more from these websites. Ask what your own local government is doing and can do. Push for changes, upgrades, retrofits, programs and policies that will support a swift move to 100% renewable energy. Research what others are doing (inhabitat.com is a great site for this and here’s an article about how a township of about 2,000 people is planning their own 100% renewable future.) We have role models in our own region, too, and we will highlight them next month. If you know of an individual, business, or government project or installation we can include,
please email crsierraclub-at-gmail.com.

Seeking BRF area members to help host Sierra Club display at the September 9 Green Life Xpo in
Black River Falls. Email crsierraclub-at-gmail.com!

Highway Cleanup July 18  The summer highway cleanup on the Coulee Group’s adopted highway
– River Valley Drive in the La Crosse River marsh – will be on Tuesday, July 18 starting at 6:00 p.m. (Contact Pat to confirm if weather conditions are iffy). Meet at the city water well building at the intersection of County Highway B (Gillette Street) and River Valley Drive. Wear old clothes and bring work gloves. Safety vests and bags are provided. We’ll visit Rudy’s Drive-In after the event!
For more info, contact Pat or Bobbie at 608 788-8831 or pbwilson-at-centurytel.net.

Family Friendly Black River Canoe Camping Trip July 15-16   This favorite kid friendly paddling
trip is being resurrected to encourage young families, families with kids and the young-at-heart to join us on the water. We’ll take it slow, stop to play/explore as frequently as desired, cook-out and sleep in tents on a sandbar and engage in creative outdoor play. We’ll paddle from Irving to North Bend. The river is sand bottom with many sandbars for stopping. Contact: Pat or Bobbie Wilson at 608-788-8831 or pbwilson-at-centurytel.net.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy  The Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC) is seeking donations
in order to save the Kickapoo Indian Caverns, a unique 83-acre property located west of Wauzeka and one of Wisconsin’s longest natural cavern systems. The property hosts a large and diverse hibernating bat population as well as native remnant prairie, oak woodland, rock outcrops, sinkholes and part of the Lower Kickapoo River Important Bird Area. The MVC plans to allow limited guided
cavern tours and open the rest of the property for hiking, cross-country skiing, bird-watching, and hunting plus educational events and research opportunities. To learn more and donate, visit tinyurl.com/mvcsavebats. MVC is also promoting health through their Hike to Wellness program and they are hosting Linked to the Land opportunities around the region through the summer and fall

Be a Citizen Scientist  The Crawford Stewardship Project is looking for people to do water quality monitoring around the Wauzeka CAFO, sand mining operations, as well as other threatened waters
in Crawford County. Monitor training is free and provided by Valley Stewardship Network. For more info visit: valleystewardshipnetwork.org/solutions/water-research/

Crowdsource Open Street Map   Make sure others know about your community’s special bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure by using Open Street Map. A recent article by People for Bikes, an industry coalition, highlighted the tool to help communities measure the quality of their “people power” networks. Anyone may edit the map. Free online training is also provided.

Connect with us online at tinyurl.com/crsierra, cr-sierra.blogspot.com, or crsierraclub-at-gmail.com.