Dear WEI Friends and Supporters,     Ways you can contribute to WEI.            Donations by mail.                       DONATE ON-LINE.

As we finish up a successful year at WEI, we enter an era of great change--a time of REAL opportunity and challenge for the country and for WEI. I am writing to ask your continued support and involvement in our environmental justice mission. We need your investment more than ever as national and local economic dynamics unfold. Please remember that all contributions to WEI, including WEI memberships, are tax deductible.

WEI continues to be a force for positive change in Minnesota’s urban and rural communities. Here are some of the many good works you can support:

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES DISPROPORTIONATELY EXPOSED TO ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS

• One of WEI’s most dynamic projects, The Phillips Neighborhood Environmental Justice Education and Advocacy Collaborative (EJEAC) is researching the connection between known environmental toxins and public health problems in this low-income, Indigenous and community of color in Minneapolis. A toxic-site mapping phase has been completed and a door-to-door health survey conducted by 10 neighborhood-based workers is underway. Working with Principal Investigator Ann Fredrickson and Community Organizer KJ Starr, a steering committee of local residents (known as the Phillips Environmental Steering Committee Initiative, or PESCI) is providing effective grass roots leadership.

• WEI's PESCI also led the advocacy effort that created historic and unprecedented public policy. The 2008 MN Legislature passed legislation requiring that a "cumulative health impact analysis" be done by the MN Pollution Control Agency before a polluting industry can be sited in the Phillips Neighborhood. Environmental justice was the criteria cited for this legislation, which represents a new policy model in the state and nation.

• WEI's East Metro EJEAC is implementing a right-to-know initiative serving Hmong, Latino, Indigenous and other East Side communities of color. This campaign raises citizen awareness about toxics in East Metro urban neighborhoods, beginning with the perfluorochemical (PFC) contamination about which these communities have received little or no information. A strong community-based steering committee has been created and is providing leadership and guidance to Principal Investigator, Dr. Fardin Oliaei.

• WEI's Climate Justice Collaboration with the Environmental Justice Advocates of MN (EJAM) has developed culturally appropriate community education materials and hosted convenings to seek remedies for the disproportionate impact of global climate change on communities of color and/or residents of low-income areas. As part of this effort, WEI is also an active participant in Winona LaDuke's "Green Jobs for Brown People" Working Group in Minnesota, which works to ensure that these same communities share in opportunities associated with new “green energy development.”

PROMOTING GOOD STEWARDSHIP OF THE LAND

• Based at WEI’s Amador Hill farm campus, the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm project just completed its fourth year—providing 143 members with a bushel of fresh organic produce once a week for 19 weeks, including 120 bushels of food for Harvest for the Hungry. An Organic Farm School was newly hosted by The Loft for 10 weeks with 30-40 attendees and fabulous speakers, including Will Allen of "Growing Power". Will Allen and WEI will collaborate with Little Earth of United Tribes on an urban agriculture project in 2009.

• In 2008, WEI launched the Amador-Sunrise Land-Registry for conservation-minded private landowners in Amador and Sunrise Townships of Chisago County (in the vicinity of WEI’s Amador Hill Eco-retreat Center). WEI provides personalized ecological services and information resources to Registry members, supporting their efforts to protect water quality in the Sunrise and St. Croix Rivers, restore habitat for native species, and preserve the area’s rural and natural heritage.

• Still in its early stages, the North Circle Project aims to enhance the economic success of East Central Minnesota-based farmers interested in organic and sustainable agriculture. WEI is working with partner organizations, neighbors and others in the local community to explore options for production of value-added organic products, cooperative marketing ventures, and technical assistance for farmers/gardeners interested in converting to organic practices. Through North Circle, WEI is also building connections between urban food justice projects and the Amador Hill campus, highlighting experiences for youth groups.

HOME SAFE HOME

• Through community outreach, WEI’s Eco-Aware Home Project is fostering a grass-roots network of “kitchen table activists.” Eco-Aware home parties provide information to individuals and families about the toxicity of common household and personal care products, practical (healthier) alternatives, and opportunities to work for policy change in their communities. WEI is also an active member of the Healthy Legacy Coalition, advocating for broad-based chemical policy reform in the interest of public health.

Please make it possible for WEI to continue this important work! The dream of WEI belongs to us all, and it will need all of us if it is to succeed. We have enclosed a contribution envelope for your consideration.

Note: I welcome your ideas on how you might become more involved with WEI. You can call me directly at 651.237.7156 or call my terrific executive assistant, Blake Traylor, who will be happy to set up a time for us to meet. You can reach her at 651-209-3934 (extension 1) or at blake@w-e-i.org

With renewed hope for peace and justice,
Karen Joy Clark
Executive Director, Women's Environmental Institute

Attachment	Size
WEI in Action 2008.pdf	2.04 MB

The new Amador-Sunrise Land Registry is off to a great start, thanks to a grant received in July 2008 from Embrace Open Space, with support from the McKnight Foundation. As of mid-September, an advisory team has been assembled, consulting ecologists have been selected to serve Registry members, and a baseline ecological inventory of the Registry's 62-acre anchor property (WEI and adjacent parcels) is underway by ecologist Barbara Delaney. The program's focus is now shifting to a community outreach campaign, with design and printing of a program brochure, informational booths at area events and news releases in local media.  The Amador-Sunrise Land Registry is coordinated by Laurie Allmann, WEI's Community Liaison and Writer-in-Residence. All landowners in Amador and Sunrise Townships are welcome to attend.

For more information, click here.

Brief WEI Research and Community Advocacy Program
Brief WEI Education Program
Brief WEI Farm Program
Brief WEI Eco-Retreat Center
Brief Amador-Sunrise Registry Project

Each year WEI honors the courage and integrity of a researcher and scholar who takes great risks on what they know and what they believe is the public's right to know. This year Paul Wotzka was unanimously voted by the WEI Board of Directors as WEI's 2008 Scholar Under Fire.

Watch for Paul's Upcoming WEI Scholar-Under-Fire Lecture Series at various locations in Minnesota: "Nitrates, Atrazin, and Corn-Based Ethanol: What's in Your Water?"

Paul Wotzka is a scientist who leveled a whistleblower lawsuit against the state regarding his research on Atrazine, a common pesticide used by farmers in Minnesota. As a hydrologist, Paul had logged 16 years monitoring water quality for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture before moving to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency last year. During the 2007 legislative session, he received a call from Representative Ken Tschumper, a dairy farmer who advocates banning Atrazine from use in Minnesota. He had read an article in a DNR magazine where Paul was quoted as saying we have observed some increasing concentrations of Atrazine in trout streams in southeastern Minnesota. Tschumper, the author of several bills aimed at tightening regulation of Atrazine, asked Wotzka to appear at a hearing planned for the next day and sent a request to testify to his supervisors which was denied. Wotzka persisted, provided the testimony, and was put on investigatory leave and six weeks later fired from his job. While the details of this firing are under review, the timing of the action and the nature of Paul's important research on Atrazine in Minnesota waterways have given WEI board members good reason to award Paul with our 2008 Scholar Under Fire Award. We hope to create more public knowledge about Paul's research and more information about the perils of Atrazine on human health and our rural communities. Paul Wotzka joins a former WEI Scholar Under Fire, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, whose work on Atrazine remains vitally important for the State of Minnesota and farm land and waterways everywhere.

Please join us in recognizing Paul Wotzka's courage and commitment to the public's right to know.

WEI survives with the help of all our contributing members and volunteers. Our mission is becoming ever more pressing as environmental justice, agricultural justice, food security, and environmental health issues become the forefront struggles in the coming decades. To continue this vitally important work, we need your investment in the form of an annual membership, and we especially encourage your participation in WEI programs and volunteer opportunities in the coming year.

For Membership Options and Perks, click here. You can apply directly on-line or by check sent to WEI, P.O. Box 128, North Branch, Minnesota 55056. If sending by mail, please download our new membership form. Individual memberships are $48/year or $58/year for you and a friend. Student memberships are $25.