The founder of Earth Day challenges the giant Duluth to Wausau electric transmission line during a ceremony to honor the Namekagon River.
Into the wild Namekagon
By
Nick Vander Puy
Gaylord Nelson and his canoeing partner, Lac Courte Oreilles tribal member Buck Barber, remember 1965. Nelson was a United States Senator from Wisconsin then, and he paddled down the Namekagon River with Barber's father Bill, Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, Hayward visionary Tony Wise, and more than a hundred other canoes. They were demonstrating to protect the Namekagon and the St. Croix. In five years, Nelson would found Earth Day.
Nelson championed the Wild and Scenic River Act, and when it passed the Namekagon and St. Croix became the first rivers east of the Mississippi to benefit from this official protection. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act exists "to protect for posterity, the river's free flowing character, water quality, and the natural, scenic, aesthetic, cultural, and recreational values of the river."
But now, the American Transmission Company wants to build a 345-kilovolt electric line across 230 miles of forests, streams, wetlands, and farms in northwest Wisconsin, including the pristine Namekagon River. The line was approved two years ago under questionable circumstances by the state Public Service Commission. The line needs National Park Service permission to cross the federally protected Namekagon.
“I’ll have to be 200 years old before I let that power line cross the river,” the 86-year-old Nelson says.
It’s May 10, and Nelson is standing at Stinnett Landing on the Namekagon River. The Badger drum from Lac Courte Oreilles starts up with a song to honor the creator, to honor this beautiful place on the Namekagon, and to honor all the warriors (ogichidaa) who protect the river.
One of America's leading conservationists, Nelson still fights tenaciously for the wild river. "We are losing these gems of nature, such as the Namekagon and St. Croix, very rapidly across the country, and if we allow a big transmission line to cross the Namekagon it'll create havoc and defile this lovely river," Nelson tells more than 200 people on the banks of the river.
"I don't want any corporation or individual to degrade this river,” Nelson says. “The Namekagon is my river, and your river, and even those who have never seen it and never will. There aren't many rivers left as pure and beautiful as the Namekagon. We should leave as it is." His words trail off into applause.
Nelson recognizes the desire to keep the lights on, but says this electric line is the wrong line, in the wrong place at the wrong time. "It's preposterous in my view to build a new route when a route already exists, the King Weston line. The King Weston line goes from a substation west of Eau Claire to Wausau. The Duluth line destroys too much for no gain," Nelson says.
Jerry Burnett from the Mole Lake Sokagon Chippewa community dances a feather, tying it on the women's feather staff to honor Nelson. The Chippewa women conduct a water ceremony. An eagle flies above the river.
Former DNR Secretary George Meyer steps forward. "The reason the eagle is alive today is because back in the early 1970s Gaylord Nelson helped ban DDT," Meyer said. "Gaylord Nelson has been a hero to me throughout my career."
Then Barber, his seven-year-old grandson Starman Barber, and Nelson launch their red canoe in the rolling Namekagon. Nelson gazes out across the water. They maneuver down river.
At least 75 canoes string out in the Namekagon behind them.
May 29, 2003
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Nick Vander Puy is lead producer for the Superior Broadcast Network in northern Wisconsin.
