The Anglers of the Au Sable aren't what you'd call a go-along, get-along gang.
Dedicated to protecting the Au Sable River and its watershed, the 700-member organization has, at various times in its 25-year history, vilified politicians, shamed bureaucrats and sued the pants off those they perceived as threats to the river.
So in the latter half of 2010 -- when awareness began to spread through the Anglers' ranks that Enbridge Energy Partners, the company responsible for the 800,000 gallon oil spill in the Kalamazoo River that July, had another aging pipeline handling up to 22 million gallons a day that crossed under their beloved trout stream near Luzerne [as best I can tell, somewhere in the neighborhood of Parmalee bridge] -- you might have expected things to get prickly.
But they didn't.
Instead, through a series of meetings and discussions between Enbridge officials and leaders of the Anglers, a somewhat unorthodox partnership was born. One which has resulted in the company installing a remote-controlled shut-off valve at a cost of $300,000-$500,000 on the south side of the river, visits to Grayling by Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel and surprising praise for Big Oil from hard-line conservationists.
Read the rest.
This group has done amazing things to protect the AS watershed, and it's nice to see them getting out in front of something like this. Much preferable to after-the-fact lawsuits.
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In other news, it seems whale sharks have taken bait stealing to the next level:
Wonder if a small clouser might fool one of those--or would I have to cast a net full of them?
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