Defender the
CLEAN WATER
• CLEAN AIR • CLEAN ENERGY
Spring 2010 • Vol. 40, No. 2
40 Years of Clean Wisconsin
Environmental Legacy Fund 40 YEARS LATER
Challenge to Raise $200,000 N E V E R Fa R for Endowment Fund is ON from our Roots By Brian Kelly, Associate Director
By Mark Redsten, Executive Director
Clean Wisconsin’s 40 anniversary marked an occasion both to celebrate the many victories we have achieved together, and to look forward to the many challenges and opportunities we will face over the next 40 years. To commemorate our past and build a foundation for our future work, Clean Wisconsin is announcing our goal to raise at least $400,000 for the Clean Wisconsin Environmental Legacy Fund, an endowment that will support our environmental advocacy. We are pleased to announce that we have received a lead gift of $100,000 from our founder, Doug La Follette, and the Madison Community Foundation has issued a challenge for the remainder: If we raise an additional $200,000, they will contribute $100,000 to our endowment fund. With these two annoucements, Clean Wisconsin is poised to move to a new level of financial security. “When Peter Anderson and I started this organization, we called it Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade. Working together with folks like Kathleen Falk and Spencer Black, and with help from many of you out there, we made great advances in that first decade,” says La Follette, who has seen the organization rise to many challenges over the last four decades. “We achieved several important victories that are the foundation of the environmental protections we are building on today. But over the past four decades, we learned that protecting Wisconsin’s environment is not a 10-year project. It is not a project for one generation. It is something that must be sustained. We did not do this for ourselves; we did this to protect the future. That is why I am donating $100,000 to Clean Wisconsin’s Environmental Legacy Fund: to help them educate our current and future leaders, to ensure this fight continues. I hope you will join me in meeting this challenge.” Kathleen Woit, President of Madison Community Foundation, echoed Doug’s thoughts. “The Madison
Recently celebrating Clean Wisconsin’s 40th anniversary provided the opportunity to pause and reflect upon the rich history of our organization, as well as look forward to finding better solutions to address new environmental challenges. Working with a staff of over 20 professionals in a bustling office environment, it is easy to forget that the roots of our organization are anchored in just two individuals — Doug La Follette and Peter Anderson — who recognized the growing number of threats Wisconsin’s beautiful environment faced at the beginning of the 1970s. Feeling that the 1970s would be the decade of environmental reform, they founded Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade in 1970 and went about the work of protecting Wisconsin’s environment. It was not uncommon to see Anderson sleeping in the state Capitol building when they lacked the funds to purchase office space in Madison.
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INSIDE Taking Charge and Taking Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Enviro-SCRAMBLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Clean Wisconsin Legislative Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Wisconsin Loves Energy Efficiency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Waukesha’s Diversion Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Healthy Eating to Restore Wisconsin’s Waters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Looking Back at Clean Wisconsin’s Legal Activism . . . . . . . . . . . 5 40 Years of Clean Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7 Our Visions for 2050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Bullish on Biogas, Profile of Legislative Leadership . . . . . . . . . . 8 40th Anniversary Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Ask David. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Scenes from Clean Wisconsin’s 40th Anniversary . . . . . . . . . . . 12