Kate Hale's organizing work
- 7/03
Hi
everybody, I'm Kate Hale. I spent most of my third quarter
time on WSN priority issue work. I did, additionally, put a few hours in researching some likely allies for WSN in
the western region; among those I identified—Valley
Stewardship Network, Western Wisconsin Land Trust, Lower
Chippewa Basin Habitat Project; Gathering Waters Conservancy,
Audubon Upper Mississippi River Campaign, & several regional
Sierra Club groups.
I spent many hours in July, August, and September preparing
for a DNR hearing on a proposed factory farm expansion in the
Black River Falls area (Hixton). Early on I researched the
topic of CAFOs/factory farming; I communicated with Andrew
Hanson of Midwest
Environmental Advocates, who provided me with many documents
pertinent to the case. Andrew was always gracious in
taking emails and phone calls, and patiently clarified legal
language pertaining to the issue.
I read up specifically
on the farm in question, and did some exchanging of emails with
various folks in Jackson county, both officials involved in the
matter and private citizens. I organized several email
lists around different constituent groups in the vicinity; I
used these to notify people and to keep them apprised of the
case. I attended and made a public statement at the
September 17th hearing; I followed this up with written
testimony sent to the DNR officer in charge, I also turned
again to my email lists to encourage folks to send in written
commentary; many took the time to do so.
As of this
writing, the case remains undecided. It was a great
experience and meeting so many committed, environmentally aware
citizens was very encouraging.
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