The 2014 recipients of the Lake Superior Binational Forum Environmental Stewardship Awards received lovely rock lamps created by Gail Anderson of Superior Light Source of Grand Marais.
The Lake Superior Binational Forum recently presented awards to seven American and Canadian recipients of the Environmental Stewardship Awards at a gathering in Superior, Wisconsin. This is the 11th year the Forum has recognized individuals and organizations who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to environmental stewardship through leadership in one of six categories: Youth, Individual Adult, Business or Industry, Municipality, Organization, or First Nation/Tribe.
According to the Binational Forum, recipients have taken successful and innovative actions that minimize impacts on the natural or human environment in the Lake Superior basin.
Each year the Forum chooses an artist from the Lake Superior basin to create a gift that reflects a unique aspect of living around the world’s largest lake. This year, the Forum is proud to give an award made by Gail Anderson of Grand Marais, which highlights the basin’s unusual geology. Anderson’s handmade beach stone lamps consist of stones from the Minnesota North Shore assembled in one-of-a-kind formations.
Anderson worked for years in a commercial photography business, until she moved north to Grand Marais, where she expanded her love of creative adventures to making art out of Lake Superior’s stones.
The stone lamps serve as a symbol of the Lake Superior Binational Program’s Lakewide Management Plan, referred to as “the LaMP.” This plan details progressive best management practices and goals developed by binational agencies, governments, and tribes to help protect and restore the basin’s natural environment.
The 2014 Environmental Stewardship Awards were presented to the following people in these categories: Rick Currell, Montreal Harbour, Ontario – adult individual; Deanna Erickson, Superior, Wisconsin – adult individual; Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Natural Resources Department, Baraga, Michigan – Tribe; and Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) in Duluth – U.S. Municipality. Tying in the U.S. Business category were Hermit Creek Farm, High Bridge, Wisconsin and Inn on Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota.
The Lake Superior Binational Forum is a multi-sector stakeholder group of U.S. and Canadian volunteers working together to provide input to governments about lake issues and to educate basin residents about ways to protect and restore the lake. Members are from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario. The Forum is located in the United States at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, and is funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
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