Editor's note: MEC celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Throughout 2005 we will publish information about the history of the organization and its accomplishments.

Early in 1980, longtime Detroit Free Press columnist Hugh McDiarmid authored an opinion piece that began, "The environmental lobby in Michigan remains a joke." As Michigan's economy began to suffer one of its periodic downturns, special interests and some lawmakers began to talk seriously about undoing some of the most important and progressive environmental reforms Michigan had enacted in the previous decade.

Six of the groups that had cooperated in fighting for state laws in the 1970s formed the Michigan Environmental Council as their Lansing representative and put out an advertisement for a full-time lobbyist at a salary of $18,500 per year. "We can't compete before the Legislature any more without a full-time lobbyist," said Ken Sikkema, then executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), and today the State Senate Majority Leader.

From this start has grown today's MEC, an organization that is far more than just a Lansing lobbyist. It coalesces member groups and supports their work, researches and communicates innovative solutions to policy problems, supports environmental education and helps build a stronger environmental ethic among all Michigan citizens.

We have established a special 25th Anniversary space on our web site: www.mecprotects.org. Please visit the site to share stories of environmental activism and nominate top environmental victories from the past 25 years.