Note: These awards will be presented at the Michigan Environmental Council’s annual Environmental Awards Celebration, Wednesday, May 28 at the University of Michigan Alumni Association, 200 Fletcher St., Ann Arbor. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 5:30; awards presentation at 6:15. Media RSVP’s are not necessary, but appreciated.

Link to invitation & map

Michigan’s highest environmental honors will be awarded May 28 to a University of Michigan professor who pioneered the issue of Environmental Justice, and a Benton Harbor activist rallying community support for protecting a public park’s Lake Michigan sand dunes.

Bunyan Bryant, PhD., is the recipient of the Council’s 2008 Helen and William G. Milliken Distinguished Service Award. The honor is given to persons who have made exceptional contributions to protect our state’s residents and preserve our natural resources.

Dr. Bryant is director of the Environmental Justice Initiative and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources where he teaches environmental justice.

He was a pioneer in creating a national Environmental Justice (EJ) movement when EJ was considered a fringe issue. Today, innumerable studies and reams of data confirm the truth – low income neighborhoods and communities of color suffer from asthma rates, cancers and debilitating illness because of pollution that far exceeds normal or average.

Dr. Bryant has organized national and international conferences on the issue, and brought awareness and change to the highest levels of policy-making.

But his contributions go beyond his impact on public policy, said Michigan Environmental Council President Lana Pollack: “Bunyan is truly an inspired teacher and mentor to countless students who needed support that went beyond the classroom,” she said. “He’s been a voice for the disenfranchised at the highest levels, but also a personal friend and confidant of many who have grown under his tutelage.”

The Council’s other annual award, the Petoskey Prize for Environmental Leadership, goes to Carol Drake of Benton Harbor.

Drake’s tireless grassroots efforts to organize citizens to save their spectacular Lake Michigan park from an exclusive golf course earned her the prize. It is awarded to citizens whose outstanding work in protecting Michigan’s natural heritage is marked by commitment, creativity and courage.

Drake began asking questions after men in suits and ties began struggling up and down the sand dunes at Jean Klock Park in Benton Harbor. The park was donated to the community in 1917 by a local philanthropist, who deeded it forever to the community’s children. Drake discovered that corporate developers intended to appropriate 22 acres of the public park’s most spectacular dune vistas for an exclusive golf course.

She rallied many residents of the poor, primarily minority community to ask tough questions about the proposed land grab. Late last year the National Park Service ruled against the developers – a decision being appealed.

“Carol Drake is proof positive that the drive and passion of individual citizens can be a catalyst for change and elevation of public awareness on important issues,” said Pollack. “She deserves this honor, both for herself and on behalf of the many people in her community who have helped shine a light on this unconscionable attempt at taking valuable natural resources from the public.”

Past winners of the Milliken Award:
Steve Hamp, Peter Stroh, Peter Wege, Marty Fluharty, Peter Karmanos, Congressman John Dingell, Congressman Vernon Ehlers, Mary C. Brown.

Past winners of the Petoskey Prize:
Debbie Romak, Alison & David Swan, Diane Hebert, Terry Swier, Michelle Hurd Riddick, Don A. Griffin, Lynn Henning.

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The Michigan Environmental Council is a coalition of 70 environmental, public health, and faith-based groups dedicated to the protection of the state’s natural resources and the public health and welfare that depends on a clean environment.

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