Peter Wege's talk delivered by Wege Foundation's Executive Director Ellen Satterlee

H.O.W. CONFERENCE- DULUTH 9/10/09

Because Peter Wege could not attend the Healing Our Waters Coalition conference in Duluth, Minnesota, in early September, his foundation’s Director Ellen Satterlee brought his message to some 250 conference attendees. Representatives from all eight Great Lakes states and the two Canadian provinces bordering the lakes listened intently as Ellen Satterlee spoke on behalf of The Wege Foundation’s founder, Peter M. Wege.

I want to thank each one of you here today for all you have given to saving our national treasure: the Great Lakes. We could not have come as far as we have in preserving and protecting the Great Lakes without the help of every single person in this room. You have made it happen. I have always advocated collaboration and team work; you are living proof of how well that philosophy works. Please give yourselves a big pat on the back.

All along I have said that saving the Great Lakes is the most important thing I have done in my life—which will reach 90 years in February. You have given me the great gift of helping to realize this dream. In 2004, I said we had to hurry because I did not have forever to watch this vision become reality. Nobody believed we could make this movement—that started at our first HOW meeting in Grand Rapids—become a $20 billion federal law in five years. But together we have done it. I am proud to know every one of you.

Saving the Great Lakes is an act of great patriotism. It is an act of economicology because the economy of the Great Lakes depends on the health of those five fresh-water seas. This current economic downturn has affected the Great Lakes states as much as any part of the country. Now is the time to come together as Americans and make sure the Midwest’s economy regains its strength. What we’re doing for the Great Lakes will help do just that.

We’ve made history with the Great Lakes Compact that unites two Canadian provinces and eight Great Lakes states in an international treaty to protect our fresh water from being diverted to other parts of the United States and Canada. In doing this, we have saved the Great Lakes for posterity in both our great nations. We must make sure that this largest body of fresh water in the world will remain a spectacular asset to both our countries.

The American Indians are right when they say we don’t “own” the land, but we borrow it to pass on to future generations. We don’t “own” the Great Lakes either, but we are its stewards. We have the responsibility of cleaning and protecting it so that we will leave this national treasure as pure and healthy as God created it. That means a lot of work still has to be done. But thanks to all of you, we are off to a running start.

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