To the Journal editor:

Mentioned in a previously published letter of mine, concerning once and future mining on the Yellow Dog Plains was that the state of Michigan should level with taxpayers and landowners of Marquette County about the extent of this mining.

I would encourage anyone that has not taken a drive up Marquette County Road 550 to County Road 510, to the former Triple AAA road, to do so. There you will see a virtual freeway, not unlike I-75 being constructed on what is becoming “crown land” for Great Britain.

Let’s call it the “Queen’s Highway” to be perfectly clear. What vivid imagination saw this as part of the permit given for Eagle Mine?

This freeway is not being constructed for one mine, folks. It is the beginning of the total industrialization of the Yellow Dog Plains. Cynicism would predict that the Eagle Rock site will eventually become Eagle Casino and Golf Course, now that it is desecrated.

The Eagle Mine is barely in operation and Lundin has applied for exploration beneath the Yellow Dog River, an area previously listed as “no development” to “unrestricted development” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So, we have machinations at the highest levels involving this mining.

This community apparently will take short term dollar donations from Lundin to quiet concerns of for what is coming-the loss of ours and our children’s inspirational spaces of natural beauty. Will Eagle Mine leave sulphide residue in our land or water?

What difference does this make when one travels to the Yellow Dog Plains, only to confront years and years of heavy trucking and development, with massive areas fenced off for private industry?

We need to demand that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality provide public meetings in the Upper and Lower Peninsula apprising landowners and taxpayers that Michigan’s future is being sold down the industrial road to Great Britain – with very little compensation to the people.

David Richarde

Marquette