MARQUETTE -- Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior, (CSCLS), a Marquette County nonprofit, welcomes new staff member, Caitlin Sternberg, as Director of Outreach and Communication.
Cait, who graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2021 from Northern Michigan University with an Environmental Science degree, "has the experience, talent, youthful energy and vision to help us raise awareness and unite our community to defeat the proposed heavy industrial rocket launch site near Lake Superior’s shoreline at Granot Loma," said CSCLS President Dennis Ferraro.*
Cait previously worked as a Great Lakes Climate Corps crew leader with the Superior Watershed Partnership, partnering with diverse groups like the National Forest Service and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community on environmental projects. She also worked as a Land Steward with the Rocky Mountain Conservancy in Colorado. These are examples of her organizational and leadership skills, according to Ferraro.
After growing up in a Chicago neighborhood where jets from O’Hare airport boomed overhead, Cait says, "Living near Lake Superior has reframed my world views and values." In addition to the strong connection that she feels to the Lake and surrounding habitat, Cait notes she is "also impressed by the connection people in Marquette County have to each other, and to the environment."
Commenting on adverse impacts of the rocket launch plan, including launch site explosions scattering toxic debris, extreme noise, disruption of wildlife habitat, interference with nearby popular natural recreation areas, and overall degrading of our quality of life, Cait views this type of "needless industrialization of our Lake Shore as an environmental and community threat" that will need to be guarded against "even after the rocket launch plan is defeated."
In addition to engaging people at community events, developing ties with community members, and involving volunteers to help with the CSCLS mission, she hopes to also expand participation of local university and high school students, whom she sees as very environmentally oriented.
Ferraro noted, "You will also be seeing a lot of Cait not only here in Marquette, but also at events with people in Powell Township, who have been such good environmental stewards in maintaining the wonderful natural landscape that we all enjoy."
About Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior
The mission of Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior (CSCLS) is to protect and improve the precious environmental resource of the coastal habitat, shoreline and fresh water of Lake Superior and its watershed in Marquette County; to oppose individual, corporate or governmental action which may jeopardize that resource; and to encourage community action to preserve the quality of life provided by this Lake Superior Coastline environment for generations to come. Contact CSCLS at contactcscls@gmail.com or visit their Web site or the CSCLS Facebook page.
Notes:
* See the April 24, 2022, New Yorker article by David Rompf, "The Plan to Make Michigan the Next Space State."
** See also the April 1, 2021, Keweenaw Now article by Dennis Ferraro, "Proposed industrial rocket launch site at Granot Loma threatens pristine Lake Superior shoreline."
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