WEI FALL HARVEST DAY: Peak Leaf Color, Apple Harvest, Fall Vegetables, and Cover Cropping.

PLACE: WEI (see map)
DAY: Saturday October 11
TIME 8:00-4:00 (drop by any time)
BRING: hearty appetite, heavy gloves, and a dish for the Community Potluck

This year we are happily exhausted from our Mother Earth Banquet and have decided to make the WEI Fall Harvest Day, scheduled for this Saturday, October 11, into an informal workday with all of you. We will make this fun and there will plenty of time to rest. Come and help with the apple and fall vegetable harvest. Bring something to eat to share with everyone. This will be a POTLUCK. If the day is warm, we can also spin some honey. We ask that you be prepared to work with the farm crews on the orchard and in the fields and take home some apples.

Please leave your pets at home as we cannot accommodate all of their needs. A caring and attentive adult must accompany all children.

Make a long day and stay overnight at WEI. For reservation information, call 651-583-0705. Spend the night on Amador Hill!

Hope to see you this Saturday.

Honoring the Earth & Three Mothers of the Environmental Justice Movement
A Benefit for the Women’s Environmental Institute
Wednesday, October 1st , 5:30-9:30, Park House, 2120 Park Ave, Mpls.

Enjoy a Silent Auction, and then pull up a chair, take a seat at the table and join us for the banquet. Help us celebrate and honor the work of three courageous women —Devra Lee Davis, Winona LaDuke and Annie Young (pictured to the right) — who have contributed in many different and significant ways to the environmental justice movement.

Cost: $50/person, or $45 with reservation by September 7. The banquet features local, fresh and organic food prepared by Cafe Brenda chef, Nick Schneider.

You can BUY A TICKET ONLINE or by mail by sending a check to WEI, P.O. Box 128, North Branch, MN 55056. You can also adopt a table or provide a donation to support this fundraising event.

Sneak Preview of the Program:
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Social hour with refreshments, live music, and a fabulous silent auction benefiting the Women’s Environmental Institute
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
• Dinner featuring local and organic food & wine, prepared by NIck Schneider,incuding fall harvest from the WEI Farm and other local organic farms
• Presentation of awards, with remarks by honorees
• Keynote address by Dr. Devra Lee Davis, “Cancer and the Environment: What Everyone Needs to Know”
8:30 – 9:30 p.m. Silent auction, dessert buffet, live music

MOTHER EARTH BANQUET UPDATE:
This is our most important fundraiser of the year and there are still tickets and sponsorship opportunities available for our 2008 Mother Earth Banquet and Fundraiser on October 1st at Park House in Minneapolis. If you would like to volunteer or want more information, please call Blake at 651.209.3934 or email her at blake@w-e-i.org.

Many thanks to Prairie Star Farm for donating 70 trout for our Mother Earth Banquet. For more information on this Wisconsin Trout Farm go to http://www.starprairietrout.com/

THANKS to our sponsors and supporters!

We wish to recognize the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing for their sponsorship at the Bronze Apple level of $1,000. This sponsorship level reserves a table for six at our banquet and fundraiser which can be used for friends and colleagues, or donated to help WEI pay for the banquet costs or to provide a place at the table for low-income community activists who have been working with WEI; recognition at your table, in our event program and on our website.

We sincerely appreciate the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing for their generous donation. For more information on the Center for Spirituality & Healings courses, research, programs and events please click here.

For more information on our Platinum, Golden, Silver and Bronze sponsorships, click here.

Our sincerest gratitude also to: Dr. Helen Healy of Wellspring Clinic, St. Catherine’s School of Holistic Health Graduate Program, Nancy Jacobs, Jacquelyn Zita, CLEARcorps, IATP, County Commissioners Office, Lois Quam and Matt Entenza, Waterbury Group at Morgan Stanley, Darcee Weber, Hilary Sandall, Barbra Wiener and Anonymous for their sponsorship “Adopted A Table” for our Mother Earth Banquet. Their generosity makes it possible for their guests and others to attend the banquet.

Brief WEI Research and Community Advocacy Program
Brief WEI Education Program
Brief WEI Farm Program
Brief WEI Eco-Retreat Center
Brief Amador-Sunrise Registry Project

The new Amador-Sunrise Land Registry is off to a great start, thanks to a grant received in July 2008 from Embrace Open Space, with support from the McKnight Foundation. As of mid-September, an advisory team has been assembled, consulting ecologists have been selected to serve Registry members, and a baseline ecological inventory of the Registry's 62-acre anchor property (WEI and adjacent parcels) is underway by ecologist Barbara Delaney. The program's focus is now shifting to a community outreach campaign, with design and printing of a program brochure (link to pdf), informational booths at area events and news releases in local media. An initial informational gathering for the public is set for Saturday, October 25 at WEI.  The Amador-Sunrise Land Registry is coordinated by Laurie Allmann, WEI's Community Liaison and Writer-in-Residence.

For more information, click here.

Each year WEI honors the courage and integrity of a researcher and scholar who takes great risks on what they know and what they believe is the public's right to know. This year Paul Wotzka was unanimously voted by the WEI Board of Directors as WEI's 2008 Scholar Under Fire.

Watch for Paul's Upcoming WEI Scholar-Under-Fire Lecture Series at various locations in Minnesota: "Nitrates, Atrazin, and Corn-Based Ethanol: What's in Your Water?"

Paul Wotzka is a scientist who leveled a whistleblower lawsuit against the state regarding his research on Atrazine, a common pesticide used by farmers in Minnesota. As a hydrologist, Paul had logged 16 years monitoring water quality for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture before moving to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency last year. During the 2007 legislative session, he received a call from Representative Ken Tschumper, a dairy farmer who advocates banning Atrazine from use in Minnesota. He had read an article in a DNR magazine where Paul was quoted as saying we have observed some increasing concentrations of Atrazine in trout streams in southeastern Minnesota. Tschumper, the author of several bills aimed at tightening regulation of Atrazine, asked Wotzka to appear at a hearing planned for the next day and sent a request to testify to his supervisors which was denied. Wotzka persisted, provided the testimony, and was put on investigatory leave and six weeks later fired from his job. While the details of this firing are under review, the timing of the action and the nature of Paul's important research on Atrazine in Minnesota waterways have given WEI board members good reason to award Paul with our 2008 Scholar Under Fire Award. We hope to create more public knowledge about Paul's research and more information about the perils of Atrazine on human health and our rural communities. Paul Wotzka joins a former WEI Scholar Under Fire, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, whose work on Atrazine remains vitally important for the State of Minnesota and farm land and waterways everywhere.

Please join us in recognizing Paul Wotzka's courage and commitment to the public's right to know.

WEI survives with the help of all our contributing members and volunteers. Our mission is becoming ever more pressing as environmental justice, agricultural justice, food security, and environmental health issues become the forefront struggles in the coming decades. To continue this vitally important work, we need your investment in the form of an annual membership, and we especially encourage your participation in WEI programs and volunteer opportunities in the coming year.

For Membership Options and Perks, click here. You can apply directly on-line or by check sent to WEI, P.O. Box 128, North Branch, Minnesota 55056. If sending by mail, please download our new membership form. Individual memberships are $48/year or $58/year for you and a friend. Student memberships are $25.