CCCDC Founders Recognized as Champions of Conservation

The Lake Michigan Stakeholders (LMS) organization has named Dick and Mary Smythe Champions of Conservation – a recognition that honors outstanding environmental achievements in Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan basin to restore, improve or enhance Lake Michigan or any of the watersheds that flow into it.

The award will be conferred during this year’s Lake Michigan Day, which is put on by LMS and the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, and will be held virtually on Aug. 14. 

The Smythes, of Sister Bay, founded the Climate Change Coalition of Door County (CCCDC) seven years ago and have remained its driving force, doing the lion’s share of the work. Before the coalition existed, the LMS said that no organization in northeast Wisconsin had focused on global warming or the science of climate change, looking at impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The Smythes are lifelong environmental advocates. Dick earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent his career with the U.S. Forest Service. When he retired, he had served 13 years as the nationwide director of forest environmental research at the Washington, D.C., headquarters. The Smythes have been very active in environmental and social-justice issues here, in Costa Rica and elsewhere, in addition to their CCCDC efforts.

Other conservation champions to be honored during the Aug. 14 event are the Mishicot School District, the Fox Wood Watershed Alliance and conservation reporter Eric Peterson. Bill Mueller, director of the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory, will receive a lifetime achievement award.