WEST MICHIGAN (WHTC-AM/FM) — The 2019 inductees to the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame have been announced and include two familiar West Michigan names: Ken Freestone and the late former Michigan Sen. Patty Birkholz, who died in May.
Freestone has served West Michigan for clean water, better recycling, and natural landscaping. He helped get the Macatawa Greenway off the ground and started greemich.org to help West Michigan educated the public on sustainable resources.Other individual honorees are Royce Ragland is a founding member of Green ER, and Chris Case, retired Facilities Manager of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Birkholz is one of two inductees to the Legacy Circle. The other is Mark Erickson, who spurred and joined the effort clean up the Lower Menominee River . He remained personally involved with post-project monitoring for more than 20 years.
Curing her 14 years as a state lawmaker Birkholz has a hand in major policy changes, particularly environmental, such as the Recreation Passport, the Great Lakes Compact of 2008, along with wetlands and land-use regulations.
The Hall of Fame is sponsored by The Muskegon Environmental Research and Education Society
The induction ceremony is set for 6:30 p.m., May 15, 2019, at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. People who want to attend should email the event chairman, Ron Brown, at rnbrown227@gmail.com.
