Video #2 and article: Resistance Sugarbush
Local communities demonstrate resilience in the face of the impending Line 5 reroute with community sugarbush. The traditional cultural event was held on the easement for Enbridge’s line 5 reroute, where the company will attempt to drill under the Bad River.
[3/29/26] Mellen, WI— Communities from the full diversity of WI – hailing from Bad River to Superior, Bayfield to Madison – gathered at the site of the Bad River Crossing, a beloved formerly public park, to demonstrate opposition to the danger posed by the multinational energy conglomerate Enbridge Energy.
“We’re resilient, but we’re not more resilient than thousands of gallons of crude oil being dumped into Lake Superior and irrevocably damaging our fisheries, wetlands, and drinking water.” says Liam Smith, resident of Bayfield, WI.
Nearly 500 acres in WI and across Lake Superior are under active threat from the rapidly advancing construction of Enbridge’s reroute of the massive Line 5 pipeline project. According to public documents, Enbridge intends to blast open stream beds, deforest fragile wetlands, and drill under rivers using toxic fracking fluids in pursuit of keeping their profits flowing.
This is not the first time Enbridge has pushed an unneeded and unsafe project on rural people in Wisconsin: Enbridge already maintains an aging and unstable Line 5 pipeline that cuts through the sovereign lands of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Enbridge has a long history of oil spills: with more than 800 spills in the last 15 years. In 2022, the US District Court declared that Enbridge was trespassing on the territory of the Bad River Band, and the company was ordered to route the pipeline around the reservation border. This new pipeline segment adds threat to ongoing threat.
The gathering featured a traditional sugar bush along the Bad River: sap from maple trees throughout the region was brought in to be boiled, as the mature maples along the Bad River at the site of the sugarbush were slated to be cut in the next weeks: it is against tradition to tap trees without committing to caring for them. At the start of the day, Oneida tribal member and Elder Paul DeMain offered a welcome to those gathered, and words of support towards resistance to ongoing pipeline construction activities. DeMain said:
“…Don’t forget your responsibility for the protection of the resources, for not just us. We look at the seven generations that people contemplated when they did the treaty negotiations with the federal government- looking seven generations ahead like our elders did.”
The Many Harms of Ongoing & Completed Construction
The tribal lands of Bad River have been occupied by the Anishinaabe for hundreds of years since the migration of their people to the Great Lakes region, the place where food grows on the water. Through that time, people have continually resisted forced migration, attempted elimination, harmful assimilation, and land theft policies.
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been challenging Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute project in court for more than a decade. Most recently, courts upheld DNR permits that Bad River and Midwest Environmental Advocates had challenged with lawsuits. Both the tribe and MEA have filed petitions for judicial review. The federal government pressured a US district Judge to stay his order of a permanent injunction on oil flowing through Bad River by June 2026: Enbridge is legally allowed to continue to operate the pipeline through the reservation until the Seventh Circut court resolves appeals on the case.
Trees are actively being cut along the pipeline reroute path, which travels through the Bad River’s watershed: a biodiverse and sensitive ecosystem. The DNR’s Environmental Impact Statement admits that a spill above the Brownstone Falls would send crude oil downstream into Lake Superior faster than humans could respond. Digging and blasting activities are set to begin in May.
The gathering took place at the site of the proposed drill pad: Enbridge plans on drilling under the Bad River twice on a parcel they bought from the city of Mellen that was formerly a public park.
The People of Wisconsin Deserve Better
Local communities are bracing for long term impacts of Enbridge meddling in local policing in the wake of Ashland and Iron counties accepting contracts with an intermediary to enable Enbridge to reimburse local law enforcement for pipeline related costs. Bayfield County Board is still in deliberation. Concerns around militarized equiptement and conflict of interest are forefront for communities in all three counties.
The economic and cultural significance of clean water in Northern Wisconsin cannot be understated: it underpins vital fishing, tourism, and retirement sectors. The impact of an oil spill in the Great Lakes would devastate these industries, and impact our neighbors in ports across Lake Superior. Meanwhile, the climate impacts of continued use of crude oil jeopardize the future of midwestern ecosystems, and the viability of sugarbushes into the future due to unpredictable winter weather.
For Bad River tribal members with treaty-protected hunting, fishing and gathering rights, a spill would be catastrophic. Bad River Elder Sandy Deragon:
“We can’t utilize the resources of the land when they harm the land…I brought my medicine box to the Army Corps hearing, 25 kinds of medicine I harvest, all at risk if the pipe spills.”