L’ANSE — U.P. Resource Conservation and Development Council received dues Monday from the Baraga County Board, with two commissioners named to the council.

“Without the support that we receive from the U.P. counties in the form of dues, we will not be able to sustain our council and will not be able to bring these much-needed competitive grant funds to the U.P. to help solve these important ecological problems,” wrote council Chairman William D. Rice in a January letter accompanying the request for dues. “… the impacts of our ability to bring grant funds to the U.P., and spend those grant funds to help solve conservation problems have been enormous.”

Rice said in the past six years, the council received nine grants totalling $3,085,830, in addition to $2,901,814 in non-federal matching funds for a total of $5,987,644.

“In those same six years, we have passed $263,505 in grant funds to conservation districts, and paid contractors another $584,008 to conduct invasive species treatments across the U.P.,” Rice said.

The county board appointed Commissioner William Menge to the council, with Commissioner Gale Eilola as alternate, and paid the requested $350 in dues.

For more information about the council, visit www.uprcd.org.

In other news, the county board appointed: Chairman Mike Koskinen and Richard Herrala to the Copper Country Mental Health Board; Douglas Holma to the Baraga County Veterans Affair Board; and Menge, Thomas Racette, L’Anse Village Manager Bob LaFave and Baraga Village Manager LeAnn LeClaire to the new Baraga County Land Bank Authority Board of Directors.