Environmentalists lose champion of the movement in Michael Jessen
By The Nelson Daily Staff
Michael Jessen, or “Recycle Michael” as people sometimes called him, recently died a few days after suffering a massive stroke.
Jessen was in his mid 70s when he suffered the stroke, which happened while on a walk in the woods with his beloved wife Carol.
Some of the public first came to know Michael Jessen while he was the Recycling Coordinator at the Regional District of Central Kootenay . . . hence the nickname.
During his time at the RDCK, Michael lobbied hard to convince public through programs that re-using was far much better habit than adding to greenhouse gases, diverting materials from landfills, and wasting natural resources by continually using new products.
When the RDCK decided to shift gears on its recycling plan, Michael found his way to the former Nelson Daily News as its office manager.
There, Michael not only ran the front office for the Glacier Media newspaper, he fell back on his journalistic background — he previously wrote for the Nanaimo Free Press and Vancouver Sun — to draft up environmental columns championing sustainable lifestyles, climate change and waste reduction.
When the NDN closed July of 2010, Michael joined up with new kids on the media block, The Nelson Daily — an online publication started by a few holdovers from the daily newspaper editorial room — to write his Greening Up columns.
Those Greening Columns were viewed by readership throughout the West Kootenay on the Lone Sheep Publishing chain as well as interested observers on the internet throughout the world.
Greening Up — Imaging Doing Different
Letter — Hold government accountable
And the Greening Up columns were not some hodgepodge ramblings by some environmentalist trying to scare the world into thinking that climate change is real.
Instead, Michael, who lived on the North Shore outside Nelson, would see an event happening, research the topic for hours before putting pen to paper to inform readers of the facts regarding the issue at hand.
However, Michael Peter Stål Jessen born in Denmark before coming to Canada at age two, didn’t fall into his Greening Up column on The Nelson Daily, or his writings with the former NDN.
When Michael moved to Nelson in 1970, he quickly found his calling and became involved in the local environmental movement and political issues including joining to protest the building of a pulp mill in Proctor.
He also protested the construction of the Revelstoke Dam.
Michael served as the BC president of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) for eight years during the 1970s and 1980s and was the founding member of the Recycling Council of BC and helped fight for the creation of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy.
Elected as one of the youngest councillors to serve on Nelson City Council in 1973-74, Michael was a proud member of the Green Party since 1993 and served on the Provincial Council from 2008 to 2013.
Michael, who was a caring person, proud father and mentor to environmental community, is survived by his wife Carol, daughter Caitlin, half-sister Vibeke and her husband Mogens in Denmark, stepsister Vita, and numerous other friends and family that will miss him dearly.
Michael’s family would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all first responders, doctors and nurses in Nelson and Kelowna that helped during this ordeal.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Environment Fund of the Osprey Community Foundation at https://ospreycommunityfoundation.ca/funds/michaeljessen/ or for other ways to donate, please call 250-352-3643.
Staff at The Nelson Daily offer their deepest sympathy to Michael’s family and friends.
His thoughts and views will be deeply missed by everyone.
For years, Michael Jessen wrote a column championing the environmental movement for The Nelson Daily.
