It isn't getting much play in the local press, but as the sprawl slows, Southeast Michigan is beginning to re-naturalize. Through building codes, business development practices, and smart environmental management our green spaces are expanding. Wildlife is popping up in unsuspecting places.Urban designers are recreating trails that are as much 19th century as 21st century. Nature is slowly making its way back into our way of living.
The crossroads of industrial re-naturalization can be found in the hickory grove of Humbug Marsh, on 650 acres of cooperatively managed land between the Fermi II nuclear reactor and the DTE Energy Trenton Channel Power Station. The land is owned by DTE Energy, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages it as a nature preserve through a cooperative agreement.
This symbolizes the utility's regional policy toward integrating nature on its properties and promoting employee involvement in re-naturalization activities, according to Paul Fessler, DTE Energy vice president, Fossil Generation. "I think the attitude has turned around significantly, from not as much concern about the environment by industry." New facilities are designed with the environment and the area in mind, he says. "It's a completely different design process than when we built these facilities. You didn't do the design with respect to maintaining the environment and wildlife. Now you do."
Aesthetic and ecological principles have worked their way into the core of community decision-making, as well. "We work with a number of communities that are incorporating this (naturalization ethic) into their ordinances," explains Chris Lehr, principal of
Nativescape, a firm specializing in restoration of native habitat. In communities like Bloomfield Township, developers that dig up a wetland or defoliate one are required to restore the habitat, according to Lehr.
Where communities might once have yielded nature in the name of progress, restoration and preservation of nature is now defined as progress. "There are wetland ordinances being written so that it's not the state's jurisdiction, but the township's," Lehr says. "I've worked on Grosse Isle for several years… If it's (development) in a wetland, you have to go through permitting and mitigation." Permits are required for five acres or more of development, he says, but some communities hold developers to as low as two acres, "or virtually any size."
Norman Cox, president of
The Greenway Collaborative, Inc., has consulted in the region for over 20 years, mostly on greenway, trail, open space, and non-motorized transportation planning. He's worked with several communities and finds the environmental ethic ingrained in regional culture. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a recreation plan of a county or a significant-sized township or city that does not have an open space component," he says. "They're looking at things a lot more holistically, realizing that parks aren't just points on a map, but how can they be part of a system that's preserving a functioning natural system from water and wildlife standpoint as well as providing recreational resources."
At one time, early settlers got from place to place along trails. Those paths became roads and highways. However, non-motorized trails are re-emerging for recreational and even routine transportation, Cox says. He delights in his ability to cycle with his son from Ann Arbor to Lake Erie – nearly without encountering a traffic crossing. In a sense, greenways are blazing trails physically and conceptually through the heart of a hostile urban interior, restoring foliage and space that was removed centuries earlier. For Motown, this may seem like an unnatural way of getting around, but Cox says attitudes are changing.
Community research consistently notes that residents, and would-be residents, want places to walk, bike, and safely move without having to use their automobile, Cox says. "If you are a community trying to be an attractive place to not only retain the businesses that are there but attract new businesses, it's a good economic move to provide these resources. This is what people are looking for. Yes, there is a cost for developing and maintaining them but there is a good economic pay-back – as a matter of fact it's almost a matter of survival these days."
How do you create green space in a dense urban environment? You look for natural opportunities, such as an abandoned rail corridor, a riverside or waterfront, or other abandoned land. "Sometimes you have to be more creative," says Cox. "We are big proponents of an urban greenway that utilizes the existing local street network. Most pedestrians and bicyclists have their secret ways to get from one place to another, using local roads, trails through schoolyards, and parks. We look at formalizing those." Cox is currently working on the Clinton River Trail, which runs about 10-12 miles through five communities.
Just as greenways are running through dense urban and suburban spaces, green space itself is being preserved and created out of undeveloped and vacated land. The
Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy protects 2,497 acres of land in Southeast Michigan through ownership, conservation easements, and partnerships with other entities.
"Protecting land in Southeast Michigan is vital," says Jill Lewis, executive director of the Conservancy. "Quality of life will suffer if people don't have places where they can recreate and enjoy nature… It's important for there to be places for wildlife to live and thrive. Some wildlife can adapt to development, other wildlife cannot. It's really important to have green spaces nearby, even in a heavily urbanized metropolitan area."
The Conservancy is creating 1,391-acre green corridor in Superior Township, and surrounding areas. Superior Greenway includes publicly accessible nature preserves and private land with conservation easements. Over 1,000 acres of continuous land is protected in what is called the Superior Greenway. The land includes nature preserve, conservation easement, and public-accessible green space.
Not only is the region becoming greener, it's becoming wilder as more rural and suburban space is conserved and more urban space becomes vacant. This creates a challenge for residential populations but not necessarily a threat. As residential development extended into rural areas, animal migratory patterns moved into urban and suburban areas. Raccoon and possum sightings are common in urban areas. Falcons are nesting in Detroit's skyscrapers, and a coyote was seen downtown.
As the region becomes re-naturalized, humans and wildlife will need to co-exist, notes Lewis. "In most cases, the urban dweller may not find that appealing. We're trying to find a balance so that everything can exist harmoniously." Natural balance, she says, creates corridors for wild animals to live. And if it's done correctly, re-naturalization won't hinder human development, either. In fact, Lehr says that creative environmental management can be less expensive than some traditional methods; like installing rain gardens and other green techniques as opposed to underground piping for storm runoff.
Lehr says a balance can be achieved between human and natural habitats. "When I design a landscape, there will be people zones and wildlife zones. Most animals, if you give them a place to live that they want to be in, they're not going to go into the human environment. They'll pass through. Why would they stay if you are providing a more inviting habitat for them? A park can have islands and corridors of wild areas, or natural zones that are left alone. The corridor is the real key. If you give animals corridors, that's where they travel, their highways."
And what about the rabbit snacking in your garden, or the coyote touring the neighborhood? Well, it's going to take a little getting used to.
Dennis Archambault is a regular contributor to Metromode and
Model D. His
last article was Double Lives: Tom Helland.
All Photographs © Marvin Shaouni Photography
Contact Marvin here
Photos:
Bloomer Park - Rochester
Trenton Channel Power Plant owned and operated by DTE Energy.
Humbug Marsh - Trenton
Trail walking
Crane
Hawk with prey