Macauley (Mike) Whiting, Jr. wears a number of hats on any given day, but the one he is currently excited about goes way back to his childhood – and involves getting you up in the trees. Born and raised in Midland, Whiting serves the community in many different roles, as the president of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, sitting on the Michigan Baseball Foundation’s Operations board, the MidMichigan Health Finance Committee, president of the Macauley and Helen Dow Whiting Foundation and he is also a Trustee Emeritus of Northwood University.
Whiting is one of the masterminds behind the soon to be completed Whiting Forrest Canopy Walk renovation. We sat down with Mike to talk about this exciting project and what it will offer the community.
Q: Let’s talk about the new canopy walk project with Whiting Forest of Dow Gardens. What was your inspiration for this project?
A: I would say two things served as inspiration. One is that when I became president of the Dow Foundation, I looked around and asked “What we can do that is new and exciting?” Whiting Forest had been open to the public for ten years, and it was a nice native central Michigan forest, but there was no desire to go out there except to be in the woods. So here we have this unbelievable asset, with fifty four acres of land, fifty feet of elevation change between Snake Creek and the highest points of the property, but it wasn't being used to it's capacity. So my inspiration was to figure out how we can utilize it better.
The second inspiration was spending time there in my childhood. What is now Whiting Forest was my backyard as a kid and where I played in Midland all summer long. There are six kids in the family and I’m the youngest, with my brother the next, and then there were the four girls. My brother and I spent countless hours in those woods climbing trees and catching frogs.
So the thought was, “What can we do to bring that experience to people and get them out in nature?” That’s really the idea of the project, to get people away from screens and out into nature. There is just something innately good for you out there. It’s good for your soul.
Q: What city, region or other project inspires you?
A: Well, a related project would be Dow Gardens. In our travels around the world we have gone to a lot of gardens, and one thing I have learned is how amazing Dow Gardens is. I always knew it was nice, but honest to goodness the only nicer garden I have seen is Versailles.
I also really like Dow Diamond. I’m really interested in Downtown Midland and I think every city needs a great downtown. I love how Dow Diamond has added to ours over the years.
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Uniquely designed pods in progress last year at Whiting Forest.
Q: What are you most excited about with the canopy walk opening?
A: I want to see people’s reaction to it. We think people are going to love it, but it will be fun to see it with a lot of people out there. It will also be exciting to see the kids’ reactions. Children are always so unfiltered, and I can’t wait for that.
We are also going to have a contractor’s day before the opening where all the men and women who worked on the project can bring their families to visit. That will be a couple hundred people, and it will help us learn what lots of people on the canopy walk will look like. I’m excited that it’s all ADA accessible, and the thought of someone who is wheelchair bound to be able to go up in the treetops… I just think that has got to be an unbelievable experience for them. So I’m excited to see that too.
Q: That's great! How many feet or even miles does this add to Midland’s explorable spaces?
A: Well, the canopy walk is 1,400 feet long, so about a quarter of a mile. We have a mile and a half of paths in Whiting Forest, and that does not include the Snake Creek floodplain. We are going to have paths down there, but that is still a work in progress.
About a mile of the paths are ADA accessible as well. The porous-paved paths are kind of rubbery and allow water to drain through them. Those are very pleasant to walk on, so that means safe for kids and good for all ages and abilities.
That leads to something that I hope will come out of this – an extended sense of Downtown Midland. I would like people to think of the downtown area extending all the way from Dow Diamond to Whiting Forest. We would like people to be able to easily travel from one to the other without crossing Eastman Road and heavy traffic.
Q: What kind of programming do you have planned for Whiting Forest?
A: We have more general ideas than specifics at this point. As Kyle Bagnall, the program manager at Whiting Forest has said, the number one objective is getting the canopy walk open. We have the Midwest-regional birding festival planned for next year, and Chippewa Nature Center will be doing monthly programming with us as well.
One thing we are really conscious of is that we don’t want to compete and hurt another non-profit or for-profit business. The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation is all about supporting Midland and helping enhance the community as a whole, so we are trying to find our own little niche where we add value but not subtract from someone else’s.
Q: With this project nearing completion, what is the next big project you want to take on?
A: First a big, deep breath! You know, that’s a great question though. From a Foundation president perspective, the thing I am most interested in right now is Downtown Midland. That’s not the only thing, but the Foundation’s mission is to make Midland and Michigan a better place. Grace Dow set this up in 1936 and we support what Herbert and Grace did with their own money when they were still alive. They were deeply engaged in this community. They loved this place and they put their personal money and time into it and the foundation is the institution that carries on that legacy.
We really want Midland to be a desirable place to live and spend time, and want to attract people from all over the region, whether that is for the weekend as a tourist or longer. I’m definitely intrigued with the idea of a downtown movie theater that could bring more people and amenities, and would add to the vibrancy in the area.