Out Of Place Trailer from Kurt P Vincent on Vimeo.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, much of America was a wasteland.  Farmers had overworked the land – resulting eventually in the 1930s Dust Bowl.  And loggers had cut forests across vast regions without sustainability in mind.  But these forests and lands did come back.  An incredible collection of conservationists, politicians and planners helped to recreate sustainable forests and farm lands.

I am fascinated by these efforts.  And, in fact, I part company with many environmentalists in believing strongly that there is very little environmental damage that cannot be undone with enough time, planning and effort.

So, I listened with interest to Terry Gross’ program Fresh Air this past weekend.  An episode focused on a new book by Timothy Egan about the largest forest fire in American history.  The fire swept across Washington, Idaho and Montana in 1910.  It wreaked havoc, but eventually brought massive popular support for the National Forest Service.  The National Forests were in a weak political position at the time and the fire can be said to have saved the forests by completely changing public opinion.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114248029

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge gained some national press this week in E: The Environmental Magazine.  The story focuses on the importance of brownfield and factory sites in promoting plant and wildlife habitat.  And best of all, Julie Craves, the bird guru at the River Rouge Bird Observatory at the University of Michigan Dearborn, gets some great quotes.  Craves continues to do fantastic habitat work in our area and she deserves every bit of recognition possible.  Recommended Link:

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4898

The Michigan Paranormal Investigative Team is set to investigate any paranormal activity at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park this Nov. 13th.  Check out the MPIT website below for more information:

http://www.paranormaldownriver.com/2009/10/river-raisin-battlefield-upcoming-investigation/

Note:  I know that some will question this event.  And, certainly, the battlefield must be treated with respect.  However, there is a high level of interest these days in the paranormal.  And many historic sites have supplemented income and visitation levels by encouraging occasional paranormal investigations.  Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit and the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio come immediately to mind.  Perhaps this kind of event could help to build support for more rehabilitation of the battlefield site.

The Huron Clinton Metropolitan Authority is searching for a new director/CEO.  The position includes oversight of all Huron Clinton Metroparks, including Willow, Oakwoods, Lower Huron and Lake Erie.  Read the job posting at the website of the National Recreation and Park Association:

http://careercenter.nrpa.org/jobdetail.cfm?job=3224516

A new Catholic shrine has been dedicated 120 stories below southwest Detroit at the underground entrance to the Detroit Salt Co. rock salt mine.  The mine is one of the most fascinating locations in the Detroit area.  It boasts 100 miles of roadway on 1,500 underground acres.  The Michigan Catholic reports on the new shrine via the Boston Pilot:

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=11063

The fantastic PBS history documentary series The American Experience will broadcast an hour about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps this Monday night at 9PM.  The CCC was a Depression-era program that provided jobs to the unemployed and also created many structures and environmental projects that still exist today.  At one point 5% of the adult male population in the United States worked within the Civilian Conservation Corps.

It would be easy to make a blanket statement that we need a CCC today.  Of course, these are different times and I still hope that we will not reach depths equal to those found during the Depression.  Still, programs like the CCC do have lessons for us.  Many CCC projects stood the test of time.  There are many forests around today that were planted by CCC workers.  Dams and enviro/engineering projects still work from that period.  We have many empty factories, ample brownfields, desolate stretches of urban area and moves to create alternative energy projects.

Just think if the abandoned lands in the City of Detroit and the brownfields left from the auto industry and contaminated shoreline areas could be gathered together in one large initiative.  Young, unemployed workers could “green” these areas with forests, park projects, famers markets and urban agriculture.  I would not say that this would be a solution for the economic downturn.  That is much larger.  But our area would certainly improve and our young people could earn a couple of bucks.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Congress passed an EPA budget that included the full requested amount of $475 billion for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.  The GLRI is targeted at cleaning up the most polluted areas found along the Great Lakes.

http://michiganmessenger.com/29137/u-s-congress-passes-great-lakes-restoration-bill

The bill is especially important for Monroe and the River Raisin.  The mouth of the River Raisin is listed as an Area of Concern by the International Joint Commission because of years of industrial pollution.  Dangerous levels of PCBs still remain in some areas of the river.  I have attended several meetings related to the GLRI and the River Raisin appears to be a strong candidate for delisting, provided that a few major cleanup projects are completed.

My guess is that this bill’s passage could mean millions of dollars for the River Raisin cleanup effort.

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge follows the Detroit River and Lake Erie from just south of Detroit all the way through Monroe County to the Ohio border.  The refuge headquarters/gateway is planned for an area near the Humbug Marsh at the Trenton/Gibraltar border.  The area was once an industrial site and it is now being “greened” by refuge planners.

Metromode has a nice overview of a recent effort in which volunteers and refuge staff planted 200 trees at the refuge gateway.  Link:

http://www.metromodemedia.com/devnews/refugegatewaytreestrenton0139.aspx

One of Ohio’s most popular backpacking areas is the Zaleski State Forest.  The forest, about two hours SE of Columbus, offers a 20+ mile backpacking loop and many additional miles of trail on roughly 26,000 acres of hilly, wild terrain.

This past week, the State of Ohio has announced successful acquisition of 15,000+ additional adjoining acres in the Raccoon Ecological Management Area and Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest.  The result is a 40,000+ acre block of land that represented the largest forest area that had, up until last week, been unprotected.

Area hikers should keep this area in mind when planning a long weekend in the outdoors.  Links:

http://www.ohiodnr.com/Default.aspx?tabid=18276&EntryID=1390

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/tabid/5171/Default.aspx

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/wild_resourcessubhomepage/WildlifeAreaMaps/SoutheastOhioWildlifeAreaMaps/RaccoonEcologicalManagementAreaMap/tabid/20370/Default.aspx