I find it fascinating to watch what is going on right now in our area.

In Lansing, we have legislators locking themselves into legislative chambers, attempting to make backroom deals to save the state.

In Detroit, we have UAW leaders and auto plant CEO’s hammering away, far from the light of day, at a landmark contract deal.

And in Monroe, we have power plant executives deciding the future of our lakefront and energy supply.

Each one of these backroom moves has the chance to revolutionize thousands of lives.

On the power plant front, Consumer’s Energy decided to build a coal power plant near Saginaw Bay rather than in Erie Township.

I don’t see this as necessarily a bad thing.  I hope that the future of the Erie Township shoreline and Luna Pier is one of housing, parks, trails and marinas rather than coal power production.  The current plant will likely run for several more decades.  But I think that the area is more valuable for its recreational, residential and natural aspects.

The Consumer’s Energy decision, however, makes it even more important now that DTE move forward with its plans to construct a new nuclear plant at the site of Fermi II.  The decision, apparently, will come in the next 12 to 18 months.

We simply can’t let the power industry leave Monroe over the long term.  It insulates Monroe from some of the vagaries of the auto industry and provides jobs and tax base for most everything that goes on in the county.

And the nuclear option will help Monroe to avoid any future moves against the terrible impacts of coal power generation.  We need only look to New York State and Elliot Spitzer’s attempts to force businesses to declare the environmental liability of carbon production on corporate balance sheets.  Closer to home, we can see the cleaner and shorter third tower at the Monroe DTE facility.  They didn’t build that tower out of the goodness of their hearts.  I think that DTE can see the handwriting on the wall.  Cleaner is better.  The alternative is that we might one day find ourselves in the same position as the southern tobacco farmers - tied to an industry hammered by impossible liability.

Nuclear power is certainly not “green” in the traditional sense of the word.  But it does avoid the thousands of annual deaths that result from coal energy production.  And I think that we’ve seen with Fermi that a plant can be safe if properly run.

I would hope that DTE would also implement other green power initiatives at the Fermi site.  How about an offshore field of wind turbines near the plant?  Or how about a new design that doesn’t dominate the sightlines like the current cooling towers do?

The future will not be perfect.  But I think that another nuke plant will help Monroe to stay in the power game long term.  And I think that it would help us to have a cleaner local environment as well.

If you type “Detroit River Light” into the michigan.org travel website, you’ll read these words:

One of Michigan’s beautiful lighthouses on the coast. This light is located offshore in Lake Erie toward the Detroit River. The light can only be viewed by water or air. It is not open to the public.

Personally, I have a bit of a problem with this.  Surely, the Detroit River Light is an offshore light.  But it is quite possible to see the light from shore.  All you have to do is visit the lakeshore trail at Lake Erie Metropark or take a 0.5 or 3 mile hike at Pointe Mouillee State Game Area.

With the naked eye, the Detroit River Light is pretty dramatic as it stands guard on the open waters of Lake Erie.  With decent binoculars it is possible to see quite a bit of detail.  In fact, I don’t think that there are too many things more dramatic to see for a visitor to Monroe County than a giant freighter bearing down on the Light.

And I didn’t accidentally call the Detroit River Light a Monroe County Light.  The boundary between Monroe and Wayne Counties is indefinite in the waters of Lake Erie and the mouth of the Detroit River.  This has resulted in some sources naming Rockwood and Wayne County as the home city of the light.

However, if you look at the maps, the light is clearly closest to Monroe County.  I think that it is a shame that Monroe County doesn’t lay a stronger claim onto that light.  Why not place it on the cover of our tourism brochures?  People love lighthouses.

The light is also one of the few lighthouses still serving its intended purpose.  It marks the edge of the Bar Point Shoal and the entrance to the Detroit River shipping channel.

On foggy days, it is very cool to listen for the light’s foghorn.  It can be heard for several miles inland as a hiker walks through Pointe Mouillee.

One of my favorite memories of the light was a very cold January day a few years ago.  It was the last few days of the Great Lakes shipping season and the Detroit River was almost completely frozen.  The area received about two feet of snow in the previous week.  So, a team of tugboats was called in to clear ice on the lower Detroit River.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I headed out to see the tugs do their work.  I brought my snowshoes and hiked three miles into the winds.  It was about zero degrees outside and the winds on the Lake surely hadn’t stopped since they left Cleveland.

But as I reached the tip of Pointe Mouillee, I saw three tugs in formation just to the side of the Detroit River Light.  They moved in staggered formation, clearing the ice like a snowplow would.  I was able to see several freighters make the passage into the comparatively safer waters of Lake Erie as they headed to their wintering ports.

In 1997, the Detroit River Light was also the site of a major incident.  The freighter Buffalo rammed the light and its rock crib at full speed.  Human error was later found to be the cause.  The light sustained little damage.  But the entire bow of the Buffalo was dented like a tin can.  You can see pictures by clicking on the boatnerd.com link below.

http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/images/buffalodamage2.jpg

So, I guess I’d just like to take issue with the State of Michigan’s tourism website.  The Detroit River Light is certainly visible from land and from the Monroe County shore.  Every resident should take a bit of time to see this light once in their lives.  It is something that we should be prouder of.

Click below for the boatnerd.com webpage devoted to the light:

http://lighthouse.boatnerd.com/gallery/Detroit/detroitriverlight.htm

The link below shows a hike report that I have posted for Pointe Mouillee State Game Area.  Be aware that the game area is now closed until January.  Lake Erie Metropark is a good alternative viewing site.

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/expatriate/?p=438

Note: For those not wishing to hike for views of the light, the Fultz Gallery on Front Street in Monroe usually has some good artistic reproductions of the light.  The nature museum at Lake Erie Metropark is also a good spot to get a feel for this area.

http://www.fultzgallery.com/default.asp?z=&SessionCS=

Note: I took the top image myself.  The black and white shot comes from the U.S. Coast Guard website.  The map is a USGS map from topozone.com.

The Blade has an interesting column about reasons for falling water levels in the Great Lakes.  This article suggests that dredging helps the water to flow out of the system more easily.  It also notes a recent breach of the US Army Corps Grassy Island contaminated disposal facility near Toledo in North Maumee Bay.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/COLUMNIST42/70908034/-1/RSS06

Here’s a Detroit News article about the sad shape of the Detroit Boat House on Belle Isle:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070920/METRO/709200381/1006/rss01

This Detroit News article notes the increasing conflict between pedestrians and motorized scooters/mopeds on the 68 mile long West Bloomfield trail system.  Yes, that’s right.  There are 68 miles of trail in the City of West Bloomfield.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/METRO02/709180369/1009/rss02

The Detroit News also published this article about our very own IHM nuns and their mission to lead the way on all subjects green:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070919/LIFESTYLE04/709190391/1003/rss36

Here’s an update from the Ann Arbor News about the commuter rail line planned between Ann Arbor and Brighton:

http://www.mlive.com/news/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1190386512158730.xml&coll=2

Check out this article by Howard Meyerson of the Grand Rapids Press.  It’s about the Grass Lake Flooding, a hiking and paddling area near Traverse City:

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1190380599269980.xml&coll=6

Onsted bills itself as the “Gateway to the Irish Hills.”  And there is a good deal of truth to that statement.  Just north of town is the Wolf Creek chain of lakes.  And north and west of the village, the terrain begins to crumple into a series of hills and valleys.

So, a walk through the Village of Onsted in north-central Lenawee County is not unpleasant.  It is like many small towns in its desire to be All-American.  So, it has the ice cream stand and the vibrant high school sports scene and the flag-strewn downtown.

On the east side of town is a small park, appropriately titled “Village Park.”  Like most village parks, the place has several ballfields and a few picnic benches.

But the park also has some hikeable trail.

Most of the trail length comes on an old abandoned railroad bed.  From several parking areas inside the park and near the village hall, it is almost a mile to Springville Highway.  At Springville, the hikeable trail ends and a hiker must backtrack to the park.

The railroad bed is a curious legal oddity.  It is actually private land.  However, the landowners have allowed walkers access for many years.  This is one of the beautiful aspects of small-town life.  Friendly neighbor-to-neighbor agreements still work.  So, if you visit, be careful and appreciate the landowner’s generosity.

Back inside the actual park, a walker will find two short spurs that loop north and south from the railbed.

The southern loop passes by a small stream, several ballfields and the picnic areas.  The northern loop parallels the railbed and heads through a wooded area.

One of the good aspects of this short trail is the abundance of mature trees along the route.  The leaves were just starting to turn during my walk tonight.  In a few weeks, they will be absolutely beautiful.  So, this would be a decent spot for Adrian or Onsted or Irish Hills residents to see some Fall color up-close.

This walk does have several interesting aspects.  The first is the occasional presence of BMXers.  The railbed grade has some very steep banks on each side and the village has worked to develop the trails for BMX use.  Trail-builders would never build some of the steep drops that are present in this park’s offshoot trails.

Another interesting use is for the Onsted Cross Country team.  During my walk tonight, I saw a white, painted line along much of the route.  My guess is that this was the meet site for the local cross-country teams.  Those runners know all of the good spots.

Also, the railbed passes between two tracts of farmland.  I would not touch the fences.  They might be electric to keep the cattle in.  And be aware that barn smells are possible.

This is not a trail to travel far to visit.  The hike is not long enough at roughly 2.5 miles, nor remarkable enough to drive great distances for.  However, it is a decent after-work walking opportunity in an area without great sections of public land.

Note: It would only be a short road walk from the east end of the railbed to a few neighborhoods in the Loch Erin development on the south side of Killarney Lake.  I did not walk there during my hike, but it seems possible that a longer walk might be had by including a lake neighborhood spur.

Here is my rough map on Microsoft Virtual Earth:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!358&encType=1

Steve Pollick, the outdoors columnist for the Blade has an extensive review of the ongoing bird migration through our area.  It is worth the read…

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/COLUMNIST22/709180342/-1/RSS06

Here are some interesting park and trail news tidbits from the local papers…

The Detroit News has the following in its Thursday, 9/20 Livingston County briefs:

Marion Twp: Park dedication Friday: Officials are holding a park dedication ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The new park, which includes walking paths and softball and soccer fields, is on Triangle Lake Road, south of Coon Lake Road.

The Detroit News also reports that the Macomb Cultural Center is running a 3-month series of events to celebrate the Great Lakes.  It looks like a really great lineup…

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070920/METRO03/709200326/1014/rss03

Dean Cousino of the Monroe Evening News had this paragraph in his report on the Ida Civic Club’s survey of community residents about the future of the town:

Preserving the rural character of the community was given the highest priority (59 percent). Fifty-two percent suggested eliminating blight on residential and commercial properties, and 47 percent said to preserve and maintain historic buildings. Other needs that received high priority included enhancing parks or building additional parks (46 percent) and encouraging business owners to renovate or restore commercial properties (44 percent).

Here’s a clip from the Monroe Evening News Sept. 18 North County Roundup:

At a ceremony held Saturday during the annual Hawkfest festival at the Metropark, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, and state Rep. Kathleen Law, D-Gibraltar, noted that the park (Lake Erie Metropark) is a key bottleneck point for migrating raptors such as hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures.

More than 150,000 broad-winged hawks and an estimated 8,000 sharp-shinned hawks pass over Lake Erie. The lower Detroit River is home to large numbers of migrating ducks and wintering canvasback ducks and up to 1,900 tundra swans.

The Monroe Evening News reports in its 9/18 edition that Professor Jim DeVries of MCCC will give a talk on the Newton Strike in Monroe.  Doctor DeVries is a great man.  This will be interesting…

Monroe County Community College professor James DeVries will present a history of the Newton Steel strike Monday at Dorsch Memorial Branch Library.

The strike, which occurred in June, 1937, at the Newton Steel plant in Monroe, divided the town and is seen as a pivotal event in the history of the American labor movement.

The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Custer Room at the library, 18 E. First St.

It is almost unbelievable that this didn’t get more coverage, but the 200th anniversary of Toledo’s first settlers passed earlier this month.  Here is an article about the Navarre’s, who were the original inhabitants:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070910/NEWS16/709100325/-1/RSS10

Several decades ago, a woman named Harriet Kimball Fee passed away.  She wanted to leave something good to the world, so she decided to create an estate trust to benefit the City of Adrian’s parks.

Over the years, the estate grew and grew.  Today, her estate generates $400,000 every year to help beautify Adrian’s park system.  It is almost unbelievable what a difference this one woman and her generous gift have made over the years.

Just to the south of Downtown Adrian on Main Street, visitors to the city can find a statue of Harriet Kimball Fee and the park that now bears her name.  She is testament to the power of generosity and the spirit of long-term vision.

BTW, park and educational endowment funds can be a game-changer in community development.  Why can’t Monroe and Adrian have something like the Kalamazoo Promise?

I’m pretty sure that we had our first frost here in Adrian last week.  But I put a tarp over the garden, so hopefully the plants are doing okay.  We did just cut down our sunflowers to dry the seeds.  They look very, very cool.

All summer and fall, we’ve been eating fresh peppers, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, eggplant, green peppers, broccoli and cabbage.  Our first garden has been a resounding success.  We’ve survived bunny attacks, a major-bad hail storm, the Japanese beetle swarms and an early frost.  But that garden just keeps plugging away.

The Toledo Blade had an interesting article in its Saturday business section.  Apparently, two powerline transmission companies, American Electric Power and ITC Transmission, have an agreement to build a set of high tension transmission lines across northern Ohio and southern Michigan.

Here is the Blade article:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/BUSINESS01/70917037/-1/ARCHIVES30

This is the press release from American Electric Power:

http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/default.asp?dbcommand=displayrelease&ID=1398

Now, I am no expert on power line corridors, but the lines run from Canton, Ohio to just west of Detroit.  Unless these lines make a funny turn into Lenawee or Hillsdale Counties, I’d bet that they are destined for Monroe County.

And I am not saying that this is a bad thing.  Certainly, we need a better power transmission network.  But this sort of large-scale project will have a dramatic impact on the area’s land use.

And, this kind of project could potentially create some opportunities to extend Monroe County’s trail network.  Perhaps a deal could be made to run a bike path along the route and into Toledo?

If anyone has a copy of the report that these companies have created, I’d like to see it.  And if anyone knows of the potential routes for these power line corridors, again, I would be curious about it.

Thanks in advance.

In case you missed it, Tom Treece wrote a great column in the Evening News about a memorable hike that he took with some friends in Grand Canyon National Park.  Click below to read it…

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070917/TREECELOCCOL/109170035/-1/COLUMNISTS