Feb 26 2008
Outdoor News Digest: 2/26
Bingham Township in NW lower Michigan has received a $5,000 DEQ matching grant for two parks on Grand Traverse Bay, according to the Leelanau Enterprise:
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has awarded Bingham Township a “coastal zone management” grant of $5,000 to help plan for improvement of the township’s two waterfront parks on Grand Traverse Bay, - Boughey Park and Hendry Park.
Canada is planning to clean up several sites on the “other” side of the St. Clair River, according to the Port Huron Times Herald:
The money will be used on a 5-mile stretch of the river that starts at Dow Chemical’s property and extends to Corunna, which is roughly across from the Marysville Golf Course. John Baird, Canada’s Environment Minister, said the money will be used to address deposits of mercury and other organic pollutants.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports on a study that suggests that sport fishing is allowing only slow and small fish to reproduce. Faster and bigger fish are caught, causing an evolutionary swim to the bottom:
Oil has been discovered underneath Livonia, according to the Detroit News:
Traverse City-based oil producers on Monday said the first of two wells tested on an 11-acre site near Interstate 275 at Seven Mile is very productive, yielding 200 barrels of oil per day. Tests are being conducted on a second well. . The oil will be shipped to the Marathon refinery in Detroit. The $3.5 million operation is expected to net at least $3 million in royalties for Livonia over 20 years.
The Detroit News also reports on a small walking path at a tiny park in St. Clair Shores:
The City of Pontiac is planning to build a pedestrian bridge over Telegraph Road, according to the Detroit News:
The City of Pontiac is considering building a pedestrian bridge over Telegraph Road that would provide a safe passage for walkers and bikers using the city’s section of the Clinton River Trail. The city will hold a public hearing from 4-7 p.m. March 10 at the Bowens Center, 52 Bagley St., to discuss the project plan, construction and other details.
Chicago is slated to open the first L.L. Bean store in the midwest, according to the Chicago Sun-Times:
The shopping center, an open-air lifestyle center with a high-end movie theater, restaurants and retail, is slated to open in September. The 600,000-square foot shopping center at the northeast corner of Route 59 and Higgins Road is bounded on the east by Highway 59, on the west by Bartlett Road, on the south by Higgins Road and on the north by a 400-home development to be called The Woods of South Barrington.
The store will include L.L. Bean’s Outdoor Discovery School, where instructors offer hands-on experiences in sports such as kayaking and fly fishing.
The Akron Beacon Journal has a RECOMMENDED story about several sites in SE Ohio related to long-lost African-American communities and the Underground Railroad:
Ann Cramer has long been intrigued by Paynes Crossing. As an archaeologist with the Wayne National Forest, she’s involved with a project to learn more about that community and another Underground Railroad stop, Pokepatch, in Lawrence and Gallia counties.
Funded since 1999 by more than $172,000 in federal grants, Cramer and other researchers from Ohio University’s Department of African American Studies and the Multicultural Genealogical Center in Chesterhill have been combing through census data; land records; birth, death and marriage certificates; cemetery inscriptions and genealogical records to piece together a history of the sites.
Ohio was home to a number of small, scattered African-American communities, including Pee Pee in Pike and Ross counties, Berlin Crossroads in Jackson County, Stillguest in Ross County, Cherry Fork in Adams County, Huston Hollow in Scioto County, Haiti in Belmont County, Rainbow Ridge in Washington County, Burlington Crossroads in Lawrence County, Lambert Lands in Gallia County and Gist in Highland County.
In fact, the cemetery, which was used for burials between 1852 and 1927, is what first attracted Cramer’s attention in the early 1990s because it includes markers for five or six Civil War veterans of the U.S. Colored Troops.
More than 800 sites have been documented, including 100 in Summit, Stark, Portage, Wayne, Ashland and Carroll counties, according to the Ohio Underground Railroad Association (http://www.ohioundergroundrailroad.org)
The Ohio Historical Society also offers online information on the Underground Railroad at http://www.ohiohistory.org/undergroundrr
Note: the U.S. Forest Service site is a bit temperamental. Here’s a decent link: http://tinyurl.com/2cpumc
This is the original article:
The MSU State News has a story about a recent Ojibwe language pow-wow on the Michigan State campus:
Crain’s Detroit Business has a RECOMMENDED story about developing plans for one or more statewide environmental bond proposals:
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says that money — mostly from Michigan’s $675 million 1998 environmental bond — will be depleted by year’s end, and, without a new source of funds, ongoing cleanups around the state will halt and new projects won’t start.
But Chuck Hersey, manager of environmental programs at the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, said a bond proposal for cleanups can’t be discussed in a vacuum. SEMCOG issued a report late last year pointing to the need to redesign Michigan’s entire funding structure for state environmental operations, which relies heavily on fees assessed on business and local units of government. Hersey said SEMCOG generally supports the need for a new bond, but that won’t erase a structural problem. And he said that with a new bond, the state needs to consider issues like revising brownfield cleanup standards “so that any resources … are wisely used.”
The Nature Conservancy is looking toward 2010 for an environmental bond that could encompass several facets. Among them: Purchase of easements to preserve forest land for recreational use while keeping it on the tax rolls; incentives to help owners of farmland to keep their property in agricultural production; and funding for land acquisition, habitat and environmental restoration; and cleanups to build “green infrastructure” that would make urban areas more attractive places in which to live, said Rich Bowman, director of government relations for the conservancy’s Michigan chapter. He said the conservancy has conceptually discussed a $1 billion proposal.
One group that’s intrigued is the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. Doug Roberts Jr., director of environmental and health policy, said that while the chamber sees the need to consider another bond for cleanups, it’s hesitant about the rapid assembly of a proposal to place on the ballot this fall. Roberts said the conservancy’s proposal is “more comprehensive, balances some economic growth ideas, it’s more than just giving money to the DEQ for some cleanups.”
Ken Knight, a dedicated SE Michigan hiker is developing a blog on which he will post real-time backpacking reports from the trail:
Natural areas are worth $1.6 billion annually to the West Michigan economy, according to a new report:
Scientists at Grand Valley State and Michigan State universities developed a computerized tool that estimates the value of natural features in Muskegon, Ottawa, Newaygo, Kent, Ionia, Allegan and Barry counties. The program is called INVEST, for INtegrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tool.
Researchers calculated the worth of natural features by measuring the value of ecosystem services that forests, wetlands and lakes provide.
Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that natural features provide humans, including recreation, improved water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, tourism, soil-erosion control, food production, scenic beauty and improved human health.
According to the study, the 996,000 acres of forest land in the seven-county area were the region’s most valuable natural asset, worth an estimated $1.1 billion annually. Great Lakes beaches and sand dunes, which span 4,762 acres in Muskegon, Ottawa and Allegan counties, ranked second in value, at $139 million. Those were followed by cropland, at $119 million (including the value of crops); wetlands, $81 million; and inland lakes and streams (excluding Lake Michigan), at $62 million.
The INVEST Web site, www.invest.wri.gvsu.edu, provides a breakdown of the value of natural features in each of the seven counties.
The Kalamazoo Gazette has a report on the harsh West Michigan winter and how spring snowmelt will be beneficial to the Great Lakes:
The Grand Rapids Press has a story about efforts to clean up the Muskegon Lake watershed:
A Civil War-era cabin and several other period buildings are being restored for public use at St. Clair County’s Goodells Park. The excerpts are from the Port Huron Times Herald via WOOD TV in Grand Rapids:
WALES TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A former barn and storage shed that also served as a cabin for a Civil War surgeon will soon be a historical attraction at Goodells County Park. “It was the original homestead of one Isaac Mudge,” said Dennis Delor, special events, marketing and volunteer coordinator with the St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission.
Delor spent the winter disassembling the cabin, marking logs and moving them from the Card Road property where the building had stood for years. Now that the piece of St. Clair County history has arrived at the Wales Township park, Delor slowly is putting the logs back together.
The Leelanau Enterprise has an article about a new tribal marina in NW lower MI that is slated to be built using several governmental funding sources and tribal monies:
The Post-Tribune has a story about the 80-year-old founder of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, one of the first environmental advocacy groups in the lakes region: