Kazimer is a good friend of mine from the Monroetalks discussion board.  He tends to be a lucid thinker and moderate in his ways.  He’s my kind of guy.  Anyway, he asked me for my thoughts about the near-certain decision to create the River Raisin National Battlefield Park.  So, I will oblige.

And I’ll begin by isolating some reactions that I am seeing in the blogosphere.  Most reactions have been positive.  Monroe is a proud community and the usual boosters have been boosting away.  And I guess you could accuse me of boosterism.  Yeah, I’m guilty.  And those who love Monroe deeply can sometimes make ridiculously positive statements because they so want good things to happen.  The idea that the battlefield park is “transformational” is probably in that category.

Other reactions hold a deep vein of skepticism.  I have read one friend of mine comment derisively about how much Monroe loves its war memorials.  This is, of course true.  But this is usually said in a way that is demeaning to the residents of Monroe.  Others comment about how much fun it will be to look at the “empty field.”  And, well, if you go to the battlefield right now, that is exactly what you will see.

But I think that the battlefield is a cause for optimism.

I think this because slowly, but surely, Monroe County is assembling the pieces that it will need to create a major recreational zone along the Lake Erie shore.  In just the past few years, we have seen hundreds of acres added to the Erie State Game Area near the Ohio border.  Much of Plum Creek has been donated to the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  Sterling State Park has increased in size dramatically.  The Pointe Aux Peaux State Game Area was created.  And in the northeast sections of the county, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has acquired a half-dozen or so parcels that create a necklace of properties leading to Lake Erie Metropark.

And we are likely to see more.  There has been much buzz that much of the old Ford plant property in Monroe will become a natural area.  And the Democratic majority in Washington, D.C. has already passed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for land acquisition, water preservation, and brownfield redevelopment along the Great Lakes shoreline.

Add to this the number of agencies that now operate along the Lake Erie shore and you can see the makings of something really great.  The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the Detroit River Refuge.  The Michigan DNR manages Sterling and Pointe Mouillee.  The National Park Service will operate the new battlefield.  The Nature Conservancy administers the Erie Marsh.  The Huron-Clinton Metroparks operate just across the border at Lake Erie Metropark.  That is a lot of administrative firepower.  And that is a large number of potential funding sources above local jurisdictions.

But these individual parks and parcels will never amount to much individually.  They need to be connected to a larger vision.  And this is where I think that the National Park Service can help greatly.  The park service has lots of experience at coordinating large community projects.  The Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Cleveland is a perfect example.  40 years ago, the Cuyahoga burned.  Now, it hosts a 50+ mile bikeway and some of the best and most natural hiking within a half-day’s drive.

Another example is the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  Roughly half a century ago, a group of NW Indiana residents became worried that industrial development and resort areas had made it almost impossible to access the area’s incredible Lake Michigan dunes.  They started a community initiative that today boasts many thousands of acres of shoreline for public use and recreation.  And the area is well on its way to constructing recreational trails along most of Indiana’s Great Lakes shore.  It’s so nice that Chicagoans like Oprah Winfrey routinely spend weekends at their million-dollar lake-area homes.  Other visitors camp or stay in local hotels.

And I think that this can happen in Monroe.

When my sister and I used to take long car trips, we would often set a state border as an evening travel goal.  Many people who head to the U.P. or Canada or West Michigan pass through Monroe.  But if they see the “national park” designation on the map, they are much more likely to stop for the night rather than battle Detroit traffic.  And Monroe might even attract a few cars from 80/90 or the Cedar Point area of Ohio.  If Monroe can create a linked system of parks and wild places, people will spend money.

More importantly, the project will give area residents a vision to work towards that is not tied to the auto industry.  We live in the Rust Belt and skepticism is high.  But there is much natural area in the county.  And much more can be rehabilitated.  And who wouldn’t want to live in an area of parks and greenspace.  It will make Monroe County a more desirable place in which to live and locate businesses.

This will take hard work and persistence.  But it has been amazing to see how much has already been accomplished.  I think that the National Park Service can bring focus to the county’s new vision.

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