The University of Michigan was just ranked the #19 best university in the entire WORLD by U.S. News & World Report.  Link:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2009/10/20/worlds-best-universities-top-200.html

It seems to me that one of the key possibilities for growth in both Monroe and Lenawee Counties is to build ties to Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan and Washtenaw County.  Washtenaw, after all, still has unemployment rates below ten percent.  Places like Tecumseh already see Ann Arbor expats move to town and open boutique day-trip businesses.

And, yet, can a person catch a bus to Ann Arbor?  I’ve never heard of it.  Do we advertise affordable Monroe/Lenawee housing in the Ann Arbor press?  I’ve never seen it.  Are there many contacts between Washtenaw and Monroe/Lenawee elected officials and business leaders?  Why aren’t roadways between Adrian and Ann Arbor or Monroe and Ann Arbor more of a priority?

The Lansing State Journal reports that the State of Michigan did not send an October funding check to MSU for its extension program or the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.  There are, apparently, fears that Governor Granholm will simply cut funding to these programs.  The result would likely be immediate closure of the MSU extension program statewide and closure of the Agriculture/Natural Resources school on the MSU campus.

Link:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091024/NEWS01/910240323&s=d&page=2#pluckcomments

There seems to be a disconnect between U.S. and Canadian efforts to support “greening” the Detroit River.  In Michigan, there has been an almost constant stream of habitat redevelopment projects, river cleanups and park/preserve acquisitions.  And although there have been some efforts to clean the river from the Canadian side – the Windsor sewer separation project is a good example – Canadian efforts do not seem up to par.

There is no land on the Canadian side that is recognized as being part of the “international” wildlife refuge.  Several habitat projects on the Canadian side have happened with the assistance of American park and wildlife officials.  And the amount of monies dedicated to cleanup in the U.S, most notably the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – dwarf any similar Canadian efforts.  One can see the outlines of a major new greenway along the U.S. side of the river, but no similar mass scale project seems evident in Canada.

In fact, new large scale wind farms on the Canadian side are more likely to industrialize the Lake Erie shore and open waters than soften them.  And the Amhertsburg Echo reports that a publicly-owned marina on the Canadian side of the river is in the process of being sold to private condominium developers:

http://amherstburgecho.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2120853

Canada has a reputation of being the “greener” side of the U.S./Canada border.  But I am not sure that recent events along the Detroit River support that reputation.

Both the Toledo Blade and Monroe Evening News have had stories in the past several days related to archaeological digs within the wider River Raisin Battlefield area.  Michael Pratt of Heidelberg University in Ohio leads the archaeological digs both north and south of the current River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe.  Links:

http://m.toledoblade.com/quickPage.html?page=14488&content=23770423&pageNum=-1

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091016/NEWS01/710169988/-1/NEWS

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of touring the eastern half of Monroe County with both Richard Micka and Ryan Bowles.  Micka is a retired LA-Z-BOY executive and Monroe community activist.  Bowles is a statistics professor at Michigan State University and president of the North Country Trail chapter working to create trail through NW Ohio and SE/SC Michigan.

The goal of our tour was to test the idea of a North Country Trail reroute through Monroe County.  For those who are unfamiliar, the NCT is a national trail affiliated with the National Park Service.  It begins in New York State, passes through the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan before ending in North Dakota.  It is a fantastically varied route.  And it is roughly half-done.

In our region, the trail passes through Oak Openings Metropark, follows the Wabash-Cannonball rail trail before entering Michigan in Hillsdale County.

One difficulty of the trail has been a 17-mile road walk through Hillsdale County.  So, Bowles has been investigating the possibility of following the Huron River to Flat Rock and then cutting south through the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge along Monroe County’s Lake Erie shore before reuniting with the current NCT route via the Ottawa River and a new greenway that is developing between Secor and Oak Opening Metroparks in Toledo.

During our tour, we found much public land in patches along the Lake Erie shore.  There are some fantastically beautiful areas in Pointe Mouillee and elsewhere.  There is also an old interurban rail route that still extends through much of Monroe County.  However, this would and will be a long-term project.  And passage through northern areas of Toledo would be difficult.

So, the current route and 17 mile gap is likely to remain the official main NCT route.  Bowles, however, notes in a new Steve Pollick column in the Toledo Blade that he would like to see a 300 mile officially-designated NCT spur that would pass through Monroe.

Personally, I think that this is a fantastic idea.  Check out Pollick’s story here:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091018/COLUMNIST22/910180371

BASF, working in conjunction with the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, has constructed a new 1-acre fish habitat area along the Detroit River in Riverview.  The project cost $100,000.  Link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20091017_ap_100000fishhabitatcompletedindetroitriver.html

The National Park Service is funding a survey of archaeological sites south of the River Raisin along the retreat route of soldiers during the War of 1812.  The Toledo Blade has a RECOMMENDED review of this new effort.  Link:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091014/NEIGHBORS04/910130323/-1/NEWS

The well-respected magazine Scientific American has a solid story related to reuse of Michigan and Lake Erie brownfield sites as wind and solar power production areas.  It is a RECOMMENDED read.  Excerpt and link:

The EPA in November will kick off a series of five national workshops to allow state and local leaders, renewable energy developers and conservation groups to brainstorm. “The idea is to get them all together and say, ‘Okay, we have all this great (disturbed) land, we don’t want to see development of greenfield sites, what do we do next?’ ” Swingle said. The kickoff meeting is scheduled in Detroit, in part because Michigan has some of the best brownfield redevelopment potential.

Researchers this year identified 44,000 acres of brownfield sites in the state that are suitable for harvesting wind and solar power, according to a study conducted by Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute and the National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

If each site was redeveloped with solar arrays and wind farms, according to the study, they could produce an estimated 5,855 megawatts of electricity–enough to power 1.8 million homes, or roughly half the homes in Michigan.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=green-shoots-from-brown

Transworld Surf has a nice report on surfing Lake Superior during the high wind period we experienced a few weeks ago.  The pics show a very nice break off of Stony Point in Minnesota.  Link:

http://surf.transworld.net/photos/great-lakes-go-off/

Note:  Thanks to the Outside Blog for the link:

http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2009/10/surfing-lake-superior-it-can-be-done.html

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the Essex Region Conservation Authority in SW Ontario is recommending that the Canadian government allocate $20 million per year to help clean up polluted waterways in southwest Ontario.  Currently, Canada spends $8 million per year on these efforts.

Of course, what happens in SW Ontario eventually impacts Monroe and the waters of western Lake Erie.

Link:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2009/10/09/essex-water-quality-report-091009.html