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Michigan Botanical Society — Huron Valley Chapter
Transcription
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and we're going to explore a rather ambitious effort at significant land and ecosystem preservation today. I'm David Fair, and welcome to Issues of the Environment. Now, have you heard of the Sibley Prairie? The 440-acre site in Wayne County is the largest and highest quality lake plain prairie in all of Michigan. That's why there's an ambitious effort underway to ensure it's permanently preserved. Among the groups in that effort is the Michigan Botanical Society of Huron Valley, and our guest today is Director-at-Large of the Huron Valley chapter, Jeff Vornhagen. Thank you so much for making time! I appreciate it!
Jeff Vornhagen: Yeah, no problem!
David Fair: Have you spent much time out at Sibley Prairie?
Jeff Vornhagen: Well, I have spent time at Sibley Prairie and very recently, too, based upon these efforts. But there's also a similar lake plain prairie preserve right around the corner on West Road, which is by the Southeastern Michigan Land Conservancy. And I've spent a fair amount of time out there. So, I'm familiar with lake plain prairies.
David Fair: For those of us who haven't been and haven't experienced it, do you think you can give us a kind of word picture tour of what the prairie experience is like?
Jeff Vornhagen: Yeah, sure! So, this is called a lake plain prairie. So, it's a very unique--globally unique--type of prairie. It's a type of tall grass prairie, and tall grass praries predominated across much of the middle United States. A lot of us associate prairies with tall grass and have certain species that people are familiar with, like big blue stem, little blue stem, Indian grass, a lot of the grasses. But this is a type of tall grass prairie that grows on a very specific set of hydrogeological circumstances. And these were developed or came about through glacial lake plains that were present after glacial lakes receded when the glaciers receded 10,000 years ago and became what we affectionately know as the Great Lakes--Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan. So, these are flat lowlands, and they're very unique in the respect that they have a tendency to flood in the springtime and then dry out in the middle summer. And so, they pose a very challenging environment for plant communities, which make those plant communities unique to these glacial lake plains. But when you go out there, it does look like a typical prairie in respect to having tall grasses. But it also has a very unique set other plants that grow in just this area because of those conditions I just described. But it's gorgeous in the springtime with all sorts of beautiful prairie wildflowers, such as blazing star, Culver's root, and some of these other plants that people may not be as familiar with. But in the fall, you get that explosion of asters and goldenrods that I think people are a little bit more familiar with. So, it's a very beautiful but also unique ecosystem. There's only this one particular parcel left that has the largest and highest quality remnant in Michigan. It's going to be a joy to have people hike through the Sibley Prairie once we acquire it and preserve it to see all this incredible natural beauty.
David Fair: 89.1 WEMU's Issues of the Environment conversation with Jeff Vornhagen continues. Jeff is Director-at-Large of the Michigan Botanical Society's Huron Valley Chapter. There are 200 native plant species, and that includes many important two-pollinators like birds and bee. So, can we then extrapolate, Jeff, that the impact of the Sibley Prairie extends well beyond its borders?
Jeff Vornhagen: Oh, very much so! And actually, the parcel that we're attempting to purchase is part of a much larger area of lake plain prairie referred to as the Greater Sibley Road Lake Plain Complex. So, we're getting a big chunk of it, and we want the chunk, of course, that has the lake plain prairie on it. But what we all try to do when we do land conservation is create contiguous pieces of property to support all the fauna, all the wildlife that you just mentioned. So, yeah, by preserving this, we also allow these types of species to exist in a larger context and a larger kind of geographic area.
David Fair: This part of Wayne County is growing, and does that create more urgency to protect this particular property from development?
Jeff Vornhagen: Absolutely! So, the additional value--and a very great value of this parcel--is its proximity to urban areas. Many of these urban areas, including Detroit, they really are in need of green space, both for recreation and research, mental health, I'll say. I've just taken a nice walk out in the woods or in the prairie.
David Fair: Does the spirit good, doesn't it?
Jeff Vornhagen: Yes, absolutely! And there's studies to that effect. This one in particular, much of the focus is the fact that it is in proximity to the Detroit metropolitan area and an urban area. These are parcels that are very difficult or don't come up very often for sale because of that reason. I mean, there's a lot of growth pressure in urban areas, land prices are high, and conservancy organizations like the Michigan Land Conservancy, who is at the forefront of this, have to figure out how to spend their dollars wisely. And so, you can buy you know land up north, which is definitely worth preserving. But it's cheaper, and you can get more of it, but it's just as important to acquire properties near where a lot of people live, so they can enjoy it and learn from it and research it.
David Fair: Well, a lot of time and talk was put into negotiating some form of agreement that might allow for the land to be preserved. Apparently, the agreed upon price is $6 million. Right?
Jeff Vornhagen: That's correct! And so, we're trying to raise $6 million, and we've got about over half a million dollars in small donations. And we're also applying for grants which are atlarger dollar value. And there's some resources here in the Detroit area and nationally that we'll be trying to get in contact with to have communications with those type of resources.
David Fair: Once again, we're talking with Jeff Vornhagen from the Huron Valley chapter of the Michigan Botanical Society on 89.1 WEMU's Issues of the Environment. If the deadline is not met to raise that $6 million, should we then assume that's land that will be sold for development?
Jeff Vornhagen: It could. It's a possibility. But we certainly have a good relationship with the seller of the property, which is an individual private company. If we get to the end of the line here and find out that we maybe need additional time to purchase the property, and we have an option to buy which ends at the end this year, I think that there will be some room for negotiation. But pending any situation in where we are not able to purchase the land, it could absolutely be made available for development. Yes. And then, that's it. If we lose this, it's gone forever. And this is a particularly unique piece of property in the respect that it has this unique ecosystem on it. There's less than 1% of this remaining in Michigan, and it has designation as being threatened on the state level and imperiled on another definition--globally imperiled, by the way--by another national organization.
David Fair: I think many of the arguments have been contained in our conversation to this point, but perhaps we'll try and provide it a little more succinctly. You are talking to a lot of folks who live outside of Wayne County, Washtenaw included and most of Southeast Michigan. What is your argument to them to become interested in and care about the preservation of this particular parcel of land?
Jeff Vornhagen: Well, the fact that it is a globally unique ecosystem, in my mind, we're all stakeholders, not only in the state of Michigan, but also nationally. And so, we have actually received funds from 37 states of the United States, and we're trying to figure out who those other 13 are, so we can go after them and make sure they make their contribution to this, in a sense in my mind, a global initiative to preserve a very unique ecosystem that exists in a very kind of a small quarter from Southeastern Michigan into Ohio. It's referred to the Oak Openings region. And so, we do have people from Ohio that have an interest in it for that reason because we would tie this property into their efforts to preserve similar ecosystems in their backyard. So, in my mind, this is not only a state initiative. This a national initiative.
David Fair: Well, I wish you very well, and I thank you for sharing all you have today! Much appreciated!
Jeff Vornhagen: Thank you so much!
David Fair: That is Jeff Vornhagen, and he is Director-at-Large of the Michigan Botanical Society's Huron Valley chapter and has been our guest on Issues of the Environment. For more information about the preservation efforts, stop by our website at WEMU.org Issues of the Environment--it's produced in partnership with the office of the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner, and you hear it every Wednesday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti.
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