Katy and I just returned from two weeks in Costa Rica. As part of an Elderhostel–though the program is now called Exploritas–we visited five sites ranging from mangrove forest along the Pacific Coast to the rather chaparral-like vegetation called paramo around 11,000 feet above sea level on Cerro de la Muerte. Included were visits to [...]
The following is approximately what I said in my brief remarks at the Save the Colony Farm Orchard Rally last Tuesday night, 8 December 2009. I have, however, expanded on my thoughts under point 3, adding a consideration of conservation easements.
We need to recognize three aspects to the conservation value of this piece of land. [...]
Wetlands are scarce in Oshtemo Township. Its thirty-six square miles are mostly high and dry and the soils are mostly well-drained. A few kettles exist in the moraine-outwash plain topoography. These are depressions formed when ice blocks left behind during the retreat of the last Pleistocene ice sheet melted. Most kettles in Oshtemo Township don’t [...]
As we all know, HB 5207 put forth by Representative Bob Jones (D–Kalamazoo) is designed to strip the conservation/public use restrictions from the Colony Farm Orchard as a first step in turning the 54 acres into an Annex to Western Michigan University’s BTR Park. Here are the stated restrictions: “The conveyance shall provide that Western [...]
Mid-morning I looked out the window and saw a small bird in the shrubs, moving about pretty actively. It was an American Redstart, not in the black and orange adult male plumage, but rather the olive-backed, gray-headed plumage with yellow wing and tail patches that at this time of year could be a female or [...]
From statements by Western Michigan University’s PR guy, we know what WMU thinks the Colony Farm Orchard is good for–expansion of the University’s business park.
The motivation for such an action is unclear, as are the need for it and what the expansion would involve. But none of these needs to concern us here. We want [...]
Following are brief descriptions of the major vegetation types in Oshtemo Township (Kalamazoo County, Michigan) about the time of settlement. This is the second and concluding installment of a talk given at the March 2009 meeting of the Oshtemo Historical Society.
Information is also provided about what settlement, agriculture, and development have done to original plant [...]
This is a short version of a talk I gave at the Oshtemo Historical Society, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, this spring (March 2009) on the original vegetation of the township.
I’m using 1830 as the beginning date. There are good reasons for choosing that year. One of Kalamazoo County’s famous early settlers, Benjamin Drake, [...]
