Category Archives: Michigan (including Kalamazoo)

Is the Colony Farm Orchard a Slam Dunk?

Hackberry at Colony Farm Orchard. Often a floodplain tree, hackberry is also characteristic of Midwestern prairie groves. Photo by Richard Brewer

Hackberry (on the right) at Colony Farm Orchard. Often a floodplain tree, hackberry is also characteristic of Midwestern prairie groves. Photo by Richard Brewer

Western Michigan University seems bound and determined to remove the restriction on the Colony Farm Orchard. The restriction language used by the state when it gave the land to WMU is as follows: Western Michigan University may utilize the property solely for public park, recreation, or open space purposes, except that the legislature, by statute, may authorize Western Michigan University to utilize the property for some other public purpose.

If that restriction is deleted, WMU believes that it can then use the land to expand its business park. The University seems totally adamant in using the Colony Farm Orchard. Nothing else will do. Not one of various unrestricted sites that WMU also owns in Kalamazoo or Oshtemo Township. Not a restored brownfield downtown, which would contribute to downtown revitalization and make an important environmental statement. Not unrestricted sites in Portage. None of these.

WMU has not offered an open forum where the issue could be explored factually rather than in terms of the marketing plan. In fact, WMU will hardly address the issue at all. To the best of my knowledge, the only persons connected with the WMU administration or board that have talked in public about the conversion plan are three vice-presidents. In the past week, President John Dunn gave an interview to a Western Herald reporter and a speech before the WMU faculty and, as far as I can detect, he did not address the question in either.

What WMU’s representatives tend to do if someone raises the question, “Why do you want the Colony Farm Orchard so bad, wouldn’t some other place do just as well?” is talk about what a great job was done developing the current business park and what a great success it has been. When pressed, the representatives have been known to bring forth three bullet points.

Contiguity. The dictionary says “contiguous” means sharing an edge, touching. The short southern boundary of the Colony Farm Orchard lies across Parkview Avenue opposite a small westward projection of the current business park. But let’s say that the two parcels are contiguous. It may be worth remembering that the Asylum Lake Preserve is a lot more contiguous. That is, the whole long southern boundary of the Asylum Lake Preserve lies just across Parkview from the northern boundary of the current business park. If contiguity is a major consideration, those radicals who have been telling us that Asylum Lake Preserve itself is not safe from WMU’s hunger for more business park space could be right.

Advertising. The west border of the Colony Farm Orchard abuts US–131. Some might say it is contiguous with US-131. The idea is that WMU needs to let the people driving by on US–131 know about the existence of its business park, or perhaps of WMU itself. Judiciously placed buildings with writing on them, or maybe billboards, will keep WMU in the public eye. I don’t tend to think of WMU as being in retail and do not think of education in terms of curb appeal. But this may only show how unrealistic my idea of the modern university is. I’m unwordly enough to think that a billboard extolling the Asylum Lake Preserve, including the Colony Farm Orchard, mentioning research, education, service, and conservation would be more effective advertising for WMU and its mission.

Bus route. Last and least is the idea that WMU has already contracted with Indian Trails to run an express bus from campus to the business park, so it wouldn’t be hard to add a stop at Colony Farm Orchard. All of us are supporters of mass transit, but as a reason for why the expansion must be at the Colony Farm Orchard…. Take it for what it’s worth.

In pondering the question, I’ve thought about other possible explanations for WMU’s insistence that Colony Farm Orchard is the place and nowhere else will do. The first to occur to me is that the WMU board and its upper administration in association with various politicians, members of the Kalamazoo business community, and quasi-public booster groups are supremely confident that their plan cannot be successfully challenged. Hence, why bother to talk about alternatives? It’s a slam dunk.

Actually, this is the first, but also the only, explanation that has occurred to me. It’s bolstered somewhat by various WMU actions. One is WMU’s response to Oshtemo Township, where the Colony Farm Orchard is located. Oshtemo Township said to WMU, “This is dedicated open space in our township. We’d like it to be retained, but if it’s to be lost, the loss should be mitigated by WMU setting aside another parcel of open space in Oshtemo.” It was an innovative proposal, the same approach used to prevent a net loss of wetlands to development. Under Michigan law, developers usually must set aside as mitigated acreage 1.5 to 2 times the developed acreage.

WMU did not give serious attention to Oshtemo’s proposal or Oshtemo’s concerns. Why should it? It’s a slam dunk.

The Colony Farm Orchard is clearly not the best possible site. It’s small, allowing only a few lots. WMU would have to spend up to $985,000 to buy out a lease held by Michigan State University to use the orchard for pest insect research. There is a springy area that could not be developed, and much of the natural ground water flow entering the Asylum Lake Preserve comes from this section of the site. Water management techniques employed at the current business park would probably need a great deal of modification at the Colony Farm Orchard. Furthermore, the old orchard itself, amounting to about a third of the total site, may approximate a brownfield, and one that is not remediated. If this old orchard is like most from its era, the ground under it is impregnated with the components of lead arsenate, the dominant insecticide on apple trees from about 1890 to 1947.

All in all, developing the Colony Farm Orchard would be an expensive proposition.

With all these considerations and others, such as the absence of any realistic need for expansion of the business park in the forseeable future, I’m puzzled. Is there is some overwhelming advantage neither I nor anybody I know has thought of? Is there some way WMU will derive enormous benefits by holding to their course of killing the restrictions and developing this land, this land specifically?

Perhaps someone who reads this can help. Does one or a combination of the answers suggested above account for WMU’s implacability? Or is there something else?

Colony Farm Orchard Items

Black-eyed susan at Colony Farm Orchard, a protected site in Oshtemo Township threatened by expansion of the WMU business park

Here are a few items related to Western Michigan University’s efforts, via Representative Robert Jones, to strip the open space/public park/recreation restriction from the Colony Farm Orchard. This property in Oshtemo Township across Drake Road from the Asylum Lake Preserve would then be sold off as lots in an expansion of the WMU Business Park. Currently the Business Park is located on land south of Parkview Avenue across from the Asylum Lake Preserve. Here is the language of the restriction that would be dropped:

The conveyance shall provide that Western Michigan University may utilize the property solely for public park, recreation, or open space purposes, except that the legislature, by statute, may authorize Western Michigan University to utilize the property for some other public purpose.

A Letter to the Editor of the Western Herald from me was posted at the Herald’s website on 7 September. There is one comment currently, but feel free to leave others there, or here.

Also online at the Herald is a 7 September interview with WMU President John Dunn in which he does not mention anything about the Colony Farm Orchard.

The Summer 2009 Michigan Environmental Report (Michigan Environmental Council) arrived today with an article on the Colony Farm Orchard. The title is Kalamazoo conservationists fight university’s latest plan to develop natural area. It is pretty much a shortened version of Mark Hoffman’s piece that is on my website for 28 July.

A short piece of film by local film-maker (Animals Among Us) Matt Clysdale taken early in August on the Colony Farm Orchard shows three Wild Turkey hens and a brood of chicks. It is on YouTube.

A letter and a viewpoint speaking out against the conversion of dedicated open space to business park were published 3 September in the Kalamazoo Gazette. The Viewpoint, by Pat Klein, was headlined Intention of Legislature in 1977 was for orchard to be set aside for public use.

I found no convenient link to the letter by Nina Feirer, but it was titled Write to WMU and Rep. Jones to stop land grab and here is the text: I want to add my voice to those expressing unhappiness at the idea of Western Michigan University killing trees to make room for buildings. I am also disappointed with state Rep. Robert Jones’ part in introducing legislation to change the law so this rape of the land can take place. I have written to Rep. Jones and plan on writing to the powers-that-be at Western. Join me! We cannot let this happen.–Nina Feirer, Kalamazoo

Earlier letters and Viewpoints (with links) in the Gazette on the same topic include the following:

Ladislav R. Hanka. Deed restrictions on Colony Orchard Farm in Kalamazoo must remain intact. Three comments by readers reacting to the online Viewpoint are also available.

Richard Brewer. Other land is available to WMU; leave orchard alone.

Nancy Small. Western has space, doesn’t need orchard.

Marcia V. Stucki. Use orchard for small scale agriculture.

Labor Day, West Lake Bog

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 a young male.

We had no breeding redstarts in the vicinity this summer, so this was most likely a migrant. Perhaps Katy and I would have done to well stay home and see what else had arrived, but today was a holiday, hence worth a small excursion.

Marsh east of Westnedge Avenue at West Lake Bog . Photo by Richard Brewer

We drove to the West Lake Preserve in Portage. It has trails, including boardwalks (of green plastic) that run out into marshes east of Westnedge Avenue. The marshes have some cat-tails but are mostly sedges plus a great variety of other herbs and a few shrubs.

Button-bush is the most common large shrub. It’s distinctive, easily identified with its whitish ball-like inflorescence in summer which remains ball-like in fruit but turns a rosy color. Easily identified, as I said, as long as you find it in wet ground and it has flowers or fruits.

Button-bush fruits in marsh at West Lake. Photo by Richard Brewer.

Button-bush in fruit in marsh at West Lake. Photo by Richard Brewer.

Once at the Michigan Nature Association’s Black River Sanctuary near Breedsville, the sanctuary steward showed me a large shrub or small tree on dry ground–though not far from the river. It had no flowers or fruits and puzzled both of us for a while. Having finally identified it, I think I’ll know it in the future even if it has no flowers or fruits. The fact that it has neither alternate or opposite leaves but instead often has three at a node is a quick first clue.

We were hoping for migrating warblers and other small birds, but the first birds we heard were two Sandhill Cranes. They were coming from the south and we heard the rolling rattle they make while flying a minute or so before they came in sight over the trees behind us. They might have been planning to land in the large patch of marsh through which the boardwalk runs if we hadn’t been there.

As it was, they flapped a little harder, regained altitude, passed over a line of trees and came down out of sight ahead of us. Not long afterward, a Great Blue Heron, another big bird though not as big as the crane, flew in from the east. It did park in the patch of marsh we were passing through, but out of sight in a strip of water on the far side.

It turned out that we saw and heard only a few song birds. The birds that bred here this year are mostly quiet, some still completing their fall molts. A few Red-winged Blackbirds were still noticeable in the marshes. The largest concentration of birds we saw was in a black gum tree. Its leaves were already red and the ripe dark blue fruits were being visited by a good many largish songbirds. We saw Blue Jays and catbirds, but may have missed other species.

Relatively undisturbed wetlands are always interesting botanically. There are often a lot of species, and some are in groups that present some identification difficulties. But the set of species that can handle really wet ground and especially standing water is circumscribed. You don’t have to look through the whole plant manual to identify hydrophytes; instead you can pretty much confine your search to the specialized books on aquatics.

I don’t know what the best such manuals are today. I still have a copy of Norman Fassett’s A Manual of Aquatic Plants from 1957 and it serves the purpose. A little updating of scientific names may be necessary, but that could be true if you use a manual published six months ago.

Several plants were blooming in the marshes. In fact, flowering late in the season characterizes the wetland flora. Among plants in flower were pickerel-weed with blue flowers, white-flowered arrowheads, and yellow-flowered bur-marigolds.

The water level was lower than we had seen in recent years, when it had come up to or over the flexible boardwalks. Bladderworts were growing and flowering on the exposed peaty surface alongside the boardwalks. They were tiny plants. Some species of bladderworts have purple flowers and some yellow. These plants had tiny bright yellow flowers. I thought they might be Utricularia gibba, but I wasn’t in a serious plant-identifying mood today.

A blanket of sphagnum moss in West Lake Bog. Photo by Richard Brewer

We continued to where the boardwalk loops back to the dirt path and followed that to the boardwalk that runs out into the sphagnum bog fringing West Lake. The flora of bogs is even smaller and more specialized than most other wetlands, but includes many striking and beautiful species that can be seen in no other habitat. The West Lake boardwalk is probably the best local opportunity to see this community with such things as tamarack, leatherleaf, cottongrass, pitcher plant, and sundew.

After the bog, we hiked back out to the parking lot. It was 12:30 and we had plans to continue our holiday with lunch at the Lebanese buffet.

Tamarack bog with leatherleaf and cottongrass. Photo by Richard Brewer

Colony Farm Orchard Conversion: Good Business, Smart Politics, or Betrayal of a Public Trust?

The maneuver being pushed by Western Michigan University to convert the Colony Farm Orchard from protected open space to business park was on the agenda for the Oshtemo Township Board last Tuesday night, 24 August 2009. Representative Robert Jones who introduced the bill to be taken up the following day in the House Commerce Committee (chaired by Representative Jones) was there. So was a WMU representative, Senior Vice President for Advancement and Legislative Affairs Gregory Rosine.

Oshtemo is interested in the matter because it is their open space that is in danger of being lost; the Colony Farm Orchard lies west of Drake Road, thus in Oshtemo Township, which happens not to be in Representative Jones’s district.

As it worked out, the Orchard was the first agenda item right after the pledge of allegiance and approval of the minutes. Jones spoke in generalities and expressed his solidarity with the trustees in the hard job of local government. Rosine talked about what a boon WMU’s current business park had been, citing numbers and mentioning compliments received.

Unfortunately, not all of Senior Vice President Rosine’s statements were entirely factual. He sought to allay the Trustees’ misgivings about the restriction that Jones’s bill would lift, a restriction that reads as follows:

Senior Vice President Rosine explained to the Trustees and citizens of Oshtemo that in those days (1977) it was routine when the state conveyed land to a university that there be a restriction that the land be kept as open space. But, he explained, such an idea was no longer valid. Rather, we are more enlightened now and it is understood that the highest and best use of land is for such things as business parks that will generate jobs and make money.

Senior Vice President Rosine seemed not to know that this restriction was, in fact, not in the original language of the conveyance (House Bill 4058). It was added by Robert Welborn, Representative from Kalamazoo. At this time his brother John was the State Senator from the Kalamazoo area. Interested in increasing protected open space in the Kalamazoo area, the two Republican legislators had also been involved in the 1975 transfer of the Asylum Lake parcel to WMU with the identical restriction.

Rosine also mentioned the $1.5 million endowment established at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation in 1998-1999, but somehow left the impression that it was connected with the business park. In fact, it was raised for the stewardship of the Asylum Lake Preserve, including its defense against future attempts to violate the conservation restrictions placed upon it.

The bill sponsored by Representative Jones is short. If you leave out the legal descriptions of the parcels, it amounts to no more than four pages. It is, nevertheless, a remarkable, almost magical, device. It does two things: The state adminstrative board will pay WMU a dollar for the Colony Farm Orchard. The state administrative board will then sell it back to WMU for a dollar but with a new restriction as follows:

The property shall be used exclusively for the purpose of expanding and improving the business technology and research park located on western Michigan university’s Parkview campus.

You see why I call the bill magical. It is like a stage magician’s cabinet. The old conveyance with a conservation restriction goes in like the magician’s beautiful assistant. The door is closed and locked. Seconds later, when it’s reopened, the new conveyance comes out looking entirely different, rather like a goat, with a restriction that requires WMU to do exactly what it has always wanted to do with the orchard.

Oddly enough, the original conveyance with the restriction to open space, public park, or recreation use was not provided in the bill. The Commerce Committee members, with the exception of Representative Jones, had no way of knowing prior to the meeting that it existed.

Tuesday night, the Oshtemo Township board seemed in their questions and discussion to be leaning toward the position that they would prefer that the Orchard be left as protected open space but that if it were converted, Oshtemo’s loss should be mitigated by the provision of other protected open space in some multiple of the acreage of the Orchard. Jones and Rosine pointed out that time was too short for a discussion of such matters. The bill would be taken up by the Commerce Committee the next day, and in response to a question, Representative Jones assured the Township Board that it would be approved. Vice President Rosine promised Township Supervisor Libby Heiny-Cogswell that his office would be in touch with her to set up a meeting to talk about the mitigation matter.

In response to a question as to whether the bill could be fast-tracked in such a way that it might be passed by both House and Senate in a week (as had happened with an earlier bill which had targeted Oshtemo Township), Jones had said, no, the House was meeting the next day and then not again until the following Tuesday, 2 September. He did not rule out the possibility that it would be taken up then (and approved, since the House has a Democratic majority).

View in Western Michigan University Business Park 27 July 2009. Photo by Richard Brewer

As a citizen of Oshtemo Township, I made a few remarks trying to correct some of the misleading statements. I also pointed out that if the time ever came when more space was actually needed in the WMU business park, many other choices are available, including several parcels that WMU already owns in Kalamazoo and Oshtemo Township.

Although WMU has sometimes given the impression that expansion room is urgently needed, three spaces in the business park are still unclaimed, at least two spaces have become vacant and available for lease, and a large area devoted to soccer fields occupies part of the business park and could be developed. Besides, times are hard and several of the conditions that contributed to the relatively strong showing of the business park in the past may no longer apply. It is by no means clear that any expansion room will be needed in the foreseeable future.

A brief account of the Oshtemo Board meeting was published in the Kalamazoo Gazette the next day. Representative Jones was as good as his word, and the bill was unanimously adopted in the Commerce Committee on Wednesday and sent to the full house. The Gazette reported that action also.

Today is Tuesday September 2.

What Is The Colony Farm Orchard Good For?

A bur oak at the west edge of the Colony Farm Orchard with US-131 in the background

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 to talk about how the property ought to be used, in keeping with the restrictions on the land contained in the original transfer to WMU in 1977. Public Act 316 (Sec. 1.2) said

The Colony Farm Orchard is at the upper left in this diagrammatic map which appears on the Asylum Lake website

The Colony Farm Orchard is at the upper left in this diagrammatic map which appears on the WMU website

To situate ourselves, the 54-acre property lies across Drake Road from the main body of the Asylum Lake Preserve. The right-of-way for the expressway US-131 is the west boundary, Parkview Avenue is the south boundary, and Stadium Drive is the north boundary. Actually, nine acres just south of Stadium Drive is owned by the Western Michigan University Foundation (the old trailer park land) but evidently would be included in the Business Park expansion, bringing the total to about 63 acres.

WMU has done very little with the land. It allowed Consumers Energy and other utilities to use land for the very visible transmission installations in the southwest corner. These service the current business park, but whether it was wise or prudent to use part of the protected Colony Farm Orchard for them is debatable.

Also, a large leaf composting operation for part of the city of Kalamazoo is located a little north of the utility transmission facilities. A large-scale composting operation is better environmentally than landfilling yard waste, but whether this use meets the public park/recreation/open space criterion is doubtful. The utility installation and composting operation each have separate service roads coming in from Drake Road.

We should also mention that Michigan State University holds a lease that provides that its Department of Entomology has use of the orchard for as long as it “conducts experimental fruit pest research on the land.” (In preparation for selling the property as part of its business park operations, WMU has indicated that it will pay MSU up to $985,000 to cancel the lease.)

WMU’s main action in recent times has been to erect a fence along the Drake Road boundary making entrance difficult for anyone not willing or able to climb over it. Access from the south next to the big Consumers Energy facility is possible–and perfectly legitimate since the justification for WMU having the land is, as we know, for public park, recreation, or open space. But many people, seeing the fence and the locked gate at the composting entrance, would conclude that WMU wanted to prevent access to the property.

The role I’d like to see this property play is exactly what it’s doing now, but better.

What it’s doing now is, for one thing, buffering the main body of the preserve from the noise and noxious fumes of the expressway. That’s good, but it’s not the land’s most important function. The land functions ecologically as an integral part of Asylum Lake Preserve.

The Declaration of Conservation Restrictions adopted by the WMU Board in 2004 says that its first goal is to promote ecosystem integrity by, among other things, maintaining the Preserve as green space and wildlife habitat and protecting natural features from further degradation. The existence of the Colony Farm Orchard next to the other property contributes to this goal.

The Asylum Lake property itself is not large. At one time it was 274 acres, but that was before land was carved out for widening Parkview and Drake, for sidewalks on two sides, and for parking spaces. Biodiversity, the number of species, is strongly dependent on the size of a preserve. The Colony Farm Orchard site only a few tens of feet from the Asylum Lake property effectively adds 63 acres, bringing the total size of the protected area to something on the order of 320 acres.

Grape vines covering trees in abandoned orchard

How does adding these 63 acres add diversity? One way is by adding new habitats. The old orchard itself, a dense thicket type of vegetation, is different from any vegetation on the east side of the preserve. Also the area of springs lying partly on the Orchard property and partly on the south portion of the Foundation property is a different and rather unusual habitat.

Biodiversity on a preserve is lowered by local extinctions of species and raised by immigration of individuals of new species. Simply the additional acreage is important in preventing extinctions–or reversing them. Suppose that all three breeding pairs of the black-capped chickadee, a year-round resident on the Asylum Lake Preserve, die one winter from some combination of causes and their offspring also disappear by dispersing elsewhere or by death from predation, starvation, etc. One species has been lost from the preserve.

Now suppose that on the combination of Preserve plus Orchard we start with six pairs. The chance that all six and all their young will be lost in the same winter is perhaps half the likelihood that three will disappear. Next year, the survivors may be able to breed and thrive and replenish the chickadee population. This replenishment, or rescue effect, is an important way in which species diversity is maintained on larger preserves or ones located in close proximity to one another.

This is the role in biodiversity that the Colony Farm Orchard plays–not just for birds, but mammals and insects, turtles and frogs, and other organisms. It’s possible that the WMU business park may also function in this same way interacting with the restored grassland on the southwest side of the Asylum Lake Preserve for grassland birds–though probably not for birds of other habitats.

Another effect that the Colony Farm Orchard enhances is the role that the Asylum Lake Preserve has as a migratory stopover site. Retaining habitat where migratory birds can rest and refuel on their migratory flights south and north is a new focus in conservation. Recent studies have looked at what traits make good stopover sites. For fall migration, fleshy fruits–eaten in late summer and fall even by insectivorous birds–are favorable. The old orchard has these in abundance in the form of grapes, blackberries, and others.

For spring bird migration, insects, especially such forms as midges hatching from ponds and streams are important food sources. The springs and spring-fed pond at the north end of the property would provide this steadily renewed food for the northward migrants.

Young acorns on bur oak at Colony Farm Orchard August 2009

The Orchard property has other habitat features that add to its value as a part of the Asylum Lake Preserve. I’ll mention only one more here. The western part of the property was within the historic Genesee Prairie. The rest of it was bur oak plain, a closely related community. This tells us that the spring area lying at the north end of the Orchard and the south end of the ten acres owned by the WMU Foundation was almost certainly prairie fen. In years of low water in the past, I have identified fen plant species in the wetlands at the west edge of Asylum Lake directly opposite. Prairie fen is a remarkably attractive and diverse ecosystem that The Nature Conservancy and the Michigan Natural Features Inventory have given high priority for protection in Michigan.

It would make good conservation sense to restore tall-grass prairie in a wide band along the western fence of the Orchard property and to restore prairie fen on the springy wetlands at the north. Southwest Michigan genotypes of plants should be used.

I’ll try to make other specific suggestions as to how the land might be used in a later post.

Woodcock at Colony Farm Orchard

American Woodcock in Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area. Minnesota. Photo by Paco Lyptic.

I saw an American woodcock at the Colony Farm Orchard Monday afternoon. It flew up from a little patch of woods as I approached. I only got a quick look, but woodcock are easy to identify, with the big head and the large dark eye nearly centered as you see it from the side. The bird flies almost in the same posture as it walks, head up and the long beak angling down.

Seeing a woodcock in mid-August means the bird probably bred nearby in spring or early summer, or else was hatched nearby. I have a feeling that woodcock would be unlikely to nest successfully on the Asylum Lake property across the road. The habitat mix there is not quite as good for woodcock as on the orchard, but the main weakness of the Preserve is the high number of dogs. They are supposed to be kept on a leash, but dogs like to run and owners are indulgent. I suspect that nests of most ground-nesting birds are sniffed out by roaming dogs often enough that many are abandoned.

There is a much greater diversity of habitat at the orchard property than is obvious from Drake Road. I have some thoughts about what ought to happen to this part of the Asylum Lake Preserve that I’ll try to deal with in a later post.

Field with invading trees at Colony Farm Orchard. Copyright ©Richard Brewer 2009.

Larry Walkinshaw and Michigan’s Golden Age of Ornithology

Wilson meeting When I arrived at Western Michigan University in 1959, Michigan was in the midst of an ornithological Golden Age. Dozens of ornithologists were practicing their science in the state or had recent (or soon-to-come) connections. Nearly every college and university had one to several faculty members with a special interest in birds.
My first exposure to Michigan had come in 1953 while I was still an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University. I attended the 34th annual Wilson Ornithological Society meeting held at the University of Michigan Biological Station at Douglas Lake. Among the 123 Michigan residents at that meeting (out of 350 total attendees) were many faculty members including Andy Berger, Harry Hann, Bob Storer, Josselyn Van Tyne, George Wallace, Miles Pirnie, Lew Batts, and Nick Cuthbert. Such redoubtable graduate students as Philip Humphrey, Peter Stettenheim, Dale Zimmerman, and John William Hardy were also registered.

Hardy, my friend since childhood, was doing a master’s degree with George Wallace at Michigan State and had arranged a ride for us from East Lansing to the Bio Station with T. Wayne Porter. Porter was an invertebrate zoologist but also had broad natural history interests that included birds.

Also at the meeting were Sewall Pettingill, who most summers between 1938 and 1974 taught ornithology at the Bio Station; S. Charles Kendeigh who had filled in for Pettingill in 1946 and who would be my graduate advisor at the University of Illinois a couple of years later; and Theodora Nelson of Hunter College, Pettingill’s assistant 1938-1940. At this meeting she led off the first papers session with a history of ornithology at the station.

These ornithologists were at colleges and universities, though the Michigan Department of Conservation also had some academically trained ornithologists. But Michigan at this time also had a large contingent of amateurs with strong and essentially professional interests in birds. Larry Walkinshaw was one of these. Larry was at the 1953 meeting and in fact on the program not long after Teddy Nelson, giving the participants an introduction to northern Michigan birding areas.

All this history is the preamble to mentioning a new book, On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. The biography was written by Walkinshaw’s son-in-law, Lowell M. Schake. I reviewed the book for the Wilson Journal of Ornithology (formerly Wilson Bulletin) in the June issue 2009 (vol. 121, no. 2): 445-447.

Walkinshaw was a student of birds from boyhood, but when the time for college arrived, he decided it would be wiser to study teeth instead. While at dental school at the University of Michigan, he often talked with Josselyn VanTyne, curator of birds at the Museum of Zoology. Van Tyne was only two years older but was Larry’s mentor, encouraging his interest in ornithological research. He did the same with others, notably Harold Mayfield (who also attended the 1953 meeting).

In 1929, Walkinshaw got his DDS and opened a dental office in Battle Creek not many miles west of where he grew up in Calhoun County. Over the years until he closed his practice in 1968, he combined dentistry with ornithology in a way that did not slight one in favor of the other, though the combination was not wholly satisfying either.

In summer, Wallkinshaw would get up early, make a couple of hours of observations on whatever local bird species was occupying his attention, get to his office for his first appointment at 8 AM, put in a full day, and then spend much of the time after dinner making more observations or working on manuscripts. He was dedicated not just to learning the details of avian life history but also to putting the knowledge into print. By the end of his life in 1993, he had published 9 books and something over 300 articles, chapters, and reviews. Many of these are research papers based on his painstaking observations of Field Sparrows, Sandhill Cranes, Kirtland’s Warblers, Prothonotary Warblers, and Empidonax flycatchers, among other species.

In Larry’s proposal of marriage to Clara May Cartland, he asked her if she thought she could love birds as much as he did. Whether she did or not, her abilities in running the household, helping in the dental office, and taking care of the children were probably essential to many of Larry’s ornithological accomplishments.

Besides his basic research in ornithology, Larry was heavily involved in bird conservation. He helped establish the Michigan Audubon Society’s Baker Sanctuary in Calhoun County, which brought back the Sandhill Crane as a nesting bird in southern Michigan. His observations on crane life history were important in starting the species on its road to recovery throughout its range. He was also heavily involved–much more so than the standard literary sources show– in recovery efforts for the Whooping Crane. And his observations on Kirtland’s Warblers provided many of the life history and ecology keys needed to bring that species back from near extinction.

The book provides information on these and other ornithological and conservation topics along with facts about Larry and Clara’s life in Battle Creek and at the summer cabins they had on the Lake Michigan shore near Muskegon.

Not long after my review of the book appeared, I received an email from a Canadian birder with a Walkinshaw anecdote. As a teenager 58 years ago, Fred Helleiner along with a friend had stopped at Walkinshaw’s dental office, needing directions to Baker Sanctuary. “Although we came in unannounced and decidedly scruffy, Dr. Walkinshaw’s receptionist was obviously expected to call him out to the waiting room whenever a birder arrived. On that occasion, he interrupted the treatment that he was administering to his patient…while he spent twenty or more minutes with us in his ‘gentle and patient’ (to use your words) manner providing us with the information that we needed.”

Larry Walkinshaw was gentle and patient. Helpful also. And he loved birds. A lot.

What is the Colony Farm Orchard and What Should Happen to it?

Mark Hoffman, mentioned in an earlier post as the person who knows the most about the history of the Asylum Lake (Kalamazoo, Michigan) property, gave permission to post this white paper on the current situation. He prepared it for the Asylum Lake Protection Association, one of the leaders in the conservation battle that occupied much of the 1990s. Mark was one of the first to call my attention to the undesirability of those early plans of WMU to invade the protected property. When he first mentioned the conservation and open space value of the protected property some twenty years ago, he spoke to me, not about the larger parcel directly around the lake, but instead the parcel west of Drake Road, with grape tangles and native trees and herbs advancing through the old orchard, forming food-rich, secure cover for birds and mammals.–RB

WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY PROPOSES DEVELOPMENT
FOR RESTRICTED PROPERTY – AGAIN

Mark Hoffman

Colony Farm Orchard, a narrow 54-acre tract of wooded open space, is one of three large and contiguous pieces of property along the southwest city limits of Kalamazoo that once sited an extensive farming operation for the Kalamazoo State Hospital from 1888 to 1959 and included a residential “cottage system” for patients that was phased out in 1969. As the three properties were deemed surplus by the Michigan Department of Mental Health, they were transferred individually to Western Michigan University (WMU). The Colony Farm Orchard was the last of the three transfers to WMU, with its enabling legislation enacted by the state of Michigan in 1977. It is now threatened to be developed by Western. 1977 Public Act 158 (section 3) conveys the Orchard to WMU but limits the University to using the property “solely for public park, recreation, or open space purposes, except that the legislature, by statute, may authorize western Michigan university to utilize the property for some other public purpose.” The legislation also permits MSU’s Department of Entomology to continue its use of the Orchard for fruit pest research until they no longer need the land. MSU began their research in the Orchard on apples, grapes, and cherries during 1963 – after U.S. 131 split the property and limited its productivity for the State Hospital.

Bordering the Colony Farm Orchard is a 274-acre tract known as the Asylum Lake Preserve. This property was conveyed to WMU by the state of Michigan in 1975 with the identical restrictive language used to transfer the Orchard property, as stated above. The Asylum Lake property, with its two connecting lakes, hiking trails, and prairie restoration, was further restricted by WMU Trustees in April 2004 with their adoption of a management framework and additional guidelines that designated it as a “preserve.” The new status for the land resulted as a compromise with the Kalamazoo community in 1999 to generate support for the controversial development of a Business, Technology, and Research (BTR) Park on 257 acres of adjacent University property (former State Hospital farmland, south of Parkview Avenue, transferred to WMU in 1959 without restrictions). Furthermore a $1.5-million endowment was also established in 1999 to fund the maintenance of the Asylum Lake Preserve for passive recreational opportunities.

Beginning the process to strip the Orchard of its restrictions, WMU’s Board of Trustees, on July 2, 2009, approved an agreement that was negotiated with MSU for the termination of its long-standing lease that has allowed them to conduct fruit pest research on the property. WMU Trustees also authorized expenditures, not to exceed $985,000, to help relocate MSU’s experimental operation that is presently on the Orchard. Western next seeks to have the Michigan Legislature eliminate the “public park, recreation, open space…” transfer-stipulations to enable the expansion of its University-sponsored BTR Park, located on adjacent land (see House Bill 5207, introduced July 16, 2009 by Rep. Robert Jones, Kalamazoo Democrat). Officials from Western have also announced that after the Orchard is free of its restrictions, the University intends to sell parcels of the property to private businesses to recover the $985,000 spent to relocate MSU’s research.

As the development of the Colony Farm Orchard looms once again, Kalamazoo’s Asylum Lake Preservation Association (ALPA) is seeking to retain the restrictions that were enacted when the 1977 legislative conveyance took place. While the Orchard itself remains wild and wooded, ALPA believes that developing this tract will also pose a serious risk to the sensitive ecosystem of the neighboring Asylum Lake Preserve and the extensive watershed that is encompassed throughout both properties. Furthermore, the long and narrow Colony Farm Orchard serves to buffer the Asylum Lake Preserve from further commercial encroachment, while protecting the habitats from the high traffic volume on U.S. 131, which creates the western boundary of the Orchard.

ALPA’s continuing interest in this land was recently expressed through its pursuit to designate the Orchard as a selected site in Kalamazoo County – one with distinct characteristics for agriculture, recreation, history, unique habitats, and buffers. Subsequently, the property was one of many distinctive natural areas included by a coordinated smart-growth initiative (Convening Our Community and Convening for Action) in their January 2003 publication, Smarter Growth for Kalamazoo County. Kalamazoo College officials involved in this initiative compiled the booklet to report special places where “preserving them could be a starting point to smarter growth” (p. 26). They further noted that, “[t]oo many of these sites lay in the path of development … [and] too few resources and incentives exist to encourage developers to incorporate smart growth principles that would not only preserve these sites, but showcase them” (p. 27).

The new threat over losing the Colony Farm Orchard to development is shaping up to be the repeat of a prior attempt to change the status of the restricted land. Following a long and bitter fight from 1990-93, Western Michigan University withdrew its attempt to change the conveyance restrictions on the Orchard in May 1993 after it failed to convince a Senate committee that private / for-profit businesses constituted a “public purpose,” as stipulated in the 1977 conveyance legislation (1977 Public Act 158). This decision followed three years of tumultuous community debate that started when WMU announced in April 1990 that it would begin developing the Colony Farm Orchard with its Business – Research Park.

Throughout the deliberations, the Asylum Lake Preservation Association and the Kalamazoo Environmental Council (KEC) united with neighborhoods and community leaders in Kalamazoo and Oshtemo Township to protect the three properties from the business and industrial development that WMU was proposing. The KEC, at that time, believed that it was important for Western to “hold and maintain parcels of land containing natural ecosystems for purposes of research and instruction.” And while the need to build upon this parcel of land was not demonstrated, especially in light of alternative sites that were available, the organization further believed that the sensitive ecosystem in this area could be destroyed by the development that was being proposed. ALPA concurred at that time, and it has not altered its position.

ALPA is now seeking assistance and asking others to voice their objections to House Bill 5207 by letting state legislators know that WMU’s Colony Farm Orchard in Oshtemo Township needs to be retained for “public park, recreation, or open space purposes,” as the 1977 conveyance legislation mandates.

Synopsis of Oshtemo Township Original (1830) Vegetation Types

Bur Oak at the Colony Farm Orchard, a protected area threatened by expansion of the WMU Business Park

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 communities. Some protection and restoration possibilities are mentioned under “Current Status.” Major invasive species are listed. Invasives are plants or animals, usually non-native, that invade and spread, usually at the expense of native species. Control of invasives may be necessary for conservation.

1. Oak Savanna and Oak Forest (together occupied 88% of Township)
These are treated together because they are similar except for crown coverage. Areas where the canopy coverage was more than 50% are termed forest.

Tree species–The widespread oak savannas that the settlers usually termed “openings” were dominated by white oak. Chinkapin (yellow chestnut) oak, bur oak, and hickory (mostly pignut) were present but not common. Black oak was also present but was common only on the driest soils and was often associated with dry sand prairie. Shrubs included flowering dogwood, hazelnut, New Jersey tea, and shadbush.

Herbs–A great variety, depending on the specifics of the site and also its fire history. The species ranged from herbs we would now think of as mesic prairie species to ones that now are mostly in forest, even beech-maple forest.

What happened to it?–Much of it was cut over for timber and charcoal which was used in large quantities by blacksmiths. Large areas were also cleared for agriculture, including orchards. More recently remnants are being lost to residential development. Sites not cut over became brushy and denser owing to invasion of other trees and shrubs in the absence of fire.

Oak forest in Oshtemo Township shows recent invasion by white pine and red maple. Photo copyright 2009 Richard Brewer

Current status–No intact examples are left, but a fair amount of land exists occupied by more or less disturbed remnants. In the past 30 years these have been heavily invaded by red maple and white pine. Both species were almost absent from uplands in 1830. Because of the dense shade these trees cast, less shade-tolerant herbs and shrubs are reduced. To provide a demonstration of what most of the township was originally like, a few sites of considerable acreage should be set aside. Invading maples and pines should be removed and a continuing fire management regime should be started.

Invasives–Tartarian honeysuckle, Common privet, garlic mustard, dame’s rocket, and recently money plant.

2. Other-than-mesic Prairie
These prairie types ranging from wet to dry mostly tended to be associated with oak savanna on sites of appropriate soil moisture and fire history.

For example, on south- and west-facing slopes especially next to lakes or broad valleys occurred hill prairies, also called goat prairies. These shared some species with the adjoining forest or savanna and some with other prairie types; they also had a few distinctive species.

Wet prairie occurred on lowlands associated with wetland herbaceous communities.

Current status–Few if any sites left because of development and absence of fire; any sites that contain a sampling of the characteristic species are worth preservation. Searches should be made of the appropriate slopes for hill prairie remnants and of the few wetlands for wet prairie species.

3. Mesic or Tall-grass Prairie (Grand and Genesee Prairies were 2% of Township)
Tree species–Mesic prairies were treeless. Bur oak might occur at the edge.

Herbs and grasses–Big bluestem and Indian grass were the most important tall grasses, but several other species of lesser stature were present. Important herbs included bird’s foot violet, compass plant and two other species of Silphium, culver’s root, various asters, goldenrods, sunflowers, and legumes.

Indian grass, one of the dominant tall grasses in mesic prairie. Photo copyright 2009 Richard Brewer

What happened to it?–Mesic prairie was the first land settled and nearly all was plowed. The only parcels that escaped were in the earliest cemeteries and perhaps some land along the earliest railroads. However, some remnants of bur oak plains and white oak openings on better soils included plants that also were prominent on mesic prairie. In the past 30 or 40 years, disturbance and lack of fire have reduced or obliterated the few remnants in these categories.

Current status–All sites containing any combination of mesic prairie species are worthy of preservation; however, most sites dominated by mesic prairie species will be the result of restoration.

4. Bur Oak Plains (3% of Township)
This savanna was usually adjacent to mesic prairie. It shared many of the same herbs and grasses and probably originated (and was eliminated) in the same way. No remnants that include bur oaks and characteristic ground layer vegetation are known.

5. Beech-sugar maple Forest (6.5% of Township)
Trees–Beech, sugar maple, basswood, tulip tree, white ash, slippery elm (now nearly gone from Dutch elm disease), red oak, bitternut hickory.

A fall view of beech-sugar maple forest in the Mildred Harris Sanctuary (Audubon Society of Kalamazoo) in Alamo Township. Photo copyright 2009 Richard Brewer

In understory–Blue beech, hophornbeam. Spice bush and red-berried elder are the most important large shrubs; running strawberry bush (genus Euonymus) and gooseberry also occur.

Herbs–A large variety including the spring ephemerals such as spring beauty, toothwort, large-flowered trillium, Dutchman’s breeches. Non-ephemerals and summer-flowering species fewer; examples are nettles, putty-root, water-leafs, wild leek, May-apple, blue cohosh, doll’s-eyes.

What happened to it?–Mostly cut over and converted to agriculture. Beech-maple forest in Oshtemo was the south end of the same patch that extended northeast all the way to Cooper Township, where relict stands persist in Markin Glen Park and the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Current status–Virtually gone. Elsewhere in Kalamazoo county, a few remnants were preserved by land owners because of their beauty and the spring flowers; some of these have been permanently protected. If any patch of even five or ten acres still existed in Oshtemo Township, it should be conserved. In many preserved sites, the invasive garlic mustard is a serious threat to the herb layer.

6. Wetlands (0.5 present of township)

Small amounts of swamp forest and marsh were evident from the original land survey. A few kettles with perched water tables held buttonbush swamps. As far as now known, no bog, tamarack forest, fen, or other specialized types of wetlands occurred. Likewise, no floodplain forest was present.

Current status–If any of the seemingly absent types such as fen, bog, or wet prairie were found in the township, the sites would be worth conserving. Perhaps the small wedge of swamp forest in the northwest corner should be considered for protection.

[Added 15 November 2009. Over the past week or two I noticed a tamarack tree in the wetland at the west edge of the Lilian Anderson Arboretum not far south of West Main (M-43) in Section 15. In the fall, tamarack needles turn a gold color, so a tamarack is easily noticed at this time. I finally stopped by yesterday, by which time many of the leaves had fallen and the few remaining ones were dull brown. The situation where the tamarack is growing is consistent with the possibility of fen, though I have not noticed fen species at other places along the edge of the wetland on many other trips to the Arboretum. The site is at the base of a slope where ground water feeds a sizable wetland northeast of Bonnie Castle Lake. There are more wetlands across M-43 to the north. I tried to walk around in the vicinity of the tamarack without sinking too deep, and I didn’t see any obvious fen indicator species. But it’s not a good time of year. I’ll have another look or two next spring and summer.]

Conservation Overview

Little natural land is currently preserved in Oshtemo Township. The two township parks are mostly devoted to active recreation. A few years ago the Township lost an opportunity to create a contiguous protected area of at least 200 acres when it voted to convert most of the larger park (Oshtemo Township Park on West Main Street behind the township hall and the library) into an 18-hole disc golf course. A color map available at the township website gives a clear picture of how much of the park was removed from natural processes and devoted to disc golf.

Adjoining the Oshtemo Township disk golf park on the west is more than 130 acres of conserved land owned by Kalamazoo College. The Kalamazoo College land has been dedicated as the Lillian Anderson Arboretum; however, only about 30 acres of the land is, in fact, permanently protected (by a conservation easement held by the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy).

Another protected tract is a short segment of the Kal-Haven Trail (owned by the state of Michigan) cutting across the northeast corner of the township. Adjoining this section of the Kal-Haven Trail is about 100 acres owned by the Kalamazoo Nature Center as the result of a bequest from Mildred Harris.

A part of Western Michigan University’s Asylum Lake property lies in Oshtemo Township between Drake Road and U.S.-131 . It is, to a degree, protected since it was conveyed to WMU by the state to be used “solely for public park, recreation or other open-space purposes unless otherwise authorized by public act.” Part of the 55-acre site was used as an orchard by the Kalamazoo State Hospital’s Colony Farm from the 1880s into the 1950s. The now-abandoned orchard supports a number of forest and thicket bird species. The land is also of historical and archaeological interest because of its use in the farm operations of the state hospital and also because of its location within the savanna complex immediately surrounding Genesee Prairie. See the next (earlier) post for a current threat to the continued existence of this protected land.

Few other protected sites exist. Most of the land holdings in the township are small parcels of 40 acres or less. Consequently, establishment of preserves large enough to be suitable habitat for birds and larger mammals will in most cases require acquisition (or protection by conservation easement) of two to several parcels.

New Threat to Asylum Lake Preserve

I sent the following letter, slightly shortened, to the Kalamazoo Gazette on 15 July 2009. It deals with a long-standing conservation issue in the Kalamazoo area. [Note added 28 July. The letter was in fact published with an omission or two of no importance on Sunday 26 July.]

Western Michigan University has the Asylum Lake preserve in its sights again. This time the target is the 54 acres just across Drake Road called the Colony Farm Orchard. This Oshtemo Township land is covered by the same state restriction as the rest of the Asylum Lake property; it is to be used “solely for public park, recreation, or open space purposes” unless changed by statute. Nevertheless WMU proposes to expand their Business Park onto it (according to the Kalamazoo Gazette).

The land with its old, abandoned orchard has value for wildlife and for the public as open space. It also has historical value because it lies on or very near Genesee Prairie, one of the eight tall-grass prairies in Kalamazoo County at settlement. WMU aims to persuade the legislature to overturn the restriction and plans to pay Michigan State University $985,000 to give up a lease to do insect research at the orchard. Wouldn’t a more rational approach be to use land remaining within the current boundaries of the Business Park, such as the soccer fields? And if more land is really justified, the $985,000 WMU has available to throw around would buy some other nice Oshtemo property nearby–possibly more than 54 acres. As for the state legislature, its best course would be to convey the orchard property to Oshtemo Township in exchange for a binding pledge to let it remain forever undeveloped open space.

I posted the following essay to the earlier version of my website as Conservation Letter 1 on 28 April 2003. It had been submitted to the Gazette as a Viewpoint but was not published. It, and the two updates, give a little of the controversial history of some land that was conveyed in 1975 and (Colony Farm Orchard) 1977 by the state of Michigan to Western Michigan University “solely for public park, recreation, or open space purposes.”

Mark A. Hoffman knows more about the history of the site and of the controversy than anyone else. His project paper submitted for the Master of Public Adminstration degree (2007) is comprehensive but not readily accessible. The full title is Asylum Lake and Colony Farm Orchard (Kalamazoo County, Michigan): The history, legislative intent, and analysis of their conveyances from the Michigan Department of Mental Health to Western Michigan University. Links to many contemporary news articles (especially 1999-2004) are available on the WMU Asylum Lake website.

Asylum Lake

Last Friday gave us a beautiful sample of spring weather. Late in the afternoon, I took a walk at Asylum Lake. Blue-winged teal and gadwall were on the water and a pair of wood ducks flew by. There were cardinals, goldfinches, titmice, and a few other land birds, but 4:00 PM isn’t the peak of bird activity.

I’m a fan of Asylum Lake, so I’ve listened when occasional members of the focus group set up by Western Michigan University to plan the future of the preserve have told me what’s going on. The members have such diverse backgrounds and interests that I’ve been slightly surprised that they seem pretty much to have reached consensus on what’s right for Asylum Lake.

What they recommend–as I understand it–is mostly what’s there right now (including the new prairie planting), with the addition of an assurance that it’ll stay that way except for natural processes.

Other people were also at Asylum Lake last Friday. A man and his son were fishing, several people were walking dogs, two young women were catching some rays on a grassy slope, several people were just enjoying the spring, like me. I counted 23 people during the hour I was there, all involved in suitable passive pursuits .

There may have been a few visitors I missed, because my path took me past all three of the larger parking locations for the preserve, and each had several cars. I thought 23 was a comfortable number, uncrowded but companionable. If there had been twice as many people (and dogs) or more commotion–bikers, for example–the shyer kinds of wildlife would probably find the site unsuitable. Probably I would too.

One aim of the focus group was to identify the values of the property that need to be preserved. It’s reassuring that the values they came up with basically correspond with what the citizenry has said over the past dozen years in letters to the Kalamazoo Gazette and public meetings.

We haven’t heard a lot from the public lately because most people think the issue was settled. In 1998, the city and university seemed to come to an agreement assuring that the Asylum Lake preserve would not be degraded or destroyed. It has now begun to seem that it was too early to relax.

A story in the Gazette toward the end of February foreshadowed what seems to be an attempt by the city to pressure WMU into agreeing to changes that few who know the site will see as appropriate. The city wants paved roads and a large paved parking lot, replacing vegetation and wildlife habitat with impermeable surfaces. It wants bike trails running here and there to off-site locations bringing in people with no interest in the preserve as a preserve. The city envisages a research/education center. Does it really make sense for public agencies to enter into competition with the Kalamazoo Nature Center?

It’s ironic, I guess, that after all the threats to the integrity of the site from WMU the threat now comes from the city. Most of us had thought that the city’s role was to watchdog the university.

Only someone with no knowledge of the past ten years of Asylum Lake history would think that the intrusions being promoted by the city would be welcome. Re-reading the dozens of Asylum Lake letters to the editor would be educational for them. So would sitting down with Dok Stevens’ charming little book Haven : A Treatise on Asylum Lake (Spunky Duck Press: Kalamazoo, 1993) and perhaps a good environmental science or conservation textbook.

The city’s on the wrong side now, but the time may come again when both are on the wrong side, as was the case with the first ill-considered plan for a research park, in 1990-1993. It would be nice if the university and city would hurry up and sign a paper saying that Asylum Lake will be protected, not exploited. Even if they do, the citizens who saved it before must not relax their vigilance. In the long run, the real protection will come from the people who care about Asylum Lake being willing to spend the time, energy, and money to do what it takes to thwart ill-advised, destructive schemes of the future coming from the city or the university, or both.

Note added 19 August 2003: One reason for the Gazette‘s lack of interest in this Viewpoint may be suggested by the title of the front-page Gazette article of 9 August 2003: “Asylum Lake Fight: How a battle over open space nearly stalled Kalamazoo’s economic engine.” Some might say that Kalamazoo’s lack of forward movement hasn’t been engine trouble but the 1950s road map the drivers are still trying to follow. A Viewpoint by Mark A. Hoffman (24 August 2003) corrected some mistakes in the 9 August “Kalamazoo engine” article but could, in justice, have been considerably tougher.

Note added 15 July 2009: “It would be nice” I wrote, “if the university and city would hurry up and sign a paper saying that Asylum Lake will be protected, not exploited.” This they did on 16 April 2004 when the WMU Board of Trustees approved two documents, one a Declaration of Conservation Restrictions. The documents come as close to being a conservation easement as the somewhat peculiar nature of WMU’s possession of the land allows. Unfortunately, the 54-acre Colony Farm Orchard was not included in these restrictions. My conclusion from April 2003 is still relevant: “In the long run, the real protection will come from the people who care about Asylum Lake being willing to spend the time, energy, and money to do what it takes to thwart ill-advised, destructive schemes of the future coming from the city or the university, or both.”