We all Live Downstream . . on the Shiawassee River

Rails to Trails

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:58:28 -0400

Reduce, reuse, and recycle are the fundamental three R’s of the environmental movement. And while I try and think of them when I buy, consume, or discard products, this week I thought of them on the landscape scale. We can reuse the remnants of our old industrial landscape to make our future both greener and more enjoyable. As the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso so powerfully reminds us, our communities were once woven together by steel rails and powerful locomotives that enabled our in

River Clean-Up

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:32:20 -0400

If you are regular reader of this blog, I trust you care about the Shiawassee River. How then do you show it? Hopefully by taking part in the annual clean-up organized by the Friends of the Shiawassee River. This year’s activity is scheduled for August 8 from 9 a.m. to noon. The natural resource centerpiece of our community is the Shiawassee River. The River names our county, ties our communities together, and decorates most of our parks. The least we can do to pay it back is to clean-up t

Green Jobs

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:04:02 -0400

The recent issue of the Audobon magazine tells the story of a small town in the midwest that lost their major manufacturing industry (read it here.) While the story starts on a too familiar sad note, the ending is much happier. Turns out the job skills and manufacturing base of the rurual community are just right for a new company making large wind turbine blades. It’s a nice tale, and the story goes on to talk about some of the opportunities and benefits of developing alternative energy so

An Encounter with a Snapper

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:34:51 -0400

Sorry to have been away from this blog for so long; check back weekly from here on for more regular updates. I sometimes forget the important presence of the Shiawassee and our natural world, but then something usually reminds me, sometimes sharply, of where I live. I was walking along the banks of the River the other morning lost in a reverie of thoughts not related to my surroundings when I came up short. There, right beside the trail, an ancient reptile was digging in and gave me a wary l

Hope from a Small Yellow Bird

Sun, 10 May 2009 08:26:43 -0400

Sometimes when I think about the history of humanity’s difficult relationship to the planet, and think about the difficulties before us, I get discouraged. But last weekend, amidst a bunch of scrubby pines, I heard a hopeful story that reminds me that we have the capacity to do things right, even in Michigan. The Kirtland’s Warbler is an endangered species that winters in the Bahamas and then migrates north each year, some of the birds following the vegetated banks of the Shiawassee River, to