celery pond

That long title on today’s blog is a follow-up on the idea of “Arts & Culture as an Economic Necessity” on the previous blog entry. The Dunkley area is a prime location for such a development, as the blog has long been saying.

Preserving Celery Pond as a wetland while creating a nature center which describes the value of the wetland and the Black River watershed is something that could attract community people. It would also attract people from all over the state and out-of-state visitors.

Lake Michigan College could link into this with more and more education courses on environmental protection, descriptions of hydrology, etc. Our local schools could get involved and invite other schools to visit and share their impressions.

Added to the preservation of this natural amenity, could be the effort to move the entire community forward with the idea of a Community Park in the Dunkley area. That could involve a collaboration of arts resources, arts education, maritime history needs (should the Maritime Museum want to expand its facility), and environmental awareness. The CPA hopes that our local cultural institutions will look at the possibilities of developing Dunkley like a natural calling.

Let’s coin a new phrase, “AEA” : Arts and Environmental Awareness. AEA makes the idea of a marina-condo development really seem like it belongs in another era. But both can live peacefully side by side, if each is given full expression.

The present riverside areas are at peak capacity for boat slips - ie. we can’t handle any more with safety.

The present condos are sufficient for riverside access, and if we build too many on the river, that density would greatly disturb the peaceful tranquility that is already existing.

It’s ‘A Natural Calling,’ and I think we all should listen to that calling. AEA is calling.

If we get involved, totally, as a Community who wants to preserve the lands that it has, that community will generate a happiness that will want to make the lands into something that belongs to them, something special, beautiful and spacious.

At the same time we would be creating new economic necessities that would naturally draw people to the location, because they’ll want to experience it. Sounds like a success story!

Eight delegates from South Haven recently attended an all day workshop called “Arts & Culture as an Economic Necessity”, part of the Regional Leadership Alliance program in Marshall, MI.

The group included Mayor Dorothy Appleyard; Sharon Mack, executive director of the SH Center for the Arts; Rachel Vochaska, executive director of the SH area Chamber of Commerce; Dorris Akers of Water Street Glassworks in Benton Harbor; Janice Varney, executive dean of Lake Michigan College; Suzanne Trenkle of Lake Michigan College; Pat Gaston of the Cool Cities committee of SH; and Jan Haglund of Janney’s Beach House of South Haven.

The seminar emphasized the need to build awareness on the true impact of arts and culture in all aspects of the quality of life. Keynote speaker, Robert McNulty, President of Livable Communities, was joined by a panel discussion that looked at economic development opportunites related to arts and culture, with the need for the development of “creative spaces” in both urban and rural areas. Included in the panel were George Erickcek of W.E. Upjohn Institute; Kathy Eftekhart, director of the Calhoun County Arts & Industry Council; and Tony McGhee of Cornerstone Alliance.

What can an arts/cultural destination do? It can affect and improve education, health, human service, social interaction, and even entrepreneurial enterprise by attracting corporate and industrial entities to help build creative space that is affordable, permanent and inclusive for community needs and the vision of leaving a cultural legacy to inspire others.

This format created some lively discussion among the SH delegation. How might SH as a community leave a legacy for future generations? How might SH combine the philosophy of interconnectedness of art and nature? How might that combination of honoring our environment while inspiring creative expression be applied in SH? How could SH be established as a year-round “creative” destination point?

The inevitable location for such an idea would ideally be on public lands, near the water to capitalize on SH’s natural legacy. So without a doubt, the Dunkley area came up as a pivotal spot for creating this “creative destination point.”

We hope to hear more from the attendees and a followup of what a consortium of such organizations might envision for the Celery Pond area, which is dear to the heart of the blog readers. We’re hoping there’ll be more action taken to create such a destination point of art and Nature.

If you think about a cultural center such as Interlochen or the sculpture park on the riverfront in Seattle (a recent blog article), you might start to see the Dunkley area in a whole new, creative way.

“You do not need a diploma to make a difference,” writes Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, “everyone is qualified to save the planet.” Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977, an organization in Kenya that was determined to plant trees to help the local women find firewood for fuel, as their familes were living in poverty and the land was ravaged. Since that first effort, thirty million trees have been planted throughout Kenya and the program has expanded throughout other parts of Africa.

Environment informs every facet of our lives, if they are in harmony with nature or if they are not. Environment is so important that it is even linked to the idea of democracy and peace, according to the revised standards of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who evaluates the laureate potentials.

Echoing the linking of these ideas - environment, democracy, and peace - Maathai believes that “only through an equitable distribution of those resources and their sustainable use will we be able to keep the peace”…”Human beings cannot thrive in a place where the natural environment has been degraded.”

Like Maathai, Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople in Los Angeles, is a believer that the grassroots efforts can make a difference. “Having spent the last thirty-five years planting trees in pursuit of an environmental restoration akin in spirit to Jean Giono’s book (The Man Who Planted Trees), I find the story a refreshing and re-inspiring reminder of the long-term payoff of my work.” Lipkis has learned that the need of people to participate is major. By getting locals involved, through training and support, neighborhoods in Los Angeles learned how to plant trees and had a profound sense of ownership.

Wouldn’t something like these two stories be a remarkable event in South Haven too? If the Dunkley lands are kept in public hands and the community gets involved in restoring the area, it would be a great journey for everyone.

Trees can help to restore the land, and even restore the watershed. Imagine the Dunkley area with the bonus lushness of trees planted, giving a wonderful oasis along the outflow of the Black River, near Celery Pond, its last wetland within its waterways before it meets Lake Michigan. Imagine what each resident and even non-resident could do to create and care for a new community space. Imagine.

There are many stories appearing about environmental stewardship. One of the classics, written as an extraordinary fable by Jean Giono (1895-1970), has inspired many people to take local action. A new twentieth anniversary edition of Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees includes equally remarkable stories in a foreward by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai (founder of the Green Belt Movement) and a afterword by Andy Lipkis (founder and president of TreePeople in Los Angeles, CA).

Recommended reading is this special anniversary book published by Chelsea Green Publishing Company in Vermont: www.chelseagreen.com

The timeless classic is richly illustrated by masterful woodcarvings by Michael McCurdy. Though the power of the word and image, one who reads this story is left with an unforgettable imprint of what a man’s generosity to nature can do.

It shows how one man, through tireless service to nature and to other humans, gave back to both a legacy of vision and beauty. Planting 100 acorns every day for thirty years, a simple shepherd transforms a countryside, revitalizes the community around him and teaches us by his actions, how each has the ability to create change in the world.

Hope and humanity is possible for the whole planet. If we hold to a vision of caring for what is around us, in both nature and people, good things can happen. The shepherd in this fable didn’t care about tax dollars, TIF monies or any such matter: he simply acted with love, simplicity and devotion, one day at a time.

The other stories on taking care of the environment by planting trees to restore health of watersheds, abundance, community, water habitat, and life itself are not fables, but facts. More on them tomorrow.

Go out and buy the book, it may encourage you to want to create a remarkable environmental story for South Haven, Michigan.

The South Haven story would show how the natural environment of the wetland of Celery Pond and its floodplain are restored by an upsurge of community involvement. A new Community Park on Black River would be inspired and created by the whole community. Trees would be planted, a nature center would be built by local artisans, a sculpture park installed along the river and, possibly a new cultural art center, and other community gathering places would be attracted to the area. We have the vision, let’s start acting out the story and making it happen.

Lake Michigan’s lower lake levels are affecting tourist-dependent harbor communities such as South Haven, according to Saturday’s Kalamazoo Gazette (see “Money for Harbor Dredging Scarce,” 2/27/07).

South Haven is rated as a small harbor in West Michigan, compared to those in Grand Haven or Holland and Muskegon who can seek out federal budget monies for dredging commercial harbors. Recreational harbors in smaller communities such as SH, Saugatuck Pentwater, to name a few, primarily dock pleasure boats, sailboats and fishing vessels, and thus do no qualify for federal monies.

That means that falling water levels will have direct economic impact on South Haven. Robin Abshire, Harbormaster and Leisure Services Director, said that in a 2000 project, South Haven dredged its harbor, thinking it would last over a decade, but six years later, there are additional needs which will have to be covered.

Abshire was quoted in the article: “Tourism is a huge boost to the economy, and boating is marjorly responsible….Not dredging would be a major blow to the economy, so we need to find a way to get it done at a lower cost.”

The estimate for the SH dredging is a figure that has not been disclosed by the City as yet. Abshire hopes that the costs of maintenanace dredging will be something that will be affordable this year. She added: “You can only go down so far, and we are at that level in most places.”

According to the same article, a statistic that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are currently 13 inches below average and with global warming, there is an estimated 5 feet to drop by the year 2100, a detailed report of an international study is expected to be released in April. This news should give good reason to say no to the idea of dredging Celery Pond.

Note: The Parks Commission will give a report in tonight’s Council meeting on the Dunkley Development area and their concern for green space.

Recommended reading: “Hidden Nature: The Startling Insights of Viktor Schauberger.”

Sick water, ailing forests, climate changes, renewable energy, protecting against harmful effects of modern techonology, were things that Schauberger described and explained years before they came into center stage. Schauberger (1885-1958) was far ahead of his time. He pioneered a completely new understanding of how nature works and warned against global waste, the costly ecological destruction of our age, and also predicted global warming.

Schauberger worked by observing nature closely, its harmony and its flows. He directed his theories into radical new methods of working in energy-renewing ways. He was an intuitive who revealed an understanding of Nature that is hidden to the average person. Water in all natural processes is clearly identified as a “source of life” in his detailed studies.

Schauberger stressed the interconnectedness of all Nature. He showed that “highly ordered systems lose their stability when their environment suffers deterioration.”

He predicted that”a decrease of biodiversity in Nature would bring an increase in violence and a degeneration of spiritual qualities in the human community.” This confirms a recent blog posting (Jan. 29) which showed that kids who are deprived of natural settings manifest nervous disturbances which scientists are calling “nature-deficit disorder.”

Today we can read Schauberger’s words warning against costly ecological destruction and realize that we all have contributed to the problem environmental imbalances. Now, however, we can all choose to be part of the solution. We can preserve the environment that is around us.

Keeping Celery Pond in tact as a wetland, and saying “no” to a marina development plan is the way an advocate and friend of Celery Pond thinks. Environmental protection is vital to all life, including the life in South Haven. To think that taking a wetland will have no effect on its surroundings is no longer a thought that holds weight in communities who support sustainability and adhere to maintaining biodiversity.

A wonderful article was sent to the CPA mailbox by a reader about Seattle, (which ranked third in a national survey on urban sustainability in 2006). Seattle made the news because it opened a new sculpture park on the edge of its downtown waterfront, on 9 acres of land, next to the Seattle Art Museum.

How was it described by the AP journalist Doug Esser? “In a word, spectacular. Thousands of people strolled in a zigzagging path past more than 20 contemporary scupltures.”

“Bridging art and environment was one of the goals for the park, said museum director Mimi Gates. ‘I like to think of Seattle as a place that is very open — a place that encourages innovation and creativity, and I think the park has that feeling to it,’ she said…’It’s a park like no other.’

“The 2,500-foot path carries visitors past the carefully arranged sculptures. There’s not a single general-on-a-horse among them.” It is a “marriage of art and ecology” said Gates.

With monies given by private donors, many with Microsoft connections, the park was able to acquire some major name artist/sculptors.

But best news was the extent of the turnaround in the landscape. The area was once home to a tank farm! Considered an eyesore, the area had been a storage site for fuel and its transfer…not very clean.

The facility closed in 1975, and the soil was declared contaminated, but cleanup work, which took years, restored the area. From an abandoned wasteland, the area became a wonderful park, an “art pedestal” with a new cover of soil, concrete ramps and bridges. It is a “free cultural experience” for the locals and the visitors which it will bring into the city.

What wonderful inspiration for us all!

Mark your calendars for events in South Haven and Lawrence in February and in March. A brochure from the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission in Benton Harbor came to the CPA box recently, and we’d like to share the news with you.

• February 28, 2007, 7-9pm, Landscaping for Water Quality , FREE, at the Van Buren Conference Center in Lawrence: “Learn about creating landscaping that can protect water quality, capture rainwater, reduce flooding, reduce soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat and enhance property values.” Speaker is Patricia Pennell, program director for Rain Gardens of West Michigan.

• March 12, 2007, 1:30-9pm, Filing the Gaps: Local Government’s Important Role in Environmental Protection, fee $10, includes dinner and materials, at Van Buren Conference Center in Lawrence. “Local government is the first line of defense for our environment. Possessing the right tools, resources, and implementation strategies can ensure that the right plans, regulations, and effective coordination mechanisms are in place to protect Michigan’s natural and environmental treasures.” Mark Wyckoff, FAICP, Director of the PLanning & Zoning Center at Michigan State University organized and will present this program. (see website for more complete info, www.swmpc.org)

• March 14, 2007, 6-9pm, Wetlands 101 at Lake Michigan College in South Haven (room 141), Free. “Curious about wetlands? What do they do and why are they important? This workshop will provide a look into Michigan’s wetlands. Discover the basic components and functions of wetlands as well as stewardship and preservation strategies. Learn about the wide variety of valuable plants and animals that call our wetlands their home.” Speakers include: Rob Zbiciak from Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Nate Fuller from the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy.

To register for these workshops, check the website mentioned above or call Marcy at (269) 925-1137 x25 or Erin at (269) 657-4030 x5.

Note: “Hosted by the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission and the Van Buren Conservation District with support from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.”

Update: The Council approved the RFP (request for proposals) on the Dunkley Area last night, which means they will be seeking development partners in the property owned by the people of South Haven. This is about 10 acres of land, broken up into various parcels with suggested useage. Deadline for submission of proposals is May 23rd. Then the Council will have to vote on the actual sale of the public lands, which requires a 2/3’s majority vote. This action is what can be challenged by a referendum petition by the people.

On the other side of Dunkley Avenue, sits Celery Pond, which the Council also voted on last fall, endorsing Barney Pero’s attempt to resubmit a plan for development of a marina. That file is currently at MDEQ on hold until further action, as the resubmission was again withdrawn. Last date for reopening the file is April 6th.

If you are not in favor of the sale of the public lands, we encourage you to call or write your ward representative.

Sarett Nature Center (www.sarett.com), located in southwestern Michigan’s Berrien County, has miles of trails that run along the Paw Paw River bluffs, with platforms in the floodplain to look at the wetland wildlife and habitats. Their nature center is a success story of the new business of ecotourism.

With their primary goal “to provide quality environmental education” for the community, they attract over 25,000 students each year. There are environmental education classes offered for the local school system as well as college level courses, given by Western Michigan University.

Chuck Nelson, head of the Sarett Center, came to the CPA fundraising event in November. He was very enthusiastic for us to save the wetland of Celery Pond and turn it and its surroundings into a successful nature center like Sarett. This would not be an amusement waterpark but a natural park, with lookout stations and canoeing.

The idea of keeping the public lands off Dunkley Avenue with the new business of a ecotourist nature center/education destination spot (ie. restaurant and stores included) is something that has never been considered by our City Council. The public lands off Dunkley Avenue are zoned as ‘B-3 Waterfront Business.’ When the Master Plan was created, it never considered ecotourism as a new business for the community; it only thought of marina/condo development.

How could an environmental destination spot, not unlike Sarett Nature Center be achieved? Does the Master Plan need to be revised to accomodate such an idea?

Tonight, the City Council will be asked to authorize a RFP for development proposals for the Dunkley Street Redevelopment plan, taking us one step closer to whether the people will choose to decide, individually and collectively, to make a claim to hold their lands, or to let them be sold to private investors.

Only a public referendum petition can take this first step to change the course of City action. With a successful referendum petition, there could be a public vote. There could also be a chance to develop a different kind of plan that would preserve public lands while giving us the opportunity to develop a waterfront business of ecotourism. What do the people really want?