celery pond

The great weather of Earth Day weekend brought out the best in people. From the celebratory spirit of the second CPA fundraiser on Friday night, to the Earth Day Saturday in Kids Corner, to the glorious day on Sunday, April 22nd, Earth Day, we all had much to be thankful for in our relationship with Mother Earth.

A promise came too on Sunday night, when walking the beach at sunset. First two rainbow flares appeared on either side of the sun, then a whole rainbow arch was visible. (Wish a camera had been handy.) As we honor and bless the Earth and all her kingdoms, the mineral, plant, animal and human, she blesses us in return, or so it seemed in those magical moments of watching the rainbow shine in the heavens.

Celery Pond Advocates is busy assembling information for their next steps. The wetland specialists are preparing their report for the MDEQ/Army Corps evaluation. As mentioned in the last posting, another public notice will be forthcoming. But letters can be written now, addressed to both Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, and Henry Rosenfield, US Army Corps of Engineers. Letters need to include the appropriate file numbers as well.

Celery Pond File #05-80-0061-P, Kameron Jordan, District Supervisor, MDEQ-Land and Water Mgt. Division, Kalamazoo District, 7959 Adobe Road, Kalamazoo, MI49009 or email address, JordanK@Michigan.Gov

Henry Rosenfield, USACE, Regulatory Office CELRE-RG, Detroit District, P.O.Box 1027, Detroit, MI 48231-1027 or email address, Henry.Rosenfield@lre02.usace.army.mil Include the Corps number for Celery Pond, File # 83-053-004-1 .

If you care to contribute to the Celery Pond Advocates, your contribution is 100% tax deductible as we are now an official 501(c)(3) organization. Send checks or cash to:

Celery Pond Advocates,

PO Box 693

South Haven, MI 49090

Along with the wetland anaylsis, monies will go towards legal fees, and assembling our RFP proposal for the City, due on May 23rd. While we endorse the Parks Commission’s recommendation to keep the public lands in public hands, and we support the Cultural Center idea proposed by Cool Cities, our RFP will embrace these and give the overall design of a Black River Community Park and Celery Pond Preserve.

The update on the permit application is this: there will be no additional public hearing.

There will be a new Public Notice on Celery Pond issued by the Corp of Engineers. They will also be open to receive written comments.

A phone contact made with Henry Rosenfield, USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers), Regulatory Office, Detroit District clarified the matter last week. He emailed me that I would receive an electronic mailing of this notice. It will be posted when so received. More info to follow.

HAPPY EARTH DAY; LET’S CELEBRATE THE EARTH and all her complex ecosystems and peoples.

It was the smiles on the children’s faces during the Earth Day Saturday in Kids Corner park that really brought home the importance of Earth Day.

They took fragile snapdragon sproutings and planted them in little pots, taking them home with a smile (Garden Club table). They colored our handouts of wetland creatures and told us how they loved the insects, butterflies, birds, turtles (Celery Pond Advocates table). They threw away plastic bottles through a basketball hoop into a recycle bin. They made cornstarch plastic, all safe for them and the Earth (Master Gardner/MSU table). They smiled and laughed.

The freshness of their faces and the level of their eagerness to share their love of animals and birds and bugs, really matched the sunshine and beauty of the day and the entire weekend. (Why wasnt’ there anyone there from the Tribune?)

Earth Day celebration in South Haven started on Friday night with the Celery Pond Advocates fundraiser. What a huge success! Over 65 people joined together for the second fundraiser.

The smiles on the faces of the adults came from the community sharing and yummy food prepared and donated by our chef extraordinaire, Suzie Blair. Thank you Suzie. Thank you Annie Brown and Jeff Filbrandt for letting us party in your new house. Thank you all for your continuing support.

More tomorrow on what’s ahead. The day is beautiful. We’ll all be out walking soon. Enjoy this marvelous Earth Day and this marvelous Earth. Let’s move forward now to protect and preserve all her beauties and her wildlife. We are all part of this oneness of life, may we never forget what that means.

There’s a birthday party for Mother Earth planned in South Haven. Come join us in the opening celebration of Earth Day.

The Celery Pond Advocates will host their second fundraiser on Friday night, April 20th from 6-8pm at 114 Michigan Avenue, home of Jeff Filbrandt and Annie Brown. Join us for a strolling through 19 choices of light dinner treats and desserts, prepared and donated by Suzie Blair. (Tickets are $50, on sale at Wolverine Hardware and Whimsy.) Wine and champagne provided for the toastings.

The birth of the modern environmental movement dates back to the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, when a nationwide protest and teach-in calling for a healthy, sustainable environment was held across America. Twenty million Americans demonstrated in parks, in college auditoriums and on streets.

This dramatic campaign led to the eventual establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the passage of the Endangered Species and the Clean Water Acts, plus the expansion of the Clean Air Act. Progress? Yes, but not enough. Global warming and toxic waste are real threats.

CPA wants to preserve our special wetland located near downtown South Haven. Celery Pond could be our jewel if appreicated for the natural beauty which is hers alone, without any aggressive man-made intrusions!

CPA will be in Kids Corner on Saturday, from 11am-3pm, joining with all the community kids. Games and drawings of wetland creatures in our stand. Hope the weather is accomdating. Please stop by.

Then on Sunday, April 22nd, Earth Day itself, we may plan a spontaneous event, who knows? If the weather’s nice, join us out walking around the Dunkley Avenue, looking at the Black River, the ducks, the heron if they’re around, and appreciating that open space and our public lands.

Join us to celebrate our Earth. Let’s continue to Go Green for programs, organizations, and above all, for our family, friends, neighbors, and all people.

Before the Central Park Conservancy arrived on the scene in NYC, the Park was described as “a bleak landscape of bare dirt…untended trees…trash-filled water bodies…and a state of neglect and decay.” That was in the 1970s, the Conservancy started its 501 (c)(3) position in the early 1980s and accomplished an amazing turnaround, thanks to caring people who supported this effort with membership, fundraisers, and continued tax-deductible support.

Dunkley Avenue public lands have been described as abandoned and neglected, with bare dirt, untended trees and a lonesome quality. The wetland has gained attention thanks to caring people.

Now Celery Pond Advocates has official status as a 501(c)(3) organization so we can move forward to create a turnaround of events. But we need your continued support through membership, fundraising and tax-deductible donations.

If you want to get involved, please come to our second fundraiser this Friday, April 20th, from 6-8pm at 114 Michigan Avenue, the newly remodeled home of Jeff Filbrandt and Annie Brown. Tickets are on sale for $50 at Wolverine Hardware and Whimsey on Phoenix Street. This includes a fabulous selection of light dinner and dessert choices, donated by our wonderful Suzie Blair. Wine and champagne is included in the price.

These monies will go towards a wetland analysis for presentation to the MDEQ file, before they make their decision on the pending permit. The caring people who have so consistently stayed with the effort of the Celery Pond Advocates hope to preserve the wetland.

We also endorse the public lands staying in community use such as suggested by the Parks Commission and the newly emerging Cool Cities idea of a Black River Cultural Center involving the arts and businesses. Help us celebrate Earth Day Weekend and our goal to renew the wetland and floodplain public lands, turning them into something that we can celebrate as green space with creative activities, for decades and generations to come.

Annie Brown, who recently visited Monticello and Mt. Vernon with her family during spring break, said they saw maps that were over 200 years old that noted our Black River as “Riviere Noire”– hey, we have French connections and are ‘on the map’!!

Jefferson’s home, Monticello, had a map before the Louisiana Purchase. It showed Michigan and the Riviere Noire. Then, at Washington’s home, Mt. Vernon, another map made notation of the Riviere Noire. Hey, we’re more than history, we’re part of His-story from before our beginnings.

Going further to google the whole phenonmena, there are several sites to recommend. One in particular is the map of the British and French dominions in North America where you can zoom in on Black River and see a wide channel (looks like the settlers did a lot of land fill from the piers to Celery Pond area…). Check out http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

It seems the rapid development theme has run throughout American history. An example of questioning the morality of government decision-making goes way back to an example like the Louisiana Purchase.

The Indians, who occupied the land, were never consulted before selling it and did they did not even know about the sale. Our thinking has changed in that we have more equal rights and opportunities, but we really need equal rights for our environment and its wildlife.

But time is critical. Our climate changes reflect our careless decisions in the past. More people need to change their thinking to preserve what was God-given and can’t be replaced. We’ve conquered and exploited; now is the time to heal and preserve. Mother Nature needs her ecosystems to stay in tact without us coming in (without her permission) and disturbing them!

Please help the Celery Pond Advocates save the wetlands of Celery Pond on ‘Riviere Noire’, our Black River. It’s unique. It’s a home for wildlife that will vanish if we don’t act to keep the wetland as a wetland.

Join the CPA in their second fundraiser, on Friday, April 20th from 6-8pm, with a wonderful strolling of light dinner and desserts, from the generous donation and talent of Suzie Blair, along with wines and champagne to accompany. Monies will go towards a wetland analysis for the MDEQ. We hope it will encourage them to deny the permit for application (which seeks to turn Celery Pond into a marina with a huge channel cut from the Black River).

Tickets are $50, on sale at Wolverine Hardware and Whimsy on Phoenix Street. Contributions, if you cannot attend, can be written to Celery Pond Advocates, PO Box 693, South Haven, MI 49090.

Think of what we can do if we work to save the wetland. We could make our wetland a nature sanctuary with historical integrity. Imagine a 1700 map of the area on a wall in a Nature Sanctuary.

Come and join us to realize this vision at Annie Brown and Jeff Filbrandt’s newly remodeled home on 114 Michigan Avenue a week from today. We’ll celebrate the importance of Earth Day weekend!

(c)Carol J. Niffenegger 8/06

The above question was asked by Sharon Mack, Director of the SH Center for the Arts, to the Parks Commissioners on Tuesday night during their meeting when she gave them the project vision being worked on by the SH Cool Cities Committee. Quoting from her presentation, she described the Dunkley Street Project:

” (It) is a bold, innovative community redevelopment effort that will transform a previously neglected area of the City owned property. adjacent to the Black River waterfront, into a vibrant hub of diverse arts and cultural activity designed to serve as a creative economic engine for the community and region.”

The community-based project of stewardship and partnership will “result in linking arts, culture and the environment to economic development in South Haven. By enhancing the image and identity of the City and expanding the aesthetic and enrichment opportunities of residents and guests, it will attract 1) year-round residents and visitors 2) a talent-based creative work force 3) growth sector clean industry to the area. It will serve as a mixed-use resource and legacy to future generations, as well as an opportunity for the cleanup of Brownfield area and redesign and reuse of an existing structure on the site.”

What’s the goal of this project? A building with windows looking onto Black River with gallery and studio space, a small performance area, and seminar and workshop areas would define part of the space which would seek to “establish collaboration among community organizations and businesses and the City of South Haven in constructing a year-round destination venue for the arts, culture, learning and recreation, anchored by the South Haven Center for the Arts, other non-profits and for-profit businesses.”

How to make this project happen? It would be “realized in phases and will be funded by a capital campaign, public and private grants, possible state and federal grant funding, such as Brownfield Redevelopment Grant and Coastal Zone Management Grant.”

Along with this would be public green spaces, pedestrian access to Black River and the Celery Pond wetland, as well as recreation services such as water access for kayaks and canoes. Bike paths and groomed cross country ski trails would link with Kal Haven trails.

The ecological nature trail and environmental education programs focusing on coastal, dune and wetland ecology would be part of the long term plan that could involve the Public Schools, Lake Michigan College, horticultural enthusiasts, environmental organizations such as Celery Pond Advocates and recreational enthusiasts. These are only a few of the ideas which the Cool Cities Committe is considering as it works on developing a more involved plan to propose to the City.

Celery Pond Advocates is totally supportive of this plan and will join in with it to offer the City another vision for our community lands and future. We of course would seek to preserve the wetland and turn it into a nature center so the programs outlined above could happen.

Note: Tickets for the CPA fundraiser on Friday, April 20th, from 6-8pm are on sale at Wolverine Hardward and Whimsy. Join us to celebrate Earth Day and raise monies for a wetland analysis for the MDEQ before it reaches decision. More information on menu on previous blog entries.

The Riverwalk is known as the “crown jewel” of Naperville. Imagine such a description being given to South Haven’s public lands and wetland off Dunkley Avenue, and you have a guaranteed success story. Ergo, Save the Wetland and Keep the Public Lands in Community Hands.

from www.napervilleparks.org/parksfacilitis/riverwalk/

“The Riverwalk was built and dedicated in 1981 as a celebration of Naperville’s Sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary. Embraced as a gathering place, it has become a focal point of the community, drawing visitors from far and wide to take in its beauty; it is recognized as one of the most picturesque spots in the Midwest. Its covered bridged, fountains, lush landscaping and distinctive shepherd’s crook light poles aptly tie Naperville’s historic past as the oldest settlement in DuPage County to the city’s present. There also are many historic aspects of the Riverwalk that honor individuals and families for their contributions to the building of the community.”

“To make the Riverwalk dream a reality, residents donated their time, money and materials to turn the once forgotten DuPage riverfront into a beautiful park that has won many state and national honors…”

“Virtually any time of year, there is something happening on the Riverwalk…”

Our abandoned lands off Dunkley Avenue do not have to turn into condos, more condos that is. We have public lands that could incorporate such a Riverfront Park and possibly a cultural center, as is now being actively proposed by the Cool Cities group and Celery Pond. Read tomorrow’s blog on the new plan for the Dunkley Street Project, something which we suggest be called the “Black River Cultural Center, Park and Wetland.”

South Haven has the potential to have something so unique, a preserved wetland near the downtown and a possible cultural center/park nearby. Join the CPA for the fundraiser a week from Friday to save the wetland and promote this vision. Tickets on sale at Wolverine Hardware and Whimsy with details on preceding blog entries.

For those concerned about the future of Celery Pond, this is a time of anxious waiting. The MDEQ and Corps officials visited the mitigation site and Pond and reports are being assembled. Celery Pond Advocates is hosting a fundraiser next week to raise monies to pay for a wetland analysis. We have been legally advised to take this step to give solid evidence to officials as to why a denial of the permit is justified.

This is a time where we really need to find a sense of community. All the supporters of Celery Pond, who have been generous with their support in the past, are being asked to go forward, with more support and community to make an analysis happen. Estimated cost for the work is $4000 so we do need checks and contributions coming in, especially if you can’t make the fundraiser.

Checks made out to Celery Pond Advocates can be sent to P.O. Box 693, South Haven, MI 49090.

We’re hoping that you can join us on Friday, April 20th, from 6-8pm at 114 Michigan Avenue, at the home of Jeff Filbrandt and Annie Brown, with food delicately prepared by Suzie Blair including 16 choices of light dinner selections and desserts, along with wine and champagne. This is one of the more fun ways to raise money and also helps in finding a sense of community.

We hope you can be there. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at Wolverine Hardware or Whimsy which are both on Phoenix Street downtown in South Haven. The tempting menu is given on the previous blog entry.

The MDEQ officials, the City and other developers, did the site visit on Wednesday. More on that when details come in.

Meanwhile, Celery Pond Advocates have gone out and hired two wetland specialists, and plan to have a complete analysis made for the MDEQ to consider before they make their decision. These are major expenses so we need you support.

You can join us in our second fundraiser on Friday, April 20th from 6-8pm, at 114 Michigan Avenue in South Haven, at the lovely remodeled home of Jeff Filbrant and Annie Brown. Tickets are $50, higher than our last event, but necessary to meet the bills of the professional analysis. We hope you’ll come to taste all the wonderful food that Suzie Blair is making and donating. Ticket price includes wine and champagne, and all of us creatives will be there who have a vision for South Haven that includes preserving a wetland.

Along with ecotourism we are joining in with the idea of the Cultural Center idea for Dunkley Avenue’s public lands, being endorsed and organized by other non-profits in town, for a development proposal for the City to consider. Sharon Mack, from the South Haven Center for the Arts, and others in the Cool Cities organization are working on the RFP with the May 23rd deadline in mind. Catch up on what’s happening at the party.

Just to tantalize your taste buds, here is a list of the many-sided choices which will be at our Earth Day celebration: Curry & Tarragon Live Pate with Crostini, Hummus with Cilantro & Pita, Bake Brie with Orange Cranberry Chutney, Spinach-Feta-Grape Tomato Buschetta, Crab & Salmon Pate, Crispy Won Tons, Endive filled with Blue Cheese or Live Pate, Grape Salsa & Chips, Roasted Pofk Tenderloin & Apple Bites/Carmelized Onions w/wo Sourdough Stuffing, Cajun Pecan Chicken Bites, Cold Shrimp in Marinade, Steamed & Chilled Veggies (peppers, carrots, parsnips, asparagus).

For dessert, if there’s room, you’ll have a selection of Lime Crisps, Rich Chocolate Oreo Crusted Kahlua Cheesecake, Roasted Almonds, Expresso Suspiros, Flourless Chocolate Orange & Almond Cake, Biscotti, and Fresh Fruit to sample. We’ll all be wanting recipes…maybe this will inspire a Celery Pond Advocates Cookbook. Hats and tote bags will also be at the event.

Tickets can be purchased at Wolverine Hardware or Whimsy, both on Phoenix Street.

If you want to send a check to reserve, make it out to Celery Pond Advocates, and send it in to P.O.Box 693, South Haven, MI 49090. We also welcome all contributions, which can be sent to the PO Box.