During the roaring 20’s, Detroit glittered as a global center of automobile manufacturing. With a population that soared from 285,000 in 1900 to 1.6 million by 1930, it was the fourth largest city in the United States. As more and more Americans clamored for cars, workers flocked to the Motor City seeking the American Dream, dark plumes of “progress” loomed over manufacturing facilities, and art deco skyscrapers dotted the skyline.  Today, the population has dipped to just shy of 706,000, about one-third of properties are vacant, and 10,000 homes are slated for demolition in 2013. To add insult to injury, climate change impacts are being felt in the Great Lakes Region. These impacts are not only adversely affecting wildlife, but are also affecting the places where people live: for example, when increased rain events exacerbate stormwater flooding and create sewage back-ups in basements and streets.

Andrew Moore, Cooper Elementary School, East Side, 2008, digital chromogenic print scanned from film negative, 62 x 78 in., Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell. Credit: Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore, House on Walden Street, East Side, 2008, digital chromogenic print scanned from film negative, 36 x 45.5 in., Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell. Credit: Andrew Moore

In Detroit Disassembled, Andrew Moore’s stunning large-format photographs are a nod to the style of 17th Century paintings, featuring crumbling buildings and streetscapes that are now overtaken by nature.  In one over-sized print, an abandoned elementary school is surrounded and swallowed by prairie beneath bucolic blue skies, a stark juxtaposition in a once-booming metropolis. In another photograph, birch trees are growing out of decayed tomes left behind in a former book depository. In another, foliage has literally overtaken a two-story home, covering it in green leaves.

Camilo José Vergara takes more of a retrospective approach in his exhibition, Detroit is No Dry Bones, documenting locations of the city over time, profiling the transition of the former industrial capital.  Vergara posits that Detroit’s “ruins” should be preserved, constant reminders of the Detroit’s cultural heritage and the capacity of its residents to survive in the face of adversity. Should modern ruins like the Michigan Theater, a once-grand renaissance-style building that is arguably the most beautiful parking garage in the world (cars are literally parked inside the theater’s shell, perhaps even in the spot where Sammy Davis Jr. met Frank Sinatra), remain as links to the city’s past?

Is there hope to revitalize decaying and declining urban centers, like Detroit, as they struggle to find their new identities? Of course there is, and nature can actually drive that transformation in the Motor City and elsewhere, but it requires us to be urban visionaries.

We need to take an approach that doesn’t exclusively focus on problem-fixing, but envisions the potential of our cities and towns, and recognizes that nature is critical, functional infrastructure and is just as important as buildings and roads. Instead of riding shot-gun, we need to put nature in the driver seat of our cities and towns.

Putting Nature in the Driver’s Seat

We know that nature can survive and thrive in urban areas, while benefiting the humans that live there — we just need to place a premium on our green infrastructure and be smarter about designing spaces to function in this way.

Here are some ideas:

• Establish networks of Certified Wildlife Habitats® that help restore wildlife in cities and suburbs, sequester carbon, reduce the urban heat island effect, and help manage flooding and drought.
  

  Hutchins Cole’s Garden, Rosa Parks Boulevard, Detroit, 1987 Photo © Camilo José Vergara

• Create robust urban tree canopies that provide habitat and food for wildlife, improve shade and cooling effects, and manage stormwater flooding (and reduce the urban heat island effect and air conditioning, thereby lowering GHG emissions associated with building energy use!). Climate science should inform trees species selection so that trees can survive in a changing climate.
• Transform vacant properties into wildlife gardens that grow local food, support wildlife, and provide ways for children to connect with nature.
• Restore urban streams and waterways to provide habitat for wildlife and recreation opportunities for residents. Of course, restoration projects should be designed to be “climate-smart,” meaning they can adapt to climate impacts over time.
• Enact local policies and plans that require wildlife-friendly, nature-based approaches to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

These ideas are not only relevant for communities that are re-developing and re-defining themselves due to economic downturns. Some of the same approaches can be taken in communities that are re-building and recovering from natural disasters, like those communities affected by Superstorm Sandy.

These are just a handful of ideas — learn more about climate-smart communities.

What are your ideas to make natural an integral part of our cities?
Detroit Disassembled and Detroit is No Dry Bones can be seen at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, through 17 March 2013.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson addresses reporters during Great Lakes Week press conference, October 11, 2011. PHOTO / Celia Haven

We had a great Day 1 at the 7th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference in Detroit, where hundreds of Great Lakes advocates, scientists, policy makers and community leaders have gathered to help make Great Lakes restoration successful.

Here are a few highlights from attendees:

• EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Announces EPA will Prioritize Great Lakes Restoration Funds in 2012 | Coalition Reaction
• Ducks Unlimited Leads Urban Restoration Tour to Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge—a Model of Successful Partnerships and Results
• East Side of Detroit Photoblog: Restoring and creating access to the riverfront.
• Live Feed Recording from the Great Lakes Town Hall, Featuring EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and other U.S. and Canadian Leaders

Conference participants including staff from NWF’s Great Lakes Regional Center are sharing their photos, blogs, video clips and responses to the discussions and sessions on how to protect and restore the Great Lakes–the incredible “freshwater seas” that hold one-fifth of the world’s surface freshwater.

Check back throughout the week for updates, videos, photos and live feeds from the Coalition.

Cross-posted from conference.healthylakes.org.

Lake Michigan Beach

Detroit is hosting the Healing Our Waters® – Great Lakes Coalition’s 7th annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference. Lawmakers, scientists, clean water advocates, conservationists and others are discussing the challenges, game changers and safeguards for the world’s largest fresh water system. Green returns on blue investments, pollution, environmental justice, invasive Asian carp, off shore wind and organizing for clean and affordable water are just some of the conference workshops and highlights at the conference.

Even if you can’t join us for a session, you can still join us online. Detroit Public Television is streaming the events daily. You can watch the Great Lakes Restoration Conference live and on demand at www.healthylakes.org. You can also see updates from the conference on Twitter by following the hashtag #healthylakes.

The Great Lakes won’t stay great unless we help keep them clean, free of invasive species and healthy. This is why so many people are working on healing our waters in Motown and across the nation.

Click here to find out more about how the National Wildlife Federation works to protect and restore America’s waters, including the Great Lakes.

There were regular commands of us to close the refrigerator door and turn off the lights. And on very hot days – to cool down – we would close out the light and place a block of ice in front of the fan. Translation? Sustainability, conservation, recycle and reuse.

Earth Works Community Garden in Detroit | flickr / Jessica Reeder

African Americans were green conscious before green was vogue. Our culture, geography, religion and economic reality dictated it.  Today our health, life quality and community viability depend on it.  Simply put, going green for the African American community means going back to our traditions.

Today we hear terms like compostable material, back in the day we knew it as fertilizer.  Things like discarded vegetable ends, eggshells, coffee grounds and lawn clippings.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that these items account for 26 percent of our total municipal solid waste stream.  When homes, restaurants, stadiums, hotels, convention centers, schools and other places toss these otherwise environmental assets into the trash, they end up trapped in oxygen-starved landfills.  Packed tightly and not able to fully breakdown (or decompose), methane -  a gas that’s more damaging to air quality than car exhaust (carbon dioxide) is released into the air.

Often when I am speaking to communities of color about what it means to be green, it never fails to hear someone push back, “you mean a tree hugger”?  We don’t have to become tree huggers, not that anything is wrong with that.  But we can begin right where we are.

For instance, my granny use to call ‘em ‘croker sacks’.  She would tell me to grab hers as she headed off to the Detroit Eastern Market – an open farmers market.   Today, they are known as canvas sacks (reusable cloth bags) you carry to the grocery store to cut down on the use of plastic bags.

Instead of using wood or charcoal during the family reunions and BBQ’s, consider propane, it burns much cleaner and prevents carbon monoxide from entering the atmosphere, our food and lungs.

Let go of the foam cups, plates and plastic utensils.  First, be clear Styrofoam cups do not exist! But a polystyrene cup does – aka a foam cup. A chemical called styrene can migrate into your food from these items.  Studies show that if you eat or drink beverages from foam products Styrene migration happens.  This transfer of chemicals to your food or drinks happen faster as the fat (in a bowl of chili), heat (in a cup of coffee), alcohol content or acids (in tea with lemon) rises.

The urban centers in the Great Lakes region are burdened with more than its share of environmental risks and polluted industrial zones.  A green lifestyle is an ethical awareness of what we consume and its impact on our environment. Just as we didn’t move away from traditions over night, we won’t return to them over night either but if we begin one step at a time, we can get there and bring our children with us.

“I could see from my house that the river was on fire,” Hartig said. “I couldn’t understand why.”

It was only fitting that Hartig would devote his career to improving Great Lakes water quality and eventually write a book about four rivers in the region that caught fire.

John Hartig

Hartig’s book, “Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire,” was released earlier this year. It explores the causes and consequences of blazes on four Great Lakes rivers: The Buffalo, Chicago, Cuyahoga and Rouge rivers.

Hartig wrote from personal and professional experience: In addition to growing up near the lakes, he has spent 30 years studying the Great Lakes as a limnologist. He has written or co-authored more than 100 publications about the lakes and currently manages the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge, along the Detroit River.

Although “Burning Rivers” recounts some of America’s worst environmental assaults, it delivers a message of hope.

“I thought it was important for people to know just how much has been accomplished since the worst of days, celebrate that and then explore what remains to be done for these rivers,” Hartig said. “The recovery of these rivers has been pretty amazing.”

His book dispels is the widely held belief that that the Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, was the only Great Lakes river to catch fire in the 1960s. The Buffalo and Rouge also ignited in the ’60s; the Chicago River repeatedly caught fire a century ago.

The lack of strong environmental regulations and America’s growth as an industrial superpower took a devastating toll on rivers. Nowhere was the abuse more acute than in the Great Lakes region, where abundant water helped build the implements of a modern society and then absorbed the toxic leftovers.

By the 1960s, sections of the Buffalo River were devoid of fish. Parts of the Rouge River had no oxygen, a condition that caused the river to release noxious hydrogen sulfide gas into the air.

“Even carp couldn’t live in the Rouge,” Hartig said.

Today, all four rivers support multiple species of fish, mammals and birds.

Despite dramatic improvements in all four rivers, the job is far from complete: Toxic sediments remain a serious problem; storm water runoff from paved areas carries huge quantities of filth to the rivers; many species of fish are contaminated with industrial toxins; and sewer overflows routinely foul waterways with untreated human and industrial waste.

Hartig said programs like the Great Lakes Legacy Act and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative have greatly accelerated efforts to restore the lakes and their connecting waters. But in an era of government budget cuts, he said community groups, nonprofit organizations and universities must be vigilant to ensure that Great Lakes restoration programs don’t fall by the wayside.

Efforts to restore the Great Lakes are far from complete and much work remains to make the Rouge, Chicago, Cuyahoga and Buffalo rivers fishable, swimmable and drinkable at all times.

Still, Hartig said the recovery of those rivers over the past four decades should provide hope for others.

“If these four rivers can be revived and made into community assets, there is hope for all rivers and all people working to restore them,” he said.

Simone Lightfoot heads up regional urban initiatives for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Great Lakes Regional Center. She integrates the work of the NWF with the region’s urban green efforts including air and water quality, sustainability, climate change, solid and hazardous waste, recycling, environmental justice, water conservation, invasive species, aged infrastructure, mass transit, wind energy, community college trainings and new economy jobs.

flickr / Gehad Hadidi

As a sister girl from Detroit – 12th st., Linwood and Grand River area – I experienced massive culture shock going off to the military after high school.

Serving under Daddy Bush the first time the U.S. went into the Middle East, I shared my living quarters with a white  roommate from Minnesota.  During the winter months – while barely clothed – they would park the thermostat between 62˚- 65˚ F.  I on the other hand would huddle in the corner of the couch layered in long johns, a robe and thick socks. Their daily hair washing left my bi-weekly attempts frequently without shampoo.  I drank whole milk, they drank 2%. I sopped my biscuits in butter and Alaga syrup, they chose plain.  I listened to Run DMC, they liked Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

Throughout the military our differences were plentiful but the one thing each soldier had in common was “the mission”, it came first.  Though not everyone had the role of leading the mission, every role was mission essential.

Across the Great Lakes region, every urban center is essential to our collective green success as we look to double exports, rely less on carbon, manufacture clean technologies, build greener communities and create employment.  Jobs like installers, line workers, electricians and pipe fitters, green entrepreneurs, urban planners, sustainability systems developers, recyclers and wind turbine fabricators.

The Midwest region is rich in opportunity to capture a leading green role.   Consider just a few of the many things we have to offer.  The global trade networks, with Dayton, Detroit, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Toledo and Youngstown are among the country’s to 20 metro areas with metro output exported abroad.

We have the research capacity of 15 major public and private research universities and manufacturing know how to build a clean low-carbon and clean energy economy. Michigan, Ohio and Illinois are among the top states in green tech patenting.  Be it battery technologies, hybrid systems or fuels cells,  not to mention wind energy, solar renewable component manufacturing or our blue waterways.

Even with all of our assets, historic challenges with race, class and equity remain.  Our green discussions, plans and projects must include and provide opportunity for urban center residents at all income levels, to obtain the education needed to work and create good paying jobs with benefits.   We have the chance to leverage our needs and assets with a new level, depth and type of engagement that aligns federal, state and local policies with philanthropic policies and investments.  This will better position the region to successfully compete with the realities of a changing world.

Essential to the success of this work is how urban centers and people of color are factored in. Our quest for regional green equity requires elected, selected, anointed and appointed policy makers be future focused.  They must think technically, act consciously and have a transparent commitment to oversight and inclusion. Our regional vision must connect our priorities, policies, investments and infrastructure with the urban realities on the ground.  Only then can we consider the mission of achieving regional green equity a success.