SSE advocates Orchard property preservation

By Fritz Klug
News Editor

Chelsea Thorpe and Michael Gregor took part in the Colony Farm Orchard Letter Writing Workshop earlier this fall. (Bethany Bohlen/Western Herald)

On a crisp, clear autumn night in October, 26 students from Western Michigan University jumped the fence along the west side of Drake Road into the Colony Farm Orchard.

“We want to allow people the freedom to walk around the place like it’s meant to be,” Remy Long, a WMU student and member of Students for a Sustainable Earth, told the group before they broke off to explore the property on Oct. 17.

For many, this was the first time they had been to the university-owned property. Across the street from the Asylum Lake Preserve, the 54-acre property is in the initial stages of development.

“We share this experience with others,” Chelsea Thorpe, a WMU senior, said at the end of the tour. “It’s important that we begin to consider ourselves and others as part of a community and not boxed off.”

The forest tour was hosted by SSE as part of their campaign to save the land they call the “Enchanted Forest” from development.

“It is enchanted because it’s a place in limbo,” said Benjamin Ayer, a WMU student. “It’s not regularly visited by people. [The forest] holds mystery.”

The orchard, once used by the Kalamazoo State Hospital as farmland for patients, was given to WMU in the 70s solely for the purpose 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 deed states.

It was part of a larger group of land that included what is known today as the Asylum Lake Preserve and the College of Engineering and Business Technology and Research (BTR) Park.

The process of extending the BTR Park to the 54-acre Orchard started in July, State Rep. Robert Jones (D-Kalamazoo) introduced House Bill 5207. The bill would get rid of a deed restriction that WMU can utilize the property only for “public park, recreation, or open space purposes,” except if legislature may authorize the university “to utilize the property for some other public purpose,” according to the deed.

The bill was approved in the House 105 to two votes on Sept. 17 and is expected to pass in the Senate. Sen. Tom George, (R-Texas Township) fully backs WMU’s effort to expand the BTR park and said he will vote yes. “It is important for Western Michigan and Kalamazoo,” George said, citing the economic gains of the first BTR park.

Ever since the bill was introduced to the Senate on Oct. 10, it has sat on the agenda, as the State Legislature tried to produce a budget for 2010 for most of October. As of publication, it is unclear when it will be voted on. There are nine planned Senate sessions left before the holiday break. The last time they met was on Nov. 18.

Since October, around 20 members from SSE have been calling and sending letters to State senators urging them to vote no on the bill, Andrew Weissenborn, co-chair of SSE, said.

The group has distributed informational brochures, organized additional nature walks of the property, hosted a letter writing workshop, drafted a petition, sent a letter to WMU President John Dunn, Ph.D., and even hosted an Enchanted Forest costume dance party. Their Facebook group, “Save the Enchanted Forest!” has 435 members and provides updates on the status of the bill.

“It’s only [54] acres, but then again, it’s another [54] acres of land that is being developed and will be changed for a very long time,” Weissenborn said. “This happens all over the country, on a daily basis, and what does that mean for future generations? Will they be able to have the same type of green space [we had]?”

Because the House Bill was introduced over the summer, Weissenborn said that the student voice could not be heard as far as preserving the land – which is the main reason for SSE’s campaign, he says.

SSE plans on releasing an updated informational brochure this week, as well as making a trip in December to the state capitol to meet with State Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop to protest the bill.

“It is an important issue because students are getting a firsthand look on how to be an activist, preservationist,” Weissenborn said. “It’s helping students determine their values for land ethics, and what sustainability means to them.”

While Weissenborn is not opposed to the idea of the BTR Park or the creation of jobs, he thinks it should not take place on the Orchard property.

“It is neat and extraordinary what WMU has done with the first BTR park, but I do not think the park should be extended to the Colony Farm Orchard,” he said. “The focus at this point is to preserve the land.”

As the fate of the Orchard waits in Lansing, the land is still being used as it has been. Part of the property is being used by the City of Kalamazoo for dumping leaves. The Fall Leaf Collection department was unavailable for comment at time of publication.

Ron Prouty, who lives in the Winchell neighborhood, uses the land three or four times a week for hiking. “I value the aspect of wildlife,” he said at SSE’s letter writing workshop on Oct. 23. “Not a lot of people go in there.”

Prouty believes the land should stay as it is. “It can be used and not developed.”
The Orchard is the closest thing Kalamazoo has to a commons, Ayer said. “People go there to gather wild asparagus, pick apples, make wine from grapes,” Ayer said. He found a wild squash. There is also evidence of honey and maple tree sap harvesting.

“It is more than a passive park,” Ayer said. “Most parks are not for resource gathering.”

SSE meets every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in room 205 of the Bernhard Center.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Nov 29 2009. Filed under Breaking, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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