News - Archived

Archived News

April 29, 2008

HRWC will give a presentation at Orchard Hills-Maplewood Homeowners' Association meeting and have an information booth at the annual Ice Cream Social/Used Book Sale at Thurston School from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. HRWC will discuss our work and projects in the neighborhoods surrounding Thurston Elementary School. We want to help residents capture the rain with rain gardens, rain barrels, professional native plant landscaping and other storm-water retention options suitable for homeowners. Please come and bring a friend!

Location: Thurston Elementary School, 2300 Prairie Street, Ann Arbor 48105

April 29, 2008

We had a marvelously successful River RoundUp on Saturday with 176 people, many from Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter and Ypsilanti. Teams of enthusiastic families and other residents studied 54 sites on the Huron River and its streams. People who passed by the teams took an interest in the creek and the study.

Several things surprised people: that such a great variety of creatures are living in our streams, that you can learn about the health of a river by examining its streams, and that streams are much nicer when natural land is preserved nearby even if the land is developed, as long as the developed area is small.

The study included Fleming, Malletts, Traver and Millers Creeks and sites on the Huron River. The results will be available from the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC) following analysis of the data. Results from recent studies can be viewed at www.hrwc.org.

HRWC welcomes people who would like to participate in measuring many aspects of the creek. There is no charge for training or participation. The next event will be on September 20th. Please contact Joan Martin at jmartin@hrwc.org or (734) 7123 X. 11.

November 1, 2007

Wonderful Fall Festival!
On Sunday October 21, 2007 Orchard Hills-Maplewood Homeowners Association held their first Fall Festival and it was a great success. Over 100 people enjoyed the hour-long raptor show from the Leslie Science Center (which featured a live kestrel, great horned owl, and yearling bald eagle) and people came and went throughout the afternoon. There was a variety of nature-oriented and other playful activities for kids and adults, including three separate tree tours led by Mike Conboy, showing some of the more than 90 species of trees (60 native to Michigan) planted since the early 1960's by folks in the neighborhood. There are trees in a woodlot that predate the subdivision; they are over a century old! People signed up for our Adopt-A-Tree program. An enjoyable, hour-long program by various neighborhood musicians, with Master of Ceremonies Steve Rapundalo, concluded the afternoon's program.

Show and Tell:
Members of the Nature Center Committee (Neal Foster, Georgia White-Epperson, and her 9-year old son James) collected whatever critters we could find all around the periphery of the Thurston Pond and set up a display of them in jars so people could see them close up: damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, water boatmen, backswimmers, whirligig beetles, 2 other kinds of water beetles, crayfish, a scud, a goldfish, and some fathead minnows. (Though the minnows are small, they are abundant in the pond and provide some sustenance for our egrets and herons.)

A portion of our display is shown in the sixth image at http://ohmha.org/ff.html.

Good Information Presented:
There was a talk about the pond, including the basic problem of being "hypereutrophic" (too much algae), and also stormwater-related problems such as the need for the footing drain disconnect program, the flashy flow regime and the problems it causes downstream from the pond in Millers Creek, the planned installation of stormceptors on Bluett and the diversion of water from the footing drains connected to the storm sewer running southward along Antietam and then into Thurston Pond.

Deep sediment, which has accumulated for over 40 years, is a major problem in the pond. Although there is a project to improve the pond, the funds for that cannot be used to remove the sediment.

The Thurston Nature Center Committee (TNCC) is working on several tasks, thanks to the help of a contractor from the city's footing drain disconnect program. They include restoring the original height of the berm where it has settled over the years and widening at least a portion of the access path to make it more handicapped-accessible.

The Future:
The HRWC will soon work with folks in our neighborhood to help people to install rain barrels, rain gardens, etc.

The TNCC is seeking grant support for a phased program of pond basin improvement to enhance habitat conditions for fish and wildlife. Such re-contouring of the shape of the pond basin would remove much of the superficial layer of accumulated sediment, leaves, and woody debris from the bottom of the pond. That material could be then be recycled on-site as a highly fertile soil amendment to help create an Oak Savannah at the unused, flood-prone, northeast end of the Thurston Elementary School playground.
By: Neal Foster

September 14, 2007

The Millers Creek Action Team Summer 2007 Update is avaliable.

May 1, 2007

Are you concerned about northeast Ann Arbor?

What is happening to the environment around Millers Creek?

Learn what is new in the neighborhood at an Open House from 7-9pm on Tuesday May 22nd at Logan School, 2685 Traver Road organized by the Millers Creek Action Team (MCAT).

Did you know that Michigan Tech has located a branch here? How will the creek be affected by Pfizer leaving? Ask the City, the University and developers, about their plans.

MCAT and other experts will be on hand with exhibits and slide presentations for brainstorming and discussions about what has been accomplished and what the future holds.

Join us for an evening with your neighbors and talk about what we can do to beautify our own landscapes and promote the health of Millers Creek.

Take home native plants, which will be given as door prizes.

Enjoy light refreshments.

Contact Joan Martin at 734-769-5123 or e-mail her at jmartin@HRWC.org with questions.

www.HRWC.org

March 28, 2007: Millies awarded at popular Millers Creek Film Festival

(Ann Arbor) Eighteen entertaining short films about the human connections to all parts of the Huron River system were screened Tuesday at the expanded Millers Creek Film Festival. A crowd of 400 people enjoyed the second annual festival of locally made films at the Michigan Theater, organized by the Huron River Watershed Council.

Each top winner received a beautiful glass Millie trophy and $500. Second place winners received a check for $50. In addition, the Audience Favorite received dinner for four at the Red Hawk Bar & Grill.

South Lyon native Dan Nienhuis was the big winner of the evening. His "A Message from the Huron River Rock Bass" took the Millie for best Public Service Announcement and the Audience Award as well. In this 30 second film we hear what our native fish need us to do to protect the River.

The Millie for the adult category went to Jake Serwer with Ben Friedman and Sam Roston, all students at the University of Michigan. Their 5-minute film, "Riverbank Rescue," documents the modern way to restore a riverbank, bringing attention to recent preservation and management of the beautiful Huron River.

Jacob Rammage, a senior at South Lyon High School, captured the school-age Millie for "The Huron River: A River for All Seasons." His 3.5-minute film took us on a relaxing trip down the river, appreciating the recreational opportunities it provides in every season.

The Festival doubled last year's success, with twice as many films seen by twice as many people. It provided proof that our community has remarkable creativity; the youthful filmakers provided entertainment and information in 18 very different ways. The post-screening gala hummed with happy conversations while everyone enjoyed the homemade cookies baked by HRWC volunteers and the lovely harp music by Beverly Black.

The following films won Second Place awards. "Huron River Reflections" by Blair Neighbors at Milford High School - This moving film features the river as a place of comfort during a time of profound loss, connecting us to the impact of the Iraq war on local people.

"Stop Water Pollution" by Matt Jylkka at Walled Lake Western is a creative 30-second film showing pollution from the fish's point of view.

"The Watershed" by University students Justin Powell with Sean Dwyer and Jason Wazeerud-Din is a dramatic trailer for a hypothetical film about the threat of development to people's sense of place.

"A Walk to Remember" by University students Max Sloan with Jon Hradsky and Mike Tai is a humorous presentation (in verse) about the unintended environmental consequences of our daily actions.
2006: Plymouth Green Crossing

Please click here for information about the Plymouth Green Crossing construction project.