[highland-conservancy]E-newsletter & roadcleanup Sun.

Fri Oct 10 01:48:51 EDT 2008

Highland Conservancy E-Newsletter October 8, 2008

PUBLIC HEARING RE PARKS
On Tuesday, October 21st at 7pm, there will be a public hearing regarding updating the Parks portion of the Highland Township Master Plan.  The meeting will be held at the Highland Adult Activity Center (i.e. the senior center).  Everyone is invited to this public meeting to express your comments, opinions or give your input.  Of special interest is the nature park directly north of the library.  We support keeping it as a nature preserve and “passive use” park much as it currently is.  Please mark your calendar to attend.  For a more detailed article on the nature park, click on the following link: http://highlandconservancy.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/highland-nature-park-sell-off-schemed-by-jim-lloyd.html   

ADOPT A ROAD
The Highland Conservancy has adopted a portion of road leading to our newest park, Highland Oaks.  Earlier this year, we co-sponsored an invasive removal day at this lovely park.  During several visits, we noticed the road desperately 
needed some “adopting” to help clean up quite an accumulation of trash.  It is beyond me why people feel so free to toss their trash out the window with no regard for others.  I’m probably preaching to the choir, so let me just invite you to join us on our next clean-up day, this Sunday afternoon, October 12th from 4-6pm.  We will meet at the corner of Wardlow and Harvey Lake Road (look for a blue/green van) at 4pm.  Just bring work gloves and a willingness to pitch in – we will provide the trash bags.  For those boy scouts out there, it is an excellent way to earn service hours!

TOUGH TIMES
It is really getting scary out there and I know all of us are feeling the pinch.  It might seem as if it can’t get worse, but it probably will.  At our house, we’ve dialed down to 61 degrees, take MUCH shorter showers, use canvas bags, and are slowly changing over to compact fluorescent light bulbs.  We try to bunch our errands together and I’m trying to slow down while driving.  I honestly tried 
to ride my bike to work but my husband nixed that under no uncertain terms, sigh.  At least I did get a good harvest from our weedy church garden, surprisingly.  We still refill milk jugs with tap water from my mom’s house, a monthly event (avoid bottled water).  Plus, we should all recycle (it’s free and easy in Highland).  The township has free recycle bins, just stop in and pick one up at the township office. There are ten million things I’m sure we could be doing, and I found a good link for other ideas to save money and the planet. http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BPKVH/$File/climatesmarttips.pdf  

LEGO TEAMS STUDY CLIMATE CHANGE
It is time, once again, when school Lego teams are hard at work preparing for their robotics competitions.  Interestingly, the theme this year is Climate Change.  The students have already begun their research and our school’s team has unearthed some pretty interesting facts.  Michigan is being directly affected by our warming planet in that the migratory ranges of animals 
that used to stay further south, are moving progressively further north.  As birds and some insects travel further north or arrive sooner, they come hungry and looking for food.  Sometimes they arrive before their food source is “online” or their habitat is already stressed by an unbalance in the ecosystem caused by invasives like gypsy moths, emerald ash borer or purple loosestrife.  The Detroit Free Press did an excellent article on this you might find interesting:  
http://postcarboncities.net/node/125  

5K RUN WAS FUN!
The Highland Conservancy sponsored the first annual 5K run in Highland two weekends ago.  The scenery was gorgeous along Livingston Road to Dodge 10 and back.  Some folks even spotted our healthy township supervisor Triscia Pilchowski who took part in the run!  Thank you to the DDA and all those volunteers who helped out with this event.

Have a great fall!

Katheryn Krupa, Editor
The Highland Conservancy
www.HighlandConservancy.org (website)
www.HighlandConservancy.typepad.com (blog)
248-887-4643
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