Planet WSU: the walk down Green Street continues

Wayne State held its second annual celebration of Sustainability in Higher Education Month, Green Street, throughout the month of October. The first event happened on October 6, 2020, and featured a stellar line-up of speakers who reflected on possible sustainable futures for WSU and Detroit. The guests were: Michelle Serreyn, author of the Warrior Wildlife blog; Ashley Flintoff, Wayne State’s Director of Planning and Space Management; Nina Misuraca Ignaczak, journalist and founder of Planet Detroit; and Allison Torres Burtka, freelance writer and editor.

We collected some of the questions from the chat and our guests answered them for you here. We also collected a host of useful resources and material for further reading. Enjoy!

Q: What role do you see novel ecosystems in the broad scope of increasing green space and biodiversity in urban environments? I am also curious about changes in soundscapes near native ecosystems in these urban areas. Has the soundscape changed as a function of increased biodiversity?

A (Michelle Serreyn): While I’m not sure about “novel” ecosystems, what we are attempting to create isn’t so much an ecosystem as patches of habitat as integrated with the build environment as we can make them. Wayne State’s campus doesn’t have much green space to work with, but surrounding community does, and there are organizations working on some of those spaces, like Detroit Audubon (Detroit Bird City). With small patches that we have, if planned correctly, we can also take advantage of some of the ecosystem services that they offer (in a much scaled-down form) such as erosion control, clean air and water, soil formation, and stormwater mitigation, diversion and retention.

And funny you should mention the soundscape! I just noticed the other day while I was tending one of the gardens that I am hearing insects in that space for the first time! We are definitely attracting more macroinvertebrates (in spaces where there were few or none visible, above or below ground), as well as birds. There is also the lovely sound of wind in the leaves, especially of the taller plants and grasses.

Q: How severely damaged can nature in/around urban cities realistically get within the next 25 years if we proceed without intervention? Optimistically, how improved can they get? Also, where is the point of no return, where nature has been altered to such an extent as to “destroy” urban biomes? Also, is it possible to surpass that point without immediately knowing we have?

A (Michelle Serreyn): I am not sure how to answer this question. With the decreasing of residential populations outside of the Downtown/Midtown areas, there has been a lot more open space created. While most of that becomes populated with many non-native plants, wildlife is still making use of those spaces and ecosystem services still occur. Urban farming is a big boost, as long as they are using organic practices. And here and there, non-profits, other organizations, the Detroit Future Cities and residents are doing what they can to improve the environment.

As far as a point of no return – we are already past that when it comes to what was in most of this area historically. What we have now is radically different in most places, but if it can still function as habitat (provide food, clean water, shelter and space for living organisms), then I guess it’s better than the alternative. We all know that if areas are left along, nature does have a way of creeping back in and taking over. Some sites may be too toxic even for that, or so highly degraded that it takes a long time, but with human intervention and assistance, we may be able to make some serious inroads into improvement. But that takes funding, time and effort, so we need to look to ways to plan well and move forward.

Q: Has Wayne State considered rooftop gardens or green roofs as a way to conserve or add to urban biodiversity and how big do these gardens have to be to actually make a difference in the conservation of biodiversity?

A (Michelle Serreyn): We do have some rooftop plantings, but they have proven rather difficult to access and manage. Some of the existing roofs might not have the capacity, in terms of weight-bearing and preventing water intrusion into the building below, and retrofitting would likely be costly.

Two of the current spaces at Chemistry have been colonized by various plants, native and non-native, intentionally planted and unintentional “volunteers.” There may be some insect present in those areas, maybe a few birds feeding. We did have a pair of geese nest in one of the locations last year.

A (Ashley Flintoff): We actually do have green roofs on I think 4 or 5 buildings and it is something that we do consider when doing renovations. I know we have done tours through the Office of Campus Sustainability in the past of the green roofs on campus.

Q: The latest development on campus were Anthony Wayne Apartments (the most expensive housing option) which coincided with the demolition of DeRoy, one of the cheapest housing options on campus. Under the 2030 ‘Master Plan’ how will new buildings, upgrades, and green space make up for the increased tuition and financial barriers for students?

A (Ashley Flintoff): The cost of tuition and housing is directly related to both the amount of money the university receives from sources such as State appropriations, tuition dollars, research grants, etc as well as the cost to operate. By better utilizing our existing space, consolidating and removing space we don’t need and renovating buildings and sites to be more sustainable and to use less energy and utilities allows us to operate the campus more efficiently which means less money spent on operations.

Further Reading and Resources (from Allison Burtka):

Bees in the D:

Article about Detroit Hives:

Detroit Outdoors:

Native Plant Resources (from Michelle Serreyn)
Books (this is my favorite option, because everything is all in one place and you don’t have to go searching around, vetting websites, etc.):

  1. Landscaping with Native Plants of Michigan, Lynn Steiner
  2. Birdscaping in the Midwest, Mariette Nowak

Websites

  1. Springfield Township Native Michigan Plants Vegetation Enhancement Project: great how-tos (in the little set of links on the right side of the screen) plus a database you can search by plant name
  2. Native Plant Nursery (Ann Arbor) database. Looks like it’s currently down, but this one you can click on the conditions you have and it helps find the best plants for those conditions.
  3. Friends of the Rouge Rain Gardens Guidance
  4. Michigan’s Natural Communities (lots of other cool stuff at this site, too)

Sources of native plants

  1. Keep Growing Detroit
  2. Michigan Native Plant Producers Association
  3. Local garden group native plants sales; Cranbrook usually has one in the spring also

Organizations

  1. Wildflower Association of Michigan (always have an awesome spring conference!)
  2. Wild Ones – Native Plants, Natural Landscapes (have local chapters, or you can be a member-at-large)
  3. Some of the local garden groups have an emphasis on native plants

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