Kudos to Oakland County Parks with their impending expansion of Independence Oaks County Park with a new land acquisition: 186 acre Upper Bushman Property, a property classified by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory as a Priority 1 natural area for conservation. In the words of Parks Executive Officer Dan Stencil, "This aquisition will allow for the preservation of nearly 1,000 acres of contiguous habitat in the headwaters of the Clinton River." The property - which includes a 31 acre lake - is at the northeast corner of Independence Oaks and is bordered by Sashabaw Road on the east and Oakhill Road to the north and will make Independence Oaks, at 1,274 acres the largest park in their system. The properties connect tip to tip through pristine wetlands with the possibilty of a hiker's boardwalk connector trail creating dry foot passage for humans. More good news: down the road plans include exploration for a trail along the ITC Transmission Corridor as a north/south connector for our growing county wide trail network, Oak Routes. Stencil also said, "We are beyond pleased to add this jewel to our system and to be able to preserve it for generations to come." So would have land ethics conservationist Aldo Leopold, author of the Sand County Almanac, who penned, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."
Oakland County Parks got this thing right.
For more info on Oakland County Parks visit: DestinationOakland.com
Right on Jonathan, I could not agree more!! I would add the following quote to some of what is going on today..."In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops. ~Paul Brooks, The Pursuit of Wilderness, 1971'
ReplyDeleteGlad Oakland County has the right vision so reduce this happening.