Folks in Poletown have been seeing tractors on these streets for decades.

Paul has been the kind of busy that one could see from space. Maybe you have noticed. His work is especially obvious in Oxygen Alley, which seems to have gone from parking lot to park overnight. Well, it wasn’t overnight. It was in broad daylight with 4 people working full time, alongside the bobcat, the tractor, and the dump truck. Paul operates the unsung heroes of Arboretum Detroit and our Poletown neighborhood. Paul moves them around the neighborhood like a kid using his index finger to drive them around the kitchen floor: beep, beep, beep, dump truck waiting to be loaded with debris over here, tractor moving back and forth scraping up landfilled concrete chunks right here, and bobcat grabbing asphalt and garbage over here. This was the scene all week in Oxygen Alley. With 4 people and these amazing tools we moved an amount of concrete, asphalt and brick, equivalent to the weight of the 21 boulders we placed in the ring: 30 tons. We humans, with all our combined might, could not budge a single boulder. However, over the course of the week picking chunks off the ground and hauling them with wheelbarrows, we lifted many times the weight of a boulder, which is about one ton each.

Arboretum employees Robyn and Idris working alongside volunteers Paul and Sarah to depave the world.

We do a lot of remediation around here, but never have we achieved something quite like this. It is appropriate that this has been our biggest clean-up job ever because Oxygen Alley is, itself, a monument to our community’s fierce battles against, and victories over, the waste industry. You may have heard that this park is a giant air filter and memorial to all of the years we fought, and are still fighting, for environmental justice. On the near East side we bear a heavy burden of the waste industry and spend our time cleaning up after capitalism. Capitalism always dumps on someone, that’s what it does. Some have the luxury of looking the other way, some do not. We are here to stare it down and make change.

We completely removed 400 feet of asphalt driveway and dozens of parking spaces. We tilled 50 yards of compost and 80 yards of leaf litter into the dry dust. We shaped 500 feet of pathway using 30 yards of wood chips, and planted 50 trees, and 30 shrubs. This is especially transformative because of the dearth of life that was obvious here. Underneath this impenetrable petrochemical surface, just as atop it, there was almost zero life. This poisoned and desiccated earth capped by asphalt has not seen a drop of water for 60 years; it is completely inert. This is how we practice for digging on the moon. For the first time in half a century life and water are filtering their way down and things are growing here.

The dump truck full of 5 tons of asphalt, one of several loads removed from Oxygen Alley.

Above ground there are dozens of places for birds to land and loads of native foods for them to eat, hundreds of feet of pathway for people to stroll through, and an acre of surface for a wildflower meadow to grow. Under the surface there will be worms, and microbes, and fungi spreading and bringing the soil back to life. On the once neglected and unnoticed corner of Moran and Kirby there is a giant tilted ring of stones to amaze and focus energy. This ring also demonstrates to me that boulders are more valuable than diamonds. This whole project can help us recalibrate our priorities. Imagine what all of our neighborhoods could look like if we could trade some of the diamonds, hiding in dark drawers, for parks like this with boulders and trees standing in the sun. Let’s imagine that in cities all over the world people will trade their precious diamonds and their conspicuous concentrated personal wealth for vast and beautiful community spaces for life to thrive. 

Hey, we can do this. We are doing this. It’s tons of work, but we have proven precisely what it takes to perform this task. The heavy lifting was done with all volunteer labor, over 300 hours of it. But the financing was not taken care of by a diamond, but by a Neighborhood Beautification Grant from the City of Detroit, and a Tree Planting Grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Urban and Community Forestry program and the DTE Energy Foundation. We also have two organizations to thank for their in-kind contributions: the Greening of Detroit for an amazing tree planting, and US Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a native meadow installation . 

21 tons of Michigan boulders delivered first by glaciers then by Paul into this cosmic Ring.

Oxygen Alley is a dream come true, a profound treealization. And we dream it for all of us. It would be one thing if this were just someone’s private estate that provided all this beauty and wildlife value just for its own sake. But this is a public park to be enjoyed by anyone and everyone forever into the future. Lots of parks, not parking lots, right? Parks in perpetuity. We are figuring out more and more every year how to be the Detroit we want to see in the world, to plant the Detroit we want to live in.

KT Morelli leading a Greenspace Healing Tour through the new meandering path through Oxygen Alley. With hard work there is life after asphalt.

This is what we do. Please come out and visit. Come out and be a part of it. If you would like to, and can, please support this work with a donation that will help us ensure that the trees are watered and this essential equipment is kept working. Help us help trees help us. We can only lift boulders together.  We are so grateful for you to even just sit peacefully on a bench if that’s your role. Welcome home!

Kids love boulders. Finn test drives all our boulders before we invite the general public.

Tree planters have big Oxygen footprints. Come out to ArbDetroit and increase your oxygen footprint this Spring. If you plant trees you already know the satisfaction that comes with spreading life, habitat, shade, fresh air, and beauty. We are painting with trees. What a way to generate ripples of good out into a future that extends way beyond us.

With all due respect to those of you who have never planted a tree, I can’t imagine what you must feel like. You probably “ don’t know what you don’t know.” Well, we want you to know. We want every one of us to feel what it is to heal the land, the planet, and be a part of  amplifying shade, oxygen, and elegance. There is one downside though; you will likely be upset that you didn’t do it sooner.

Planting trees is doing a thing that is virtuous into the future, times a million. When I am planting a tree I am doing something that is absolutely net positive. That’s not for me easy to achieve in this complex modern world, especially as a so-called white or off-white guy. It’s very complicated I realize, and confusing to navigate being here in all the ways that we are. We are using resources, creating forever garbage, burning fossil fuels, taking up space that could go to someone else. When you consider all that this tree you plant is going to do for the planet and her beings over the next 200 years, you may begin to feel a slight balancing of your impact. Imagine if we all just planted three trees in “our” yards.

We hear so much about our Carbon Footprint, as we should, but we don’t really hear about our Oxygen Footprint. That’s what I’m talking about- productive and proactive. I promise we will all live better and feel better about the space we take up here, and the space that we leave behind us, as it was before us.

Arbage, not garbage.

As always, Arboretum Detroit offers many opportunities to increase your Oxygen Footprint. We have two events for Earth Day, and a couple more just because it would be humiliating to accept that Earth Day is a single day. It’s Earth Day for you whenever you plant a tree. 

Check out the calendar on our website for dates, times, and locations. We welcome donations here.

Wow, what a year! 

Be careful what you wish for.

In case you have not been able to get out to any workdays, birdwalks, or just a visit, we’d like to update you on what’s been happening in the Arb. This has been a fantastic and busy year for the tree people of Poletown. We hired our first employee: Robyn. We planted hundreds of trees across two projects. We pushed about 70% through our Circle Forest project. We broke ground on the newest project: Oxygen Alley. Oh, and we began meetings and planning sessions for the Poletown East Green Loop with East Ferry Warren Community Association and Detroit Future City. The Green Loop is an off-street walking path that connects all the arboretum spaces to other green projects throughout the neighborhood. It’s really been an amazing time to be working with trees and Detroit’s abundant green space.

Hiring Robyn has brought lots of mirth, laughs, and new eyes to the arb. It has been a joy to watch her fall in love with trees and get to know all their names. She dates them, not by when they were born. She takes them on dates. Well, they don’t go far, but they have a good time. Robyn has been integral to facilitating workdays and general park maintenance. She is so happy to be working outdoors and has even moved into the neighborhood from about a mile away. Sometimes I think she’s mostly here to tree-jay because she is always bestowing her vast musical knowledge and supreme taste upon the trees and volunteers. More Robyn in the new year, please.

We planted so many trees in the Spring of 2022 that it was difficult to keep track, and keep them watered in this drought of a Summer. Earth Day saw 50 trees added to Circle Forest and 50 trees to Treetroit One in its expansion. Because we had to expand Treetroit One right? Not enough to do yet. It was a lot getting all these trees into the ground and we vowed never to do two Earth Day plantings in a row. But by Fall we were inventing yet another Earth Day so we could go harder: we coined October 23rd as “Other Earth Day.” Like many of you, we have always thought it so ironic and sad, really, that we celebrate Earth one day each year. What? We like to celebrate every day. So we are trying to give everyone more chances to celebrate with us. So, Other Earth Day just calls the Spring holiday’s minimalism into question and allows us to do something about it. Other Earth Day, because there is no other Earth.

Circle Forest has been a busy place for the land. She is adjusting to her new / not new plants and trees. That is, we are introducing many natives that have probably not been here in at least a couple hundred years. This is a big deal. We have now planted over 100 native trees including White Pine, White Spruce, White Cedar, Black Gum, Paper Birch, Eastern Red Cedar, Red Maple, White and Red Oak, Paw Paw, Redbud, Elderberry, Serviceberry, Nannyberry and more. We recently planted 150 native perennials that were donated by our dedicated volunteer, Michelle, and moved from Wayne State University. Circle Forest is full of diversity and life. We really feel like we are helping the land express herself and be her best. There has been so much remediation of the land in this project that we all feel the burden of abuse and neglect being lifted. The birds feel it too. Our super-volunteer and birdman, Kyle, has identified 85 different species visiting the forest. The ADA compliant gravel paths are laid and the accessible boardwalk and deck are built and stunning. Thanks to Mike Williams or St. Aubin Woodworks and his team for the craftsmanship. Thanks of course to AARP, who funded this feature. We have named it the Barb Rennie Walk & Roll. This name honors a beloved Poletown resident who transitioned about 20 years ago. Barb would love to see all the energy and life being pumped into this neighborhood, as well as the access that would allow her to cruise around in her sporty wheelchair. 

Of course we had to start another project while still building Circle Forest. Oxygen Alley is something we have been dreaming up for a few years and is finally becoming a reality. This is a 4 lot project, one of which runs almost 400 feet all the way through the middle of the block between Kirby and Frederick. It is an oxygen maker, a shade maker, a storm soaker, an enhanced habitat, a boulder scape, and a celebration of our strong environmental justice practice. This project celebrates the closing of the Detroit trash incinerator, which released its odors and poisons directly onto this neighborhood for 30 years. Residents fought this monster from the time it was built, and eventually defeated it with the help of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and others. This park celebrates clean air and oxygen equity. So far the project is being supported by a donation from the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in celebration of this victory for the Earth and Detroiters, as well as grants from DTE for trees, and Wayne Metro and the City of Detroit with the awarding of a Neighborhood Beautification Grant for the project. Most of us didn’t even realize that there was a landfill right in our backyard. Once we dug in and began cleaning up the forested section of the Alley we realized that there has been a layer of trash between one and four feet thick throughout. It was a sad realization, but all the sweeter once it was cleaned up. We had dozens of volunteers come out on two occasions to fill a 20 yard dumpster and then another complete dump truck. The highlight was when we realized the scale of the dumping and recognized that we would need the bobcat. Of course it's 2022 so you don’t text Paul, you send a child to find him and relay the message, “we need help, come to Oxygen Alley with the bobcat. Oh the cinematic relief we all felt when Finn came running back with Paul following on the bobcat. Side note: this is a site so quintessentially Farnsworth. We could not do any of these projects without Paul riding in on the bobcat in the 11th hour. Likewise none of these projects would be happening here if Paul had not given us the example 25 and 30 years ago by planting his orchard in the face of the incinerator, and bailing hay on all this vacant land. This work is a tradition that goes back at least to the 1980’s, but really more like thousands of years when you consider that it is just getting our relations with the Earth right. We have the examples of the people who lived here first and we let them be our inspiration and the reasons we set our goals so high.

Synergy, culmination, momentum. We are so delighted that there has been such inspiration around all these projects. People seem to be feeling the work and jumping into it. These projects are clearly ours with a capital O. Much of this would not be possible without the support of our partner Detroit Future City. From awarding us a Working With Lots Grant in 2019 to build the Neighborhood Tree Nursery, to partnering with us in the Circle Forest project in 2020 (still ongoing), through their support in the Green Loop, DFC has helped amplify our work. It is so energizing to be recognized and supported. This goes for everyone who comes out and gets excited about what we are doing in the neighborhood, from the volunteer who comes out every chance she gets, to the dude who sits on the bench and watches the trees grow. This is especially true for DFC who keeps fanning the flames, bringing oxygen to our fire, Oxygen to our Alley. This idea of connecting all the green spaces is one that goes back to the inception of the Arboretum. We envisioned a walking, running, skiing path that connects all the neighborhood greenspaces. So some nut with a driving mower just started clearing a path for neighbors to walk their dogs and get to the bird park. People started using these paths instantly and have gotten very used to the luxury of walking off-street. What a relief to not have to think about and avoid speeding cars. What a joy to walk in nature close to the trees. What a blessing to stumble upon a new bench just when you’re tired or saw a bird you want to look at through your binoculars. All these things are what make the Green Loop such a great idea. When we started mowing the path we called it a “winding park.” Now that we are actually in the planning stages of formalizing the path we have been calling it the Green Loop. DFC is supporting us in reaching out to the community to discuss what this could look like, and find potential funding for benches, ADA paths and other amenities. The Green Loop is the next big thing for East Poletown. This is the stitching that will hold these quilt pieces together. This is a model that we hope will spread to other neighborhoods. If Detroit has nothing else it has enough open spaces in our neighborhoods so that everyone can walk in nature and sit in a little forest at the end of the block. Let Detroit lead the way in tree equity and demonstrate how essential living with trees is.