Conservation Letter 1

Asylum Lake

Richard Brewer

Last Friday gave us a beautiful sample of spring weather. Late in the afternoon, I took a walk at Asylum Lake. Blue-winged teal and gadwall were on the water and a pair of wood ducks flew by. There were cardinals, goldfinches, titmice, and a few other land birds, but 4:00 PM isn't the peak of bird activity.

I'm a fan of Asylum Lake, so I've listened when occasional members of the focus group set up by Western Michigan University to plan the future of the preserve have told me what's going on. The members have such diverse backgrounds and interests that I've been slightly surprised that they seem pretty much to have reached consensus on what's right for Asylum Lake. What they recommend--as I understand it--is mostly what's there right now (including the new prairie planting), with the addition of an assurance that it'll stay that way except for natural processes.

Other people were also at Asylum Lake last Friday. A man and his son were fishing, several people were walking dogs, two young women were catching some rays on a grassy slope, several people were just enjoying the spring, like me. I counted 23 people during the hour I was there, all involved in suitable passive pursuits . There may have been a few visitors I missed, because my path took me past all three of the larger parking locations for the preserve, and each had several cars.

I thought 23 was a comfortable number, uncrowded but companionable. If there had been twice as many people (and dogs) or more commotion--bikers, for example--the shyer kinds of wildlife would probably find the site unsuitable. Probably I would too.

One aim of the focus group was to identify the values of the property that need to be preserved. It's reassuring that the values they came up with basically correspond with what the citizenry has said over the past dozen years in letters to the Gazette and public meetings.

We haven't heard a lot from the public lately because most people think the issue was settled. In 1998, the city and university seemed to come to an agreement assuring that the Asylum Lake preserve would not be degraded or destroyed.

It has now begun to seem that it was too early to relax. A story in the Gazette toward the end of February foreshadowed what seems to be an attempt by the city to pressure WMU into agreeing to changes that few who know the site will see as appropriate. The city wants paved roads and a large paved parking lot, replacing vegetation and wildlife habitat with impermeable surfaces. It wants bike trails running here and there to off-site locations bringing in people with no interest in the preserve as a preserve. The city envisages a research/education center. Does it really make sense for public agencies to enter into competition with the Kalamazoo Nature Center?

It's ironic, I guess, that after all the threats to the integrity of the site from WMU the threat now comes from the city. Most of us had thought that the city's role was to watchdog the university.

Only someone with no knowledge of the past ten years of Asylum Lake history would think that the intrusions being promoted by the city would be welcome. Re-reading the dozens of Asylum Lake letters to the editor would be educational for them. So would sitting down with Dok Stevens'charming little book Haven and perhaps a good environmental science or conservation textbook.

The city's on the wrong side now, but the time may come again when both are on the wrong side, as was the case with the first ill-considered plan for a research park, in 1990-1993. It would be nice if the university and city would hurry up and sign a paper saying that Asylum Lake will be protected, not exploited. Even if they do, the citizens who saved it before must not relax their vigilance. In the long run, the real protection will come from the people who care about Asylum Lake being willing to spend the time, energy, and money to do what it takes to thwart ill-advised, destructive schemes of the future coming from the city or the university, or both.

[Note added 19 August 2003: One reason for the Gazette's lack of interest in this Viewpoint may be suggested by the title of the front-page Gazette article of 9 August 2003: "Asylum Lake Fight: How a battle over open space nearly stalled Kalamazoo's economic engine." Some might say that Kalamazoo's lack of forward movement hasn't been engine trouble but the 1950s road map the drivers are still trying to follow. A Viewpoint by Mark A. Hoffman (24 August 2003) corrected some mistakes in the 9 August "Kalamazoo Engine" article but could, in justice, have been considerably tougher.]