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Protecting and restoring Ann Arbor's natural areas and fostering an environmental ethic within the community.

​Volume 27, Number 2

October​ 2021

​Students from Concordia University receiving instruction at Ruthven Nature Area in August. 

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Coordinator's Corner: Fresh Perspectives

Careful readers may have noticed a slight change in the wording of NAP's mission statement recently, starting with last month's issue of this newsletter. We've changed from “To protect and restore Ann Arbor's natural areas, and to foster an environmental ethic among its citizens" to “To protect and restore Ann Arbor's natural areas, and to foster an environmental ethic within the community." (Italics added to highlight the change.)

Not a big change, perhaps, but an important one. Like a lot of folks these days, we're checking ourselves to ensure that our language, our messaging, and our culture, are as inclusive as possible. Ann Arbor is a diverse community. Many people with many different backgrounds use and enjoy our parks. We hope all of them have a sense of stewardship for our natural areas, and we at NAP want to be available to help all of them develop that environmental ethic, whether or not they are actually “citizens" of Ann Arbor, or the U.S. That only makes sense. And we've always felt that way. But our language didn't say that, so perhaps it wasn't clear to everyone. Hopefully this will help to clarify our mission.​

It's appropriate that we re-visit these things occasionally. Old language and old habits that we take for granted should be re-examined with a fresh perspective every so often. It may be difficult for those of us who have been looking at things the same way for many years to see them any differently. That's why we need new eyes, from a diverse audience, to help us see our blind spots.

I had the opportunity to benefit from such new insights recently while lecturing to a UM class on ecological restoration. I gave a version of the same presentation I've given dozens of times before, often to this same class. In it, I share a handful of historical quotes written about the Ann Arbor area from travelers visiting here in the early 1800s. They colorfully describe that native landscape, the huge wide-spreading oak trees, the rich carpet of beautiful wildflowers and grasses, and the frequent fires that indigenous Americans had been using for millennia to create these ecosystems.

I always thought it was an effective way to paint a picture for the audience of what Ann Arbor looked like a mere 200 years ago. So I was surprised when one student spoke up during the Q and A to criticize that portion of my talk. She was respectful, but she questioned why I only had quotes from European Americans, rather than the indigenous people who had actually been burning and managing the landscape.

I didn't have a good answer for her. I'd found those quotes years ago and loved them because they seemed so “spot-on" to what I was trying to communicate. I've been using them ever since, never realizing that I might be sending a subtle yet powerful message to my audience by not giving a voice to indigenous Americans themselves. It took a young student with fresh eyes to point out my omission. I can now work to correct the situation, and am currently looking for appropriate quotes from indigenous voices. 

May we all be open-minded enough to listen earnestly and non-defensively when someone with fresh eyes offers us a different perspective.