The
U.S.
Department
of
Agriculture is awarding “The Ann
Arbor Greenbelt: Saving Michigan
Farms
Regional
Conservation
Partnership Program” $1 million
dollars, according to a Feb. 4 press
release. The project is led by the
City of Ann Arbor Open Space and
Parkland Preservation Program,
also called the Greenbelt. It aims
to
protect
surrounding
Ann
Arbor agricultural lands through
conservation easements, the right
to use someone else’s land for a
specified purpose. Greenbelt and
its local partners will match the
grant, which means a total of $2
million will go toward preserving
farmland in Washtenaw County.
Partners in the project include
Washtenaw County Parks and
Recreation
Commission,
Scio
Township, Ann Arbor Township,
Augusta
Township,
Legacy
Land
Conservancy,
Southeast
Michigan Land Conservancy, The
Conservation Fund and the USDA
Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
This 2018 fiscal year, the
Saving Michigan Farms program
is one of 91 projects selected
for the Regional Conservation
Partnership
Program
funding
by the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service. The USDA
list of chosen projects describes
ecological
and
local
benefits
of the Saving Michigan Farms
program. These benefits include
protecting food security and
local economics, maintaining
the
agricultural
heritage
of residents and combating
environmental concerns.
According
to
Jennifer
Fike, the Greenbelt Advisory
Commission
chair,
the
USDA grant will amplify the
Greenbelt’s land preservation
efforts.
“(The grant money) is an
awesome way for us to leverage
federal dollars to match the
amount of money that we put
in to protect land in Washtenaw
County in the Greenbelt area,”
Fike said. “It allows our (tax)
dollars to go further to protect
more land.”
According
to
the
USDA
website,
the
RCPP
funds
projects through four types
of programs, including from
the Agricultural Conservation
Easement Program. Though the
Greenbelt has received USDA
funding directly from ACEP
before, this is the first time
Greenbelt has received such
funding through the RCPP, Fike
explained.
“It could potentially allow us
to go after larger parcels of land,”
Fike said. “I’m not sure, as (both
types of funding) are very similar.
It just allows us more funding —
one million dollars — whereas
ACEP funding is a lot less.”
The Saving Michigan Farms
program will preserve agricultural
lands
by
functioning
as
a
Purchase of Development Rights
program, a voluntary program
for which landowners can apply.
Owners of qualified agricultural
property are compensated for
accepting
a
permanent
deed
restriction through a conservation
easement, which prohibits future
development on that land. The
land remains private property, and
the landowner may receive income
tax benefits for donating part or all
of the value of development rights.
To
LSA
freshman
Noah
Clements, who is a student in the
Program in the Environment, PDR
programs are especially beneficial
for their long-term effects.
“Conservation
easements,
like Greenbelt is doing, are really
sustainable, and they keep that
land undeveloped for decades to
come,” Clements said. “It really is
a future-minded project, which is
what we need.”
According to the Greenbelt
website, PDR programs benefit
farmers in a variety of ways, such
as
rendering
farmland
more
affordable, which helps younger
farmers; gives older farmers a
way other than selling their land
to fund retirement; and assists
in the transfer of farmland from
generation to generation. Fike
echoed these points, expressing
that PDR programs can help
CAFE SHAPIRO
ON THE DAILY: ‘U’ BAN ON FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN PLACE
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: CARTER, STUDENTS DISCUSS
DRAFT. MSA’S ALLAND GOES TO D.C.
A new University policy took
effect on Monday prohibiting sexual,
romantic,
amorous
and
dating
relationships between faculty and
undergraduate students in for all three
University of Michigan campuses.
The policy is part of significant
revisions to University procedure
on faculty-student relationships that
came after a working group, consisting
of faculty from all three campuses,
made recommendations to University
President Mark Schlissel.
The
policy,
which
prohibits
relationships between “teachers” and
“learners,” bans relationships between
faculty, graduate student instructors
and undergraduates responsible for the
delivery of course content with students
they have academic or supervisory
authority over, including in class, labs,
online, field or other settings.
Graduate
and
professional
students are also banned from having
relationships with faculty members
inside their discipline or academic
program, in which the faculty member
has or might reasonably be expected to
have academic or supervisory authority.
Supervised and non-supervised
postdoctoral research fellows may not
engage in relationships with faculty
members in cases where they have had
or might be expected to have academic
or supervisory authority as well.
University Provost Martin Philbert
told the University Record that helping
students advance as learners should be
the primary mission of all educators at
the University.
“Maintenance of an environment
of trust, openness, civility and respect
that enables each person to reach
their full potential is at the core of our
mission as educators at the University of
Michigan,” University Provost Martin
Philbert said. “It is incumbent on our
faculty to nurture the advancement and
pursuit of knowledge, which result in
lifelong professional mentorships and
service to our society.”
According to an email sent to
the Ford School of Public Policy, the
Public Policy school will consider rare
exceptions. Requests for exceptions
must be made in writing by the faculty
member, GSI or other teachers.
This policy applies to the University’s
Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint
campuses.
Feb. 19, 1980
President Carter and National
Security
Advisor
Zbigniew
Brzezinski met with 300 student
leaders from across the country
- including Michigan Student
Assembly (MSA) President Jim
Alland - in Washington Friday to
discuss the reinstatement of draft
registration.
Both Carter and Brzezinski
reaffirmed that the proposal now
before Congress is a necessary
step
to
protect
American
interests abroad, Alland said in
an interview yesterday.
“The overriding concern at the
conference was the registration,”
Alland said. “It’s hard to know
what a meeting like this will do,
however, it’s always to express
views.” He described his own
feelings on registration as “very
mixed.”
Campaign workers for Sen.
Edward
Kennedy
(D-Mass.)
invited the visiting students
to a reception at Kennedy’s
Washington headquarters, but
All And said he did not attend it.
He
added
that
students
expressed concern that they were
being used as political pawns.
“To say that it was not a
political move (on Carter’s part)
would be nothing, less than
naive,” he said.
Alland, however, said he felt
the president was “very sincere”
in his desire to hear student
response to foreign policy. “I
really got the feeling that they
wanted to hear what the mood
was across the nation.”
2A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Ann Arbor project awarded $1 million
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ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
landowners in their present-day
business operations as well.
“Land prices in Washtenaw
County can be pretty high,” Fike
said. “(It can be) very difficult
financially to make a living at
(farming). By being able to place
land in a conservation easement
with us as a partner, that allows
(farmers) the financial capability
to put the money back into their
business and grow food for local
markets, such as Ann Arbor
Farmers Market, selling to Ann
Arbor restaurants, selling directly
off their farm.”
The Greenbelt arose out of the
2003 Open Space and Parkland
Preservation Millage, a 30-year,
0.5 mil tax levy in response to
the worries of suburban sprawl
in Ann Arbor in the 1990s. More
commonly known as the Greenbelt
Millage, the measure passed with
two-thirds of the vote.
Michael Garfield, director of
environmental advocacy group
known as the Ecology Center,
spearheaded
the
Greenbelt
ballot measure in 2003. Garfield
explained the context in which the
measure arose, describing rapid
development in the 1980s and
1990s.
“Back in the 1980s and ’90s,
there was unplanned, unrestrained
suburban development in all of
southeast Michigan … quite a
distance from the urban center
of Detroit,” Garfield said. “There
were ginormous (sic) developments
in Washtenaw County fairly close
to Ann Arbor that were being
proposed
that
would
utterly
transform the landscape around
here … We were concerned about
the loss of natural resources, and
loss of good farmland that could
be used to build a sustainable food
economy.”
Garfield
also
described
unrestrictive development laws,
which made control of suburban
sprawl difficult.
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