Opinion | Preserving Michigan’s lands and waters, for all residents

It is officially summer in Michigan. A time to get outdoors and enjoy the natural beauty that the Great Lakes state has to offer. Many of us are busy making plans to camp, paddle, and barbecue with family all afternoon at the local park, but not every Michigander has the same ease of access to enjoying all our beautiful state has to offer. Michigan’s parks, lakes, rivers, trails and camping grounds are meant to be enjoyed by all, but many communities – particularly low-income, and Black and Brown – are still deprived of access to the benefits that nature provides.

This problem is exacerbated by increasing risks to our outdoor recreation habitat itself. Despite reports referring to Michigan as a “climate haven,” climate change impacts pose a serious threat to our access to the outdoors. Rainfall, flooding and erosion risk are increasing. The state is experiencing more extreme heat days – which means warming Great Lakes waters. This increases chances of acutely toxic algal blooms and raw sewage overflows that may keep Michiganders from safely swimming or paddling in our magical Great Lakes waters.

How do we effectively protect Michigan’s wild places while also ensuring that all people, regardless of race or economic status, are able to enjoy it? It starts with 30x30, a bold plan to protect and conserve 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030.

President Biden issued an executive order pledging to commit to the 30x30 program. The administration published the “America the Beautiful” report, which outlined eight key principles that will be critical to the success and durability of the effort. These principles focus on more than just protecting wildlands and waters; they commit to honoring Indigenous communities and Tribal sovereignty, and ensuring that all communities have access to the outdoors in a way that aligns with science.

Currently, only 12 percent of land in the U.S. and 25 percent of the oceans are in permanently protected areas. About 19 percent of Michigan’s land and waters are similarly protected. Nature in America also continues to be inequitably distributed. 30x30 means protecting more than just wild forests and lakes. Michigan must also revive and protect green spaces and urban parks big and small. Now is the time to focus on how we can not only protect far more land and water, but how we can guarantee that every person, every family, and every community can enjoy the benefits of nature. Michigan can lead these efforts, if lawmakers have the willpower to make it so.

Spending time outdoors and protecting the natural heritage of Michigan must be a bipartisan undertaking. When we spend meaningful time together outdoors, we find common ground much faster. It becomes easier to see and feel our inherent and unbreakable connection to each other and between our communities. What happens in Houghton matters in Harper Woods, and what happens in River Rouge affects Lansing.

We have examples that we know work: through municipal programming and the fantastic leadership of the local Nature Center naturalist, the Farmington Hills Nature Center helps connect thousands of kids and families to Michigan’s natural wonders. Meaningful outdoor experiences aren’t always spectacular vistas and Great Lakes shorelines. It is a quiet walk along streams, and stumbling upon singing sparrows and songbirds on a forest path. It can also be as simple as providing access to teacher training and camping gear so that kids in urban Detroit can connect with nature, like what Detroit Outdoors does every spring and summer.

30x30 offers a generational opportunity — to support local businesses, boost connections between communities, and make sure that Michigan is taking the steps necessary to mitigate the climate crisis for you, for me, for all of us.

So this summer, in between your time exploring the outdoors, call your State Representative and Senator and tell them to support 30x30 for Michigan the Beautiful.