Washtenaw County will receive $2.275 million to purchase a 54-acre parcel of Domino’s Farms land to turn into a park.
Statewide, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grants announced last week will support 99 recreation and land acquisition projects.
With a 50% local match from the county’s Natural Areas Preservation Program, the City of Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt Program, and the Ann Arbor Township’s Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program, an undeveloped, wooded parcel between Ford and Plymouth Roads in Ann Arbor Township will be purchased from DF Land Development.
The parcel will connect trails at the city-owned Marshall Nature Area to the east with trails on the University of Michigan-owned Horner-McLaughlin Woods and the county’s Raymond F. Goodrich Preserve to the north, creating about 270 acres of land with trails for public use, said Tom Freeman, NAPP coordinator.
The partnerships among the city, county, township, and university will make the trail system a unique one, Freeman said. The protection of this property also ends years of dispute about the future use of the property and it’s potential development.
The property is also in the headwaters of the Fleming Creek watershed, one of the healthiest creeks in the Huron. “Protecting this property will create a swath of protected land all along these headwater streams, “said Jason Frenzel, HRWC’s Adopt-A-Stream Director, “These natural areas will be able to continue filter runoff water and keep clean, cool groundwater flowing into the creek.”