This weekend is ripe with opportunities to welcome fall and celebrate diverse cultures, plus musical performances and art fests galore! Next Thursday is the annual Spelling Bee fundraiser for the Dominican Literacy Center.

Don’t miss your chance to be present and support local organizations and businesses. 

Upcoming events

Ascension Exhibit by TYP

Big Pink (6440 Wight St, Detroit, MI 48207)

  Friday, Sep. 19 through Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

This art exhibit blends the designed environment with audio to immerse its audience in an intimate exploration of the relationship between life’s struggles and spiritual growth. The exhibit is open from 6-10 p.m. on Friday and from 12-10 p.m. on Saturday.

DIY Street Fair

Downtown Ferndale

  Friday, Sep. 19 through Sunday, Sep. 21

  Free

Over 150 local artists with quality crafted goods, along with food trucks and live music. The event runs from 6-11 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Funky Ferndale Art Fair

Downtown Ferndale

  Friday, Sep. 19 through Sunday, Sep. 21

  Free

Browse a unique selection of fine 2D and 3D art pieces, make your own masterpieces, and enjoy spirited music, dance, and circus acts. Attend at no cost Friday from 5p.m. – 9p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to  5 p.m.

WDET is a partner of the Funky Ferndale Art Fair.

1st Annual Community Treehouse Fall Concert

Passage to Wellbeing Alley 

  Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

The inaugural Fall Concert at the Community Treehouse Center opens with a debut of “I Am Light” by Tammy Black, performed by the Urban Art Orchestra . Other performances include Detroit’s Queen of Blues Thornetta Davis, Detroit Reggae Rock and Soul Band and more! Bring your own seating. This event runs from 3-7 p.m.

Palmer Park Harvest Fest

Palmer Park Community Center

  Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

Take part in a Palmer Park tradition, celebrating the first official days of fall with apple tasting, cider and donuts available to the first 500 guests free of charge. You and your family can take part in the petting zoo, arts and crafts, and watch live entertainment from 1-4 p.m among an old growth forest.

DTE Community Concert

The Hawk

  Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

Enjoy a classical music program performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra that includes premiere selections from “313: Six Vignettes for Orchestra” by Detroit’s Composer Laureate Patrick Prouty. The music starts at 7 p.m. Reserve your tickets in advance.

Chicano Fest

Batch Brewing Company

  Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

Celebrate Chicano culture with live music, lowriders, lucha libre and more. Activities for all ages, from noon-10 p.m.

Brazilian Day Street Festival

Vamonos!

  Saturday, Sep. 20

  Free

The 4th annual Brazilian Day Street Festival opens with a lively parade and offers dance workshops and competitions throughout the day. Canja de Boa will be performing live. Join anytime from noon-7 p.m.

Dominican Literacy Center Spelling Bee

Jam Brandy 

  Thursday, Sep. 25

  $40 or $35 for participants

The annual Dominican Literacy Center Spelling Bee raises funds for the organization to continue their mission of helping adults improving their reading and writing skills. This benefit is hosted by Stephen Henderson with guest Dame Wilburn from Moth Story Hour and goes from 6-9 p.m.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) may take legal action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the termination of “Solar for All”, a $7 billion national program designed to bring solar energy to low-income areas. This comes after the state awarded funding to more than a dozen pilot projects.

On August 7th, the EPA called for an end to the national Solar for All program, walking back a promised $156 million investment in Michigan’s renewable energy future.

Projects in the city of Detroit, as well as Wayne, Oakland, Chippewa, Berrien, Hillsdale, Kent and Kalamazoo counties are affected, some already under construction. 

EGLE Director Phil Roos said in a statement that the program aimed to lower energy costs, create local jobs, and help vulnerable residents maintain power in extreme weather events.

At this time, EGLE says it is consulting with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to determine what actions they can take.

Reforesting urban environments faces one significant yet overlooked hurdle: bringing residents to the table.

Dr. Christine Carmichael recognized this when doing research in Detroit in 2013 with nonprofit group, The Greening of Detroit. What she learned prompted her to create her urban forestry consulting group, Fair Forests, and write her book, “Racist Roots: How Racism Has Affected Trees and People in Our Cities – and What We Can Do About It,” which came out in 2024.

Today, Dr. Carmichael advises forestry efforts on national, state, and local levels on how to best address resident concerns and wants to make tree planting a positive experience for all involved.

Her work focuses on the unique roles community members, arborists, nonprofits and governments play in urban forestry.

In her words, “How can we think about who has what type of power, and how can we share that better, and provide people with the resources they need to address all these issues around tree canopy?”

Carmichael emphasizes connecting with neighborhoods and learning their heritage narratives to see how they’ve experienced change over time.

How history shapes the tree canopy today

During the time of its peak population, Detroit had such a dense tree canopy that it was called “Tree City.” Then a combination of disease, invasive pests and neglect killed half a million trees while magnifying injustices in the city’s landscape.

A lot of people want to move on from the past, but failing to see the bigger picture avoids key issues that created our modern tree canopy.

“People are living in the present consequences of the past decisions,” Carmichael says, reflecting on how historic racist policies like redlining still impact rates of homeownership among Black Americans today. “And we need to change those decisions to make things better.”

A result of redlining in the city

Carmichael says that when she started her work around a decade ago, the ties between redlining and reduced tree canopy weren’t proven. But foresters noticed that disadvantaged neighborhoods tended to have fewer trees and less healthy trees.

Redlining was the 1930s policy of evaluating property as “hazardous” if its occupants were Black. Owners of redlined property were ineligible for government housing investment funds.

Redlined neighborhoods are often recognized as environmental justice areas today.

Environmental injustice can include the dumping of waste, the placement and lax regulation of polluting industrial sites by the city, neglecting to address infrastructural issues, and more.  Carmichael adds, “A common way to think about it is that people are being treated unfairly and are not being meaningfully included in decisions about the environment that they’re living in.”

Having outsiders make decisions on what happened to the environment in these neighborhoods has negative consequences. Redlining segregated neighborhoods and denied people the help needed to care for their property.

It’s only logical that people lost trust in the city and outside organizations.

Not only are trees more vulnerable to disease and hazardous when they aren’t maintained properly, but the lack of tree canopy has an impact on people’s health. “So, people experiencing higher heat-related issues, more air quality issues, mental health, cardiac…” Carmichael lists.

Detroit as an epicenter

Carmichael said that Detroit and its near-monoculture of elm trees made it an epicenter for Dutch elm disease.

When Dutch elm disease swept through the city at the same time as the ’67 Rebellion, the mass removal of elm trees with little notice was another injustice residents suffered.

It created a unique heritage narrative that Carmichael noticed among residents she interviewed. “Many, most of whom had lived during the ’67 Rebellion, had this feeling that the trees were removed because the government wanted to surveil neighborhoods from overhead in helicopters, not because the trees were diseased.”

The consistent exclusion and lack of resources given to certain neighborhoods created environmental injustices that worsened as the city lost much of its population to white flight. The forestry department shrank, and diseased and dead trees were left to languish in residential areas.

When emerald ash borers struck in the ’90s, more trees were lost and damaged. Again, residents were not as informed or engaged as they should have been.

“It was more like a reactionary, oh, these trees are dying, we’ll just take them down,” says Carmichael. “There were limits to urban foresters’ understanding of how to manage those things. They were new threats, but I think there could have been a lot more proactive effort to organize with the community.”

Despite being at the forefront of these ecological issues, Detroit missed an opportunity to address environmental injustice, according to Dr. Carmichael. The same failures can be seen in other urban environments that followed.

Detroit could have been an example of how to better protect the tree canopy with environmental justice in mind.

Modern approaches to inclusive urban forestry

As Detroit was less able to fund municipalities like forestry departments, neighborhood community groups stepped up to care for their lands. When nonprofits came onto the stage to fill the gaps left by forestry departments, there was a need to engage better with residents on the ground level that wasn’t being met at the time of Carmichael’s research.

Meaningful engagement between outside tree planting groups and neighborhoods requires a lot of funding. Carmichael credits the Inflation Reduction Act for allowing urban forestry groups to begin to make the necessary efforts to reduce barriers for the communities they work with.

But now that funding is reduced, and nonprofits have to work with fewer resources once more. That may mean that they can’t prioritize residents as much as they need to, as getting trees in the ground and similar metrics are what appeals to funders.

Still, Carmichael argues that it’s essential to look at reforesting efforts beyond the lens of efficiency and profit maximization. It’s not just about how many trees you can plant, the shade provided and the carbon sequestered, but also about the people who will be impacted by those trees.

Those same people are paramount when it comes to long-term maintenance of the tree. If urban foresters can show them specific things to look out for, residents can make sure the trees stay healthy and don’t become hazards like they have in the past.

“Essentially, it’s about educating,” says Carmichael. It’s not about the benefits of trees, as most residents already know all the good a tree can do; they just need support on making sure those benefits come without so many drawbacks. “The emphasis should be more on educating the funders about what activities are needed to both increase the canopy and support the residents.”

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.

Editors Note: This article was edited on 8/1/25 to correct the statement that IRA funding for urban forestry is gone. IRA funds are still supporting efforts in Michigan, but have been reduced. We deeply apologize for the error.

National Pollinator Week — held annually in June — is a time dedicated to informing the public about the benefits and struggles of pollinators.

In Michigan, pollinators are essential for crops like apples, blueberries and more. They produce around $1 billion in crops each year for the state, according to a collaborative study between Wayne State and Michigan State universities.

Although pollinators provide many benefits, their populations are shrinking because of human activity. Insecticides kill off swaths of the bee population, and pollinators in general also deal with habitat loss and intense heat waves. 

One of the best ways to help save bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators is planting a tree that will house and feed them for years to come.

The need for trees

Trees provide more than just flowers and nectar. According to Michigan-based Master Arborist Luke Brunner, several bee species depend on tree leaves for nourishment during their early stages. They also provide fruit that birds and other pollinators eat, as well as shelter.

Some of the native trees Brunner recommends to plant on behalf of pollinators include: 

• Eastern redbud
• Tulip tree
• Crabapple
• Hawthorn
• Northern Catalpa
• American basswood
• Black tupelo

These trees range in size and provide different benefits. Brunner notes that the Black tupelo isn’t seen much in Michigan these days. Its range lies mostly to the south, but it notably provides early spring blooms for pollinators to gather nectar from.

Right plant, right place

Brunner encourages planters to think about the size of the tree they’re placing years in the future to make sure they pick an appropriate space for it. Knowing the height of the species when it’s mature will help determine a good placement so that it can be enjoyed by people and pollinators for years to come.

There is a simple alternative for those who don’t have the room or ability to care for a tree but still want to help pollinators: put native flower and grass seeds in a pot and let them grow. 

“Just one square foot will hold a lot of flowers and you can put that on your porch, on your apartment balcony, in your backyard, just about anywhere,” Brunner said. “If you can do your part to plant some wildflowers or a small tree or something to bring them into your yard, it’s really going to help the environment.” 

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.

In late March, a severe ice storm struck the northern part of Michigan.

Tree branches and limbs, weighed down by ice, broke and fell to the ground, leaving towering toothpick trees behind. Many roads, campgrounds, forests, boat launches and other facilities managed by the state were closed as a result. 

Months later, most areas have reopened to the public, but the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is warning visitors to be cautious and expect some trail and road closures to still be in place for their safety. 

Most trails, campgrounds open

The DNR staff went to work to ensure all campgrounds opened at the start of the season on May 15. Some state forests and boat access sites lagged behind, but most are open and ready for Fourth of July weekend.

Kerry Heckman, from the DNR’s Ice Storm Response team, said that travelers should be aware that some roads running through state forests are blocked off. Likewise, some trails may be blocked for visitor safety. 

“If you are going to be just in the forest itself, just be aware that there are a lot of hazards that remain,” Heckman warned, adding that trees that are leaning or limbs caught in the tree canopy are still at risk of falling suddenly. 

She said parts of State Parks Onaway, Clear Lake and Petoskey are temporarily closed. Additionally, Cheboygan State Park is closed for the summer for regularly scheduled updates unrelated to the ice storm. 

Forest recovery efforts continue

It will take a while for the forest to fully recover from the cold snap, Heckman said.

 ”We’ll be working for many years to replant, and bringing the forest back to what they were prior to the storm,” she said.

Heckman says the DNR is also working to salvage fallen trees for timber as fallen limbs are cleared.

Finding new uses for the fallen wood and clearing it out is essential to minimize potential harms to the environment, though the dead branches have benefits as well. 

Long-term impacts on the environment

The influx of fallen timber and moisture leads to a number of environmental impacts, Heckman said.

Forest health is a concern due to the rapid change, but the woods are resilient. 

The dead wood will provide food for woodpeckers and pests like the pine bark beetle, whose population is expected to explode and cause further damage to trees. Exposed wood is also vulnerable to diseases.

One additional danger of having so much timber on the forest floor is providing fuel for potential wildfires, she said.

The open canopy gives room for new plant growth, including that of invasive species.

As the fallen branches decompose, they will replenish the soil. This — in addition to the moisture delivered by the storm — will promote the growth of fungi.

“For people who love morel mushrooms, that’s going to be amazing,” said Heckman.

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.