Thursday, June 28, 2007 | 3:00 AM

One man’s trash is another’s torture

Filed under: columns, environment

I stopped by Jungle Java Express in the Canton Library recently to do some work.

I happened to be in the middle of an article about the future recreational trail planned near the Lower Rouge River. The story begins with Bob Belair, the environmental engineer for Canton, finding some trash dumped near where the proposed trailhead will be. Belair was disappointed, and maybe a little embarrassed at the sight.

As I typed the story, a small child outside, left temporarily unsupervised as his father attended to other matters, ran up to the window and banged his hand to get the attention of two teenagers inside the café. They looked over and without hesitation the wide-eyed kid, who was maybe 7 years old, spat right at them, and watched in glee as his handiwork dripped down the glass.

The teens thought it was pretty funny, but I wondered if the moron who tossed his old carpet, wood cabinet, empty cement bag and other miscellany into the woods had the same childish satisfaction that he’d never be admonished for it.

What’s really impressed me about Canton is its growing commitment to the environment and how easily all that can be undermined with a thoughtless display of illegal dumping.

Farmers once cleared this land of so many trees, and then developers came in and planted row after row of houses. That is, until the 1990s came, tastes changed and developers paved curvy street after curvy street of houses.

This set up Canton to be, like many of Detroit’s outer ring suburbs, another sprawl-town. Leaders here seem to recognize that sprawl is not so good for the environment. But it’s unlikely they will recommend razing all the houses, planting trees and moving en masse back to Detroit.

What they’ve done instead is a pretty good Plan B. They have one of the toughest tree ordinances around, forcing developers to plant two trees for every one they uproot.

Planners are stressing emphasis on ‘green’ developments that have less manicured landscaping and more natural growth. Canton educates citizens about how to care for the environment. Canton has rehabbed several detention ponds. The Rouge is as healthy here as anywhere. Residential building has slowed, but when projects do pop up, the township often encourages clustered subdivisions that leave more land untouched. (The township has also started an Environmental Stewardship Committee, and you can learn more about what they’re doing at http://www.canton-mi.org/environment.asp.)
Other nearby communities are following suit and realizing the environment really does matter.

For all their work though, there are those who just don’t care. I was at Best Buy in Westland a couple weeks ago, where I saw two teenagers peel away the wrapper from a CD they just purchased and toss it into the parking lot, along with their receipt. A few days later I saw the same act repeated at a McDonald’s.

And dumping still continues along those hidden and not so hidden areas in the region, spitting in the face of people trying to make a difference. The trash we saw near the trail appeared just two weeks after hundreds cleaned up the area for River Day.

Of course, we could all do more to protect and improve the environment. It’s upsetting to see that some of us haven’t made the rudimentary step of realizing it’s not our personal garbage bin.

This region already has enough landfills. Let’s not make the whole township into one as well.

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