I am pleasantly surprised at our audience tonight, Matt Naud, the citys environmental coordinator, remarked at the start of the event.
In addition to Naud and Graham, five other local leaders took turns speaking. That included Richard Norton, an urban planning professor at the University of Michigan; Laura Rubin, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council; Tom McMurtrie, the citys solid waste coordinator; Kerry Gray, the citys urban forestry and natural resources planner; and Jason Tallant of the citys Natural Area Preservation program.
The sustainability series is organized around four theme areas. Thursdays forum focused on the topic of resource management.
Land use will be the topic of the next forum on Feb. 9, followed by climate and energy on March 8, and concluding with a broad discussion about community on April 12.
Sustainability is bigger than just the environment, Norton stressed. The environment is a fundamental, vital piece of it. Its not all there is.
Managing Ann Arbors urban forest
Gray talked about her role in helping the city manage an urban forest that contains literally tens of thousands of trees, earning the city its Tree Town nickname.
Its a tremendous asset within the city, and its something that we really need to be managing, she said. And in the past, we havent had a management plan for the city for our urban forest, and so in 2010 we began our plan development.