Environment

Navigating Nature Centers in Oakland County

Oakland County, MI Government 2 Comments

If you’d like to learn about the wilds surrounding your everyday life, you’ll love our map of nature centers in Oakland County. This interactive map, created by Oakland County’s award-winning GIS team, will lead you on a journey across the county, from center to center, helping you plan a trip to any one of these great locations to learn about the natural world. Sunshine or rain, summer or winter, these nature centers are there for you to help grow your pool of knowledge!

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Heritage Park in Farmington Hills. Photo credit: Jonathan Schechter

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Celebrate GreenFest with the Detroit Zoo and Oakland County Board of Commissioners

Oakland County, MI Government Leave a comment

The Oakland County Board of Commissioners has partnered with the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, MI for the 6th annual GreenFest on Saturday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. GreenFest is as a zoo-wide event dedicated to celebrating Earth Day and a wonderful way to engage the community in environmental stewardship.

On April 14, GreenFest will feature a sustainability tour of the Detroit Zoo’s anaerobic digester that annually converts 500 tons of animal manure and other organic waste into methane-rich gas to help power the zoo’s animal hospital, educational rain gardens, farm-to-table food options, a composting program, and other initiatives. They will have myriad activities such as chemistry demonstrations, zookeeper talks, opportunities to create window decals to prevent bird strikes, and much more. A 16-foot ground-mounted solar system called the SmartFlower™ will be featured blooming in the zoo’s garden just east of their Carousel. The system is expected to generate more than 4,000 kilowatts of electricity annually, which will power the 36-foot ride as well as other areas of the Detroit Zoo.

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Oakland County Schools are going GREEN with Michigan Green Schools

Oakland County, MI Government 1 Comment

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Michigan Green Schools is a non-profit agency dedicated to assisting all Michigan schools achieve environmental goals which include protecting the air, land, water and animals of our state. They perform world outreach through good ecological practices and the teaching of educational stewardship to students pre-kindergarten through senior year. Continue reading →