The Treeline-Allen Creek Trail: Ann Arbor’s Up-and-Coming Urban Trail

Building a new future for Ann Arbor

—By Katia Flores and Sam Bower

Since the early 80s, plans to incorporate some sort of pedestrian and cycling trail into the structure of Ann Arbor have been diffuse, coming and going with changing political and community voices. In 2011, Resolution in Support of the Allen Creek Greenway was passed by the Ann Arbor City Council. This project was brought to fruition in 2014 by a hardworking group of 12 masters students in the Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning as a final project for their capstone course. They presented their findings with a 111-page report and a presentation to the mayor and city council. “At the end there was a moment of silence and two individuals–the mayor of Ann Arbor and drain commissioner of Washtenaw County– both said one word. That word was outstanding. It was very well received,” says Dr. Jonathan Bulkley, one of the prominent frontrunners of the urban trail project and current board member of the Treeline Conservancy, a local non-profit dedicated to this project. Following the success of this preliminary report, in 2015 the City Council approved $200,000 for production of a master plan for the trail.

Bringing ideas to life

In December 2017, the Ann Arbor City Council approved a 2.75 mile, non-motorized, $55 million urban trail passing through the heart of Ann Arbor beginning at Argo Pond and the cascades and finishing at the University of Michigan Football Stadium based off the students’ project. “The idea was this would be a way to connect Ann Arbor from the athletic campus to the B2B (Border-to-Border) trail and the cascades,” said Bulkley. As part of the master’s students’ report, multiple community engagement initiatives were pushed forward in order to determine how to best represent the needs of the people. 10 different destinations across the city were highlighted—the Border-to-Border Trail, Argo Livery, Bluffs Nature Area, West Park, Ann Arbor Farmers Market, YMCA, Michigan Stadium, Washtenaw Dairy, Bill’s Beer Garden, and Blank Slate Creamery. The collaboration between the City of Ann Arbor and the Treeline Conservancy became crucial to the successful implementation of the project. The Treeline, as it is affectionately known, was hailed as “a landmark in the city…about which we can all be incredibly proud,” according to Mayor Christopher Taylor when speaking to MLive in December 2017. “I’m optimistic that the neighbors, the people who see what [the trail] is bringing and what it allows people to experience in this community, the support will be forthcoming”, comments Bulkley.

Benefits of the Treeline

In addition to increased connectivity between physical landmarks and cultural attractions, safety and enhanced public spaces are the pillars guiding the construction of the Treeline. “This idea of enhancing public spaces with parks along the route is trying to make use of spaces that are already there,” Bulkley says. The trail will provide a safe path for those that wish to bike, run, walk, or relax along the historic Allen Creek. “I think safety is a big one for humans. I think the exercise then becomes easier to do. People could bike to work, at least many months during the year,” Bulkley says.

Aside from the aesthetic an urban trail can bring to the city of Ann Arbor, one of the major goals of this project is to make events accessible across the city where families and individuals can coexist with nature and one another. “Getting people on trails, especially the river trail, and getting more people down there from Ann Arbor has social and cultural significance,” says Laura Rubin, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council. These significances are magnified because trails and greenways provide a “window into our history and culture by connecting people to the past…the preservation and highlighting of these places lets us learn about and understand the history of our communities”

While this seems to be the primary end-goal of the trail, the potential impacts on the surrounding ecological environment of Ann Arbor are less evident. “Putting more green space in Allen Creek…will help the creekshed. Now it has a lot of flooding issues and water problems. The trail is looking to improve water quality and reduce quantity. It’s looking to increase green infrastructure,” Rubin comments. The Treeline Conservancy has also touted improved stormwater quality as a positive environmental contribution of the trail. “The trail itself is going to help improve water quality. They are clearing away buildings that impede water on the floodway,” says Bulkley. “If we can move people to safe ground, then maybe we can have a park area where [excess] storm water can infiltrate into the groundwater.”

However, the inclusion of much-needed green spaces in urban locations can have multifaceted impacts on the environment. Nationwide, trails have been enveloped in an imaginary bubble that protects not only the trails themselves, but the land around them as well. Research on urban trails suggests that they support higher levels of biodiversity, as they offer much-needed corridors for the movement of birds and insects in increasingly fragmented natural habitats. These same corridors are also capable of providing invasive species, particularly plants, with easy access to vulnerable environments. Research by scholars at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln reveals that movement of invasive species along urban trails, due to humans, birds, or pets warrants conservation plans that prioritize maintaining the integrity of the natural ecosystem. Some other ecological benefits of these urban trails include the removal of air pollutants, carbon storage, and an increased ability for residents to interact with nature. (Nemec et al., 2011)

Rails to Trails, a non-profit dedicated to the advocacy, research, and construction of urban trails across the nation, says that investments in urban trail projects in order to promote “the health, transportation, and environmental benefits of trail use” are necessary for underserved communities, where access to green spaces are often in short supply and restricted. Rails to Trails seeks to provide a mechanism for neighborhoods to develop community relationships in new ways and build upon the relationships they have already established. “When the students went into these neighborhoods there was tremendous interest in being a part of this project,” says Bulkley.  Many people seek out recreation on urban trails as a respite from the frantic city life. Even on trails such as the Highline in New York City, the inclusion of trees, flowers, plants, and sculpture gardens creates an environment that is capable of transporting people out of the city and into a different place. In the process of determining who would benefit and how, community meetings revealed that “residents who had used urban trails in other cities were especially enthusiastic about developing a similar trail in Ann Arbor” (Green the Way, 2014).

In many places, urban trails are products of a desire to turn a neighborhood “blight” into an attractive destination. A major concern of urban trails is the rise of property values and gentrification that force current residents out of their neighborhoods.  In cities like Chicago, for example, the issue of gentrification is prevalent in the neighborhoods of Logan Square, the home of Chicago’s own urban trail, The 606. It is driving away residents because of increased property taxes and the influx of people from all across the city, increasing not just car traffic, but foot traffic as well. In terms of this project, “I haven’t heard that mentioned so far. But then we’re talking about places close to the university. Even in the old west side, rents and housing prices have gone up there extensively through the location of different companies in the city,” says Bulkley.

Translating local pride into stewardship is an important topic of conversation when looking to the future. Cities are turning to volunteer conservation as a viable method for generating long-term success of green spaces in urban environments. By appealing to what communities value the most, cities can see the efficacy of their volunteering outreach improve dramatically. Interestingly, ecological appeals are not strong predictors of how effective outreach efforts are. Instead, volunteers are more easily convinced by personal and social benefits that provide them with a more tangible stake in the success of urban projects. (Asah et al., 2012) “We haven’t had to face that really yet. I think there would be opportunities to set up neighborhood committees, Friends of the Treeline, to maintain a neighborhood portion and take pride in that. It would be a pleasure to have to address something like that. We are under construction but that’s something we have to think about,” says Bulkley.

Americans in general are not getting the adequate amount of exercise daily, leading to things such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. The U.S. Surgeon General estimates that 60% of American adults are not regularly active and another 25% are not active at all (National Park Service). The incorporation of urban trails will offer a free and easy way for people of all ages to engage in physical activity, even if it is for 30 minutes. Studies have shown that when provided with an inexpensive, safe avenue for people to engage in exercise in the community, the chances that people will go out for a walk or bike increases. It also comes at no surprise that urban trails can promote a safe and liveable community for all. Trails and greenways can reduce crime and illegal activities through regular use and high visibility of users—because of the nature of a trail, it is out in the open, which makes it harder for crimes to be committed. Urban trails therefore “open up experiences for people that aren’t really there at the moment,” Bulkley says.

A new cultural landmark

Despite requiring over 20 years to finalize a plan and begin construction, the future of the Treeline trail seems bright. Finding footing on strong support from across the city, the trail is on its way to offering a safer, more connected, and enhanced space for Ann Arbor and its residents. Improving the local infrastructure along Allen Creek to allow for more efficient storm water removal seems to be the primary environmental factor under consideration in this project. However, research looking at the benefits of urban trails does agree that the addition of green spaces has the potential to confer positive benefits to the local community. Ecologically, research focused on the relationships between urban trails and the environment could be carried out in order to understand how increasing urbanization affects natural areas, or the reclamation of natural areas. The creation of parks along the trail also provide new opportunities to study the interactions between native and invasive species, and the role humans play in transporting invasive species through urbanization. The planned improvements of safety and infrastructure are without a doubt some of the highlights of the trail, yet, it is the ways the trail will affect communities in the future that are not yet as clear. It is hoped that bringing the community together will inspire people to feel a greater sense of pride in the trail as it runs through the distinct neighborhoods. As Bulkley had stated, the possibility for creating neighborhood committees that will take an active role in the maintenance of their sections of the trail do exist. As part of the outreach taken on the master’s students in 2014, a program was developed that reached out to local schools asking children in grades 6-12 to submit artwork that could be featured on different sections of the trail. Continuing programs such as this that create personal ties to the trail could be extremely beneficial to the success of the trail, raising money, and to establish the trail as a landmark for Ann Arbor.

Feature photo by Julia Stepper on Unsplash