Great Lakes Moment: Sacred Grounds

November 4, 2024 John Hartig

By John Hartig

November 4, 2024

Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit PBS.

In the era of climate change, many Detroit homes and churches face challenging stormwater fees. Out of the need to better address stormwater and reduce fees, along with the growing interest in showcasing stewardship, emerges the Sacred Grounds Program.

The average stormwater fee for Detroit churches is $750 per acre per month. This is based on the amount of impervious surfaces like rooftops, parking lots and sidewalks. Many churches are already struggling with declining membership and these stormwater fees can overburden congregations.

One solution is to increase green infrastructure that soaks up stormwater before it enters local rivers and creeks. Green infrastructure refers to interconnected networks of green spaces, including natural, semi-natural or artificial ecological systems, that provide benefits such as stormwater management, wildlife conservation and human recreation. At the grassroots level, these practices include:

rain and pollinator gardens
trees
permeable pavements that can soak up rainwater and reduce runoff
bioswales that are vegetated depressions that capture, treat, and infiltrate stormwater runoff as it moves downstream
infiltration planters and tree boxes that soak up stormwater
rainwater harvesting systems that collect runoff from a structure or other impervious surface to store it for later use.

Sacred Grounds Detroit is a National Wildlife Federation program that engages houses of worship and educational organizations in supporting healthy habitats and communities. Their goals include: educating people about the value of natural spaces; creating wildlife habitats; transforming habitats into rain gardens, pollinator gardens, and other green spaces; connecting faith practices with environmental stewardship; and improving community health. Each Sacred Grounds project is tailored to meet the needs of a specific congregation.

In 2019, Sacred Grounds was launched in Detroit. Since then, the program has grown across four Great Lakes cities — Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, and Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan. Thus far, this program has engaged 130 houses of worship.

This program functions as a “hub and spoke” knowledge distribution network to bring nature to cities. Think of it like a bicycle wheel, where Sacred Grounds is the knowledge “hub” and the primary information source for greening churches. The churches then serve as the “spokes” that connect directly to the “hub” to access and share information. In the model, information flows through the central hub to efficiently reach different parts of the network. National Wildlife Federation is partnering with Friends of the Rouge and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter to expand natural spaces throughout metropolitan Detroit. To date, 20 churches have participated.

Southwest Detroit’s Grace in Action joined Sacred Grounds Detroit in 2023. Grace in Action, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a movement of people living out their faith in creative ways rooted in the needs and giftedness of their Southwest Detroit community. To help meet the needs of the Southwest Detroit community, this ministry also includes Grace in Action Collectives, a network of worker-owned cooperatives in Southwest Detroit. Through ongoing training and workforce development, they create opportunities for Southwest Detroit residents, particularly youth. They help to develop professional skills, join existing cooperatives or start their own cooperative. Examples of youth training include screen printing, graphic design, digital literacy and language justice.

The first step was a site survey to establish the current state of impervious surface and explore habitat restoration options. Based on input from Grace in Action, a landscape architect from Friends of the Rouge prepared plans for green infrastructure and habitat enhancement on church property. The final plans included 364 square feet of green infrastructure and three rain barrels that will capture approximately 6,000 gallons of stormwater per year. Although this volume is relatively small, Grace in Action is interested in continuing to improve its green infrastructure in the future.

Completed green infrastructure at Grace in Action in Southwest Detroit. (Photo Credit: Erica Zodor/Friends of the Rouge)

Installation began on September 12, 2024. These natural areas also provide food and critical habitats for many native butterflies, moths, bees and birds. University of Michigan estimates that there are more than 12,000 species of moths and butterflies known in the United States and probably more than 2,000 species in Michigan. According to Michigan State University, Michigan is home to around 465 bee species that each play an important role in pollination and sustaining ecosystems. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators to reproduce.

“Hands down, the coolest aspect of this project for me is the coming together of people,” said Erica Zador, restoration landscape architect with Friends of the Rouge. “From collaborating with National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, to all those who showed up to the amazing planting day. Installation days bring people together from all over the Detroit area. We have food, music and lots of laughing. I get to share what I love about helping the environment with people who care about their community and that is priceless!”

The intent of Sacred Grounds is to work in and through the churches to deliver conservation of green spaces more efficiently.

“Grace in Action and Grace in Action Collectives are a good example of a well-established and trusted congregation serving as a spoke in the Sacred Grounds ‘hub and spoke’ knowledge distribution network, to disseminate habitat knowledge and practices,” said Tiffany Jones, Sacred Grounds Detroit coordinator of the National Wildlife Federation. “Grace in Action is a good communicator, has a well-established network, knows how to disseminate knowledge and mobilize individuals and can extend Sacred Grounds’ reach in helping make nature part of everyday urban life.”

But these projects are also important in helping faith communities teach and model stewardship of natural resources.

“At Grace in Action, our green infrastructure project has been an incredible opportunity to create a beautiful native plant rain garden that will reduce run-off on our property and provide a space for local pollinators, all while building community and developing new relationships between people inside and outside of Southwest Detroit,” said Pastor John Cummings, of Grace in Action. “Coming together for the united purpose of caring for the natural world is a sacred activity, one in which we encounter God and Spirit through each other and through the plants and flowers that are now thriving in our space with us. We are so grateful for this opportunity and the amazing leadership of the Friends of the Rouge, Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation for making this dream become a reality.”

For more information about Sacred Grounds, visit: https://www.nwf.org/SacredGrounds.

John Hartig is a board member at the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. He serves as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and has written numerous books and publications on the environment and the Great Lakes. Hartig also helped create the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, where he worked for 14 years as the refuge manager.