Centuries-old tree endangered by new development

By: Andy Kozlowski | Sterling Heights Sentry | Published January 17, 2025

 Mark Graf, of Sterling Heights, visits a rare chinquapin oak located on Van Dyke Avenue between Canal Road and Riverland Drive. The tree is hundreds of years old and currently stands in the path of a planned apartment development.

Mark Graf, of Sterling Heights, visits a rare chinquapin oak located on Van Dyke Avenue between Canal Road and Riverland Drive. The tree is hundreds of years old and currently stands in the path of a planned apartment development.

Photo by Andy Kozlowski

STERLING HEIGHTS — Just south of where the Clinton River crosses Van Dyke Avenue is a tree that may predate the founding of the United States.

Estimated at roughly 270 years old, it’s a rare chinquapin oak, 88 feet tall and 14 feet around — the seventh largest of its kind in Michigan.

But now, after surviving centuries of change, the proud tree may have finally met its match — slated for destruction, so that apartments can take its place.

“It feels wrong to kill it for new construction,” said Mark Graf, a 25-year resident of the city who lives several miles from the site. “This tree was standing when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. It’s been with us for generations.”

During a visit one snowy afternoon Jan. 12, Graf gazed up at the chinquapin — also spelled “chinkapin,” in equal measure — and lamented what would be lost. An engineer by trade who is also a master naturalist and nature photographer, Graf spoke about the environmental impact.

“Our green space is shrinking,” he said. “This tree is a keystone species — it supports the whole ecosystem. It’s grown to the point where it provides food and habitat for wildlife. It provides carbon storage, which slows down climate change. It plays a vital role in all these things. Replacing it with new trees is just not ecologically equivalent.”

Graf brought the chinquapin to the attention of certifiers with the Michigan Big Tree Survey, maintained by the nonprofit Michigan Botanical Society. Ted Reuschel, coordinator for the survey, said that nearly every state has an organization that sponsors an official register of their largest trees, with certifiers taking official measurements on-site.

“The Society maintains this register for the general public interest in big trees,” Reuschel said via email. He noted his group is purely educational and does not advocate for any specific outcome.

Reuschel confirmed the specs of the tree, which is located at 43934 Van Dyke Ave., on the east side, north of Riverland Drive and south of Canal Road, next to Henriksen’s Golf and down the street from Zap Zone. Its GPS coordinates in full decimal format are 42.61874, -83.03159.

“(Chinquapins) are unusual in leaf shape, being coarsely toothed, and are far less common than most other oak species,” Reuschel said. “Like most other oaks, however, its acorns are favored by various wildlife species, the wood is very strong, and the longevity is great. It is impressive in both form and size.”

A formula by the International Society of Arboriculture was used to produce an estimate of the chinquapin’s age without taking a core sample and counting the annual growth rings. Environmental factors play a role, but the most conservative estimates put the tree at 250 years old, while it could be as old as 300 years.

 

The development
The 10.5-acre property was originally purchased by the city of Sterling Heights for $640,000, using federal funds through the American Rescue Plan Act.

In August 2024, the City Council voted 5-2 to sell it to the Chaldean Community Foundation for $60,000, so that the CCF can develop the front 2 acres into 82 apartments. The $30 million project was pitched as a way to provide affordable living options amid the housing crisis.

The 8 undeveloped acres, in turn, will be deeded back to the city. Those acres are floodplains that back up to the Clinton River, and it’s unclear whether they could be developed. 

Voting in favor of the arrangement was Mayor Michael Taylor, Mayor Pro Tem Liz Sierawski, and City Council members Michael Radtke, Henry Yanez and Barbara Ziarko. Voting against it were City Council members Deanna Koski and Maria Schmidt. When the mayor and members of council were contacted for comment, only Ziarko replied, stating she was not familiar with the tree at the property and would need to research the matter.

In its current configuration, the undertaking leaves no room to spare the chinquapin. It is located right on the 2 acres where the apartments would be built. A cut-and-fill operation would also be necessary, scooping colossal amounts of earth from the back of the property and moving it up front to raise the ground, elevating the apartments above the floodplain.

At press time Jan. 16, the project was still under site plan review, with no timeline for the start of the cut-and-fill operation. Martin Manna, CCF board president, said his team has been focused on work on another development at 43700 Van Dyke Ave., so they haven’t had time to assess the tree.

“We are good neighbors, and if we can save (the tree), we will, like we did in West Bloomfield with the memorial (at the Chaldean Community Center at Walnut Lake and Inkster roads),” Manna said. “But again, we have yet to review.”

Melanie Davis, spokesperson for the city, provided a statement to the Sentry from the office of City Manager Mark Vanderpool, which outlined the city’s eco-friendly practices.

The city has received the Arbor Day Foundation’s “Tree City USA” designation for nearly 40 consecutive years, and it is conducting a citywide tree inventory, with plans to create green microforests and reforest the city to the tune of 18,000 new trees, paid for with grants and dedicated millage funding.

The city also has a tree preservation ordinance that applies to all city development projects.

“When unavoidable impact occurs, such as tree removal, we rely on our robust tree preservation ordinance to create the necessary land use balance by requiring the developer to replace any ‘landmark’ trees removed with new trees, inch for inch,” the statement reads. “In the long run, the large number of replacement trees — in addition to required landscaping trees — will aid in increasing the city’s tree canopy, bolstering the amount of carbon that is sequestered and resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”

For his part, Graf said that he appreciates the city’s sustainability practices and that he also appreciates the work of CCF.

“I just hope this one very special tree can be spared,” Graf said. “There’s still time.”