Mike Garfield

Interview with Michael Garfield
July 22, 2019
Conducted by Naomi Fergusson

Clips

2:40 - 3:00

Mike comments on how working for the Ecology Center was the best decision of his life because of the amazing things he was able to do. 

#EcologyCenter

6:22-9:00

Mike talks about how land use and sprawl was an issue the Ecology Center was invovled with from the start, but that took off in the 90s and was on the mind of most everyone involved in local politics during that time. #landuse #sprawl #EcologyCenter 

17:08-19:20

Mike talks about the 1998 millage proposal to preserve farmland and stop sprawl and how their opponents spent huge amounts of money to defeat their large coalition. #landuse #sprawl #politics #coalition #EcologyCenter

25:10-27:18

Mike discusses what happened after the loss in 1998 and all the different land preservation and sprawl proposals that were successfully passed. #landuse #sprawl #EcologyCenter #politics #greenbelt

31:00-32:46

Mike talks about how their proposal in 2000 had the support of their opponents from 1998 and since it was passed has saved 1,000s of acres of natural areas throughout Washtenaw county. #landuse #landpreservation #EcologyCenter #coalition #politics 

33:23-35:17

Mike discusses where the idea for the greenbelt inititiative came from and how it recreated the tensions from 1998. #greenbelt #landuse #sprawl #politics #EcologyCenter

39:50-42:35

Mike talks about how the greenbelt proposal was a success and the impact that it has had. #greenbelt #landuse #sprawl #politics #EcologyCenter

56:03-58:06 & 58:43-59:53

Mike discusses the coalition of people they had supporting their recycling proposal and how it won by a landslide, leading to a lot of the recycling programs in Ann Arbor. #recycling #politics #RecycleAnnArbor #EcologyCenter 

1:05:10 - 1:06:55

Mike talks about the difficulties Recycle Ann Abor faced in the 1990s due to its rapid growth and how he and the Ecology Center helped to bring it back on its feet. #recycling #RecycleAnnArbor #EcologyCenter #merger 

1:10:22 - 1:11:44

Mike talks about how the Ecology Center became known as one of the prime organizations in the midwest  for toxics and how that power came from their recognition of the connection between local and global issues. #EcologyCenter #toxics #local #global 

1:12:12-1:13:46

Mike discusses some of the great successes of the Ecology Center in the 1990s and how one of the main things was realizing that their work on environmental issues is connected to human health. #EcologyCenter #health #healthcarewithoutharm #toxics 

Interview with Michael Garfield

November 1, 2019

Clips

2:05 - 3:13

Mike talks about the widespread concern in the 1990s over running out of landfill space and how environmental groups like the Ecology Center proposed waste reduction and recycling as a solution. #landfill #recycling #waste #EcologyCenter

4:10-5:48

Mike recalls how succesful the 1990 Environmental Bond was and how Ann Arbor became known as having one of the best recycling and solid waste management programs in the country. #recycling #waste #wastemanagement #politics

7:34-9:52

Mike talks about the 1990 Environmental Bond and how it planned to make recycling much easier as well as expand services to more of Ann Arbor. #recycling #EcologyCenter #politics 

11:32-13:51

Mike discusses the 1998 land preservation ballot proposal and how, despite a huge coalition of support, it was defeated by ads run funded by real estate companies.  #landuse #sprawl #landpreservation #politics #EcologyCenter #farmland 

15:44-17:50

Mike discusses the 2003 Greenbelt proposal and how it was passed, despite similar opposition to that they faced with the failed 1998 land preservation proposal. #greenbelt #landuse #sprawl #landpreservation #politics #EcologyCenter

18:24-19:05

Mike talks about how the successful 2003 Greenbelt proposal incentivized townships around Ann Arbor to adopt similar programs and how all those townships together have $100 million dollars to save land throughout Washtenaw county. #greenbelt #landuse #sprawl #landpreservation #politics #EcologyCenter

22:00-24:18

Mike discusses how the greenbelt program was highly controversial, but once in place was very popular and has overtime saved huge amounts of farmland and natural areas.  #greenbelt #landuse #sprawl #landpreservation #politics #EcologyCenter

Interview with Tracey Easthope and Michael Garfield
November 20 2017
Conducted by Matt Lassiter and Joshua Blum

Clips

17:39 - 19:24

Mike talks about the Ecology Center's  complicated relationship with industry and how much of their work has led to conflict with them, but also dialogue and productive change. #EcologyCenter #industry #Ford #Dow #pollution #HealthyStuff #manufacturing #toxics 

33:30 - 35:14

Mike discusses the growth of Recycle Ann Arbor overtime and how their services have changed and expanded. #RecycleAnnArbor #recycling #change

50:57 - 52:03

Mike gives advice to people today that may be discouraged by the current environmental situation and reminds them that all the great environmental laws today were made by people's hard work against strong opposition. #change 

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