Troy Michigan is known for its high-quality school district and being home to Somerset Mall, one of the most popular shopping locations in the state. Because of this, its natural landscape, and how the city’s expansion has affected it in recent years, is more of an afterthought.
Robert Zynda, an environmental science teacher at Troy High School, described what happened to the land that ended up being useful to the high school. He said that they viewed it as undeveloped, unused property, rather than green space that can benefit both students and the natural world. “I don’t think they purposely go out to do it, but I think they view progress for, let’s say, students and opportunity, is going to be more important than maintaining green space,” he comments.
He quickly clarified that, “[the decision to remove green space] was all about making opportunities better for students, it’s not like they were looking at it as a ‘oh let’s cut these down.’” Malicious intent or not, land around Troy High School is regularly renovated and artificialized for everything from softball to baseball fields, and it may add value to the property, but it’s also removing green space that is already so little in Troy.
As junior Sanjana Prabhu says, “there’s a certain limit that you can go to, and I think we might have crossed that limit by a bit, because of how much we’re losing.”
As a Youth Ambassador for the Climate Initiative, an international program that encourages young people to fight for their planet’s survival, Prabhu knows a thing or two about how humans have impacted the environment, even in the small city of Troy. Referring to the severe weather changes the city has experienced over the last few years, she says, “we’re experiencing [climate change] right now, with the lack of snow and how heat is just taking over.” Even though Troy doesn’t necessarily impact the rest of the world, the millions of towns just like it add up to create the issue that the planet and all of its inhabitants face today. It’s estimated that 70% of carbon dioxide emissions are from urban areas, which includes cities like Troy.
“Not just Troy, but our country as a whole has been steering away from preserving nature to more of this race to catch up with every other continent and country out there, to really become this developed society, and I feel like what we kind of fall behind on is focusing on preserving the nature that we have currently,” says Prabhu, noting the way Troy is always working toward being a more advanced, modern place, at the expense of the natural world and wildlife around us.
The City of Troy contains over 400 acres of parkland, not to mention Stage Nature Center’s 100 acre parcel, home to many uncommon plants and wildlife, including a butterfly garden, maintained by Oakland County’s division of Master Gardeners. It also has a sanctuary for injured owls that can’t be rehabilitated into the wild. In 2024, the nature center had over 30,610 visitors, and they are always welcome to more. However, Stage Nature Center isn’t the only preserved land in the city.
Turtle Woods is a plot of 80 acres previously owned by the Troy School District, who used it for educational field trips and was originally intended as the site of a third high school in the district. In December of 2024, it was officially sold to Six Rivers Land Conservancy, who are working to make it a public area where people can hike and learn about the rare species living there. Six Rivers Land Conservancy is a non-profit organization that works tirelessly to preserve the natural ecosystems in not only Oakland County, but also Macomb, Genesee, Lapeer and St. Clair Counties. “As we move forward with the renaissance of Detroit and its surrounding metro area, we need to invest equally in our surrounding natural landscape. Restoring and preserving our natural lands is just as important as restoring our iconic cultural, historic, and economic institutions,” they state on their official website.
In a 2024 Oakland County Parks News Release, Melissa Prowse, Oakland County Parks Manager of Planning and Development, says that, “we’ve had our eye on this beautiful piece of land for a long time, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to make Turtle Woods an Oakland County Parks nature preserve for all county residents to enjoy.”
She adds that although there has been some discussion of adding trails and restroom facilities to the property, “our intent is to keep the nature preserve as natural as possible.”
Everyday citizens of Troy are able to see for themselves the natural beauty Turtle Woods has to offer, with the benefit of knowing that the preserve is here to stay. One of several reasons Six Rivers Land Conservancy wanted the land was that Turtle Woods gives a home to the native species of Michigan whose habitats are being destroyed by deforestation, including spotted turtles, coyotes and white-tailed deer.
One student is highly encouraged by what the conservancy and other organizations are doing. “I think that there’s still a lot of hope in the future, and there’s a lot of solutions that people can look into to combat [climate change],” says Manasvi Mummaneni, a junior at Troy High School. Mummaneni is a member of the Environmental Activist Club, whose very presence in the school provides hope that things can begin to change for the better. Most of the Environmental Activist Club’s current activities involve recycling and cleaning up around the school, which has definitely had a positive impact.
As Mummaneni says, there is hope in the future, but it’s important to stay informed about what everyday citizens, like those in Troy, can realistically do. Prabhu, however, proves that people can find organizations to work with, if they look around their community. She gives a message to the city of Troy itself; “it’s necessary that we create a balance between how much impact we [have] and how much we take away from the environment.” And Troy has the ability to begin changing that balance for the better. Instead of chasing after other big cities’ achievements, Troy could be working towards truly being the City of Tomorrow, Today.
