The UM Campus Plan 2050 includes multiple maps that show a route for a proposed monorail. The map for the Medical Center area shows the route crossing through a heavily wooded area located in an oxbow turn of the Huron River. The route passes near the Peony Gardens to East Medical Center Drive. The light-colored map section is part of the Arboretum Nature Area, park land owned by the City of Ann Arbor. 

What is invisible on the map is the steep slope and switchback path that rises from the Huron River to the level of the Peony Gardens. The entire area from the train tracks to East Medical Center Drive is well-known to birders as an especially good location to view migratory birds. 

A goal of Save the Arb is to protect the existing trees that provide habitat: refuge and food for all wildlife that live or pass through the area. Cutting trees and understory plants to make way for a monorail path will radically change the ecosystem. Light, noise, and erosion will affect the existing ecosystem. Opened spaces will attract invasive plants and degrade the overall habitat of the Arb. 

The elevated structure will be a significant visual element that is out of place in the natural area of the Arb. The quality of experience of the Arb will be significantly altered by a large-scale transportation system. If a monorail project proceeds, we ask the decision makers to design a different route.