RiverUp! to improve river health and recreation for Huron River communities

Using the restoration and tourism efforts that took place over the last decade within the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge as a model, state and local leaders are launching RiverUp!, a new initiative to make the Huron River a recreation-friendly front door to the communities it flows through. And throw in some ecological healing.

"While we're kicking this project off now, the genesis of the idea...really kicked off a couple of years ago when Congressman Dingell was celebrating what had been accomplished on the Detroit River with the International Wildlife Refuge, an accomplishment that he worked for, that he was personally invested in and wanted to be sure that that happened," says Elizabeth Riggs, watershed planner for the Huron River Watershed Council. "And then he turned and looked to the Huron River, which is also part of his district, and said, 'Now, what can we do similarly for the Huron?'"

One facet of the initiative is the Huron River Water Trail, a series of upgrades to make the river's 104 navigable miles more contiguous and accessible to paddlers. Fixes include dam removal and portage improvements, better signage, and trail maps. Efforts during the first year will center first on river segments in the communities of Milford, Dexter, Ann Arbor, and Flat Rock, and then spread to the rest of the navigable river, Riggs says.

Projects slated for the first year of RiverUp! include improvements to Superior Dam near St. Joseph Mercy hospital, funded through private contributions from the Wolfpack, a contingent of conservation-focused leaders associated with the National Wildlife Federation. Other high-priority dams include those at Ford Lake, Belleville Lake, and Flat Rock Pond.

The campaign has been seeded with $75,000, including $50,000 in private donations from Wolfpack members and a $25,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. Leadership will be devising a plan to raise a mix of public and private funds for the effort that Riggs thinks will show substantial progress over the next four years.

Project leaders are also working with owners of contaminated or underused industrial properties; specifically, DTE's MichCon brownfield site in Ann Arbor and, in Ypsilanti, the former Ford Visteon plant now owned by Angstrom USA.

Says Riggs, "We'd really like to see those two sites be further along in completing what right now is a promise...Angstrom [will grant] a 100-foot conservation easement next to the river so that the Border to Border Trail can continue from the river into Ford Lake. And also we'd like to see DTE's MichCon site that is cleaned up or on its way to being cleaned up so that it can be used for the benefit of the Ann Arbor community as a park or a restaurant or similar uses."

RiverUp! officially launches at 1:30 p.m. on August 16 with a public gathering at Island Park in Ann Arbor. Featured speakers include Congressman John Dingell, MDOT Chairman Jerry Young, and HRWC Executive Director Laura Rubin. Organizers are awaiting confirmation of the attendance of Gov. Rick Snyder.

Source: Elizabeth Riggs, watershed planner for the Huron River Watershed Council
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar