Authors

John Hartig, University of Windsor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, jhhartig@uwindsor.ca
Collin Knauss, University of Michigan - School for Environment and Sustainability, crknauss@umich.edu
 

Background

The Detroit River has long served the United States and Canada as a critical transportation corridor and industrial hub that helped shape the economies of the shared metropolitan region (USFWS 2005). By 1950, the city of Detroit became the fifth largest city in the U.S. and the river helped Detroit emerge as the nation’s auto-manufacturing leader, primary shipping channel, and industrial epicenter in the U.S. However, the ecosystems of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie suffered tremendously from the extensive human modifications, pollution, and development. The development led to urbanization, industrialization, and channelization of the river that resulted in severe pollution and ecological degradation. For decades, the connecting channels in the Great Lakes, including the Detroit River, collected industrial and municipal effluents that deteriorated water quality and degraded the river’s diverse habitats (EC & EPA 1988, Hartig and Thomas 1988).

Detroit’s industrial expansion and population growth reached a tipping point in the 1960s, when the Detroit River was considered one of the most polluted rivers in North America (Hartig and Wallace 2015, Manny and Kenaga 1991). Damaging environmental catastrophes, including the Rouge River (Detroit River’s major tributary) catching fire in 1969 due to oil pollution, widespread waterfowl kills from oil, contamination by toxic substances like PCBs and DDT, and discharges of raw sewage, contributed to deteriorating ecosystem health and its designation as an international pollution hot spot or “Area of Concern” (Hartig and Wallace 2015). Figure 1 shows an oil spill from the Rouge River entering the Detroit River in 1966.

 

The long-standing view of the Detroit River as a working river that primarily supported commerce, industry, and technological progress, began to shift after the 1960s with the public becoming increasingly engaged in addressing the river’s health (Hartig and Wallace 2015). Spurred by legislative and public engagement initiatives, 40 years of pollution prevention and control resulted in substantial environmental progress since the 1960s (Hartig 2014). This remarkable turnaround for the Detroit River continues today, with increased ecological recovery, economic revival, and community pride for the river (Hartig et al. 2010). These recent successes also prepared the region for the creation of the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge (DRIWR), the first and thus far only international wildlife refuge in North America (Hartig and Wallace 2015).

In 2000, a group of U.S. and Canadian conservationists and scientists developed a conservation vision for the lower Detroit River ecosystems, promoting the establishment of an international wildlife refuge. Soon after in 2001, the refuge was established on the U.S. side by Public Law 107-91, with primary management and oversight by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Canada later created the Western Lake Erie Watersheds Priority Natural Area, overseen by the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA), to coordinate amongst Canadian federal, provincial, local, and nongovernmental organizations, and work with U.S. partners in fulfillment of the international wildlife refuge (Hartig and Wallace 2015). The boundaries of these two complementary and reinforcing initiatives were designed to fulfil the spirit and intent of the DRIWR and are presented in Figure 2. The region’s exceptional biodiversity is recognized in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network, and the Canada-U.S. Biodiversity Investment Area Program (Hartig and Wallace 2015). In addition, the DRIWR’s location is unique because it is one of only a few refuges to exist within a major metropolitan area (Hartig et al. 2010).