Grant Recipient:  Downriver Community Conference

 

Grant Award:  $500,000

 

Lake Basin:  Erie

 

Project Location:  Refuge Gateway and Humbug Marsh properties in Trenton, Michigan

 

Project Description:  The Downriver Community Conference, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners will restore and enhance coastal, wetland and associated upland habitat at Wayne County’s Refuge Gateway and the adjacent Humbug Marsh unit of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.  Specifically, restoration activities will result in a net gain of 16 acres of coastal wetland habitat and 25 acres of riparian buffer habitat in the Refuge Gateway, treatment of 2.5 miles of shoreline for invasive Phragmites, and the removal of buckthorn and garlic mustard on more than 50 acres of forested lakeplain habitat in Humbug Marsh.  This work is part of a broader effort to restore the entire Refuge Gateway property and Humbug Marsh unit.  When completed, the entire project will have restored 454 contiguous acres of coastal wetland and buffer habitat along the Detroit River, improving habitat for many species of conservation concern with the Detroit River Area of Concern.

	Aerial photograph of Humbug Marsh showing Phragmites invading along the shoreline of Humbug Island and the mainland. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.