Restoring habitat, assisting communities in implementing green infrastructure
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EmailMichigan Sea Grant has partnered on several multiyear projects helping communities successfully complete habitat restoration projects as well as review and change ordinances and codes to encourage green infrastructure implementation.
Healthy coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems are critical for Michigan. Development and other activities can lead to water quality degradation, decline of fisheries, wetlands loss and other challenges. Restoring habitats and encouraging green infrastructure are ways Michigan Sea Grant helps improve water and ecosystem quality.
Michigan Sea Grant has partnered on several multiyear projects helping communities successfully complete habitat restoration projects as well as review and change ordinances and codes to encourage green infrastructure implementation. The Belle Isle Reef construction project added four acres of fish spawning habitat in the upper Detroit River. In the Stony Island Restoration Project, the island’s existing shoals were improved and rebuilt, which has helped protect and improve wetland habitat. Michigan Sea Grant helped the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments create a Green Infrastructure Vision. Workshops helped communities, watershed groups and others begin implementation of the vision.
- Belle Isle Reef postconstruction monitoring in 2017 showed use by 17 fish species including the state-listed threatened lake sturgeon and endangered northern madtom.
- The Stony Island Restoration Project restored 17 acres of habitat. Restoration has resulted in the protection from erosion of 100 acres of coastal wetlands.
- As a result of the green infrastructure workshops and code audits, the cities of Southfield and Canton successfully updated codes and ordinances in 2017.
