Projects Working to Improve
Fish, Bird Habitat on Detroit’s Belle Isle Park
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative projects are helping to restore fish and wildlife habitat on Belle Isle, a city-owned park in the Detroit River. Belle Isle, which spans 985 acres, is the nation’s largest island park.
Description
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a $1,459,649 grant to the Friends of the Detroit River to restore the natural flow of water in Belle Isle’s Blue Heron Lagoon. The 41-acre lagoon discharges to the Detroit River, but fish access to the lagoon is blocked by sheet pile walls, grates and drop structures. The EPA granted another $528,289 to the Friends of the Detroit River for a project known as the Belle Isle South Fishing Pier. That project will create 2.5 acres of protected coastal wetland along the island, immediately downstream of the sturgeon reef that was installed in 2004. And the Detroit Zoological Society, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working to restore common tern habitat on the north end of Belle Isle. The migratory birds are a threatened species.
Resource Challenges Addressed
- Lack of native habitat
- Altered natural shoreline
- Decreased fish and bird populations
Results and Accomplishments
Common terns have already returned to nest at the north end of Belle Isle. Work was just beginning in 2011 on the Blue Heron Lagoon and South Fishing Pier projects. The wetland and habitat restoration projects will increase fish and wildlife habitat in the Detroit River and bolster efforts to eliminate beneficial use impairments in the Detroit River Area of Concern.
BELLE ISLE HABITAT RESTORATION PROJECTS
A view overlooking the Blue Heron Lagoon on Belle Isle in Michigan. The lagoon’s natural flow out into the Detroit River has been restored. Photo credit: Jeff Alexander.
Location: Detroit, Mich.
Approximate cost: $2 million
Key partners: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Science Center, the Friends of Belle Isle, Friends of the Detroit River, the Detroit Zoological Society and the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department
Types of jobs created: The projects will require the service of fish biologists, wildlife biologists, landscape architects, excavators and truck drivers.