Detroit, Michigan
Project Goals and Objectives: Create an oxbow and restore fish and wetland habitat as mitigation for the construction of Conner Creek Combined Sewer Overflow control facility
Project Description: Maheras Park is located in the City of Detroit, just east of the Bay View Yacht Club on the north shore of the Detroit River. The improvements to Maheras Park included an interpretive walkway, fishing piers, and soft engineering of the created embayment's shoreline.
Due to its highly populated urban location, this project is highly visible and demonstrates the potential to leverage intergovernmental support for future projects using soft engineering designs. This park is owned and operated by the City of Detroit.
This project created an embayment which has soft engineered shorelines, fishing piers, and an interpretive walkway. Bridges allow access to a created island along the interpretive trail.
The budget for this project was $2.3 million. The project was undertaken by Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, in cooperation with Detroit Recreation Department.
The Maheras Gentry Park fish habitat mitigation was undertaken as a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality requirement to mitigate habitat loss resulting from constructing the Conner Creek Pilot Combined Sewer Overflow Control Facility. Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is funding the entire $2.3 million cost of the Maheras Gentry Park project. The creation of the fish habitat occurred during the last half of construction of the Conner Creek Pilot Combined Sewer Overflow Control Facility, which began in 2000 and was completed in 2004.
Cost: $2.3 million
Timeframe: 2000-2004
Partners: Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and Detroit Parks and Recreation
Ecological Effectiveness: This oxbow creation and habitat restoration project planted 48 trees representing eleven different species, 14 species of native prairie plants, ten species of aquatic tracheophytes (yellow water lily, white water lily, longleaf pondweed, sago pondweed, pickerel weed, broad-leaved arrowhead, bulrush, burreed, broad-leaved cattail and wild celery) and 16 wetland edge species. Post-project visual observation by Creekside volunteers showed that a diverse assemblage of aquatic tracheophytes became established, however, no rigorous quantitative evaluation has been performed.
Restoration Contact: Detroit Recreation Department