Restoration Project 

Inkster Park Restoration

As water quality in the Rouge River continues to improve, this project will build on past efforts to restore some of the damage done during the last century. Tributaries of the Rouge River have suffered from loss and impairment of aquatic habitat and increased frequency and magnitude of flood flows, primarily due to increasing urbanization within the watershed. The flat river slope and the meandering channel cannot pass the large flows associated with rain events. Upstream urbanization continues to exacerbate this problem as runoff from increased amounts of impervious surfaces culminates in flooding within the river system, bank erosion, and continued habitat degradation.

The goal of the Inkster Habitat Restoration project is to create 14 acres of habitat that will include 2.0 acres of maintained lawn that will be converted to habitat. Lawn conversion will be accomplished by killing of the “lawn grasses” and planting native trees and shrubs and seeded with an understory seed mix wetland/wet meadow area. The emergent wetlands will be created and restored to contain a diversity of water depths and wetland plants, providing habitat for wading birds, waterfowl, amphibians, reptiles, and aquatic insects. The wet meadow community will contain diverse flowering forbs that provide food for pollinators. Small mammals and birds will benefit by the increased habitat diversity and cover. Plugs will be planted to create plant diversity in the herbaceous layer. Additionally, 500 linear feet of stream that runs through the habitat area will be restored.