Restoration Project
Phoenix Lake Restoration
As water quality in the Rouge River continues to improve, this project has built 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 Phoenix Lake project was to enhance the in-lake habitat value through: Installation of new substrates that include sandy gravels, cobbles, and boulder clusters providing spawning substrate, attachment points, and cover for fishes, insects, crustaceans, and fauna; submerged, emergent, and floating aquatic vegetation plantings in shallow water to create lacustrine wetland habitat for waterfowl feeding, fish spawning and nursery habitat, and nutrient sequestration; and placement of woody debris along the shoreline and placed offshore to increase habitat diversity. Boulder clusters were added offshore to add cover and feeding areas.
