John Hartig walks along a crushed concrete trail that was once a city road to the last mile of undeveloped land along the Detroit River – now part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. He points to a forest of 300-year-old oak trees: "They were here when Cadillac arrived," he says.
He stands tall like a proud park ranger in his U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uniform – part pioneer, part wildlife preservationist, part educator. Hartig manages the 48-mile long refuge – the only international refuge in North America, a stretch of waterway that is largely urban and industrial. Hardly what you'd expect for a wildlife refuge. Yet it's potentially the most quietly dramatic place in southeast Michigan.
Hartig has overseen the growth of the refuge from 300 acres to over 5,100 acres since its inception in 2001. But space is hardly the point when compared with much larger American national park forests and waterways. What is occurring in places with evocative names like Humbug Marsh, Black Lagoon, Plum Creek, and Mud Island along the reclaimed Detroit River shoreline, is largely invisible to motorists and boaters. Some of the most innovative soft engineering projects representing complex collaborations between business, governmental, and environmental interests have resulted in over $14 million in conservation projects. Sturgeon now spawn in the river, which has the largest walleye population in North America --along with 65 other kinds of fish and 29 species of waterfowl, including bad eagles. Southeast Michigan is one of the busiest crossroads for migratory birds in North America, celebrated by an annual "Hawk Fest" in September at Lake Erie Metropark.
The most recent developments in the refuge include:
- The 2007 environmental clean-up and restoration of the Black Lagoon (renamed Elias Cove) in Trenton, involving the removal of 470,000 pounds of contaminants from 115,000 cubic yards of sludge containing mercury, lead, zinc, and oil;
- The 2008 acquisition of the 126 acre-Plum Creek Bay coastal wetlands in Monroe, in which 40 species of fish use for spawning;
- The upcoming dedication of Humbug Marsh in Trenton which represents the efforts of conservationists to prevent upscale development and create a learning environment in the marsh and old growth forest.
This is the work of a pragmatic conservationist who has ventured into a place where no one has gone – through the sulfurous atmosphere of the Rouge River Bridge into the Downriver suburbs created by people working in steel mills, chemical plants, and other industrial factories that line the shore and destroyed much of its riverbed. For the pioneer in Hartig, this is opportunity. As a pragmatist, he realizes he can't succeed alone and demonstrates tremendous finesse negotiating deals that are priceless in terms of their environmental return.
"What really impresses me about John is his ability to see the larger picture, to have a vision for bigger possibilities and to make that happen," explains Dave Sanders, retired executive vice president of the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, which partners on refuge projects with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Sanders cites the Black Lagoon's transformation, "one of the most contaminated sites in the Great Lakes basin" into a community park and marina. The project required a collaboration of many interests, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, and government officials.
Hartig builds coalitions, in part, through the help of the International Wildlife Refuge Alliance, a non-profit that attracts partners for various projects. For example, the refuge has worked with a variety of partners to restore 180 feet of DTE Energy shoreline in River Rouge from hardened concrete, and 500 feet of shoreline on the River Raisin at the DTE Energy Monroe Power plant.
Sanders credits Hartig with the idea for establishing the refuge in such an unlikely spot. "Who would have thought that we could create a major international wildlife refuge right at the doorstep of a major city like Detroit – in many cases surrounded by an industrial setting?" Hartig, he says, is very persuasive. "He gets you excited about the potential, about the natural resources that are right before our eyes, particularly in the lower Detroit River area – one of the most biologically diverse areas of North America."
Seldom seen or heard, Hartig works behind the scenes with government, corporate, and international interests to make deals work. An environmental purist might say that his style includes too much compromise.
"It's seen by some that way," admits Sanders. "John would rather get something done than alienate folks. If you take too hard of a line, we wouldn't have been able to do some of the shoreline restoration work. Companies would say that we don't want to work with you if you're going to lambast us."
Businesses are beginning to understand that "green" industrial policies are marketable in several ways, from consumer affairs to staff recruitment, according to Sanders. "He makes the case very effectively that there's a strong tie between economic development and protecting and enhancing your natural resources, particularly in an age when it's important to attract highly talented young people to this region."
"The adversarial years of 'us versus them' are over," asserts Hartig. "We need examples of working together. The next big movement in improving the quality of life is only going to be done through public- private partnerships." This entails building trust so that the "sticky issues" of environmental management can be solved through effective compromise. "If you want to win 100 percent of the argument, you'll go nowhere. Trust is everything."
As an example, he cites the cooperative agreement with DTE Energy's Fermi Power Plant in Monroe. "We manage 656 acres of property on their plant. The footprint they need to generate power is only so big. The other land they don't do anything with. So, we manage it with them. We bring a little money to the table; they bring a little money to the table."
Hartig was raised Downriver in the 1960s and recalls fishing and canoeing in the Detroit River, which then was a murky blackish gray color, not the aqua of today. Attending the first Earth Day program in the 1970s, he was convinced of his life's work. Although he doesn't take credit for the reduced pollutants in the river, he claims that "We have one of the most dramatic ecological recoveries in North America.
It's the educator in Hartig that emerges in much of his work – whether educating corporate interests about the enlightened self interest of a project, or young student learning ecological responsibility. Graduate students work alongside his staff, such as Becca Sowder, who is completing a graduate fellowship in landscaping. Sowder says that Hartig shapes the fellowship to meet the needs of his students. "Students are exposed to a laboratory unlike any other – the creation of an urban wildlife refuge … in a historical industrialized area that is very polluted."
Sowder is largely responsible for the landscape design of Humbug Marsh, involving volunteers as her workforce. "Her goal has been to get as many people as possible to build a chunk of this trail, even if it's only 50 feet, so they can say they felt it and care about it," Hartig says. "We want as much ownership of this as possible. It might go a little slower than we would like, but in the end, we're hoping that one day someone will say, 'Don't drop your litter there.'"
Spotting a muskrat maneuvering in a man-made creek, Hartig says Humbug Marsh is a "teachable moment." The refuge is restoring the marsh's natural hydrology by re-engineering storm water run-off to flow into the delta again, as it did 300 years ago. Reclaiming and restoring abandoned industrial sites along an international waterway is indeed a teachable moment on a grand scale.
A dedication of the Humbug Marsh Environmental Education Shelter and Trails in Trenton will be held on Friday, Oct. 31, beginning with a program at 10 a.m., followed by a reception from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information contact John Hartig at 734-692-7603.
Dennis Archambault is a frequent contributor to Metromode and Model D. His last article was Reel Insight
Photos:John Hartig on a volunteer built observation deck on Humbug Marsh
A 300 hundred year old tree preserved
Wheel barrels are used to spread wood chips and broken pavement onto new trails
Humbug Marsh now thrives
Skylights on structures built on Humbug Marsh shed light educational programs
All photographs by Marvin Shaouni
Marvin Shaouni is the managing photographer for Metromode & Model D.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.