The Great Lakes Fisheries Trust awarded $20,000 to Monroe Public Schools and RRI to formulate a plan for developing infrastructure that will support place-based education and sustainable school-community stewardship in the Great Lakes Region. The project goal is to help young people understand the connection between a healthy environment and the quality of life in our communities.

A preliminary planning meeting conducted in July 2007 helped to identify the barriers to sustainable school-community stewardship. In August, two planning workshops for teachers, administrators, and representatives from business, government and other groups aided in identifying the strategies that will be part of the stewardship infrastructure plan.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded funding for the River Raisin Watershed Restoration Initiative in May 2007. Various student classes re-seeded wild rice, a native Michigan plant species, to improve the river's ecosystem as well as providing a beneficial food source for people. Others removed Flowering Rush, an invasive plant species, to help water flow and prevent sediment deposits. Some students constructed a rain garden and native plantings on a tributary of the river and restored a wet prairie at Bolles Harbor in Monroe.

In addition to direct benefits for habitats and water quality, this initiative will also serve to broaden community understanding of the human impact on the health of the watershed and spur greater civic involvement in its stewardship.

The long term restoration project is to restore habitat and re-establish sturgeon population in the river.

More Resources

River Raisin Watershed Management Plan