Millers Creek is a special place, a touch of wilderness winding through an urban landscape. Located entirely within the City of Ann Arbor, the creek is home to a variety of wildlife, including green heron, turtles and crayfish. Millers Creek includes beautiful natural areas, features dramatic topography, and is the steepest creek in the Huron River System, dropping an average of 50 feet per mile.

Long stretches of Millers Creek are highly degraded Water pollution and volatile creek flows caused by urban stormwater runoff cause problems for the creek overall. During storms, flow rates in the creek can increase up to 300-fold, substantially eroding the stream banks. Runoff from the neighborhood at the creek's headwaters also yields the highest concentrations of bacteria, phosphorus, and salts measured in Millers Creek.

Thirty Six Percent of the 2.4 square mile watershed is covered in impervious surfaces. Land use is approximately 37% residential; 23% institutional; 19% commercial/industrial and 3.5% recreational. Many built-out areas have little or inadequate stormwater detention storage and watershed soils are predominately poorly draining clay loams.

The Millers Creek Report, published in 2005, is a 35 page booklet that highlights the history land use in the watershed and its impacts on water flow, physical and hydrological characteristics of the creek, and descriptions of many potential projects in each neighborhood that would protect, enhance and preserve the creek. It has detailed maps and descriptions of the 6 neighborhoods that make up the whole watershed. Contact HRWC for a copy.

The Millers Creek Watershed Improvement Plan was approved by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in 2005. It provides a scientific basis for decisions about effective ways to restore the creek and acts as a blueprint for community involvement to improve the creek by reducing the impact of stormwater and preventing pollution. Contact HRWC for a copy.

The Millers Creek Action Team (MCAT) is a diverse public and private sector partnership of people who live and work in the watershed with a shared interest in implementing the Millers Creek Watershed Improvement Plan. Its mission is to work together to establish and implement socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable watershed management standards and practices that will improve Millers Creek. MCAT meets monthly at the HRWC offices. Contact HRWC for details.

www.aamillerscreek.org is a web site dedicated to the Millers Creek Watershed and iinitiated as part of the Millers Creek Watershed Improvement Plan. The site offers general information about Millers Creek as well as copies of the Millers Creek Report, the Improvement Plan and updates on activities happening in the watershed related to Plan recommendations and goals.