Archive for the ‘Huron River Water Trail’ Category

Read the newly released “Summary of The Economic Impact of the Huron River.”

In 2016, HRWC commissioned a unique study to measure the economic impact of the river on local communities, focusing on Huron River Water Trail activities and the value of natural systems that maintain a healthy, clean river.

The Huron River contributes enormous benefit to the local economy.

That’s one of the key takeaways from research conducted by a research team with Grand Valley State University lead by Dr. Paul Isely, associate dean. Their work, supported by HRWC and the RiverUp! initiative, represents a significant step forward in quantifying the economic value of the Huron River corridor and the Huron River Water Trail, a designated National Water Trail.

Read the “Full Study of The Economic Impact of the Huron River by Grand Valley State University.”

Key Findings

The Huron River and Huron River Water Trail are conservatively estimated to have the following economic impact on the five-county region in which they are located:

• $53.5M in economic output ($29.9M direct + $23.6M indirect spending) annually
• $150M annual economic value of ecosystem services provided by the Huron River
• $3.8B total economic value of services provided by the Huron River
• 2.6 million visitor days

The study provides robust baseline information about who’s using the river and trails along it, how the downtowns and businesses near the river relate to it, and how the value of maintaining the river corridor’s natural features can be monetized. As a result, HRWC and its partners can make more targeted investments, track changes over time, and have another tool for engaging new partners.

The team followed a two-part approach to understanding the value of the Huron River: measure the river’s economic impact using visitor and business surveys; and assess the positive benefits of the Huron River watershed to people, also known as ecosystem services. The Huron River supports recreation, tourism, and business activities that greatly support the local economy. The majority of this spending is driven by outdoor activity around or near the water.

The second part of the study estimates the ecosystem value of the Huron River. Nature provides vital contributions to economic and social well-being that are often not traded in markets or fully considered in land use, business, and other economic decisions. In the case of a river, these contributions include protection against erosion and flooding, habitat for diverse birds, fish, and mammals, and cultural and aesthetic benefits that come from people’s interactions with nature.

Measuring the economic impact of the Huron River will benefit local partners as well as similar placemaking efforts and water trails around the country. A 2015 survey of impact studies for water trails by the National Park Service found only three reference studies. Water trails in Michigan and around the country through the National Water Trails System are ready to learn from findings on the Huron River Water Trail.

Since it began in 2012, RiverUp! has contributed more than $2 million in private and public investments to restore and protect the Huron River, revitalize community waterfronts, and increase water-based recreation for all. RiverUp!’s work is leveraged by an additional $40 million in riverfront improvements by partners over that time. This new report provides HRWC and its RiverUp! partners with reliable information on the value of these investments compared to the river-based economy.

Ypsilanti turns to the river.

Enjoy our new video featuring the recent creation of Ypsilanti’s Frog Island Park mural by artist Mary Thiefels.

This waterfront mural is part of a public + private river access improvement project. Over two years, local volunteers and businesses renovated the canoe and kayak launch with support from HRWC and City of Ypsilanti. The renovations reflect Ypsilanti’s distinction as a Trail Town on the Huron River National Water Trail, a 104-mile inland paddling trail that connects people to the river’s natural environment, its history, and the communities it touches in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
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Produced by 7 Cylinders Studio
Director: Donald Harrison
Editing: Sydney Friedman
Post Production: David Camlin
Camera & Audio: Donald Harrison
Featuring: Mary Thiefels, Anne Brown, Sam Brown, Robby Borer, Jasmine Rogan
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Special thanks to RiverUp! partners: BC Contractors, Bill Kinley, City of Ypsilanti, Depot Town DDA, Margolis Landscaping, Walter J. Weber Jr. Family, Washtenaw County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

See the Mural in Person!

Join us for Ypsi Fall River Day on Sunday, September 24, Noon-3pm at Riverside Park. At Noon, “Walk to Frog Island Park” with Elizabeth Riggs HRWC’s Deputy Director. Elizabeth will share the new mural and improvements at the Frog Island Park launch and community efforts to restore and feature the river in Ypsilanti through RiverUp! and the Huron River Water Trail initiative.

Join us on the Huron River National Water Trail!

Sunday, September 24, 2017
Noon-3pm
Riverside Park (North End), Ypsilanti

Free-Family Fun!

Paddle a kayak from Frog Island Park to Ford Lake ($10). Check out river raptors. Learn the history of the Huron River in Ypsilanti from a local historian. Go on a guided nature walk with a naturalist. Hear about community efforts to restore and feature the river in Ypsilanti through RiverUp! and the Huron River Water Trial initiative. Try your hand at river fishing.

There will be kids crafts, cider and donuts and more fun river-related activities.

Ypsi Fall River Day is hosted by the Ypsilanti Parks & Recreation Commission and is free and open to the public.

For information and the schedule of events go to ypsiparks.org.

New boat locker in Ann Arbor (June 2017)

A unique amenity for users of the Huron River National Water Trail (HRWT) has arrived! Canoe and kayak lockers that secure personal boats, paddles, and life jackets at Bandemer Park.

This prototype, designed and manufactured in Ann Arbor, can accommodate a majority of canoe and kayak sizes as well as stand-up paddleboards. The lockers have six compartments that can fit up to two boats each depending on boat sizes. Each locker is modular so more lockers can be added as demand grows.

By giving paddlers a chance to secure their boats, the lockers offer recreationists entré to the shops and restaurants in the HRWT’s Trail Towns. Ann Arbor, which is one of the Trail Towns, was called a “(Next) Best Paddling Town” by Canoe & Kayak Magazine so it seems fitting that it is the first one to offer this key amenity.

The City of Ann Arbor accepted the lockers as a donation from the Huron River Watershed Council, and its Parks & Recreation Department will manage the lockers beginning this season. The lockers provide a convenient option for residents looking to enjoy paddlesports on the Huron River.

Creating the Lockers

Each of the six compartments can fit up to two kayaks, canoes, or paddleboards.

In 2014, I approached Jen Maigret of the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Michigan to see if her studio would design canoe and kayak lockers. We had to charter new territory in the field of paddlesport recreation to offer the Trail Towns functional lockers with a design aesthetic appropriate to prized waterfront public spaces.

Jen and her design partner Maria Arquero de Alarcon were a perfect fit for this project because they had already shaped their design studio –MAde Studio – to explore new ways of connecting people with water through design. They enthusiastically took up the challenge. Then followed many months (years, really) of meeting with local parks and recreation professionals, paddlesport aficionados, and fabricators to find a practical, yet appealing design worthy of a riverfront view.

Jen describes their process: “We approached the design of the lockers with two goals in mind. First, the lockers should contribute to a “regional” identity for the Huron River watershed and the significant designation as a National Water Trail. Second, the lockers should also allow for a unique expression of each of the 5 water trail towns to enhance the sense of place in each location.”

Hosford & Co. fabricated the lockers at its location just a few steps away from the Huron River. In May, their crew delivered the first lockers to Ann Arbor’s Bandemer Park.

As a Trail Town on the 104-mile Huron River National Water Trail, the City of Ann Arbor offers scenic riverside parks, exciting cascades and placid stillwater trips for trail users. The new lockers are a key amenity that offer safe and sturdy storage for residents with their own boats looking for on-the-water access. HRWC, through the private-public partnership called RiverUp!, is pleased to donate the prototype storage solution for the HRWT Trail Towns with a vision of more lockers from Milford to Dexter, and Ypsilanti to Flat Rock. These other lockers may operate with a different rental option by providing hourly and daily storage options. Plans are currently underway with the other Trail Towns to host and maintain the lockers.

Would you like to see lockers in more places on the Huron River? Contributions to HRWC’s RiverUp! initiative are needed to provide day-use lockers in other riverfront communities.

Last night, HRWC’s Annual Meeting featured highlights from 2016: progress on the Huron River Water Trail, green infrastructure projects and plans, updates on pollution prevention initiatives like coal tar and dioxane, and efforts to ready the watershed for climate change. Our work would not be possible without the amazing support given by our donors, funders, volunteers, and peer organizations. Please join us in celebrating a few who went above and beyond in recent years. You can read more about these folks in our summer newsletter, the Huron River Report, coming out in June.

Janet Kahan, Melissa Damaschke, John M. Erb, Sally Rutzky and Wendy Schultz

Janet Kahan
Volunteer of the Year
Janet leads HRWC’s youth streamside education program, working with volunteers of all sorts to teach stream ecology and water quality to over 1000 students per year.

Sally Rutzky
Herb Munzel Achievement Award
Sally has been a stalwart supporter of the Huron, HRWC, and local communities as she’s advocated for better zoning and planning, gotten in the way of sand mining, and used her expert plant identification skills on behalf of the watershed.

Wendy Schultz
Extraordinary Partner Award
A key ally of HRWC’s water quality monitoring program, Wendy and her staff test our samples from Washtenaw County, identify and solve programmatic problems, and graciously greet our volunteers throughout the season offering tips and encouragement for collecting much needed water samples from our streams.

Erb Family Foundation
Big Splash Award
The Erb Family Foundation has been a forerunner in funding organizational growth and new programmatic initiatives including our RiverUp! program. Long-term support like theirs is key to nonprofit organizational health.

Join us in congratulating these watershed champions!

New benches at Barton Pond offer peaceful waterfront viewing

Three new benches on the Huron River Water Trail at Barton Pond. Photo: M. Akemann

Visitors to the dam at Ann Arbor’s Barton Nature Area are in for a pleasant surprise. This fall, the Huron River Watershed Council with funding from the DTE Energy Foundation installed a set of three unique riverside viewing benches along Barton Pond.

Bench designs include decorative elements using natural materials. Photo: HRWC

The benches are the result of an artistic collaboration between Rizzolo Brown Design and local contractor IronWoodStone. The benches are inspired by nature and designed to be beautiful in form and innovative in function. HRWC engaged Rizzolo Brown Design to survey the river corridor from Milford to Lake Erie for places that could feature inspired design or art as part of the Huron River Water Trail project. HRWC, which in 2015 earned the Huron a National Water Trail designation, seeks to bring people to the river for enjoyment and recreation. Rizzolo Brown developed an “ideas book” based on site visits to numerous park locations along the river that HRWC has shared with communities all along the Water Trail for potential projects.

We hope you will visit and enjoy the benches!

Trail Ambassador Graham Battersby completes his survey of the Water Trail in early spring, and the local media took notice.

Earlier this year, 20 hardy paddlers stepped up to serve as the first class of HRWC’s new volunteer-led program to monitor the river for recreation. Huron River Water Trail Ambassadors adopt sections of the river to check conditions for safe and accessible paddling. This class covered 17 sections of the water trail ranging in length from 3.5 to nearly 10 miles.

Ambassadors check river conditions in the early spring before most paddlers are out on the river, as well as at the end of the paddling season in the fall. Their efforts make the river more enjoyable, protect its health and scenic beauty, and assist HRWC and the water trail partners with prioritizing improvements.

What does an Ambassador do?

1. Paddles a section of the Huron River once in early spring and a second time in the fall, at a minimum.
2. Makes general observations about the conditions of water trail launches, signs and portages, the shoreline, woody debris, spills and how people are using the river.
3. Represents HRWC by answering questions from the public, helping people out on the river and teaching responsible river use.
4. Takes photos of areas of interest or concern.
5. Submits information and photos to HRWC.

Some Ambassadors also clean-up trash and measure water temperature and conductivity with HRWC equipment.

How do you spot an Ambassador?

Check their hat! All Ambassadors are outfitted in brimmed hats with the water trail logo and the “Ambassador” title.

Contact Jason Frenzel if you’d like more information on becoming an Ambassador.

Open for business this summer is the renovated canoe and kayak launch at Frog Island. Ypsilanti’s Frog Island Park on the Huron River, located just north of Depot Town between Forest and Cross, is getting a makeover. This access is located at river mile 40.7 on the Huron River Water Trail.

Since last November, invasive shrubs were removed and sight lines to the river opened up, hand rails on the stairs were installed, concrete cleaned, and an access path and launch graded and gravel added. The access is safer and easier to use. A new river-themed mural is in the works, too.

Stairs, path, and railing have been restored at the Frog Island Access

Try out the river in Ypsilanti and visit Frog Island. This section features mature tree canopy, newly restored fish habitat, and an unimpeded paddle trip into Ford Lake. Put in below Dixboro Dam, paddle the meandering river past the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital campus, portage the Superior Dam and Pen Park Dam, and see Ypsilanti from the water before taking out at Frog Island. Or start your trip at Frog Island and paddle past Riverside Park and Waterworks Park before entering Ford Lake. Paddle the upper end of the lake before taking out at Loon Feather Park. For a longer trip, paddle Ford Lake and take out at the new dam portage into North Hydro Park.

Ypsilanti Fall River Day on Sunday, October 9th offers a great opportunity to see the city by water in your own kayak or rent one that day.

Before your paddle, check out our podcast series that profiles three waterfront locations in Ypsilanti each with an important role in the city’s position as an automotive powerhouse:

• The Faircliffe Home on Ford Lake
• Motor Wheel
• Water Street

Learn more about the Automotive Heritage Trail District.

HRWC leads this RiverUp! project, in cooperation with the City of Ypsilanti. Thanks to Bill Kinley for championing this project, with support from the Walter J. Weber Jr. Family, and many individual donors. Much gratitude to Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Margolis Landscaping for the many hours of labor and materials generously given to this renovation. Thanks to all of the community volunteers who kicked off the work in November 2015.

Paddle Ypsi!

Explore the scenic Huron River in Milford

The natural beauty of the Upper Huron can be explored by kayak, canoe, paddle board, or tube, and the gentle flowing river can be enjoyed by beginners to advanced paddlers alike.

The Huron River at Norton Creek in Milford.

Milford is proud of its heritage and connection to the Huron River, and boasting two liveries plus being a designated Trail Town, Milford is a destination for paddling recreation.  Many times during the summer months I venture out to paddle, sometimes with my husband in our tandem kayak, and sometimes on my own in my single person kayak.

A turtle enjoys the sunshine in the Huron River in Milford.

When I am with my husband in our tandem kayak, we usually start in Proud Lake Recreation Area, and finish at Kent Lake.  During the journey we are often greeted by many turtles sunning themselves on logs, swans, ducks, and herons.  Dragonflies land on our kayak to hitch a ride with us. Looking down into the clear water fish can be seen darting about.  Other paddlers pass and wave or smile with a friendly hello.  Tubers float without a care in the world, and anglers in boats or on the shore wait for their bait to be nabbed.  We pass by natural areas, and lovely waterfront homes in the Village of Milford. Central Park is a good place to take a break, or take a short stroll and visit downtown Milford.

Tunnel under railroad near Central Park in Milford.

If continuing on downstream, portaging over Hubbell Dam is simple enough, but helpful if there is a buddy or other kind paddler to assist in taking your vessel over.  After that you will be rewarded with seeing the part of the river that feels more like you are up north in a less populated area as you paddle through the wooded shorelines of Kensington Metropark. The river opens up to Kent Lake, where beautiful water lilies abound.

A beautiful water lily from Kent Lake decorates my kayak.

The Huron River in Milford is calm enough that one can paddle upstream, so you do not necessarily have to worry about where to park your car or drop off your kayak or canoe. Just park at a launch site, and you can paddle upstream and then back downstream, or vice versa.  There are many options for paddling short or long distances, from 0.9 river miles to 8+ river miles. You can opt to stay near the Trail Town, or venture out to see the river in the natural areas of Proud Lake Recreation Area or Kensington Metropark.

View an interactive map of the Huron River in Milford and plan your next paddle trip there.

Have fun, stay safe with these TIPS from the Trail!

Join HRWC for Huron River Appreciation Day, Sunday July 10! Come along on a guided trip of the Huron River Water Trail in Dexter, paddle the Lower Huron from Flat Rock or paddle to Milford from Proud Lake, hear a talk on paddling safety and get a free life jacket, hear a river history talk or learn to fly fish! Sponsored by TOYOTA.

Try Fishing a Stretch of the Huron’s Productive Waters

I love to explore the watershed and hunt for fish habitat. The Huron River watershed is full of great habitat for a variety of species including sport fishes like small and large-mouth bass, rock bass, perch, steelhead, walleye and pike, and many other unique and diverse species. I like to fly fish the river and some of the larger tributaries for bass because bass are aggressive predators and strong fighters and I enjoy trying to mimic their prey. I am getting better at actually catching them, and our productive river is a good teacher with its wide gentle flow and lots of good hidey holes for big and small fish alike. Mostly, I just like the peaceful time to stand in the flow and take in the sights and sounds of life along the river.

Fly fish the Huron River.

Now that my kids are bigger, I have started taking each of them along with me. Both enjoy different aspects of the experience. Foster likes to think like a fish, while Ally likes being in the water and perfecting her casting skill.

One of our favorite places to fish is along Riverside Park in Ypsilanti. The river is wide there and fairly easy to navigate. We usually start by paying a visit to Schultz Outfitters to get the low down on river conditions and what the fish are feeding on. They have lots of great flies to fill our bait boxes as well. This stretch of the river has LOTS of bass! Most of them are on the small side, but since the RiverUp! restoration project was completed, the guides have been seeing some larger catch.

Ally with her first lake fish

There are other great places to fish along the river. There is really good lake fishing in many of the in-line lakes throughout the watershed, and many river runs near Milford, Dexter, Ann Arbor, and Flat Rock. One of our most memorable times was when my wife caught her first fish while we were canoeing upstream of Barton Pond. She was so excited that she screamed and frightened then 2-year-old Ally.

Have fun, stay safe with these TIPS from the Trail!

Join HRWC for Huron River Appreciation Day, Sunday July 10! Come along on a guided trip of the Huron River Water Trail in Dexter, paddle the Lower Huron from Flat Rock or paddle to Milford from Proud Lake, hear a talk on paddling safety and get a free life jacket, hear a river history talk or learn to fly fish! 

Huron River Appreciation Day is sponsored by TOYOTA.