Candidate sites for habitat protection and restoration were operationally defined as parcels of vacant riparian land, visible on the Army Corps of Engineer’s 1996 digital ortho photographs of the Detroit River. Fifteen low altitude aerial photographs, converted to Mr Sid format, were loaded into ArcView 3.2a software for viewing and analysis. The ortho-rectified photographs overlapped seamlessly within the geographic information system (GIS) to form a complete mosaic of the river (Figure 3). The resulting mosaic was examined and interpreted for areas of possible fish and wildlife habitat. Criteria for candidate site selection were: (1) any land adjacent to the Detroit River that was green; (2) land that had some level of development or disturbance but may have the potential for habitat restoration and remediation; and (3) near shore and inland aquatic environments that currently provide fish and wildlife habitat or may have potential for habitat restoration and remediation.

All sites meeting these criteria were marked by a yellow dot in the GIS. Close-up aerial photos of the sites were produced to aid in subsequent field verification. Each site was then visited from public rights of way to verify its location and to record field data consisting of exact coordinates, color photographs of the site’s shoreline, street address, landform, wetland characteristics, vegetation, soils, presence of wildlife, approximate size and ownership, land use classification, habitat quality rating, adjacent land uses, number of photographs taken, and general comments. Sites were numbered from North to South by location and given a name. At each site, coordinates were recorded with a Trimble GeoExplorer GPS unit and photographs were taken with an Olympus Stylus Zoom115 35mm digital camera. Sites that were inaccessible by car were visited by boat, data were collected and assessments were made just offshore in public waters. After all sites were visited and all pertinent field data were collected, the data were entered into a spreadsheet for comparison and analysis.

GPS positions were differentially corrected using data from the Michigan State University base station website into GPS Pathfinder Office 2.70 software. The corrected positions were then converted to a shapefile and overlain on the digital ortho photographs in Arcview to indicate the exact location of each candidate site. After site locations were established, a polygon shapefile was created to delineate the approximate boundaries (Figure 3). Lines were drawn to define the approximate size, area, and geographic extent of each site, as it appeared to the photo interpreter. Legal and political boundaries were given secondary consideration. Information on the legal and tax descriptions for the land parcels comprising the sites was collected primarily from the Wayne County Register of Deeds, the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office, and the City of Detroit Information Technology Services Department. This information was entered into a spreadsheet along with the field data to create a master index of candidate site attribute data. This spreadsheet was linked to the candidate sites’ GPS coordinates as an attribute table in the GIS environment. From this geospatial database, this product and a map poster were produced.

Each site was subjectively classified as either “protected productive” or “unprotected productive”, based on photographs taken at the site, evidence of existing fish or wildlife populations, and public records of site ownership. “Productive” meant evidence of fish or wildlife production was observed during site visits. “Protected” or “Unprotected” meant a site was either in public or in private ownership, respectively.