This inventory identified 104 candidate sites to be considered for habitat protection and restoration, totaling 3,433 acres (ac). Thirty-nine of these sites, covering 1,578 ac, were in private ownership. Public lands were mostly parks (24) and plots of land set aside through the Grosse Ile Open Space Program (9). Thirteen islands were identified in the Detroit River as candidate sites. Of those, 6 were owned by either federal state, or city government. Ten of the public sites contained aquatic habitat; 7 of them were on Belle Isle and 2 are owned by the Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy. Four public sites were classified as brownfields. Private land was owned mostly by business, industry, and utility companies (26 sites). Thirteen sites were owned by private citizens or conservation groups. Seven sites were either islands or private land located on an island. Four sites were classified as aquatic habitat and 10 as privately owned brownfields. In total, we found 2,704 ac of terrestrial habitat and 732 ac of aquatic habitat that may have potential for restoration and protection.

The Michigan mainland of the Detroit River includes 32 miles of shoreline from its headwaters at Windmill Point to the mouth of the river. This study located 52 sites totaling 11.2 miles on the mainland. Within those sites, 4.2 miles (38%) were armored with a concrete wall, 2.1 miles (19%) with concrete riprap, 1.9 miles (16%) with a steel wall, and the remaining 3 miles (27%) were natural, unarmored earthen shoreline (Figure 5). Less than 10% of the 32-mile mainland riverfront is undeveloped, unarmored, earthen shoreline.

Our survey also located a total of 38 sites on offshore islands in Michigan waters. Islands contained a total of 36.4 miles of river frontage. Of that offshore frontage, none of the shoreline was armored with concrete or steel bulkheads, 12.4 miles (34%) were reinforced with concrete or rock riprap and 24 miles (66%) were unarmored, earthen shoreline. An analysis of all 90 sites containing a total of 47.6 miles of mainland and offshore river frontage in Michigan waters revealed that 4.2 miles (9%) were reinforced with concrete bulkheads, 1.9 miles (4%) with concrete or rock riprap, and that 27.1 miles (57%) were unarmored, earthen shoreline.

We identified 30 “protected productive” candidate sites in public ownership, totaling 1,404 ac. Among these, 14 sites (777 ac) were on Grosse Ile, 9 sites (131 ac) on Belle Isle, 3 islands (209.6 ac) owned by the federal government, 2 islands (120 ac) owned by the state, and an island (2 ac) owned by the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority. Also, 12 candidate sites in private ownership and totaling 762 ac were identified as “unprotected productive”. Among these sites were 4 islands (about 93 ac), and 2 coastal marshes (127 ac). At all these sites, we observed numerous fish and/or wildlife resources.

Comparison of 1996 digital ortho photographs (Figure 3) with an 1815 map of the Detroit River reveals that less than 3% of the original, coastal wetlands remain in Michigan waters of the Detroit River.