On June 21st, the DRCC hosted the 7th annual Detroit River Evening with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and other DRCC partners at the Windsor Yacht Club. The event started with the screening of the short Canada150 video ‘Eau Canada,’ developed by Canadian Heritage Rivers and singing O’ Canada. This video features the Detroit River and DRCC staff.
Claire Sanders, Detroit River Remedial Action Plan Coordinator provided updates on 2016/17 projects, and announced the release of both the 2016/17 Annual Report and the 2016/17 Pathway to Delisting. This is the working document that guides and inventories remediation action for the Detroit River. Tom Henderson, the DRCC Public Advisory Council Chair discussed issues such as cuts to GLRI funding, the Ojibway Shores property and the General Chemical site in Amherstburg.
Recovery of the Lake Sturgeon population in the Detroit River is a remarkable story. James Boase, Fish Biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service provided an excellent presentation discussing the keystone species and research that is being done to monitor and understand the population recovery.
With so many partners collecting a variety of information and research on different issues related to the Detroit River, there was a need for an innovative way to track it, map it and make it available for researchers and agencies to use and collaborate. In 2015, the University of Windsor took on this challenge. Alice Grgicak-Mannion from the Great Lakes Institute of Environmental Research provided an informative presentation on the Delist Areas of Concern (AOC) Metadata and Mapping System tool.
They keynote speaker, Marty Gervais is an award winning journalist, photographer, poet, playwright, historian, editor and teacher. His stories about the Detroit River are fascinating and show that the river does define the Windsor Essex community in it’s cultural, social, historical and natural heritage significance. Marty reminded everyone that when we share stories about the Detroit River, we can care for it.
The DRCC would like to thank everyone involved in the restoration of the Detroit River. This includes the multiple partners, organizations, businesses, active citizens and other supporters for another year’s work on cleanup initiatives. The DRCC would also like to thank all of the presenters, and especially for Marty Gervais for coming out and spending the evening with us talking about the Detroit River. Last, thank you to the Windsor Yacht Club for the accommodations, service, food and wonderful venue.
