Rouge Rundown – October 18, 2023 – Haunted Paddle | Last Call for Native Plants | Bug Hunt | Master Rain Gardener & More!
October 18, 2023 ROUGE RUNDOWN
A Haunted Paddle Trip on the Rouge
You are invited to join the spooky, fun, one-of-a-kind, Haunted Paddle Trip, this Saturday, October 21, 10am – 1pm, from Dearborn Hills Golf Course to Ford Field Park in Dearborn! For more information and to register for this special event, use the link below.
Fall is here and the time is just right to build a clean water future! You are invited to join one of the last fall volunteer events at Lanita’s Pocket Park in Detroit this coming Saturday, October 21, from 11am-2pm. Click the link to below to make an impact.
You Can Claim the Last Native Plant Flats of the Season!
If you are still looking for native plants for fall 2023, check out some of the native plant vendors who still have plants to offer! A warm thanks to everyone who ordered a plant kit or came out to the Fall Native Plant Market at the Keep Growing Detroit Farm on Oct 7th to support local native plant growers!
Dedicated Volunteers Brave the Rain to Look for Bugs
The Rouge River is lucky to have volunteers who value the river so much that they show up rain or shine! Last Saturday, around 65 volunteers donned rain gear and braved the cold pouring rain to sample 24 sites in 13 teams for the annual Fall Bug Hunt. For the first time since the pandemic, attendees gathered at the Plymouth Cultural Center before heading out, enjoying fellowship and food and an introduction before going out with their team.
Make a resolution to sign up for the next monitoring event: the Winter Stonefly Search on January 20, 2024.
Join the ever growing community of Master Rain Gardeners across Southeast Michigan! Protect your home against flooding and help birds, bees and butterflies with a RAIN garden! You’ll learn *everything* the instructors know about rain gardens. Registration is now open for winter 2024 virtual course beginning Jan 25th from 10am to noon. Sign up now for the early bird pricing.
On Friday, October 6, we received several reports of a large amount of foam in the river below the Fair Lane Estate Dam in Dearborn. Some foam is normal below the dam but not this much!! We instructed the observers to report the problem to the State’s Pollution Emergency Alert System Hotline (800-292-4706) and contacted Sue Thompson, FOTR Board Member and Wayne County Environmental Specialist.
It took a few days for Sue to track down the source of the problem since it originated upstream in Oakland County. The Oakland County Water Resources Office had received a report of foam in the river at Beech and Shiawassee and had done considerable investigation that led to a cosmetic company with leaking storage containers of concentrated organic shampoo. The company and state are working on a cleanup and the foam is being analyzed by the state. A big thank you to the vigilant observers who reported this and to the counties for tracking it down and getting it addressed. If you see something suspicious in the river, don’t hesitate to report it.
Do you have a rain garden, rain barrel, or pollinator garden in your yard? Are you interested in seeing what green solutions your neighbors have created? It’s time to visit the MAP!
Explore the new Rainscaping in Southeast Michigan map to discover where rain gardens and other green solutions are in your neighborhood. Then, put YOUR “dot” on the map as you join the green solution crowd.
Merriman Hollow Native Pollinator Garden: Volunteer on Saturdays
On Saturdays during September and October, from 9 am to 12 pm, join the fun at Merriman Hollow. Experience the award-winning native demonstration garden – a feast for your senses – as you volunteer to keep this pollinator hot spot vibrant. Join the fun on Hines Drive at the Merriman entrance between Ann Arbor Trail and Warren (the same entrance used for the December Holiday light show).
Leave the leaves is a message about what you can do in your own yard to help out endangered pollinators and other beneficial insects over the winter. It’s so easy! You can help the good guys MORE this year by doing LESS work! Just leave the leaves right where they fall – especially in shrub and flower beds. A lot of beautiful and important living things spend their winter in and under the leaves. By letting them be, you can save the bees!
