Robert Burns glides along the Detroit River, nodding to the fishermen
and marine engineers he passes en route from Grosse Ile toward
downtown. The sun glints off the water. Canada geese fly overheard. The
surface is calm. However, most of his workdays are not this idyllic:
"I’m out here all year: freezing cold, snow, rain …," he shouts over
the roar of the boat’s engine. He’s the Riverkeeper, ecological
guardian of the Detroit River, as well as educator, scientist and
facilitator of eco-friendly riverfront development.
Burns, who was appointed Riverkeeper by
Friends of the Detroit River
in fall 2002, captains a SeaArk: a flat, lake-green, 20-foot commercial
fishing boat. The Riverkeeper Program is part of the Waterkeeper
Alliance, a national movement that puts a fixed set of eyes and ears to
watch over the health of a waterway.
"The water is a little
clearer today," Burns says on a recent excursion. He is alert to the
slightest changes. He monitors the quality of the water, the color of
it; he checks the temperature for unusual changes.
He drives
the boat close to the shore of Grassy Island, closely scanning the
water, while he explains contaminated mud was used to fill in the
marshes on the island. "The island’s toxic. Run off into the river is
blocked around the shore, but it’s important to keep an eye on the
water quality around here, just in case." He slows down near some
floating objects that turn out to just be small pieces of wood. "Have
to keep my eye out for floating fish. DNR have found a lot of
muskellunge lately." The DNR, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Riverkeeper
collaborate on all Detroit river-related environmental concerns. As we
pass Fighting Island, he points out that bald eagles have begun nesting
there.
It shows in Robert Burns' work that he has a keen
knowledge and intimate appreciation of the river’s wildlife, beauty and
the symbiotic relationship the city has with the river. He grew up on
Grosse Ile hunting, fishing, camping and exploring the islands and
marshlands around the lower Detroit River. He had a long career in
marine construction and engineering and has been involved in many
projects up and down the river. He explains that there is a
misconception that the needs of industry, community and the environment
are incompatible: "Industry has been integral to the development and
livelihood of this region for well over a hundred years."
He
stops at a Wyandotte dock to post a sign, with contact numbers to
report debris, pollution and toxic spills. Encouraging boater
participation in stewardship of the river is an important part of his
charge. "People want to help. This way they know exactly who to call if
they see something suspicious."
As he screws the sign in a
centrally visible post, he moves on to explain his consultation work
with riverside developers. "I show them the benefit of including a more
natural, graded shoreline." He illustrates with a nod to the rusty
sheet-metal break wall on one side of the marina, and then directs my
attention toward the limestone rocks gradually descending into the water
next to the boat. "Just that small effort can allow a habitat to
develop ... so creatures like that groundhog can thrive," he says, gesturing toward the small creature standing on the limestone. "It is
just so much more attractive than a breakwall." He smiles as he drives
the boat into the sun and further toward downtown.
Healthy river, healthy city
Burns has a vivid and practical understanding of the connection between
a healthy river and increased riverfront property values and tax
revenue: "The more time people spend near the water, the clearer it
becomes that the ecological health of the river and the economical
health of the city are intertwined."
As the river has become
cleaner over the last couple of decades, riverfront plans utilizing
this great asset have flourished with new restaurants, shops, luxury
apartments and condominiums being built, as well as the RiverWalk along the East Riverfront. As pollution regulations have
become stricter, river-oriented recreational activities have also
flourished. The city’s first triathlon, for example, is planned at the
end of June on Belle Isle, and hundreds of racers will swim in the river. The notion still surprises some, but if the
river weren’t clean, the race would be unthinkable.
Boating, sport
fishing as well as other recreational activities add millions of
dollars to the Michigan economy each year. Detroit is becoming a bigger
player in this industry: It has become the second city in the nation in
fishing rod sales; it offers seven public boat launches and 11 boat
clubs along the river; and for those without their own boat, two local
companies, Bray and Second Heaven, offer fishing boat chartering on the
river. Clearly the river is no longer being treated as just a cheap
receptacle of waste. It is becoming a contending source of Michigan’s
tourism revenue.
Protector of the waterIn
2002, before Burns was appointed Riverkeepr, there was a disaster: More
than 10,000 gallons of industrial-grade oil spilled from two facilities
along the Rouge River into the Detroit River. "Oil gushed for several
days before it was noticed by anyone." It flowed right by an ecological
emergency station that is able to close off the Rouge and stem any
toxic waste from reaching the Detroit River in the event of a spill.
Tragically,
nobody noticed it in time. There was nobody to notice. The spreading
oil affected habitats underwater and on nearby shores. The cleanup took
six days, and 42,000 gallons of water had to be removed from the river. "The spill’s impact on the dozens of species of fish and
waterfowl that live in the lower river is difficult to measure," Burns
says as he heads up the Rouge River.
The Friends of the Detroit River
(FDR) wanted to ensure that an oil spill like the one in 2002, which had been
so preventable, would never happen again. There were many
organizations with an interest in protecting the river, but there was
no single person whose main charge was to patrol and monitor its
ecological well-being. In late 2002, the group discovered the
Waterkeeper Alliance.
The organization had a mission similar to its own, and the Alliance had a solution for the FDR: the Riverkeeper Program.
The Riverkeeper concept was
developed in 1966 by Robert Boyle, a prominent outdoor writer and
President of the Hudson River Fisherman’s Association. He was inspired
with this solution when the local fishing industry had been rocked by a
ban the State of New York had placed on striped bass found to contain
high levels of PCBs.
Boyle knew they needed someone on the
water to uncover the water pollution issues, to
be the "eyes and ears" of the Hudson River. So he modified a tradition from the British Isles. In England and Scotland, estates and
private clubs would engage a steward to look after their trout and
salmon streams. With commercial fishing on the Hudson providing
the livelihood for a large part of the local population, a guardian of
its ecological health had become imperative.
Since the
organization’s inception, the Hudson Riverkeeper, John Cronin, working
with Robert Kennedy Jr., has won a number of battles against major
polluters along the river’s shores. The concept has caught on across
North America and there are currently 160 Waterkeeper associations, and
over 100,000 members.
The Detroit River,
North America’s only International Wildlife Refuge and Heritage River,
is in good hands with Robert Burns. In addition to his river
monitoring, he brings local science classes out on the water for
tutorials on environmental research, educating future stewards of our
river.
Through the Friends of the Detroit River, he
periodically offers information-packed, slide-show lectures on the
history of the river; runs a storm-drain labeling campaign; sponsors an
annual Detroit River Clean Up Event, works with private, public and
corporate land owners to create conservation easements and redevelop
existing resources to be both ecologically sustainable as well as
economically viable. A program is in the works to help target sensitive
inland wetlands, creating a process to insure continued protection for
storm water mitigation and wildlife habitat.
One of the most
significant goals of the Riverkeeper program, in concert with Friends of
the Detroit River, is the reduction of combined sewer overflow and
sanitary sewer overflow discharges to the Detroit River, especially
important since the Rouge has the largest single-site sewage facility
in the world.
With greater concern for the Detroit River and the
Riverkeeper monitoring the waters, evidence of the continuing
ecological recovery of the Detroit River has become tangible. Our
shores have become habitats for reproducing populations of peregrine
falcons and bald eagles; our cleaner waters have allowed lake sturgeon
and walleye to thrive, garnering worldwide attention from the
sport-fishing media. Last fall, scientists from federal agencies
documented spawning lake whitefish and fertilized whitefish eggs in the
Detroit River, the first documented spawning of the fish in the river
since 1916. The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge reports
that this whitefish recovery is helping transform the river into an
internationally recognized wildlife refuge and is already drawing
tourists from all over Michigan and Ontario.
The
Riverkeeper will be patrolling the waters for these new tourists, for
the nesting eagles, for the many migrating birds, the residents,
fisherman, the ground hogs and riverfront developers, for all of the
new and old visitors to the Detroit River.
For more information on the program or to contact the Riverkeeper, e-mail [email protected].
Photos:
Robert Burns on the Detroit River
Looking upriver from Downtown Detroit towards Belle Isle
Robert Burns in his boat
Fishing on the Detroit River
Sailing on the Detroit River
All Photographs Copyright Dave Krieger