front cover of Bringing Conservation to Cities
Bringing Conservation to Cities
Lessons from Building the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge
John H. Hartig
Michigan State University Press, 2014
There is growing interest in re-connecting urban residents with nature, but most conservationists want to work in pristine areas, and most urban areas are considered too degraded to rank high on conservation priority lists. Bringing Conservation to Cities is a timely and informative exposé of what it takes to foster a conservation ethic in a major urban area—complete with critical lessons learned—and to simultaneously inspire and develop the next generation of urban conservationists. The book explores the new urban conservation frontier, with its numerous challenges and opportunities, and fosters more urban conservation initiatives throughout the world.
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front cover of Ecosystem-Based Management of Laurentian Great Lakes Areas of Concern
Ecosystem-Based Management of Laurentian Great Lakes Areas of Concern
Three Decades of U.S. - Canadian Cleanup and Recovery
John H. Hartig
Michigan State University Press, 2021
This volume provides an in-depth look at the remediation and restoration of the forty three most polluted areas of the Great Lakes called Areas of Concern (AOCs). This binational restoration effort is unique in that it has fostered use of locally designed ecosystem approaches to restoring impaired beneficial uses as called for in the Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. In total, thirty-seven Canadian and U.S. scientists contributed to this comprehensive evaluation of what has been achieved and learned from over three decades of remediation and restoration efforts. This book will be an excellent resource to researchers, resource managers, university faculty, and students within the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, and others interested in restoring degraded aquatic ecosystems throughout the world. No other volume or textbook provides such a comprehensive evaluation of AOCs. A foreword is provided by Dianne Saxe, former environmental commissioner of Ontario. Leading primary contributors include J. H. Hartig, M. Munawar, L. Richman, S. W. Pickard, M. L. Tuchman, R. Stewart, J. Ridgway, R. K. Sherman, N. T. French, K. C. Williams, G. Krantzberg, and C. McLaughlin.
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front cover of Great Lakes Champions
Great Lakes Champions
Grassroots Efforts to Clean Up Polluted Watersheds
John H. Hartig
Michigan State University Press, 2022
The Great Lakes—containing one-fifth of the standing freshwater on earth, covering some 94,250 square miles with a combined 10,210 miles of shoreline—have suffered greatly from human use and abuse since the advent of the commercial fur trade in the late 1600s. Logging destroys or degrades habitats, urbanization and industrialization pour human and industrial wastes into the water, fertilizers flowing off farm fields feed algae that suffocate other creatures, and ships bring in exotic species that decimate the lakes’  biodiversity. In 1985 when the International Joint Commission identified more than forty pollution hotspots around the lakes, few people had faith the Areas of Concern would be  cleaned up in their lifetime. Indeed, aquatic ecosystem restoration is extremely difficult: only nine of these hotspots have been removed from the infamous list. But progress is being made, and at the helm are local champions, people with a profound love of the region who lead by example and build broad, diverse coalitions in order to realize a common vision. The stories of fourteen of these champions are told here to inspire necessary action to care for the place they call home, so it may be a home to many living creatures for ages yet to come.
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front cover of Rouge River Revived
Rouge River Revived
How People Are Bringing Their River Back to Life
John H. Hartig and Jim Graham, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 2022
The Rouge River is a mostly urbanized watershed of about 500 square miles populated by nearly 1.4 million people. While not geographically large, the river has played an outsized role in the history of southeast Michigan, most famously housing Ford Motor Company’s massive Rouge Factory, designed by architect Albert Kahn and later memorialized in Diego Rivera’s renowned “Detroit Industry” murals. In recent decades, the story of the Rouge River has also been one of grassroots environmental activism. After pollution from the Ford complex and neighboring factories literally caused the river to catch on fire in 1969, community groups launched a Herculean effort to restore and protect the watershed. Today the Rouge stands as one of the most successful examples of urban river revival in the country.

Rouge River Revived describes the river’s history from pre-European times into the 21st century. Chapters cover topics such as Native American life on the Rouge; indigenous flora and fauna over time; the river’s role in the founding of local cities; its key involvement in Detroit’s urban development and intensive industrialization; and the dramatic clean-up arising from citizen concern and activism. This book is not only a history of the environment of the Rouge River, but also of the complex and evolving relationship between humans and natural spaces.
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front cover of Waterfront Porch
Waterfront Porch
Reclaiming Detroit's Industrial Waterfront as a Gathering Place for All
John H. Hartig
Michigan State University Press, 2019
Detroit was the epicenter of the fur trade era, an unparalleled leader of shipbuilding for one hundred years, the Silicon Valley of the industrial age, and the unquestioned leader of the arsenal of democracy. This unique history depicts Detroit as a city of innovation, resilience, and leadership in responding to change, and examines the current sustainability paradigm shift to which Detroit is responding, pivoting as the city has done in the past to redefine itself and lead the nation and world down a more sustainable path. This book details the building of a new waterfront porch alongside the Detroit River called the Detroit RiverWalk to help revitalize the city and region and promote sustainability practices. It is a story of one of the largest, by scale, urban waterfront redevelopment projects in the United States, and gives hope and proves that Detroit and its metropolitan region have a bright future.
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