Rouge River Gateway Project and Oxbow Restoration

Established in 1999, the Rouge River Gateway Partnership is dedicated to restoring the ecosystem of the lower Rouge River. This unique public-private partnership aims to provide public access to the river for recreation and education while celebrating its history and culture.

One of the partnership's first projects was to restore the western-most oxbow of the Rouge River, located near The Henry Ford, on the west side of the Rouge River Channel. The restoration of the historic oxbow provides habitat for fish and wildlife, while providing educational opportunities for the hundreds-of-thousands of people who visit The Henry Ford each year.
The restored oxbow is a unique recreational and education destination along the Rouge River and its greenway trail system. The project will be further enhanced in two subsequent phases:

• Relocating a combined sewer overflow discharge pipe that impacts the oxbow (to be completed spring 2007); and
• Establishing a greenway trail system all the way to the Detroit River, connecting the developed portions of Greenfield Village to the wetlands, oxbow, and channel portion of the Rouge River (portions completed Fall 2005, others under development).

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Renderings courtesy of Hamilton Anderson Associates.

> Next Greenway

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Aerial views of the current state of the Rouge river highlight past solutions to industrial concerns