A New Name!
Huron to Erie Waterways for Wildlife Project

The new Huron to Erie Waterways for Wildlife Project builds on ten years of the successful 
St. Clair River Waterways for Wildlife Project, and extends the reach from Lake Huron 
all the way down to Lake Erie.

Business Plan
The Huron to Erie Waterways for Wildlife Project Business Plan is being revised. The following working document summarizes our path, as we gather input from business leaders, conservationists, and other community members to determine a strategy for expanding quality habitat for wildlife in the Huron to Erie corridor.

The Great Straits
Huron to Erie Waterways for Wildlife Project — Plan Outline, Fall 2005

Background
In 1995, Wildlife Habitat Council initiated the St. Clair River Waterways for Wildlife Project with the generous support of Detroit Edison, Ontario Hydro, Terra International, Environment Canada, and the Joyce Foundation. The project’s purpose was to engage an international coalition of individuals, corporations, conservation organizations, and public agencies in a voluntary, coordinated effort to enhance habitat for wildlife in the St. Clair River basin.

In the decade from 1995 to 2005, the St. Clair River Waterways for Wildlife Project successfully linked people and groups for habitat protection and enhancement, played a role in several important restoration efforts, provided conservation education through the schools and to the wider public, and most recently, published the acclaimed Explore Our Natural World: A Biodiversity Atlas of the Lake Huron to Lake Erie Corridor. The area covered by WHC-certified corporate habitat programs in the St. Clair River basin grew substantially over this period.

At the same time, our region’s biodiversity continues to be challenged like never before. The straits connecting Lake Huron to Lake Erie are contaminated by combined sewage overflows with each intense rainstorm, and by excess nutrients from non-point sources. Rapid residential and commercial development shrinks and isolates habitat, while also increasing the storm-water runoff that threatens aquatic systems. Awareness is growing, and several encouraging partnerships have been launched to address some of these issues. Companies, which own a large part of the local landscape, can play a leading role in its management for wildlife. This project is designed to encourage that participation and make it beneficial to all involved.

The Huron to Erie Waterways for Wildlife Project
WHC plans to build on the work of the earlier St. Clair River Project via three key strategies:

1. Substantially increase the acreage of habitat enhancement on corporate lands, targeting sites within the entire Lake Huron to Lake Erie corridor (thus adding the drainages of Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River to our geographic focus).     
2. Encourage the use of the Biodiversity Atlas in a variety of settings, especially in local area high schools.     
3. Celebrate corporate commitment to habitat enhancement in the corridor, and promote public understanding of the region’s biodiversity and companies’ role in protecting and restoring it.