City museum lands grant for Rouge project

The Birmingham Museum has received a Community Impact grant of $71,000 from the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan for a special project to enhance the public experience of the Rouge ecosystem.

The project will focus on the environmental and cultural importance of native plants, past and present. Museum Director Leslie Pielack developed the project as a unique collaboration of partners who are connected to the Rouge and its history.

The project will achieve several objectives:Invasive plants such as buckthorn and phragmites will be removed from museum grounds, and Michigan native plants will be reintroduced around the natural pond with seating and interpretive QR-coded markers; surviving native plants along the Rouge Trail in Birmingham will also be identified with QR markers; and the markers will feature Indigenous interpretation of the plants, their traditional uses and cultural importance.

“The Rouge River corridor was part of the homelands of the Anishinaabe peoples of Michigan in the years before European settlement here,” said Pielack. “The Anishinaabeg (Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi) were displaced by encroaching settlement and treaties in the early 1800s, and their communities are now located further west and north in Michigan.”

Pielack added that their traditional lifeways utilize careful resource management and learning about them can raise awareness of sustainable environmental practice for Birmingham residents today. “We want to bring our Indigenous history back to the Rouge through this project by incorporating Anishinaabe language, traditions and perspective on the natural world and our relationship to it. We are different cultures in different times, but the Rouge River ecosystem matters to all of us.”

The two-year project grew out of the Birmingham Museum’s 2018 Landscape Master Plan and reflects recent interest in our area’s Indigenous heritage, preserving the health of the Rouge River ecosystem and enhancing the community’s recreational experience. It will be implemented through a partnership with the Friends of the Rouge, who will use teams of volunteers to remove invasive plants on the museum site and plant Michigan natives according to a landscape design that will provide barrier-free access to the gardens and pond.

The museum will also work with Birmingham’s Parks and Recreation Department to install the interpretive markers along 1.5 miles of trails along the Rouge River.

"The parks and recreation department is excited to partner with the Birmingham Museum and other community partners on a project that brings together environmental stewardship, education and cultural heritage in a truly meaningful way,” said Birmingham Parks and Recreation Manager Carrie Laird. “By restoring native habitat, improving the health of the Rouge River ecosystem, and sharing Indigenous knowledge through innovative interpretive experiences, we are creating an opportunity for visitors to connect more deeply with the natural and cultural history of this special place. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to preserving and enhancing Birmingham's parks while providing engaging, accessible experiences that will benefit residents and visitors for generations to come."  

The QR coded online educational material will identify the plants and their ecological contributions as well as provide information about traditional Indigenous uses and cultural importance. Indigenous consultants will help develop the content, and the Birmingham Museum will utilize museum standards to create the online content for a wide public audience. By using low-physical-impact QR codes, visitors can access information at their leisure in a personalized way without the undue distraction of signage, and the barrier-free design will make visiting the museum’s native plant gardens more widely accessible. As a bonus, the museum garden can serve as a model of landscape use of native plants. Visitors can see and experience the various plants “at work.”

Cyndi Ross, restoration manager for Friends of the Rouge, highlighted the importance of the collaborative project and the lasting benefits of planting native species. “Michigan native plants are naturally adapted to our local soils and climate, making them a sustainable choice that saves time, water and other resources,” Ross said. “Their deep root systems help absorb storm water, reducing downstream flooding and erosion while improving water quality.” Ross added that when people plant native species in their gardens, they're helping build healthier, more resilient ecosystems that provide essential habitat and food for birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators. “By restoring native landscapes, we're creating benefits that extend beyond individual gardens—to our communities, our wildlife and the long-term health of the Rouge River watershed.”

The native plant and Indigenous interpretation project will begin this summer with an inventory and plan for the removal of invasives, which will begin this fall and continue into 2027. Although it is a separate project, it will be coordinated with the installation of barrier free paths and a boardwalk along the east and south shore of the museum’s pond, which is part of the ongoing improvements to make the museum grounds more accessible and preserve the natural and historic features of the site.

“There’s going to be a lot going on around the pond over the next few years,” Pielack said. “There will also be opportunities for people in our community to volunteer to help the Friends of the Rouge with their part of the project.” Updates will be available on the museum’s social media accounts and at bhamgov.org/museum as more information becomes available.