As a Detroit resident, I hear a lot about the city’s cliches. We always start football season with a refreshed sense of hope for the Lions, we have potholes that swallow cars, and everyone has concerned eyebrows when I tell them I live in the same city that rap music star Eminem comes from. My name is Madeline Drury, I use she/her pronouns, and I’m a park ranger at the last undeveloped, natural mile of the Detroit River on the U.S. mainland.
As a park ranger and passionate nature nerd, I intentionally incorporate other topics into Detroit-area reputation conversations, both in and out of the office. Those topics include nature, our local watershed, and the many dedicated conservation efforts happening in and around the city.
Thanks to Detroit’s location along the incredible Detroit River, and other factors, I’m constantly surprised at the presence of flora
and fauna of our city: bald eagles nest on Belle Isle and soar where factories once stood, during migration season Kirtland’s warblers gain a lot of attention downtown, and an incredible range of fish species are reeled in with the glow of the Renaissance Center reflecting off the water. For many Detroiters, these are regular interactions with stunning examples of the natural world–even in a metropolitan hub.
Along the beloved Detroit River, about twenty miles south of the city, Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge exists as the only international wildlife refuge in North America, just across the river from Canada. One way I share nature knowledge with my Detroit-area neighbors is by sharing that the refuge exists. It’s almost like we are an unintentionally well-kept secret that I’m now committed to sharing with every Detroiter.
Established in 2001 as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge includes more than 6,000 acres of restored factory land that lies along a critical migratory bird pathway. The Refuge Gateway is one of many discontinuous areas that the agency revitalized from a post-industrial brownfield after the refuge was established. It's also home to Humbug Marsh and is categorized as federal lands directly lateral from the city of Detroit. The area boasts trails open from sunup to sundown. The refuge has a free visitor center with a team of dedicated staff who welcomed more than 18,000 visitors in 2023, and the refuge offers a 740-foot fishing pier that’s ripe with walleye, perch, northern pike, and largemouth bass—as well as anglers from all walks of life.
In addition to critically important conservation work, the refuge team is also committed to welcoming and engaging everyone from across the Detroit metro area. Our team shares the nature-loving messages and interpretation specific to the Detroit River through offering regular field trips with schools and youth-serving organizations, facilitating a wide variety of free public programs, and maintaining specifically groomed trails with mowed edges, just to name a few examples. Whether it’s how we welcome visitors or maintain the grounds, we have nature newcomers and future conservationists of all ages in mind.
Three Park Rangers (from left: Alex, Erika, and Maddie), also known as the DRYFTies, are the primary educational interpreters for the Detroit River Youth Fishing Team. Photo by Janine Lajavic, USFWS.
Leading with Positive Outdoor Experiences
Our newest youth-focused program is the Detroit River Youth Fishing Team, known by the acronym DRYFT, and pronounced “drift.” Funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the purpose of this program is to connect youth from local communities to their watershed, create opportunities to fish, and build confidence in the outdoors via a variety of hands-on experiences.
Inspired by Trout Unlimited’s Stream Girls Initiative, we facilitate a wide range of programs, from tabling at resource fairs to hosting hours-long fishing camps. Regardless of the program topic or design, a primary goal is to get local young people thinking about water and wildlife in creative ways. Myself and two other park rangers, affectionately referred to as “DRYFTies” (yes, like Taylor Swift super fans, the “Swifties”), facilitate lessons in basic fishing skills and water-based interpretation.
In our most popular two-hour program, “Fishing 101,” participants learn how to rig fishing poles, tie an improved clinch knot, navigate tackle box tools, and, ideally, catch fish. Participants also learn to identify species and gain other confidence-building skills. Another program, “A Day in the Life of a Fish Biologist,” gives middle- and high-school aged youth different hands-on experiences in fish collection and identification with a particular focus on career opportunities. Regardless of the skill objectives, DRYFT’s intent is to offer a positive outdoor experience that increases a person's confidence to recreate outside.
Park Ranger Maddie holds a small fish for two Girl Scout Brownies to view and touch on a fishing pier at a metro-Detroit park. Photo by Erika Van Kirk, USFWS.
Park Ranger DRYFTies bring this trailer full of fishing gear all around metro Detroit communities to make fishing more accessible in local parks. Photo by Erika Van Kirk, USFWS
Big Ideas with Small Hooks
Along with the refuge’s unique urban focus, a notably interdisciplinary group was at the heart of our first season. DRYFT was designed, funded, and implemented almost entirely by a network of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service women:
- In addition to myself, the park ranger DRYFTies include Erika Van Kirk (she/her) and Alex Gilford (he/him). Together, the three of us organize and facilitate day-to-day operations and programs.
- Visitor Services Manager, Jody DeMeyere (she/her), created foundational partnerships, designed the initial program, and crafted grant applications.
- Lead Outdoor Education Program Specialist, Paige Wigren (she/her), with the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan Council and a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife employee, designed and funded the initial program alongside Jody.
- Executive Director, Nicole LaFleur (she/her), with International Wildlife Refuge Alliance, secured grants, including funding to support the DRYFT equipment, programming, and DRYFT team hiring.
- Biological Science Technician, Janine Lajavic (she/her), and Biological Science Technician Eric Adams (he/him) both work at the Detroit River Substation of the Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. They were instrumental in the design and implementation of the “A Day in the Life of a Fish Biologist” program.
- Branding illustrations used on the traveling DRYFT trailer and in field notebooks were created by Taaja Tucker (she/her), a Ypsilanti-based artist and biologist.
Young Girl Scout Peyton bravely holds nightcrawler bait that she used to fish off a pier. Photo by Madeline Drury, USFWS.
Thanks to the work of the women listed above, and the support of many more, we facilitated programs for nearly 800 young people and their families throughout metropolitan Detroit. In our first season, we primarily served Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan, though the program is not limited to only girls.
Some programs were hosted onsite at the refuge where young people were introduced to their home watershed, often for the first time. However, to make fishing and outdoor confidence-building even more accessible, the DRYFTies also regularly loaded up a trailer of gear and facilitated “Fishing 101” programs at parks across Southeast Michigan.
Thinking ahead to 2024, plans are already in motion to rigorously expand mutually beneficial, community-based partnerships with schools, libraries, and youth-serving organizations, especially in communities like Ecorse, Michigan.
Girl Scout and new angler Tiana shows off her freshly caught round goby after a brief discussion about invasive species in the Great Lakes region. Photo by Madeline Drury, USFWS.
Park Ranger Maddie teaches a group of young Girl Scouts how to tie a fisherman’s knot using a large rope at Stony Creek Metropark. Photo by Erika Van Kirk, USFWS.
Two metro Detroit area Daisy Girl Scouts share excitement and nervousness about touching a pumpkinseed in an observation box. Photo by Erika Van Kirk, USFWS.
Success Lives in Small Triumphs
Upon starting this job, I expected girls to be catching fish longer than they were tall. My expectations were high, and I wanted young participants to catch fish. Big fish! Other staff may have expected us to reach a higher number of families or have more events, but despite the statistics or miles traveled with the trailer, the real impact lies somewhere more intangible. In fact, even the number of fish captured isn’t the most important part—though several metro area Girl Scout participants may disagree.
Many newly recruited anglers felt the power of the DRYFT program through small, joyful experiences: touching a wriggly nightcrawler, releasing a slimy fish, or watching their neon-colored bobber dip below the water’s surface. There were long, hot days
when we didn’t catch any fish and other days when we caught pumpkinseeds smaller than the palm of my hand, but many girls still left smiling and giddy. The simplicity was beautiful.
On the staff side, my favorite moments took place when the Girl Scouts brought their brothers along. The boys would curiously look on from the sidelines while the girls packed the fishing pier. It was special to see little crowds of tie-dye and neon hats and t-shirts gathered with tall fishing rods standing up like television antennae. By the end of the program, some girls would call their brothers over to show and teach them what they had just learned.
Four local Girl Scout participants in the “A Day in the Life of a Fish Biologist” program work together to identify fish caught in fyke nets in the marsh near the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Madeline Drury, USFWS.
Looking Ahead: We Belong Here and So Do You
While we are growing connections among the refuge, DRYFT, and people from across all ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds, as well as all genders and sexual orientations, we have more work ahead of us. Nonetheless, women teaching girls while outside carries significance.
We also see and feel the serious power in our own existence. Showing young people, particularly those from underserved areas and populations, that women are fostering career paths in conservation and interpretation is welcoming and impactful, in and of itself. We have the privilege and the responsibility to tell girls from a variety of backgrounds that “we belong here,” “you can do hard things,” and “let’s try again together.” Representation of women, as well as other groups, in nature-based interpretation is essential to the ongoing conservation efforts of countless mighty women to come.
DRYFT is just one part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge’s community-based efforts that focuses on first-time exposure to natural spaces and experiences. By prioritizing partnerships with local youth-serving organizations and diverse community groups, the refuge aims to include and emphasize historically excluded voices in the conservation conversation. We hope this work inspires others to add conservation of land, wildlife, and water into their conversations about Detroit and our special river, too.
Girl Scout Paisley proudly holds up the bluegill she just reeled in. Photo by Madeline Drury, USFWS.
