On October 1st 2024, Waste Management will begin to cut down 40 acres of Wet Mesic Flatwoods– one of only 9 remaining in Michigan–in order to dump more garbage into the ever-expanding “Woodland Meadows” landfill. This wetland contains old growth trees and provides potential habitat to a plethora of endangered species. According to the Nature Conservancy, wet-mesic flatwoods are one of the 200 rarest places on earth. No wetland mitigation can replace this priceless piece of Michigan's natural heritage, which took thousands of years to form.

This wetland provides habitat to multiple endangered and state threatened species. Bat detectors in the area of the site indicated the presence of the state threatened little brown bat and the soon to be listed federally endangered tricolored bat. In 2021, the federally threatened Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake was observed on the site and reported to MNFI. Other vibrant species include the American bald eagle, great blue heron, great egret, wood duck, ovenbird, Coopers hawk, red-tailed hawk, snipe, numerous warblers, finches, and other bird species, amphibians including the mid-chorus frog, spring peeper, toads, in addition to pollinators and mammals.

This forested wetland also sequesters carbon and provides critical water retention and flood control during intense storm events for every resident who lives downstream. As climate change worsens, these functions become even more valuable. We need to save our wetlands, not sell them for a pittance to a multi-national landfill company that generates billions in revenue a year.

During the permitting process, Waste Management failed to comply with avoidance or minimization of wetland destruction as required in Natural Resource and Environmental Policy Act (NREPA) Part 303 and the federal Clean Water Act Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines. The consultant retained by Waste Management submitted incomplete information on the quality and type of site, such as not recognizing the wet-mesic flatwoods as a rare wetland natural community with a S2 ranking, not recognizing the wet-mesic flatwoods as an old-growth/mature forested wetland, not delineating the extent of the forested wetland correctly, and not doing a competent on-site species assessment.

Adding insult to injury, Waste Management’s proposed mitigation is located in an entirely different watershed, which will not offset the huge ecological harm Waste Management will do to the Lower Rouge Watershed.

https://planetdetroit.org/2024/04/wetlands-destruction-landfill/