Sir Peter Scott, founder of the World Wildlife Federation, once said of preserving nature: "We shan't save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried."
That philosophy is shared by members of the Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy, who are fighting to save as much as they can.
Wetlands are a scarce commodity. More than 97 percent along the Detroit River have been lost to development, leaving little living space for the plants, waterfowl and fish that call them home.
Working with restoration biologist Chris Lehr of Nativescape, the conservancy just completed a major portion of its second wetland restoration project.
Last year, invasive weeds and riprap — hefty chunks of broken concrete —choked the banks of Gibraltar Bay.
But what a difference a year makes.
As he stood on a bank recently looking out at the faded fall foliage, conservancy member Bruce Jones marveled: "This was a riot of color this summer."
Using $27,000 in grants, an experimental idea by Lehr and the helping hands of Grosse Ile High School students, conservancy members worked to re-create a natural emergent wetland across 270 feet of bay shoreline in June 2003.
The results of their work blossomed this spring in the forms of pink swamp rose mallow, vivid blue vervain, fluffy joe pye weed, bright red cardinal flower and huge clumps of wild iris, through which schools of mud-brown tadpoles swam.
"One year later, it is completely vegetated," Lehr said.
The success of the first project moved participants to begin a second. Their latest work will eventually restore more than 900 feet of additional shoreline at the bay.
Both projects are based on experimental technology designed by Lehr.
Lehr built on the triumphs and failures of the first project while executing the second.
One of the biggest problems this summer was the re-emergence of invasive plants among the newly planted native species.
Because of the tight timelines surrounding the first grant, there wasn't much time to destroy pesky plants.
This time around, the weeds were the first things to go. The conservancy group spent many days and tried a myriad of techniques to eradicate the pests, including three applications of herbicide.
Members then moved on to creating a new shoreline using Lehr's method for only the second time ever on the Great Lakes and in the open water.
To begin, two men held a giant hose, which spit steaming black compost into a mesh tube.
"It's like birthing a worm — a big one," said David Sanders of the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition.
Sanders' group, as part of the Greater Detroit American Heritage River Initiative, gave a $20,000 grant to the more than $100,000 project.
The massive soil sock, filled with the seeds of native plants known to thrive in the area, was laid a few feet from the shoreline.
The compost hose then sprayed a blanket of rich dirt behind the sock across more than 900 feet of shoreline, creating a new aquatic shelf.
Unlike last time, Lehr said workers would wait to spread seeds and plant the new shoreline.
"We want to be able to do more spraying (of invasive plants) if need be," he said.
"Really, the worst case scenario is that we will have to spray again. Otherwise, I think we have a pretty good handle on it."
The success of the project, which Lehr says he is hoping can be a model for the nation, has piqued the interest of industry along the river's banks.
Lehr is talking to Detroit Edison about the shoreline at its River Rouge, Trenton and Fermi II power plants.
Whether the idea takes root or not, the conservancy is just glad to have another little nook brought back to the way it once was.
"We never saw deer tracks along the shoreline because it was such a wreck," Jones said. "Now we have trouble trying to keep the deer from eating our plants."
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