Detroit’s innovative bioretention gardens were featured in “Secret Gardens,” produced by Detroit Public Television’s Great Lakes Bureau and aired February 28, 2018 through the PBS Sci Tech Now program. A 2015 Erb grant helped create The Great Lakes Bureau to create, curate and distribute timely, topical stories about the Great Lakes ecology, economy and cultural history, building...
Certain bugs (stoneflies and other benthic-macroinvertebrates) and other wildlife indicate the health of our rivers. Identifying these insects is a perfect job for volunteers; it’s fun and builds environmental stewardship, while providing a cost-effective data set. Annual bug hunts and frog and toad surveys organized by watershed organizations engage more than 600 volunteers each year. Some...
This image was taken on a recent boat tour where the Foundation joined farmers and public officials to see Lake Erie’s infamous algae bloom up close and better understand what causes it. Toxic algae continues to harm Lake Erie, impeding fishing, diminishing property values, and threatening Lake Erie’s multi-billion dollar tourism industries. Water treatment plants are...
Foundation staff joined more than 20 volunteers to plant a rain garden at the Urban Country Tea House in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood on September 9. A joint program of the Sierra Club, Friends of The Rouge and Keep Growing Detroit, Rain Gardens To The Rescue helps Detroiters design, plant and maintain rain gardens to manage...
On March 15, 2017, four groups of incredibly talented students trained through the jazz education programs funded by the Foundation enjoyed a jazz masterclass taught by Terence Blanchard, the Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Chair at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Several Detroit Public Schools and our nonprofit and foundation colleagues also attended the...