Your AUGUST Rouge Park Newsletter Has Arrived!

In This Newsletter:

16th Annual Butterfly & Native Prairie Plant Walk
Honeysuckle Happy Hour Volunteers Improves Ma'iingan Trail
Senior Picnic Set for August 24
Freedom Festival to change focus
FORP Meets with City & Metroparks to Improve Prairie
Rouge Park Golf Course Event Raises $200,000
Upcoming Programs & Events:

16th Annual Butterfly & Native Prairie Plant Walk

We had beautiful weather for our 16th Annual Butterfly & Native Prairie Plant Walk on Sunday July 30, sunny and warm but not too hot like past years. Forty people learned about how rare and important tallgrass prairies are and got to experience the beauty of the largest prairie in southeast Michigan right in Rouge Park! Butterfly enthusiast Doris Applebaum identified 11 species of butterflies plus an additional two more species thanks to Mark Bourn's photos for a total of 13 species. We also saw the very interesting hummingbird clearwing moths and many types of bees (see the full report with photos here). You can walk the Prairie Pathway anytime or come on our next guided walk in partnership with Detroit Audubon: Plants, Bugs & Birds Prairie Walk on Saturday, August 12 (see details below). Thank you to Doris for identifying the butterflies and Mark Bourn and Don Drife for their gorgeous butterfly photos!

Honeysuckle Happy Hour Volunteers

Improve Ma'iingan Trail

FORP's new Program Manager Antonio Cosme led his first park stewardship day through a USDA Forest Service Cost Sharing Agreement that FORP is working on to engage youth and young adults in conservation education on the evening of July 27. To encourage people to come out, FORP's Programming Committee came up with the idea of combining invasive plant removal (honeysuckle) with Happy Hour. It worked. The volunteers enjoyed a main course of invasive Honeysuckle and Buckthorn pulling with a side of plant identification training while sipping a cold beer or hard cider. For dessert, our Program Manager Antonio Cosme led the group on nature walks on the Ma'iingan Wildwood Trail and the Prairie Pathway. We were having so much fun that some children form a nearby picnic joined in to help and learn about our work to restore this lovely nature trail (not for the happy hour part)!

Antonio will be organizing additional stewardship days with the next Honeysuckle Happy Hours set for August 15 and 28, 4-7 pm.

The Friends of Rouge Park Mission:

To protect, restore, and promote a natural, environmentally healthy, and culturally vibrant Rouge Park that engages the community for the benefit and enjoyment of all.

We can't do it without your support!

Join/Renew

For the second year in a row, seniors are invited to a picnic in Rouge Park. And after rave reviews, we are bringing back the community relations officers from the sixth precinct to lead bingo! The picnic is set for Thursday August 24, 11:30am-2pm at the Sorensen Recreation Area. Reserve a spot today.

2023 Freedom Arts Festival in Rouge Park to Highlight Buffalo Soldiers

Friends of Rouge Park is planning a Buffalo Soldiers and Blues Freedom Arts Festival in Rouge Park as part of the Detroit Parks Coalition annual festival, set for Sept. 16, 1- 4pm. We will be highlighting the history of the Buffalo Soldiers with pony rides, music, and food in the area next to Rouge Park's horse barn at 8886 Lahser Road (the Buffalo Soldiers just got an official address for the barn). Last year, we celebrated native American ornithologist Etta S. Wilson with a trail dedication and a music, dance and drum festival highlighting Anishiinaabe and African culture. We had planned to highlight Tuskegee Airman Alex Jefferson in the Detroit but that has been postponed to next year.

FORP Meets with City & Metroparks to Improve Prairie

On Tuesday, July 25 representatives from the City of Detroit, Huron Clinton Metroparks and the Friends of Rouge Park met in the prairie to discuss management of the prairie including how to control non-native invasive plants like porcelainberry, buckthorn and honeysuckle that are threatening the prairie. Also discussed was a plan to treat phragmites, a very invasive tall grass at eleven locations throughout the park. It grows right through asphalt and is destroying parts of the paved paths along Outer Drive.

Rouge Park Golf Course Event Raises $200,000

Marathon Petroleum’s Detroit refinery hosted its 11th annual Motor City Golf Classic at the Rouge Park Golf Course, raising more than $200,000 for Habitat for Humanity Detroit. The nonprofit organization is using the donation to fund its critical home repair program.

At the event, there were 238 golfers and 53 business partners that raised money for the organization’s two-year critical home repair program. In addition to the money raised for Habitat for Humanity, the 50/50 raffle provided a $2,200 donation to First Tee — Greater Detroit, which teaches local Detroit youth how to play golf along with life and leadership skills.

Upcoming Events

(See links to the full program schedules for the Brennan Poolhouse and the Detroit Pistons Neighbor programs)

Plants, Bugs & Birds Prairie Walk

sponsored by Detroit Audubon and BIPOC Birders
Saturday, August 12, 1-3pm
Butterfly Garden - North Prairie Pathway Trailhead (map)
Join Friends of Rouge Park, BIPOC Birders of MI & Detroit Audubon for a guided prairie walk around Rouge Park.
Register here

Yoga in the Park with Yoganic Flow-Brennan Recreation Area Yoga Green

sponsored by the Detroit Parks Coalition and FORP

(between the basketball courts and playground) (map)
Every Sunday at 9 am, through September 24
Register here

Senior Indoor Yoga with Yoganic Flow - yoga mats available

Thursdays 11:00 am Brennan Poolhouse

Free to Detroit residents, non-residents free with $10 annual membership

Register here

Second Saturday Fitness Festival

Join naturalist Robert Muller and lifelong student of woody plants Don Drife on a guided walk covering the fish and tree species found in Rouge Park while hiking the newly rededicated Ma'iingan Wildwood Trail.
Register here

Register Your Kids for Art Class Series Today

What better place of artistic inspiration than nature? In partnership with Mint Artist Guild, the Huron Clinton Metroparks are hosting art workshops for kids 6-17 for six weeks this summer on Thursdays 4:30-6pm starting July 13. Youth can explore different forms of art from experimental drawing to painting to 3D art. The cost is $3 and all program supplies will be provided. Register for a single class or as many as you want. The classes will take place at Shelter #3 located on Spinoza Drive south of the Brennan Pools next to the football field. (map)

August 10 – Rainbow Clouds
August 17 – Watercolor Painting

Pre-registration is required four days before program.

Register here

New Brennan Poolhouse Program: Activities for All Ages

The City of Detroit has expanded its summer programming at the Brennan Poolhouse and will include indoor yoga and water aerobics for seniors, Zumba and Hustle classes, and weekly outdoor movies in addition to daily hours for adult lap swim, open swim and swim team. All programs and drop-in activities are free to Detroit residents and free for non-residents with a $10 annual membership.

FORP has helped to facilitate Senior Yoga in partnership with Yoganic Flow on Thursdays at 11 am. Other programs include Water Aerobics on Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-2pm and Fri 9:45-10:45am.

Get all the details here.

Join naturalist Robert Muller and lifelong student of woody plants Don Drife on a guided walk covering the fish and tree species found in Rouge Park while hiking the newly rededicated Ma'iingan Wildwood Trail.​Register here

Join naturalist Robert Muller and lifelong student of woody plants Don Drife on a guided walk covering the fish and tree species found in Rouge Park while hiking the newly rededicated Ma'iingan Wildwood Trail.
Register here