Members of the public are invited to look back at conservation history and enjoy the outdoors in honor of what would be the late John D. Dingell Jr.’s 100th birthday.
The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, announced they will hold a public event to celebrate Dingell’s memory and honor the efforts behind America’s only international wildlife refuge on Wednesday, July 8, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The event features an afternoon at the Trenton refuge, where participants will tour the Humbug Marsh, sit down for a speaker series with Michigan and Canadian officials, and conclude with the unveiling of a memorial wall honoring Dingell and a cake-cutting ceremony.
Debbie Dingell said in a Facebook post that event-goers are welcome to enjoy the outdoors, share stories and honor an enduring relationship with Canada in honor of her late husband. Members of the public interested in attending must RSVP to the event.
Speakers are slated to include:
A one-of-a-kind refuge
Established in 2001 to give wildlife across the Detroit River and Lake Erie safe and established habitats, the preserve boasts 6,000 acres of marshland stretching 48 miles along the river. It remains the only international wildlife refuge in the country, and is managed by both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service.
The refuge is home to nearly 700 species of birds, native plants, insects and aquatic animals, according to its website. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, every season means protection for different migratory animals and native wildlife.
Ann and Paul Lamb, a Lincoln Park couple in their seventies, told the Free Press they enjoy that the refuge brings them outside, and reminds them of their trips up north: “I love looking at the water and the birds that come,” Ann Lamb said. “What takes me outside is the wildlife — you can’t help but get into it.”
The Dean of Congress and the Outdoors
On National Public Lands Day in the year following his death, Debbie Dingell remembered her husband as a former parks employee and lover of the outdoors. “Had he ever been hired full time as a Park Ranger, he would never have become a Congressman,” she wrote in a 2020 Facebook post.
John Dingell is remembered as ‘The Dean’ of Congress. He was a longtime Democrat and the nation’s longest-ever serving congressman, representing Michigan from 1955 to 2015.
His resume included groundwork for early environmental policy to protect wildlife and natural resources, as well as relentless promotion of the state’s auto industry and – following up on the efforts of his father, John Dingell Sr. – a quest for a national health insurance plan.
A Dearborn native, John Dingell Jr. passed away in 2019 at the age of 92.
Harrison Stidolph is an intern with the Detroit Free Press. Reach him at hstidolph@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s only international wildlife refuge celebrates its champion
Reporting by Harrison Stidolph, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Harrison Stidolph, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
