Detroit River National Wildlife Refuge

Welcome to Detroit River National Wildlife Refuge, the first International Wildlife Refuge in North America located on the United States/Canada border.

Refuge History: Over the past century, this region has been heavily scarred by waste from steel mills, chemical plants, and sewage treatment facilities. But for the past 35 years new laws have helped the landscape to recover dramatically.

Wildlife: The Detroit River National Wildlife Refuge protects the home of numerous wild critters including diving ducks (up to 300,000 each year), Canadian geese, swans, bald eagles, kingfishers, skunks, minks, raccoons, muskrats, squirrels, woodchucks, deer, foxes, coyotes, and many others. Please treat their home with respect.

For the lover of the outdoors access to this refuge is relatively restricted and special use permits are required. If you can obtain the permits then come on out and have a blast! The legislation creating Detroit River National Wildlife Refuge was signed into law on December 21, 2001. Since that time, a nationally recognized public-private partnership has helped to build this refuge which grew from 304 acres to 4,982 acres in it's first five years.