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About the Huron River Watershed
What Makes our Watershed Special?
 
  The Huron River Watershed is one of Michigan’s natural treasures. The Huron River:
  • supplies drinking water to approximately 150,000 people,
  • supports one of Michigan’s finest smallmouth bass fisheries, and
  • is the State’s only designated Scenic River in southeast Michigan.
The Huron River Watershed is a unique and valuable resource in southeast Michigan that contains ten Metroparks, two-thirds of all southeast Michigan’s public recreational lands, and abundant county and city parks. In recognition of its value, the State has officially designated 27 miles of the Huron River and three of its tributaries as Michigan Department of Natural Resources Country Scenic River under the State’s Natural Rivers Act (Act 231, PA 1970). The Huron is home to one-half million people, numerous threatened and endangered species and habitats, abundant bogs, wet meadows, and remnant prairies of statewide significance.

The Huron River basin is located in southeastern Michigan and encompasses approximately 900 square miles (576,000 acres) of Ingham, Jackson, Livingston, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties. The main stem of the Huron River is approximately 136 miles long, with its origin located at Big Lake and the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township, Oakland County. The main stem of the river meanders from the headwaters through a complex series of wetlands and lakes in a southwesterly direction to the area of Portage Lake. Here, the river begins to flow south until reaching the Village of Dexter in Washtenaw County, where it turns southeasterly and proceeds to its final destination of Lake Erie. Twenty-four major tributaries flow into the mainstem. The Huron is not a free-flowing river. At least 98 dams segment the river system, of which 17 are located on the main stem.

Seasonal changes are the most important feature of Michigan’s, and therefore the watershed’s, climate. The Huron River Watershed receives an average of 30 inches of precipitation annually as it is located in the drier portion of Michigan. Seasonal patterns of this precipitation are fairly stable due to warmer temperatures that hold more moisture in the air. Since southern Michigan thaws and refreezes regularly through most of the winter, the Huron River does not experience as much variability as more northern rivers with their low and high flows.

Evaporation in the watershed is higher than most of the state, due to higher temperatures and slightly drier air found in southeast Michigan. As a result, the Watershed has one of the lowest amounts of total annual runoff in Michigan. For a 30-year period, the average high temperatures ranged from 32oF in January to 84oF in July in the Watershed, while the average low temperatures ranged from 15oF in January to 59oF in July.

Last Updated: February 2006
 
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