Ashley Flintoff is the Executive Director of Friends of the Rouge, a non-profit organization that works to restore and refresh the Rouge River watershed through stewardship, education, and collaboration with the community. Join us to hear Ashley speak about many aspects of Friends of the Rouge.

Ashley Flintoff
Executive Director
Friends of the Rouge

Rivers in an Urban Setting: Blending History, Community, and Environment

For centuries, civilization has coalesced around rivers. They are economic, social, and political drivers, and yet, too often they are also overlooked, underestimated, and blamed. For urban rivers and streams, this is compounded by issues of legacy pollution, degradation of habitat, and lack of access due to industry and discriminatory real estate practices. Working in an urban watershed is complex and requires creativity and adaptability.

The Rouge River is no stranger to these complexities. From indigenous sustenance to birthing the Arsenal of Democracy, to catching on fire in 1969, the Rouge has seen the full breadth of what human interaction can do to a river. Encompassing 467 square miles, 127 river miles, four major branches, 400 lakes, impoundments and ponds, the Rouge is home to 1.35 million people living across 47 communities in three counties. Like the region whose heart it runs through, the Rouge River, and the communities within its watershed, have never given up.

Founded in 1986 to raise awareness about the need to clean up the Rouge River --- the most urbanized and polluted river in Michigan --- Friends of the Rouge has evolved from an all-volunteer nonprofit with one annual clean up to a multi-million dollar organization with a professional staff of 20, hundreds of members and donors, thousands of volunteers, and year round programming across monitoring, restoration, trails, and education.

Leveraging participatory science, technical expertise, experiential learning, and community engagement, Friends of the Rouge works across the watershed to fulfill the mission to restore, protect, and enhance the watershed through stewardship, education, and collaboration. As Executive Director, Ashley travels the watershed building networks across local, regional, state, and federal levels to advance the work of Friends of the Rouge in celebrating and stewarding this urban river in the heart of Southeast Michigan.