Ducks Unlimited (DU) recently received the 2026 Michigan Outdoor Writers Association (MOWA) Clean Waterways Award for the completion of a five-phase floodplain reconnection at Michigan’s Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.
The Michigan Outdoor Writers Association (MOWA) Clean Waterways Award recognizes and rewards organizations that demonstrate continuous, voluntary efforts to protect, preserve, and enhance Michigan's lakes, rivers, and streams. One winner is selected annually.
MOWA member Tom Huggler, president of The Hal and Jean Glassen Memorial Foundation, which funded a portion of DU's efforts at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, encouraged Ducks Unlimited Michigan to apply for the award.
In addition to a cash donation, DU Michigan Major Donor Chairman Craig Lesley accepted a plaque commemorating the achievement on May 9 at MOWA’s annual conference.
“We deeply appreciate the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association’s recognition of this long‑term restoration effort,” Lesley said. “Reconnecting the Shiawassee floodplain has been a multi‑year commitment to cleaner water, resilient habitat, and a healthier Great Lakes system. This honor strengthens our resolve to keep advancing conservation that benefits Michigan’s landscapes and communities.”
DU most recently completed three restoration projects at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), and restoration of the Butch’s Marsh Unit is underway and will be completed in summer 2026. The three most recently completed projects included the restorations of Moist Soil Unit 9 and Little Prairie, which continued progress on the five-phase plan aiming to connect nearly 3,000 acres of wetlands in the 10,000-acre refuge to five major river systems. The third project focused on restoring a former golf course pond to wetland habitat. This area was reconnected to the Tittabawassee River, providing essential flood storage and open passage for marsh-spawning fish.
The restoration efforts were facilitated by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and Natural Resource Damage Assessment funding with support from Dow, Inc., the Hal and Jean Glassen Memorial Foundation, the Walters Family Foundation, Enbridge Energy, the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, the Alden and Vada Dow Family Foundations, the Jury Foundation, Bell’s Brewery, DU Michigan license plates, and DU Major Donors.
DU has worked alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2011 to reconnect the Shiawassee Flats wetlands to the floodplain. Moist Soil Unit 7 was the first habitat restoration project funded by GLRI in the Great Lakes Basin. For the next decade, Maankiki Marsh, a 940-acre unit in the heart of the refuge, underwent a lengthy hydrology restoration. In 2018, a dike was removed, and a small barrier island was built to stop wave fetch and erosion of Wildlife Drive. Another 850 acres of floodplain forest and prairie habitat were enhanced in 2019. In 2020, carp-exclusion gates and actuators were installed to prevent invasive species from entering the refuge.
The Shiawassee Flats (the refuge, Shiawassee State Game Area, and private land) is a 30,000-acre floodplain at the confluence of the Bad, Cass, Flint, Shiawassee and Tittabawassee Rivers.
Historically, the Flats were a diverse complex of emergent, submergent, scrub-shrub and bottomland wetlands. Today, much of the region and the upper part of the watershed is intensively farmed. Following extensive human development and agriculture, flood-control levees and water pumps segregated the Flats from the floodplain, draining wetlands and improving farming. This multi-phased effort has returned the landscape to its original condition.
Shiawassee NWR and Shiawassee State Game Area provide many ecological and socioeconomic benefits, including habitat for wetland-dependent fish and wildlife, flood storage, improved water quality, and outdoor recreation and education opportunities.
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Ducks Unlimited Inc. is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's continually disappearing wetlands, grasslands and other waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has restored or protected more than 19 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science, DU’s projects benefit waterfowl, wildlife and people in all 50 states. DU is growing its mission through a historic $3 billion Conservation For A Continent comprehensive campaign. Learn more at www.ducks.org.
